Golem

Golems are represented by the ' character and come in several varieties. As they are inanimate objects given life, their corpses are sometimes useful objects.

Symbol	Monster	Corpse
'	clay golem	rocks
'	glass golem	pieces of worthless glass
'	iron golem	iron chains
'	leather golem	leather armours
'	paper golem	scrolls of blank paper
'	rope golem
'	stone golem	statue of a stone golem
'	straw golem
'	wood golem	quarterstaffs
'	gold golem	gold
'	flesh golem	flesh golem corpse

Golems are randomly generated, and an appropriate golem can also arise when trying to polymorph large piles of objects at once. For example, a pile containing many scrolls may become a paper golem, and a pile of rocks may become a clay golem.

Mythology

Golems are creatures from ancient Jewish folklore. See the Wikipedia article for more information. They are not derived from Gollum in The Lord of the Rings.

Encyclopedia entries

Golem:

              "The original story harks back, so they say, to the sixteenth
              century.  Using long-lost formulas from the Kabbala, a rabbi is
              said to have made an artificial man -- the so-called Golem -- to
              help ring the bells in the Synagogue and for all kinds of other
              menial work.
              "But he hadn't made a full man, and it was animated by some sort
              of vegetable half-life.  What life it had, too, so the story
              runs, was only derived from the magic charm placed behind its
              teeth each day, that drew down to itself what was known as the
              `free sidereal strength of the universe.'
              "One evening, before evening prayers, the rabbi forgot to take
              the charm out of the Golem's mouth, and it fell into a frenzy.
              It raged through the dark streets, smashing everything in its
              path, until the rabbi caught up with it, removed the charm, and
              destroyed it.  Then the Golem collapsed, lifeless.  All that was
              left of it was a small clay image, which you can still see in
              the Old Synagogue." ...
                  [ The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink ]

Flesh golem:

               With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected
               the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark
               of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.  It was
               already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against
               the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the
               glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow
               eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive
               motion agitated its limbs.

               How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how
               delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I
               had endeavoured to form?  His limbs were in proportion, and I
               had selected his features as beautiful.  Beautiful!--Great God!
               His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
               arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and
               flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances
               only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that
               seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in
               which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight
               black lips.
                       [ Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ]

Gold golem:

           The bellows he set away from the fire, and gathered all the tools
           wherewith he wrought into a silver chest; and with a sponge wiped
           he his face and his two hands withal, and his mighty neck and
           shaggy breast, and put upon him a tunic, and grasped a stout staff,
           and went forth halting; but there moved swiftly to support their
           lord handmaidens wrought of gold in the semblance of living maids.
           In them is understanding in their hearts, and in them speech and
           strength, and they know cunning handiwork by gift of the immortal
           gods.
                   [ The Iliad, by Homer ]