Gormenghast (castle)

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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 mediæval 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 huge, giving the impression more of a semi-deserted city than a single structure. A character climbing across one of the roofs sees it as an unending and monumentally complex roofscape. In the second book 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 even an approximate layout. Most of the castle seems to be bordered by a vast curtain wall separating it from the shanty-town of the Bright Carvers, while other regions (such as the area around the library) appear to be unwalled and overlook woodland. The castle is divided into four wings named after the cardinal points, with at least one wing possessing its own unique fauna. The tallest point of the castle is the forbidding, owl-infested Tower of Flints. Among the countless buildings and rooms are libraries, a huge kitchen (eighteen men are required just to scrub the walls), outer walls, an art gallery (specifically carvings), a dining hall, a lake and a school. Vast areas of the castle are abandoned.

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.