For some reason, the first two pages of each 3-page chapter of this
story are in color, with the third page in black-and-white.
The story opens in the small village of Hexheim in the
Austrian Alps. The Alps are a lengthy mountain range in
southern Europe. Hexheim appears to be a fictional village;
translated from German, the village's name roughly
translates to "Witch Home".
Ahnsen refers to the head monk of the monastery as Father
Abbot. One of the other monks also later refers to him this
way. "Abbot" is a religious title which means "father"...so
they are essentially calling him Father Father!
Ahnsen points to a mountain and calls it the Hexberg. "Hexberg"
translates from German as "Witch Mountain".
In the story, there is a monastery on the Hexberg. A number
of monasteries do, in fact, exist in the Alps, established by
Christians during the medieval period.
Page 2 of the story describes Skydiver's missile striking
its UFO target. But it's technically not Skydiver's missile,
just Sky 1's, the separated aerial component of Skydiver 1.
On pages 2 and 3 of the story, the abbot seems to say that
the outwardly Christian monastery of Hexheim has actually
been a secret house of worship of Lucifer for centuries!
"Lucifer", of course, is considered by most modern Christian
denominations to be the proper name of Satan before his fall
from grace.
On page 3 of the story, the alien has a tiny crystal in his
gloved hand that seemingly transforms the abbot's mind into
an alien mind.
Page 4 of the story seems to imply that the Satanic
congregation actually calls itself the Brotherhood of Evil.
The abbot tells the captured SHADO agent to reveal his
secrets "in the name of Abaddon." Abaddon is the name of a
place of destruction in the Old Testament of the
Bible and also the name of a destroyer angel in the
Book of Revelation of the New Testament.
The abbot also later calls upon the names of Azrael and
Beelzebub. Azrael is the name given to the Angel of Death in
some religious folklore of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Beelzebub is generally considered another name for the
Devil.
The abbot actually seems to have some magical powers, as he
is able to use a skrying glass (crystal ball) to focus the
SHADO agent's thoughts into visual images. He describes it
as a method known to the ancient astrologers. It seems odd
to mix magic into the more technologically-based UFO
universe, but it is explained by the alien who is taking
refuge at the monastery as simply psychic powers (which were
shown to exist to a certain extent in episodes of the TV
series).
Straker draws a pentacle with inscribed symbols from an old
book on black magic and shows it to Foster to break him out
of the Brotherhood's "spell". An internet search does not
reveal this particular pentacle with symbols as necessarily
a real one used in arcane magic rituals.
On page 11, the abbot tells his captives they will be
victims at the congregation's Walpurgisnacht
ceremony tonight.
Walpurgisnacht
(Walpurgis Night) is the eve of St. Walpurgis' Day, a feast
day observed in several European countries.
St. Walpurgis was a German abbess in the 8th Century.
Folklore says that witches would traditionally gather on
this night to celebrate Spring. In Germany, it is similar to
Halloween in the U.S. For the Brotherhood of Evil,
it's obviously something more sinister!
The SHADO helicopter Straker, Freeman, and Foster take to
Hexheim is named on its fuselage as SHADO 5.
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