Umarak, and Herne the Horned Hunter

LEGO BIONICLE
1

Has anyone noticed that this year’s main baddie bears a striking resemblance to a deity from Celtic-German mythology, Herne the Hunter or Cernunnos?
Like Umarak, Herne and Cernunnos both have antlers like a deer, and in some depictions. they wear a head of a stag upon their head as a hood or a mask.
Herne is said to be a ghostly figure that is said to haunt the woods of southern England. His name is sometimes used to refer to the horned deity Cernunnos.
Cernunnos has also been depicted as having deer like legs, similar to the digitigrade legs Lego designers gave Umarak.
Cernunnos is sometimes considered a Celtic version of the horned god of Wicca and Neopaganism, who is also associated with hunting, and depicted with an goat or deer head and antlers.
The horned god of the Wiccans is said to have influence the cultural image of the Devil from Christianity we know today.

Is this just a coincidence, or could it be Lego designers took influence from this mythological figure to shape this year’s main baddie?

11 Likes
2

They probably take inspiration from a lot of things when designing themes like bionicle.

3

I thought about this for a while too, but over time have just accepted that Umarak takes from a lot of generic villain tropes; horned, hunter, mask, rear-facing knees, and such are all simply stock-standard physical characteristics to mask familiarity. The colours sure are fish, I’ll concede that. I’d like to think the was based on Herne and other similar legends, too, but I’ve come to doubt it (since not much other Bionicle villains were based so heavily off of mythological figures past that I can think of off the top of my head).