in: Cows

Corpse Cow

Corpse Cow is one of many nameless corpse cows, a type of possessed corpse reanimated by Satan to walk the earth at his command, snuffing out cows with particularly negative karma. A corpse cow’s favoured killing method is to chew on the flesh of its victim until they bleed out. Given that Satan has stronger influence over more evil beings, the same cows who become victims of a corpse cow are often the next to be possessed. This gives them their iconic appearance of having bones exposed through holes in their flesh. This phenomenon is considered one of the many inspirations for the modern concept of zombies.

Reputation

In humanity

There is a legend among cattle farmers that when their land is visited by a corpse cow, it will rattle its exposed rib cage against the fence posts, creating a sound like a xylophone. Since it is considered too dangerous to investigate the presence of a corpse cow, farmers are said to hide and listen to the sound multiply, indicating that some of their livestock have been assimilated, and fade into the distance, marking that it is now safe to reappear. Corpse cows tend to travel individually to maximise their spread, so when wind chimes were introduced to the West from Japan, they were praised as a deterrent. The sound of the chimes indicated to oncoming corpse cows that another of their kind had already reached this plot.

Outside of cattle farmers, who rely on the survival of their livestock for income, corpse cows have a mostly positive reputation within pro-cannibalism circles, where they are cited as evidence that cannibalism is natural.

In cattle

Corpse cows are spoken of by cattle for a similar purpose to how Santa Claus is by humans. They serve as a warning explained to calves in an attempt to convince them of the value of doing good deeds and maintaining positive karma, so they are not visited by corpse cows at night to be killed and possessed. The story is credited as a cornerstone in the development of a calf’s moral compass. For especially wicked calves, a grim detail is added that once reanimated, they will be in a state of constant pain, as evidenced by the common depiction of corpse cows with their bones exposed through large wounds. Despite this, it is more commonly believed that corpse cows cannot think, nor feel, and never complain.

Appearances

In Cow Review

Corpse Cow was featured on Cow Review in season 3 episode 8, reminding Josh of illustrations from ancient scripts his nanny Auðumbla used to read to him as a bedtime story. Hearkening back, he tells of how the corpse cows wander the earth in service of Satan, who he claims is their father, to “end [the] suffering” of “evil souls”.

It is noteworthy that he dubs the corpse cows as children of Satan, given that historians have struggled to understand the ancient origins of the first corpse cows. If it is to be believed that Josh is a descendant of Auðumbla, a primaeval cow from Norse mythology, then it would explain why he is privy to this privileged information. Relation to a cow would also elucidate the motivation behind his slightly sympathetic interpretation of the victims of corpse cows, as well as his greater belief in cow supremacy. If Josh truly is part bovine, how much human is in him?

Josh finalises his analysis by admitting that he would like to play their ribs like a xylophone and assigns them a rating of 8/10, explaining that the bedtime stories they created for him were “great”.