The grim reaper...

[Jam]

I was watching a cartoon on cartoon network called 'grim and evil' and it has the grim reaper in it, anyone know where the idea of a grim reaper comes from?

[Quizmonster]

Over 400 years ago, Shakespeare wrote of "Time's scythe" - ie the implement used to reap corn - and there were even earlier references to the "devil's scythe". Phrases such as 'the great reaper' or 'the old reaper' were also used to represent the figure of Death before the more common nowadays 'grim reaper'. All of these are based on the notion of Death "cutting down" humanity in much the same way as a farmer does his crop.

[froggequene]

Doesn't Grim have a terrible Jamaican accent in the cartoon?

[Cpt Black]

He appears in the Pardoners Tale, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales written around the time of the Plague. Also I am impressed that I am not the only person left in the country to have been a fan of Blue Oyster Cult