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124-600: A well-meaning Cambion (or half- Demon ) whose true name is Anung Un Rama ("and upon his brow is set a crown of flame"), Hellboy was summoned from Hell to Earth as a baby by Nazi occultists (spawning his hatred for the Third Reich ). He appeared in the ruins of an old church in the Outer Hebrides in front of a team assembled by the Allied Forces , among them, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, who formed

248-609: A church bell . However, Hellboy freely admits to having extremely poor aim with the weapon, and often favors fighting hand-to-hand , preferring to use short-ranged physical weapons like swords, spears, and his massive stone fist over firearms. Hellboy's lack of formal combat training and education is compensated for by his decades of experience as a paranormal investigator, though encounters with unfamiliar threats have often forced him to resort to improvisation and using his wits. As revealed in Strange Places , Hellboy's right hand

372-443: A healing factor that allows him to heal quickly from virtually all bodily injuries as well as renders him immune to all diseases. He also has the innate ability to comprehend ancient and magical languages. The extent of his strength is unclear, but he has torn down a large tree and hurled it at an opponent and has lifted massive stones. He has also picked up and thrown opponents weighing at least four to five hundred pounds. Hellboy has

496-665: A "xanino" from a human baby, some pots and egg shells should be put close to the fireplace; a xanino would say: "I was born one hundred years ago, and since then I have not seen so many egg shells near the fire!". In Wales, the changeling child ( plentyn cael (sing.), plant cael (pl.)) initially resembles the human child for which it has been substituted, but gradually grows uglier in appearance and behaviour: ill-featured, malformed, ill-tempered, given to screaming and biting. It may be of less than usual intelligence but may equally well be identifiable because of its more-than-childlike wisdom and cunning. The common means employed to identify

620-456: A Napoleonic officer who was, in fact, a vampire before he was "killed" on the order of a fearful Adolf Hitler . The culprit of the theft is revealed to be Ilsa Haupstein, one of the surviving members of Project Ragna Rok, who was revived from suspended animation and then aided in Giurescu's resurrection. Finding Castle Giurescu after splitting up with the other search groups, Hellboy learns that

744-538: A bit gruff, he shows none of the malevolence thought to be intrinsic to classical demons and has an ironic sense of humor. This is said to be because of his upbringing under Professor Bruttenholm, who raised him as a normal boy. Hellboy works for the B.P.R.D., an international non-governmental agency, and for himself, against dark forces including Nazis and witches , in a series of tales that have their roots in folklore , pulp magazines , vintage adventure, Lovecraftian horror , and horror fiction . In earlier stories, he

868-554: A black and white illustration, with the later recognized name appearing on the demon's belt buckle. This image, accompanied by a short biography of Mike Mignola and his latest creation, appeared in the pamphlet in 1991. It is the first published mention of the later recognized name. This image was reprinted in The Art of Hellboy . This image was also used to create the “First Hellboy” statue by Mondo Tees, in both black and white and full color. A prototype incarnation of Hellboy appeared on

992-572: A changeling child. In particular, it has been suggested that autistic children would likely be labeled as changelings or elf-children due to their strange, sometimes inexplicable behavior. For example, this association might explain why fairies are often described as having an obsessive impulse to count things like handfuls of spilled seeds. This counting preoccupation has found a place in autistic culture . Some autistic adults have come to identify with changelings (or other replacements, such as aliens ) due to their experiences of feeling out of place in

1116-453: A changeling could identify itself is through displaying unusual behaviour when it thinks it is alone, such as jumping about, dancing or playing an instrument – though this last example is found only within Irish and Scottish legend. "A human child might be taken due to many factors: to act as a servant , the love of a human child, or malice . Most often, it was thought that fairies exchanged

1240-399: A changeling is to cook a family meal in an eggshell . The child will exclaim, "I have seen the acorn before the oak, but I never saw the likes of this," and vanish, only to be replaced by the original human child. Alternatively, or following this identification, it is supposedly necessary to mistreat the child by placing it in a hot oven, holding it in a shovel over a hot fire, or bathing it in

1364-538: A changeling to reveal itself, it must either be surprised into speech or made to laugh. In one tale, a mother suspected her baby had been taken and replaced with a changeling. This view was proven to be correct one day when a neighbour ran into the house shouting, "Come here and ye'll se a sight! Yonder's the Fairy Hill a' alowe" (i.e., "the Fairy Hill is on fire"). To this, the elf got up, saying " Waes me! What'll come o' me wife and bairns ?" and made his way out of

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1488-569: A church in East Bromwich , England , Azzael burned her away so their child would be born, and chopped off the newborn's right hand to replace it with the "Right Hand of Doom", a relic with the power to free the Ogdru Jahad (a destructive, seven headed dragon imprisoned in deep space) and awaken the armies of Hell to wage war against Heaven. When the other princes of Hell learned of his actions, Azzael sent his half-demon child away while he

1612-438: A cloak over the sleeping baby's cradle. Children identified as changelings by the superstitious were often abused or murdered, sometimes in the belief that changelings could be forced to admit their true nature by beatings, exposure to fire or water, or other trials. Two 19th-century cases reflect the belief in changelings. In 1826, Anne Roche bathed Michael Leahy , a four-year-old boy unable to speak or stand, three times in

1736-571: A clumsy or stupid person, is derived from the historic English word for a changeling, auf . This, in turn, is believed to have originated from the Middle English alven and elven , and ultimately from the Old Norse word for an elf, alfr . Modern scholars hypothesize some changeling tales developed in an attempt to explain deformed , developmentally disabled, or neurodivergent children. Scholars Goodey and Stainton have rejected

1860-586: A demon with the name "Hell Boy" written on his belt. Mignola had initially no intention of doing anything serious with the concept, but eventually decided he liked the name. Later, Mignola became interested in doing a creator-owned comic, as he felt it made more sense to create his own characters for the stories he wanted to tell, rather than trying to shoehorn existing characters into these stories. Mignola elaborated, "The kinds of stories I wanted to do I had in mind before I created Hellboy. It's not like I created Hellboy and said, 'Hey, now what does this guy do?' I knew

1984-423: A fairy; many believe that he concocted a "fairy defense" after murdering his wife in a fit of rage. The killers were convicted of manslaughter rather than murder, as even after the death, they claimed to be convinced they had killed a changeling, not Bridget Cleary herself. The Igbo people of eastern Nigeria traditionally believed that a woman who lost numerous children, whether stillborn or early in infancy,

2108-487: A fireball that destroys part of the castle and seemingly kills Alice. Convinced that Alice was right, Hellboy takes up Excalibur and suddenly finds himself atop a hill, with Alice, alive and well, standing beside him. As Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury opens, Hellboy and Alice have begun travelling throughout England, amassing an army from the noble dead of England. Soon, they are attacked by one of Nimue's soldiers. Hellboy

2232-416: A high degree of resilience to injury. He can withstand powerful blows that would severely injure or kill a human. He survived being shot many times in the chest with an MG 42 machine gun before destroying it. He has survived being impaled through the chest with a sword, severe werewolf mauling, being beaten unconscious with heavy iron tongs, falling from extreme heights, being crushed by boulders, and more. In

2356-493: A hump, thin arms and legs, a hairy body, and long claws. Mamuna changelings would also get their first set of teeth prematurely compared to a human baby. To protect a child from being kidnapped by the Mamuna, the mother would tie a red ribbon around the baby's wrist, put a red hat on its head, and keep it out of the moonlight. Other preventative methods included not washing diapers after sunset and never turning their head away from

2480-472: A key: being turned twice in a special obelisk secured by Rasputin would release the Ogdru Jahad. Astaroth and others also told of how the Hand contains the power to awaken the great Army of Hell, an army powerful enough to shatter the boundaries between Heaven, Hell and Earth for the wielder to rule all of Creation. This prophecy had never come to pass thanks to Hellboy's consistent refusal to embrace his destiny. It

2604-417: A long-imprisoned witch who has been freed by Grugach and wants to conquer England. She takes Hellboy to the sword Excalibur, but he does not take it. Alice tries to convince him that he should, but is unsuccessful. Soon afterwards, he is visited again by Astaroth, who reveals to him that he is destined to kill Satan and become the ruler of Hell. Hellboy fights against a demonic illusion of himself, exploding into

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2728-570: A mangy mutt that transforms into Anubis , the Ancient Egyptian god of mummification . The story was collected in the trade paperback Hellboy: Seed of Destruction . Hellboy makes a guest appearance in John Byrne's Next Men #21 (Dark Horse Comics, December 1993); this is the first American appearance in a full-color cameo. Mike Mignola's Hellboy: World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator by Mike Mignola and John Byrne featured

2852-597: A merciful death before returning to England. Hellboy: The Wild Hunt opens with Hellboy receiving an invitation by the Osiris Club to join them in hunting Giants. Hellboy joins, but is betrayed by the Club and left to die. He survives, and, despite being given a means to escape, decides to engage the Giants in battle. He grows more bloodthirsty and demonic over the course of the fight, only returning to his senses when all

2976-561: A mother with a changeling finding that a fairy woman came to her home with the human child, saying the other fairies had done the exchange, and she wanted her own baby. The tale of surprising a changeling into speech – by brewing eggshells – is also told in Ireland, as in Wales. Various legends describe other ways to foil a would-be fairy kidnapper. One was to shout " Gairim agus coisricim thú " (I bless you) or "God bless you," which would cause

3100-459: A number of Biblical quotations and noted scholars in support of its arguments, and finally concludes that this is indeed the method used by such demons. The Malleus Maleficarum refers to the children of incubi as "campsores" or "Wechselkind" (a German term for changelings ). Changeling A changeling , also historically referred to as an auf or oaf , is a human -like creature found throughout much of European folklore . A changeling

3224-468: A nun and a priest whose spirits haunt the church after their deaths, attempting to stop Azzael from claiming Sarah. During the events of Hellboy: Wake the Devil , Hellboy, ostensibly content to return to his life of ignorance, is set back on his journey of self-discovery when a mission for the B.P.R.D leads him to Romania to investigate the theft of an ancient box containing the corpse of Vladimir Giurescu,

3348-544: A script written by John Byrne and some later stories have been crafted by creators other than Mignola, including Christopher Golden , Guy Davis , Ryan Sook , and Duncan Fegredo . The increasing commitments from the Hellboy franchise meant that 2008 one-shot In the Chapel of Moloch was the first Hellboy comic Mignola had provided the script and art for since The Island in 2005. Hellboy has an internal numbering on

3472-665: A simple mapping of the modern understanding of disability onto the changeling folklore, suggesting that the word itself is too contextual and variable, and that modern sensibilities and contemporary feelings of guilt and aversion are coming into play. Among the diseases or disabilities with symptoms that match the description of changelings in various legends are spina bifida , cystic fibrosis , PKU , progeria , Down syndrome , homocystinuria , Williams syndrome , Hurler syndrome , Hunter syndrome , autism spectrum disorder , Prader-Willi Syndrome , and cerebral palsy . The greater incidence of congenital disabilities in boys correlates to

3596-502: A solution of foxglove . There are some rare instances of changeling beliefs being brought across the Atlantic by European settlers. The best attested case is from Iowa, 1876, where a Miss Kittie Crowe was taken by the fairies. King Charles I of England (1600–1649) was reportedly rumored to have been a changeling due to his "peevish nature" as a child and a nursemaid's claim that a figure appeared mysteriously at his bedside and cast

3720-489: A story of a child supposedly swapped by the fairies for a loud and unruly fairy child. The English poet and topographer George Waldron , who lived in the Isle of Man during the early 18th century, cites a tale of a reputed changeling that was shown to him, possibly a child with an inherited genetic disorder: "Nothing under heaven could have a more beautiful face; but though between five and six years old, and seemingly healthy, he

3844-411: A whole day together. The neighbours, out of curiosity, have often looked in at the window to see how he behaved when alone, which, whenever they did, they were sure to find him laughing and in the utmost delight. This made them judge that he was not without company more pleasing to him than any mortal's could be; and what made this conjecture seem the more reasonable was, that if he were left ever so dirty,

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3968-590: A young pyrokinetic . Things change dramatically for Hellboy during the events of Seed of Destruction when he searches for Professor Bruttenholm after he disappears during an expedition in the Arctic. He finds his adopted father only to witness his death at the hands of a Lovecraftian frog monster. The search takes Hellboy, Abe, and Liz to the Cavendish Hall mansion, which is a trap established by Rasputin to lure Hellboy into an embrace of his own "destiny", with

4092-566: Is a legend about the Xana , a sort of nymph who used to live near rivers, fountains, and lakes, sometimes helping travellers on their journeys. The Xanas were conceived as little female fairies with supernatural beauty. They could deliver "xaninos" babies that were sometimes swapped with human babies – some legends claim this was for them to be baptized, while others claim that it is because the Xana cannot produce milk. The legend says that to distinguish

4216-528: Is able to defeat the soldier, but while dying the soldier warns Hellboy that Nimue is transforming into something else. The two stop at a pub, where Hellboy decides that he no longer wants the sword, suggesting to Alice that she leave it in a lake. They share a kiss, and Hellboy asks Alice to move to America with him after he has defeated Nimue. On the way to Nimue's fortress, Hellboy has another confrontation with Astartoth, rebuking him again. He then runs into Baba Yaga, who tells him that he will only be able to reach

4340-527: Is common among children born with severe sickle-cell anemia, especially in areas of Africa lacking adequate medical resources. The similarity between the European changeling and the Igbo ogbanje is so marked that Igbos themselves often translate the word into English as "changeling". The abiku was a rough analogue of the ogbanje among the related Yoruba peoples to the west of Igboland. The word oaf,

4464-546: Is described by BRPD as "reverse dog years ". In addition to his natural physical abilities, Hellboy keeps a variety of items in his utility belt and jacket that can be used against various supernatural forces. He has been known to carry holy relics , horseshoes, various herbs, and hand grenades . He frequently carries an oversized revolver, which in the Guillermo del Toro films was named the " Good Samaritan ", and whose construction incorporates iron that had been used to forge

4588-491: Is dying after losing her powers when she accidentally revived a homunculus while searching another location for Giurescu, finding Roger in the events of Hellboy: Almost Colossus as he convinces the homunculus to save Liz's life. Following the events of Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom , gaining insight about his stone hand and being referred to as a harbinger of the Apocalypse, Hellboy is accompanied by Abe to hunt down

4712-460: Is identified as the "World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator". Hellboy, or "anung un Rama " as he was called, was conceived on October 5, 1574, the day his birth-mother, Sarah Hughes, a human woman, was on her deathbed. In life, Sarah was a witch who gained her powers from being a consort of the archdemon Azzael, an Archduke of Hell and Hellboy's "biological" father. Taking Sarah's body to hell when she attempted to repent on her deathbed within

4836-424: Is made clear it is not necessary for the arm to be attached to Hellboy to perform its duties. It has been suggested if Hellboy dies while the Hand is attached to him, it would become useless. He has, therefore, concluded the only way to prevent its falling into the wrong hands is to keep and protect it. Hellboy originated in 1991 with a drawing Mike Mignola did for a Great Salt Lake Comic-Con promotional pamphlet of

4960-403: Is nothing he could have done to prevent any of this. He tries to fight her, but realizes how tired he is of violence. He steps inside her Iron Maiden form, and his blood revives the world. Afforded by his demonic heritage as well as extensive physical training and bodybuilding, Hellboy possesses superhuman strength that exceeds the 1-ton base limit, endurance, a degree of resistance to injury, and

5084-637: Is raised by Professor Bruttenholm in a normal Catholic home environment, and the United States Army where he is introduced to the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD), a private organization dedicated to combating occult threats. Due to the success of his first mission in 1952, Hellboy is granted "honorary human" status by the United Nations and becomes a member of the BPRD as

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5208-506: Is shown the sleeping army of Hell that his Right Hand has the power to awaken. After this, he is attacked by his fully demonic half brothers Lusk and Gammon who are being manipulated by Astaroth. All three are killed, and Hellboy falls again into the Abyss. He is saved again by Grey, who convinces him to commit to his new life in Hell. In between helping out lost souls, Hellboy learns gradually that

5332-469: The Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology the cambion is again said to be the direct offspring of the incubus and the succubus, forgoing any need for human involvement. This same incarnation retained the absence of breath or a pulse until seven years of age, but was said to also have been incredibly heavy (even too heavy for a horse to carry) and to have cried upon being touched. Since at least

5456-486: The Flesk ; he drowned the third time. She swore she was merely attempting to drive the fairy out of him. The jury acquitted her of murder. In 1895, Bridget Cleary was killed by several people, including her husband and cousins, after a short bout of illness (probably pneumonia ). Local storyteller, Jack Dunne accused Bridget of being a fairy changeling. It is debatable whether her husband, Michael, actually believed her to be

5580-458: The Ulster folk song 'The Gartan Mother's Lullaby' also uses "sheevra" simply to mean "spirit" or "fairy". The Isle of Man had a wide collection of myths and superstitions concerning fairies, and numerous folk tales have been collected concerning supposed changelings. Sophia Morrison , in her "Manx Fairy Tales" (David Nutt, London, 1911), includes the tale of "The Fairy Child of Close ny Lheiy",

5704-467: The soul , and the act of generation is the act of the physical organs which have bodily life. Therefore bodies which are assumed in this way cannot either beget or bear. Because of this inability to create or nurture life, the method of the creation of a cambion is necessarily protracted. A succubus will have sexual relations with a human male and so acquire a sample of his sperm . This she will then pass on to an incubus, who then corrupts and strengthens

5828-506: The "sons of incubi demons". These false infants constantly wail for milk and cannot be satisfied even by four nurses. Richard Firth Green notes that this "was to become the standard scholastic explanation for changelings throughout the Middle Ages." The earliest evidenced appearance of the word "cambion" in the sense of an offspring of two demons is in the 1818 French-language Dictionnaire Infernal . The 1825 edition of that book has

5952-464: The "world's greatest paranormal investigator". As such, Hellboy interacts regularly with humans, primarily law enforcement officials, the military, Catholic clergy, and various "scholars of the weird", most of whom are not presented as overtly reacting to his strange appearance. During one of his early missions he rescued a young girl named Alice Monaghan, who had been replaced by fairies with a changeling named Gruagach. He also went to Russia and shot out

6076-514: The 19th century, "cambion" has taken on a further definition: the child of an incubus or a succubus with a human parent. In 1874, Victor Hugo 's Toilers of the Sea defined a cambion as the son of a woman and the devil. It also appeared as a hybrid of human and demon in Dungeons & Dragons ' 1983 Monster Manual II. The concept of offspring born to humans and demons was a subject of debate in

6200-557: The 2019 reboot, where Hellboy is able to raise an entire army of the dead after embracing his power as Anung Un Rama. Hellboy ages quite differently from human beings. In the story Pancakes he is now two-years old but appears to be somewhere between 6 and 10 in human years old. In Nature of the Beast , set in 1954, the ten-year-old Hellboy appears fully grown. His rapid physical maturation is in contrast to his actual rate of aging, however, which seems to be much slower than humans. Throughout

6324-433: The Abyss, the outermost part of Hell, and being attacked by Eligos. He is saved by Edward Grey, a british paranormal investigator who wound up trapped in Hell and has been watching over Hellboy for many years. Soon after, Hellboy is visited by three spirits. The first takes him to see his birth in Hell and his father's imprisonment. Then he is shown Satan, who he murders as prophesied, but does not remember doing so. Finally, he

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6448-419: The B.P.R.D. comics are collected in trade paperbacks . These editions collect the stories in the size they were originally drawn. These editions collect the complete Hellboy series in chronological order. Beyond the Hellboy comic and its associated spinoffs, Hellboy has made appearances in other publications: The character name "Hell Boy" was included in a drawing by Mike Mignola of a demon character in

6572-516: The BPRD. After some time with a witch doctor in Africa, Hellboy is captured by a trio of mermaid sisters and brought underwater to a witch known as the Bog Roosh. In exchange for Hellboy, the Bog Roosh grants each sister a wish. The first two sisters are tricked by the Bog Roosh and killed by their wishes, but the third sister is clever and gets her wish, a missing piece of her father's grave. While

6696-470: The Devil where he describes his mindset since the aftermath of Seed of Destruction by saying, "I like not knowing. I've gotten by for fifty-two years without knowing. I sleep good not knowing ." Before Hellboy was published independently at Dark Horse Comics, the concept was initially pitched to a board of directors for DC Comics , who loved it, but did not like the idea of it involving "Hell". The early stories were conceived and drawn by Mignola with

6820-500: The Giants are dead. He is found by Alice Monaghan, who, since being rescued by Hellboy in her youth, has become a close consort to the faeries of England. She takes Hellboy to meet Mab , Queen of the Faeries, who hints that his mother's ancestry entitles him to a crown. After this, Alice and Hellboy are led into a trap where Alice in nearly fatally poisoned. The two are the taken to the castle of Morgana Le Fay to save Alice. To enter

6944-577: The Homunculus in preventing an alien entity called the Conqueror Worm from arriving on Earth through the continued machinations of the surviving members of Ragna Rok. Over the course of the story, Hellboy learns that the B.P.R.D has implanted a bomb in Roger as a failsafe in case he should turn on them. Disillusioned by this knowledge and finally ready to look deeper into his origins, Hellboy quits

7068-513: The Late Latin cambiare 'to exchange', and ultimately from the Celtic root "kamb", meaning crooked or exchange. In its earliest known uses, the word is used for a changeling, the child of fairies or demons who has been substituted for a human baby. William of Auvergne , in his 13th-century work De Universo , wrote of " cambiones , from cambiti , that is 'having been exchanged ' ":

7192-451: The Middle Ages, but did not have a widely accepted name. The influential Malleus Maleficarum , which has been described as the major compendium of literature in demonology of the fifteenth century, states that demons, including the incubus and the succubus, are incapable of reproduction: Moreover, to beget a child is the act of a living body, but devils cannot bestow life upon the bodies they assume; because life formally proceeds only from

7316-482: The Ogdru Jahad to Earth. The Mystic threatens to force all of mankind to worship the Sadu Hem, and Hellboy fights to stop him. Hellboy is ultimately able to win the fight. Rattled, Hellboy sets sail for England, much to the chagrin of Gruagach and the council of fairies who have been watching over him. Six years later, as Hellboy: Darkness Calls opens, Hellboy's search takes him to England where he finds himself in

7440-490: The United States Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.). In time, Hellboy grew to be a large, muscular, red-skinned ape/monkey-like man with a tail, horns (which he files off, leaving behind circular stumps on his forehead that resemble goggles), cloven hooves, and an oversized right hand made of stone (the "Right Hand of Doom"). He has been described as smelling of dry-roasted peanuts . Although

7564-474: The aristocracy of Hell have all gone into hiding or been killed by their slaves since his arrival, as they panicked over the thought that he might kill them all. He is poisoned by powerful spirits called the Furies, who were set on him by his half sister Gamori. The furies turn on her, dooming her to destroy the remains of Pandemonium , the capital city of Hell. Eventually, Hellboy, in fully demonic form, hunts down

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7688-442: The artists that worked on Nathan Never, and the first two years of the life of this comic were the main topic of the fanzine. With the exception of the cover, there is no other mention of Hellboy within the fanzine. The character shown was still in a draft stage, and although close to the final design of Hellboy, it had gray skin and an outfit not common to the character. Mike Mignola's Hellboy by Mike Mignola and John Byrne featured

7812-399: The assistance of Sadu-Hem, one of the 369 spawn of the Ogdru Jahad. Controlled by the spirit of one of the ancestral Cavendish men, Abe impales Rasputin. Liz's firestorm then incinerates Rasputin's body alongside Sadu-Hem's and destroys Cavendish Hall. Soon after, during a visit to Bromwich Church, Hellboy gets a glimpse of his conception 300+ years ago and learns he has two human half-siblings,

7936-416: The baby as it slept. Still, even if the Mamuna took a child, there was a way to force her to return it. The mother would take the changeling child to a midden , whip it with a birch stick, and pour water from an eggshell over it, all while shouting, "Take yours; give mine back." Typically, the Mamuna would feel sorry for their child and return the human baby to its mother. In Nordic traditional belief, it

8060-463: The belief that male infants were more likely to be taken by fairies. Psychologist Stuart Vyse writes that modern parents have higher expectations of childbirth, and when "children don't meet these expectations, parents sometimes find a different demon to blame." A condition known as regressive autism , where children appear to follow neurotypical development in their early years and then start to show symptoms of autism, can also be compared to marks of

8184-399: The castle, Hellboy must fight Eligos , a high-ranking demon from Hell. Hellboy is able to defeat Eligos with the help of one of his slaves, in exchange for Hellboy remembering the slave when he becomes ruler of Hell. Once inside, Morgana reveals to Hellboy that, on his mother's side, he is a descendant of Mordred, and subsequently the rightful ruler of England. She also tells him about Nimue ,

8308-402: The castle, whereupon the queen immediately recognizes her, and the troll girl finds a troll woman cursing loudly as she works. The troll girl bursts out that the troll woman is much more fun than any other person she has ever seen, and her mother happily sees that her true daughter has returned. The human girl and the troll girl marry happily on the same day. In Asturias (Northern Spain), there

8432-461: The changeling is known as Wechselbalg , Wechselkind , Kielkopf or Dickkopf (the last hinting at the huge necks and heads of changelings). Several methods are known in Germany to identify a changeling and to return the replaced real child: In German folklore, several possible parents are known for changelings. Those are: In Ireland, looking at a baby with envy – "over looking the baby" –

8556-448: The changeling, so the troll mother had never been cruel to him, and when she sacrificed what was dearest to her, her husband, they had realized they had no power over her and released him. The tale is notably retold by Swedish children's story author Helena Nyblom as Bortbytingarna in the 1913 book Bland tomtar och troll . (which is depicted by the image), a princess is kidnapped by trolls and replaced with their offspring against

8680-505: The changelings. Although incomplete, it contains the mother's grief and the Queen of Elfland 's promise to return her to her child if she would nurse the queen's child until it can walk. The Mamuna or Boginka is a Slavic spirit that exchanges babies (making them into odmieńce ) in the cradle. The changelings left by the Mamuna were said to have a noticeably different appearance; an abnormally large abdomen , unusually small or large head,

8804-571: The character's first full appearance, and was a four-page black-and-white story that had an approximately 1,500 book print run. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993) for distribution at San Diego Comic-Con . It was also reprinted in The Comic's Buyers Guide #1069, along with an interview with creator Mike Mignola. Hellboy travels to an American ghost town , where he encounters

8928-527: The character's next solo appearance. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in a special four-page mini-comic for distribution in Comics Buyer's Guide #1,070 (May 20, 1994). In the story Hellboy battles with the disembodied head of Nazi scientist Herman von Klempt and his puppet henchman Brutus the Gorilla to rescue a captive girl from the doctor's transference of nutrient fluids process. The story

9052-556: The child appears on Earth in a fireball at what remains of the ruined Bromwich Church on December 23, 1944, likely guided there by the ghosts of his mother's other children. Proving not to be a devil in the traditional sense, but a devil-like creature, the child was dubbed "Hellboy" by Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm. Taken by the United States Armed Forces to an Air Force base in New Mexico , Hellboy

9176-461: The child from being taken by trolls. In one Swedish tale, the human mother is advised to brutalize the changeling ( bortbyting ) so the trolls will return her son. Still, she refuses, unable to mistreat an innocent child despite knowing its nature. When her husband demands she abandon the changeling, she refuses, and he leaves her – whereupon he meets their son in the forest, wandering free. The son explains that since his mother had never been cruel to

9300-404: The children might be replacements for fairy children in the tithe to Hell ; this is best known from the ballad of Tam Lin . According to common Scottish myths, a child born with a caul (part of the amniotic membrane) across their face is a changeling and will soon die (is "of fey birth"). Other folklore says that human milk is necessary for fairy children to survive. In these cases, either

9424-578: The children. In rare cases, the very elderly of the fairy people would be exchanged in the place of a human baby so that the old fairy could live in comfort, coddled by its human parents. Simple charms such as an inverted coat or open iron scissors left where the child sleeps were thought to ward them off; other measures included a constant watch over the child." Folklorist D. L. Ashliman proposes in his essay 'Changelings' that changeling tales illustrate an aspect of family survival in pre-industrial Europe. A peasant family's subsistence frequently depended upon

9548-473: The chimney. At Byerholm near Newcastleton in Liddesdale sometime during the early 19th century, a dwarf called Robert Elliot or Little Hobbie o' The Castleton as he was known, was reputed to be a changeling. When taunted by other boys, he would not hesitate to draw his gully (a large knife) and dispatch them; however, being woefully short in the legs, they usually out-ran him and escaped. However, he

9672-470: The corpse of a long dead mystic who was killed in the temple. Hellboy's blood resurrects him and transforms him into a more demonic looking version of Hellboy himself. The Mystic reveals to Hellboy the true nature of his Right Hand of Doom, which is actually the severed hand of one of the Angels involved in the creation of the Ogdru Jahad, and is therefore the only power in the universe capable of fully returning

9796-523: The cover of Dime Press #4 (Glamour International Production, 1993), an obscure Italian fanzine, with "Hellboy©Mignola 93" written at the bottom of the cover. The cover, illustrated by Mignola and by the Italian artist Nicola Mari, shows Hellboy in the act of attacking a "diabolic" version of the Italian SF comic book character Nathan Never (with bat wings and pointed tail). Mari at the time was one of

9920-522: The culmination of Ragnarok, where Hecate spills Hellboy's blood onto the incinerated Earth to breathe life back into it. It is revealed to Baba Yaga by the dead Russian nobility that Hellboy may not be slain even through supernatural means and that he appears to be as deathless as her warrior, Koschei the Deathless. In the films, Hellboy has shown skill in necromancy , animating a man's dead body so that it could give him directions. This also happened in

10044-426: The demon Yomyael, who is possessing a young girl named Varvara. Once free, however, Varvara reveals herself to be the daughter of their old foe Rasputin, and resurrects him. Hellboy and Rasputin battle one last time, both dying. As a ghost, Hellboy is shown the remaining path to the end of the world by Edward Grey. Agents of the B.P.R.D. are able to save a small portion of humanity, guiding them to shelter underground. On

10168-543: The destruction of the world, but Hellboy, true to his values and somewhat drunk, brushes her off. He travels deeper into the island, and is attacked by a long slumbering Sadu Hem. The fight with the creature takes him into a temple at the center of the island, where the creature stabs him through the chest, seemingly killing him. While dead, Hellboy has another conversation with the Witch Doctor, who somehow resurrects him. Hellboy awakens to find his spilled blood absorbed by

10292-482: The eye of the witch Baba Yaga . Gruagach and Baba Yaga both held lifelong grudges against Hellboy over these incidents. As an adult, having matured physically within the years yet aging slowly mentally with a teenage mind, Hellboy becomes the primary agent for the BPRD, alongside other human and quasi-human agents that include Kate Corrigan , a professor of folklore at New York University ; Abe Sapien , an amphibian humanoid ( Ichthyo sapiens ); and Liz Sherman ,

10416-428: The fairy to abandon the child it was trying to steal. Another possible tactic was to insert oneself into an argument over who would keep the child; shouting "Give it to me" would trick the fairy into releasing the child back to a human. In some instances, changelings were regarded not as substituted fairy children but as old fairies brought to the human world to die. Irish legends regarding changelings typically follow

10540-474: The film version, it is stated that Hellboy is immune to all forms of fire and burns, including Liz Sherman's flames, and electrocution. Despite his ability to quickly recover from seemingly mortal wounds, he is far from invulnerable and can be injured or bloodied by conventional weapons. Curiously in certain instances, the spilling of Hellboy's blood causes lilies to sprout - a supernatural indicator of his true good nature. This unique property comes into play even at

10664-465: The following entry: CAMBION, — Enfants des Demons. Delancre et Bodin pensent que les démons incubes peuvent s'unir aux démones succubes, et qu'il nait de leur commerce des enfants hideux qu'on nomme cambions ... English translation: CAMBION, — Children of Demons. Delancre and Bodin believe that incubus (male) demons can unite with succubus (female) demons, and that born of their exchange are hideous children which are called cambions ... In

10788-565: The fortress with her magical help. In exchange, Hellboy finally sacrifices his eye to Baba Yaga. Reaching Nimue, Hellboy sees she has been completely possessed by the Ogdru Jahad and now seeks to destroy the world. The two engage in battle as storms rage across England, and Hellboy is able to defeat her using a sword given to him by the ghost of Vasilisa . As the Dragon collapses, Nimue's ghost emerges and plucks out Hellboy's heart, damning him to Hell. Hellboy in Hell begins with Hellboy stuck in

10912-490: The hiding people would exchange their sickly children for the healthy children of the occupying invader. The Mên-an-Tol stones in Cornwall are said to have a fairy or pixie guardian who can make miraculous cures. In one case, a changeling baby was passed through the stone for the mother to have her real child returned to her. Evil pixies had changed her child, and the stones could reverse their spell. In Germany,

11036-403: The human family without warning. The human child that was taken may often stay with the fairy family forever. Feeling connected to a changeling's fate, some families merely turn their changeling loose to the wilderness. Some folklorists believe that fairies were memories of inhabitants of various European regions who had been driven into hiding by invaders. They held that changelings had occurred;

11160-468: The human would seem to sicken and die, to be buried by the human family, while the living human was among the fairies. Bridget Cleary is one of the most well-known cases of an adult thought to be a changeling by her family; her husband killed her, attempting to force the fairies to return his 'real' wife. In medieval Scandinavia, it was believed that trolls considered it more respectable to be raised by humans than by their kind and would consequently seize

11284-467: The inside cover of its issues. Below are the stories listed by their internal numbering for the comics. Hellboy in Hell is a finished series with its own numbering. Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. is an ongoing series of miniseries. Special stories were created for hardcover original graphic novels . All in-continuity Hellboy comics are collected in trade paperbacks . All Hellboy in Hell comics are collected in trade paperbacks . All Hellboy and

11408-574: The kidnapped human was a child; but there were cases, particularly in Scandinavia and Ireland , where adults were taken. A changeling is typically identifiable via several traits, which vary from culture to culture. In Irish legend , a fairy child may appear sickly and will not grow in size like a normal child, and may have notable physical characteristics such as a beard or long teeth. They may also display intelligence far beyond their apparent years and possess uncanny insight. A common way that

11532-472: The kinds of stories I wanted to do, but just needed a main guy." He initially created Hellboy as part of a team of five, but scrapped this idea when he realized he could not think of any team names that he liked. Much like other American comic book superheroes, such as Batman , Wolverine , Iron Man , Daredevil , and Spawn , Hellboy is constantly tormented by the knowledge of his past. One example being in Wake

11656-442: The last remaining rulers of Hell and destroys them all with the help of their slaves. After this, he returns to a home on the beach where he is met by three glowing shapes. Hellboy returns, resurrected, in B.P.R.D: The Devil You Know, the final arc of the narrative. He fights alongside his original companions, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien, against the rising Sadu Hem and a small group of demons seeking to conquer Earth. The team defeats

11780-471: The middle of a power vacuum caused by Bromhead incapacitating Hecate in Italy. Refusing to serve the witches as their king, Hellboy ends up in the dimension of the witch Baba Yaga . Managing to defeat Baba Yaga's champion Koshchei the Deathless , Hellboy returns to his reality and is led to Bromhead after he became monstrous and in agony from his attempt to take Hecate's powers for his own. Hellboy gives Bromhead

11904-407: The new Bog Roosh, releasing the souls of drowned sailors from which the previous Bog Roosh drew her power. She then releases Hellboy, leaving him lost at sea. In Hellboy: Strange Places , after several years adrift at sea and spent drinking with the ghosts of sailors, Hellboy arrives on a mysterious island. He encounters Hecate, who once again insists that they are bound together and must unite in

12028-502: The newborn Hellboy. As the hand which created and bound the Ogdru Jahad, it is also the key that will "loose and command" them; in other words, it is a catalyst that will bring about Ragnarok . The comic books themselves never mention how the Right Hand of Doom would actually perform these tasks; they only explain this is the case and someone or something intends to do it, with or without Hellboy's consent. The film shows it working as

12152-474: The newborn human child would be switched with a fairy baby to be suckled by the human mother, or the human mother would be taken back to the fairy world to breastfeed the fairy babies. Human midwives were also thought to be necessary to bring fairy babies into the world. Some stories tell of changelings who forget they are not human and proceed to live a human life. However, in some stories, changelings who do not forget return to their fairy family, possibly leaving

12276-561: The opportunity to give their children a human upbringing. Some believed that trolls would only take unbaptised children, since once a child had been baptized – and therefore received into the Catholic faith – the trolls were powerless to abduct it. Beauty in human children and young women, particularly traits that evoke brightness or reflectivity, such as blonde hair and blue or silver eyes, are said to attract fairies, as they perhaps find preciousness in these traits. In Scottish folklore,

12400-454: The parents could force the child's return by treating the changeling cruelly, using methods such as whipping or even inserting it in a heated oven. In at least one case, a woman was taken to court for killing her child in an oven. In Sweden, it was believed that a fire must be kept lit in the room housing a child before it is christened and that the water used to bathe the child should not be thrown out, since both of these precautions will prevent

12524-442: The productive labour of each member, and it was difficult to provide for a person who was a permanent drain on the family's scarce resources. "The fact that the changelings' ravenous appetite is so frequently mentioned indicates that the parents of these unfortunate children saw in their continuing existence a threat to the sustenance of the entire family. Changeling tales support other historical evidence in suggesting that infanticide

12648-428: The same formula: a tailor is the one who first notices a changeling, the inclusion of a fairy playing bagpipes or some other instrument, and the kidnapping of a human child through a window. The modern Irish girl's name, Síofra , means an elvish or changeling child, deriving from Síobhra(í), meaning fairy(/fairies). The Aos sí , siabhra (commonly anglicised as "sheevra"), may be prone to evil and mischief. However,

12772-421: The seed. The incubus will, in his turn, transfer this sperm to a human female and thus impregnate her. Yet it may be said that these devils assume a body not in order that they may bestow life upon it, but that they may by the means of this body preserve human semen, and pass the semen on to another body. The text goes on to discuss at great length the arguments for and against this process being possible, citing

12896-427: The sixty-year span of time depicted in the comics, he does not age beyond the plateau of physical maturity. This mystical aging process is similar to the other demons and supernatural beings that populate Hellboy's world. The lifespan of a demon (or half-demon, as Hellboy's mother was human) is left undefined within the comics and seems to range from decades to many thousands of years. In the films, Hellboy's aging process

13020-443: The source of Giurescu's rebirth is the ancient goddess Hecate . Though Hellboy destroys Hecate's original body by forcing her into the sunlight, he faces her again after Rasputin unintentionally provides her with Ilsa's iron maiden-encased body. Hecate swallows Hellboy and reveals to him his ultimate purpose as destroyer of worlds, but he returns to his own reality after he denounces his supposed destiny. Hellboy later learns that Liz

13144-507: The surface, the Sadu Hem reign for a short time before the Osiris Club use Hellboy's severed Right Hand of Doom to summon the Ogdru Jahad to Earth and kill it. Once this is done, Hellboy takes back the Hand, killing the Osiris Club in the process. Finally, he sees Liz Sherman, somehow still alive, and instructs her to unleash the full brunt of her pyrokinetic abilities, burning down the world. The world gone, Hecate appears before Hellboy, once again in her Iron Maiden form. She assures him that there

13268-425: The third sister returns to her father's grave, the Bog Roosh explains her plan to completely destroy Hellboy, thereby preventing the apocalypse. At the grave, the third sister is told by her father's ghost that the only way to honor him is to save Hellboy. She does, and when the Bog Roosh realizes she cannot prevent the apocalypse, she allows herself to be killed by Hellboy in the ensuing battle. The third sister becomes

13392-423: The translations of this name is, lit. "and upon his brow is set a crown of flame"; with the theft of his crown, the name is no longer accurate), and he kills Ualac's mortal body before the demon and the crown are taken to Hell by the archdemon Astaroth , who is later revealed to be Hellboy's paternal uncle. In the events of Hellboy: Conqueror Worm , Hellboy is assisted by the ghost of Lobster Johnson , and Roger

13516-504: The warlock Igor Bromhead in Box Full of Evil . But it turned out to be a trap conducted by Bromhead and the demon Ualac to capture Hellboy, using his True Name , Anung Un Rama, to restrain him, so that the latter can claim Hellboy's normally invisible Crown of the Apocalypse to increase their power. But this act, however, proves to be counterproductive, as it allows Hellboy to no longer be controlled by his true name, Anung Un Rama (as one of

13640-402: The wishes of the troll mother. The changelings grow up with their new parents, but both find it hard to adapt: the human girl is disgusted by her future bridegroom, a troll prince, whereas the troll girl is bored by her life and her dull human prospective groom. Upset with the conditions of their lives, they both go astray in the forest, passing each other without noticing it. The princess comes to

13764-476: The woman at her return saw him with a clean face, and his hair combed with the utmost exactness and nicety." In the Anglo-Scottish border region it was believed that elves (or fairies ) lived in "elf hills" (or " fairy hills "). Along with this belief in supernatural beings was the view that they could spirit away children, and even adults, and take them back to their world (see Elfhame ). Often, it

13888-413: Was a substitute left by a supernatural being when kidnapping a human being. Sometimes the changeling was a 'stock' (a piece of wood made magically to resemble the kidnapped human), more often the changeling was a supernatural being made magically to look like the kidnapped human. Supernatural beings blamed for stealing children included fairies , demons , trolls , nereids and many others. Usually,

14012-428: Was being tormented by an ogbanje , a malicious spirit that reincarnated itself over and over again. One of the most commonly prescribed methods for ridding oneself of an ogbanje was to find and destroy its iyi-uwa , a buried object tying it to the mortal world. Many scholars now believe that ogbanje stories arose as an attempt to explain the loss of children with sickle-cell anemia . Even today, infant death

14136-410: Was collected in the trade paperback Hellboy: Seed of Destruction . Hi, My Name is Hellboy by Mike Mignola was a one-page panel ad that related the character's fictional origins. It was published by Diamond Comic Distributors in catalog supplement Celebrate Diversity collector's edition (October 1994). The ad was collected in the trade paperback The Art of Hellboy . The Dark Horse Book of...

14260-439: Was collected into The Dark Horse Book of Horror in 2017. Hellboy: The First 20 Years was published on 1 April 2014. Cambion In European mythology and literature , a cambion ( / ˈ k æ m b i ən / ) is the offspring produced from a human–demon sexual union , typically involving an incubus or a succubus . In the word's earliest known uses, it was interchangeable with changeling . Cambion comes from

14384-410: Was courageous, and when he heard that his neighbour, the six-foot three-inch (191 cm) William Scott of Kirndean, a sturdy and strong borderer, had slandered his name, he invited the man to his house, took him up the stairs and challenged him to a duel. Scott beat a hasty retreat. Child ballad 40, The Queen of Elfland's Nourice , depicts the abduction of a new mother, drawing on the folklore of

14508-444: Was dangerous, as it endangered the baby, who was then in the fairies' power. So too was admiring or envying a woman or man dangerous, unless the person added a blessing; the able-bodied and beautiful were in particular danger. Women were especially in danger in liminal states: being a new bride or mother. Putting a changeling in a fire would cause it to jump up the chimney and return the human child. Still, at least one tale recounts

14632-406: Was frequently the solution selected." Fairies would also take adult humans, especially the newly married and new mothers; young adults were taken to marry fairies instead, while new mothers were often taken to nurse fairy babies. Often when an adult was taken instead of a child, an object such as a log was left in place of the stolen human, enchanted to look like the person. This object in place of

14756-445: Was generally believed that trolls or beings from the subterranean realms exchanged children. Since most of the supernatural beings of Scandinavian folklore are said to be afraid of iron, Scandinavian parents would often place an iron tool such as a pair of scissors or a knife on top of the cradle of an un-baptised infant to prevent its abduction by the trolls. It was believed that if a human child were still taken, despite such measures,

14880-532: Was originally the right hand of Anum, one of the Watcher angels that watched over the burgeoning Earth and created the Ogdru Jahad. After sealing the Ogdru Jahad away, Anum was destroyed by his fellow spirits. Only his right hand remained intact as it was kept and preserved by the Hyperboreans, the first race of man. The Right Hand of Doom eventually ended up in the possession of Azzael before he grafted it onto

15004-589: Was so far from being able to walk, or stand, that he could not so much as move any one joint; his limbs were vastly long for his age, but smaller than an infant's of six months; his complexion was perfectly delicate, and he had the finest hair in the world; he never spoke, nor cried, ate scarcely anything, and was very seldom seen to smile, but if any one called him a fairy-elf, he would frown and fix his eyes so earnestly on those who said it, as if he would look them through. His mother, or at least his supposed mother, being very poor, frequently went out a-charing, and left him

15128-501: Was stripped of his powers and imprisoned in ice (like Lucifer in Dante 's Divine Comedy ). The child is eventually summoned to Earth in the final months of World War II by the "Mad Monk" Grigori Rasputin on Tarmagant Island, off the coast of Scotland , having been commissioned by the Nazis to change the tide of a losing war (" Project Ragna Rok "). As a direct result of this rite,

15252-457: Was the banner title given to a series of four one-shot hardcover comic book horror anthologies produced annually by Dark Horse Comics between 2004 and 2007. Each issue contained a Hellboy story — “Dr. Carp’s Experiment” (2004), “The Troll Witch” (2005), “The Ghoul” (2006), and “The Hydra and The Lion” (2007). All four stories were collected into the trade paperback Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Others in 2007. The Dark Horse Book of... series itself

15376-427: Was thought a baby would be snatched and replaced with a simulation of the baby, usually a male adult elf, to be suckled by the mother. The real baby would be treated well by the elves and would grow up to be one of them, whereas the changeling baby would be discontented and wearisome. Many herbs, salves, and seeds could be used for discovering the fairy-folk and ward off their designs. It was also believed that to force

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