Aelfric (Earth-616)

Aelfric
Name	Aelfric
Aliases	The Mad Monk
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Catholic Church, pawn of Chthon
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Origin and Living Status
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	Spanish
Occupation	Former monk
Base of Operations	Mobile Formerly Abbey of St. Michael, Spain
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Gerry Conway, Mike Ploog
First	Werewolf by Night #3 (October, 1972)
First	Werewolf by Night #3 (October, 1972)
Death	Werewolf by Night #3 (October, 1972)
Death	Werewolf by Night #3 (October, 1972)

History

Aelfric was originally a monk serving in the Abbey of St. Michael in 12th century Spain. Under undescribed circumstances he came under the sway of Chthon whom the monk believed to be Satan. Chthon directed him to reassemble the lost scrolls of the Darkhold which had been scattered across the world by St. Brendan about six centuries before. By 1149, Aelfric succeeded in reassembling the Darkhold, but his work was discovered by his fellow monks and they believed him to be an agent of Satan. Fleeing with his scrolls, he was soon opposed by a mounted knight who struck him with his sword. Aelfric could not be killed through such means, however, and reduced both the knight and his steed to nothing more than a pile of bones through the use of the Grey Death. He was quickly swarmed by the townspeople after this, as the knight was the patron to the king for the town. They then burned both him and his scrolls at the stake, though the Mad Monk vowed that his soul would live on and he would return to rule the world.

Later, petty scavengers found the scrolls among Aelfric's remains, completely unharmed by the fire. These scrolls passed hands through the ages until they came into the possession of Gregory Russoff who bound the pages into the current copy of the Darkhold. As a result of reading the pages, Russoff became a werewolf, a curse he passed on to his children Jack and Lissa.

Jack took the book to Father Damon Joquez to have it translated from Latin, which inadvertently released the spirit of Aelfric into the world once more. Aelfric succeeded in possessing the priest and planned to send the world back to the dark ages with Grey Death. Aelfric captured the Werewolf by binding him to the wall with his magic and also captured Lissa who was looking for her brother and fainted when she ran into Aelfric. The Werewolf soon escaped his shackles and confronted Aelfric, who then summoned Dragonus to deal with the Werewolf, hoping to unleash his evil side in the process. Unfortunately for Aelfric, during the fight Dragonus tripped over the Werewolf and impaled the body of Father Joquez with his horns, causing his spirit to leave the dying body.

Attributes

Powers

• Aelfric possessed great mystical power granted to him by Chthon. Among his powers was the ability to create the Grey Death, a fog of magical energy capable of disintegrating an armoured knight and his steed. He could also create magical bonds and summon beings from other dimensions to serve him.
• His soul is apparently immortal. Under unknown circumstances, his spirit could be summoned by one reading the Darkhold, allowing him to possess and control said reader. It may or may not be caused when an individual reads the entirety of the book.
• Though his original body was frail and weak, he was able to survive seemingly mortal wounds, such as a sword strike to the back of the neck.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Aelfric possessed the Darkhold which increased his mystical powers by a vast degree.

See Also

• 3 appearance(s) of Aelfric (Earth-616)
• 1 minor appearance(s) of Aelfric (Earth-616)
• 4 mention(s) of Aelfric (Earth-616)
• 5 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Aelfric (Earth-616)
• 2 image(s) of Aelfric (Earth-616)
• 1 item(s) used/owned by Aelfric (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Aelfric at the Marvel Appendix