This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 69.246.97.12 (talk) at 17:53, 28 June 2005. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 17:53, 28 June 2005 by 69.246.97.12 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Igor is a Scandinavian name that was brought to ancient Russia by the Vikings (Ingvar or Yngvar). Igor (Rurik's son) conquered Kiev.
The first element of the name is derived from Proto-Norse *Ing(w)ia (Ingi-), i.e. Yngvi, which was the original name of the god Freyr. The second element is probably either *Harjaz (warrior) or *Warjaz (defender). The name consequently either meant Freyr's warrior or Freyr's defender.
Igor or Egor is the traditional stock character or cliché hunch-backed lab assistant to the mad scientist, familiar from many horror movies and horror movie parodies.
The cliché has its origins in the character of Ygor, played by Bela Lugosi, in the Universal Studios horror movies Son of Frankenstein and Ghost of Frankenstein; it also owes something to the hunchbacked lab assistant in the first film of the series, whose name was Fritz (in the original novel, Dr. Frankenstein had no assistant). The archetypal Igor, however, is probably the character of that name played by Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks's parody of Universal's Frankenstein movies.
In Terry Pratchett's humorous fantasy novels, the Überwald region of the Discworld (that is, the region of the Discworld noted for resembling a collection of horror movie clichés) is home to a tribe of hunch-backed lab assistants with speech impediments, every single one of whom is named Igor.
The "Albino" character in The Princess Bride seems to be built on the Igor archetype.
In general, an Igor is any flunky, patsy, minion or bidding-doer in a fantasy or science fiction work--and the more disfigured the better. But in real life, they are the coolest people that you would ever meet!
Famous people named Igor
- Prince Igor is an opera by Alexander Borodin.
Trade name
- IGOR Pro, a computer program for scientific data analysis