Creature Feature Friday: Nephilim

Half-human, half-god. Half-man, half-angel. All awesome, at least according to Lynn Marie from Bringing the Epic who is here today to shout her love of the nephilim from the rooftops...

What are the nephilim?
Nephilim are a hybrid of Angels and mortal women. In most cases the story starts biblical (duh, angels!) with the fallen angels coming to earth and consorting with mortal women. Biblically speaking all angels are men and so the case is that the women get left alone on earth to bear a child whose birth will kill them. Consider it a kind of Martyr! The child will usually grow up never knowing their real parents and they are “normal” humans until their angelic side starts to awaken, this is usually around 16 years old! Convenient for the YA genre, right? Lol!

 

What do you love about nephilim? 
I love the tragic-love behind a nephilim and the choices it lays before them. There are a couple ways to think about it, really. Your mom was SO amazing that an Angel of God fell in love and came to earth to be with her. That was some woman. And knowing that birthing you would kill her she sacrificed herself for the love of both you and your “heavenly” father. Yea, there’s really not a much better way to put that! You can take all that love and let it grow in you and you can do some really powerful good things! OR you can think of what a murderous d-bag your dad was for coming down here and mucking around with mortals who obviously would fall for him, Hell-ooo –Angel?! And then he gets her pregnant and leaves you both all alone. You never know them, never touch their face. They never tell you it’ll be ok and put a bandage on your scraped knee. You could turn all kinds of evil that way!!

 

There are so many potential stories with nephilim. Who are they? Who will they be? What was their mother like? Who is their father? How did the parties feel? What does God think? That’s one story I’d love to hear. The Bible says God knows us even in the womb, he has laid straight our paths…It’s kind of crazy that one of His own put you on that path with Him, ya know? Does that grant you like, a speed dial to God? You’re celestial, right?

 

As a nephilim you can also “loan” your body to a fallen angel so he can experience full human senses like in Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush! Chauncey is bound to give his body to Patch so he can feel. Not exactly my idea of a vacation, but still such a crazy ability to offer!

 

On the really girly side, there’s the wings. Thick feathers formed on wings that arch out of the carved back of a muscular young man. But it’s even better because now he’s all super strong but he’s vulnerable because he’s going through so many different emotions and learning things about who he really is! *sigh* OR you could be this girl that walked the halls of your school feeling mediocre about life until you start hearing languages and understanding them! And this power from within you is helping you see your own inner beauty and you really can fly away, because your part angel. Seriously cool stuff here!

 

I really like different nephilim origins too. Hubby has a whole set of comic books about a nephilim but he’s the only one and his name means “Forever Angel.” He’s actually kind of cursed! And he’s not part angel and part mortal, he’s all angel but considered “fallen” by the terms we see in today's books!

 

Favorite nephilim in fiction:
The NUMBER ONE coolest Nephilim in books:

 Tom Sniegoski’s The Fallen. Aaron Corbett is a 16 year old kid trying to get through highschool and dreaming about the beautiful girl that’s out of his league when his inner angel starts to awaken. He soon finds out that he’s meant for soo much more than keeping his secret or getting the girl. He could be an actual bridge back to heaven for the fallen angels!

 

Favorite nephilim in pop-culture:  

Repeat? Well. Sniegoski’s baby was turned into a TV Mini-Series! Paul Wesely – AKA Stephen from The Vampire Diaries – plays Aaron Corbet! The first episode starts off with major similarities to the book but it quickly fades from there. Made me mad, because like most of us in the bookish realm, we love our books and want to see the TV or Movie production of what played in our heads when we read! But still, entertaining and Tom isn’t upset about it so I won’t be!

 

If you like nephilim then you should read… 

• The Fallen 1 & The Fallen 2 by Tom Sniegoski
• The Light Brigade, Comic Book
• Hush Hush Trilogy by Rebecca Fitzpatrick
• The Fallen Trilogy by Lauren Kate
• The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare
• Hex by Ramona Wray
• The Bible! It says in Genesis 6:4 “There were giants in the Earth in those days; and also after that when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” – Giants is also translated as nephilim! Which suggests the story of David and Goliath was David vs Nephilim! Crazy, right?!