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Gormenghast is a fictional castle of titanic proportions that features prominently in a series of fantasy works penned by Mervyn Peake. It is the setting for the first two books in the Gormenghast series, ''Titus Groan'' and ''Gormenghast''. It incorporates many of the elements of both medieval castles and Regency period stately homes, though in practice it operates like a small city-state. It has its own government, a Byzantine system of laws and rituals, a rigid class system, and is seemingly self-sufficient. The castle is home to the ancient House of Groan who have, as the Earls of Groan, ruled for centuries without anything changing. Ritual plays a large part in the daily life of all characters in the castle, most of all the Earl of Gormenghast, whose days are largely spent adhering to the obscure and esoteric tenets of Gormenghast tradition. Titus' dread and rebellion against the iron letter of Gormenghast Law becomes one of the main themes in the series leading to his preoccupation with freedom. The castle has become synonymous with large, sprawling buildings and has been used as a reference point in other works of fiction. ==Overview== The castle is a huge ivy-covered mass, giving the impression more of a semi-deserted city than a single structure. Its immense, rambling outline has been familiar to the inhabitants since time immemorial, who know "every bay, inlet and headland of the great stone island of the Groans, of its sheer cliffs, of its crumbling outcrops, the broken line of the towers.".〔Peake, Mervyn. ''Titus Groan'', Chapter 'In Preparation for Violence'〕 Apart from the inhabited sections, vast areas of the castle are abandoned and in a dilapidated state, with much of it covered in impenetrable vegetation: "Acres of ivy spread themselves like water over the roofs. Not a head appeared at any of those topmost teeth-like windows that ran along the castle's brow"〔Peake, ''Gormenghast'', Chapter 15.〕 The further reaches of the castle are dotted with many towers, and the highest of them, the Tower of Flints, is inhabited by great numbers of owls and dominates the landscape of the castle. The Tower is a forbidding, brooding presence: "patched unevenly with black ivy, (it) arose like a mutilated finger from the fists of knuckled masonry".〔Peake, ''Titus Groan'', Chapter 'The Hall of the Bright Carvings'〕 The character Steerpike climbing across the roofs of the castle sees the castle as an unending and monumentally complex roofscape. In fact, he travels across its expanse for over a day and still does not cover all of it. It is impossible to give an accurate estimate of the size of the castle and its grounds, but it appears to be at least several square miles in area. For instance, the Bright Carvers must travel three miles (5 km) through the castle grounds from their homes along the north Outer Wall to the Carver's Courtyard in the south west corner of the Outer Walls.〔Peake, ''Gormenghast'', Chapter 63.〕 It is also stated at one point that the Tower of Flints in the eastern wing of the castle is over a mile away from the rooms of the twin aunts of Titus, Cora and Clarice, in the southern wing.〔Peake, ''Titus Groan'', Chapter 'Half Light'〕 In the second book, ''Gormenghast'', a flood drowns the lowest levels of the castle and turns the upper regions into stone islands, yet still there is accommodation for the regular inhabitants and an influx of refugees, with very substantial areas still empty. It is impractical to guess at any kind of precise layout, but a general outline can be given with some confidence. Most of the castle seems to be bordered by a vast outer wall separated by only a small laneway from the shanty-town of the Bright Carvers, while other regions may be unwalled (e.g., the eastern side of the castle). In some places also the walls appear to be close to the buildings of the castle, (e.g., the Carvers' Courtyard), while in other parts they enclose large grounds and formal gardens. Within the grounds, the castle also has a moat around some sections of the castle itself. Broadly speaking, the castle building is divided into four wings named after the cardinal points. Among the countless buildings and rooms in the castle are libraries, a huge kitchen (eighteen men are required just to scrub the walls), an art gallery (specifically carvings), a dining hall, and a school. In general the west and south of the castle appear to be in better repair and more inhabited than the east and north regions, which appear to contain most of the abandoned and derelict areas. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gormenghast (castle)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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