Cedu-Barra, Edward Grey and other potential links

[timbolton]

[Note: if you are not up to date with all the Mignolaverse series as it stands, please do not read!]

On a Mignola Discord group, someone was confused about Cedu-Barra and what was going on with the island of Saint-Sebastien. I wrote a reply for them and thought it was relevant as a topic here, so I've posted the reply with extra notes (they haven't caught up with Witchfinder series yet).

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It took me a re-read and a little look around to get things in my head straight.

We get a lot of info from the Witch and there are two opposing sides:

Cedu-Barra – A Hyperborean - “First tribe of the first people” – he’s a wizard, priest of the Secret Fire. Escaping the destruction of Hyperborea, he went to Atlantis. Became second only to the King (by “using his craft”). “All were worshipping the Black Goddess” – so that includes Cedu-Barra. He flees again with “the six devils.”
Next stop is Lemuria (“Birthplace of the Human Race”) where he dies.

We learn more about the devils – “But his creatures were prepared for this. He had created them for just this purpose – to carry his spirit – to find a new body in which to be born again.” So we learn that this wizard is able to create creatures (or ensnare devils) who’s purpose is to keep his soul safe and transfer it to his body. Cedu-Barra is one determined Hyperborean, determined to never die. And it is noted that Cedu-Barra learns these skills from Hecate (The Black Goddess) – “Cedu-Barra learned his art from Gorinium, from the teeth of the serpent herself – Heca-Emem-Ra.”

We see a succession of hosts – a shaman, Egyptian Pharaoh, a Roman (Emperor?) and what to me always looked like Rasputin – but knowing who and what Rasputin is and became, I doubt that, because Cedu-Barra is not mentioned again. There is what looks like a Victorian Gentleman – I always wondered if it was meant to be Jack the Ripper? We may find out soon enough, with the new Witchfinder series.

His final body is the Warlock Epke Vrooman. Unfortunately for Cedu-Barra, Epke was being pursued by Edward Grey, who stabbed Epke’s body with the Lipu dagger and thus trapping Cedu-Barra inside Epke’s dead body. The coffin is washed up on the shores of Saint-Sebastien – as the witch says, “for evil is drawn to evil” – burned lepers, slaves, plague. Evil has happened here.

But St-Sebastian is under the protection of someone else – the sea. And the sea is clearly shown (in the church in the finale) as being the same creature we see, time and again, coming out of the egg that Langdon Caul (aka Abe) broke during the ceremony performed by the Oannes Society. So we can assume the sea is Oannes (or Dagon), a Mesopotamia protective god and also the one who brings knowledge to mankind. He also on occasion sends witches and other beings to help humanity. I wasn’t always sure if Oannes was an Ogdru Hem, but since he’s on the opposing side, he’s definitely not. In the final closing pages of BPRD and Hellboy as a series, we see Abe’s purpose fulfilled, to be the eggs holding the next race of man, either as Oannes or a servant of him.

Oannes creates both the witch and her “son” (possibly a golem?) to protect Saint-Sebastien. His only demand is that the sacred place of the island, the Church, is made over in his image. And the witch feared Abe was not ready to see that. Maybe she knew he carried Oannes in him as well?

Hopefully that all makes sense. And it’s amazing, looks at all that, I have discovered more leads and links.

Maybe I was right, maybe the picture is meant to be Rasputin and his death in the river freed Cedu-Barra? Maybe the Victorian Gentleman is Jack the Ripper who Grey is investigating in the current Witchfinder series?

Notes:

Edward Grey timeline info -
1883 - Epke Vrooman is tried in Holland, turns into a bunch of sticks and disappears. [“Abe Sapien: The Drowning”].
1884 – Grey interrupts the ceremony by Cedu-Barra’s devils to put him into Epke’s body. [“Abe Sapien: The Drowning”].
1888 to Feb 1889 – Edward Grey and the Ripper case. [“Witchfinder: The Reign of Darkness”].
Feb 1889 to July 1909 – Having left Queen Victoria’s service, Grey is now an independent investigator in Whitechapel, London.

Edward Grey and the Lipu dagger.
Dates from about 300BC, place of creation is the Lipu monastery in Tibet. A bronze statue of Durga (the Hindu Goddess) told one of the monks how to make it. Specifically for killing demons. Ten are made, for the ten arms of the Durga bronze statue. The Lipu dagger turns up elsewhere (I can’t remember all the references) but it is shown being given by Panya to Edward Grey in “Witchfinder: Gates of Heaven #3.”

Connection to Panya.
In “Witchfinder: Gates of Heaven #3” we see Cedu-Barra (as an Egyptian priest, not a Pharaoh as the picture in “Abe Sapien: The Drowning” implies) talking to Panya about Vril. In fact it is stated that Akhenaten’s power is Vril. Her father is Meryra, who argues with Cedu-Barra about betraying Akhenaten by leaving the doomed city of Akhenaten. It’s 1338 BC, the year Akhenaten dies. Looking on the internet, Meryra was an actual person (his tomb is used to help date Akhentaten’s reign) – he was superintendent of Nefertiti, Royal Scribe, Steward and had other titles.

Cedu-Barra, the Egyptian.
In the notes for “Witchfinder: Gates of Heaven #3,” artist and writer D’Israeli shows designs for the man who talks to Panya and her father, and names him Cedu-Barra.

Abe = Oannes (Dagon).
From reviewer and Mignola scholar Mark Tweedale – “In “Abe Sapien: The Drowning” it was pretty strongly implied that Abe comes from Dagon/Oannes, the god that protected and nurtured the humans in Babylon. Throughout history, he has sent his children, witches that look exactly like humans, to live among humans and guard them.
It was suggested Abe was like these children. But I don’t think he is. I think the Oannes Society was right about Abe (as Mignola’s crazy secret societies often are, even if they don’t grasp the subtleties of the details): He is Dagon. And I think it is Dagon’s children, and not the frog monsters, that will become the third race of man.
Abe’s transformation is the waking of a god.”

Final thoughts on Cedu-Barra.
I am starting to wonder now – did Cedu-Barra take over Rasputin before his death in the River Neva? Do we get to learn that Cedu-Barra is in the Ripper and Grey learns this too and leads to him leaving Queen Victoria’s service? The Epke Vrooman case is 1884 and the Ripper case is 1888-89, so that goes against the Ripper/Cedu-Barra connection. Let’s see.

Further resources:

http://www.multiversitycomics.com/re...ien-26-review/
http://www.multiversitycomics.com/an...ia-actual-con/
http://www.multiversitycomics.com/an...en-bprd-agent/
http://www.multiversitycomics.com/re...s-of-heaven-3/
https://hellboy.fandom.com/wiki/Edward_Grey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meryre_II

[KROENEN]

Wow excellent post, lots to mull over.

[terence]

Excellent! I'll have to reread "The Drowning"!

[lam]

How excellent; lovely posting! There is always so much more to these plots than meets the eye.

[KROENEN]

I'll definitely have to look over the Drowning again; the Black Goddess seems to be coming up in the new Witchfinder series too, so more potential connections to come; that certainly would be an interesting take on Jack the Ripper as a tool of Cedu-Barra for some sort of unholy ritual.