From Beneath You It Devours: The Original Hell-Mouth

Detail of a miniature showing the Last Judgement, from the ‘Queen Mary Apocalypse’, England (London or East Anglia), first quarter of the 14th century, Royal MS 19 B XV, f. 40r

Turns out the Hellmouth was well-known from Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts and even church windows detailing the demons in the pit and their victims. Librarian Rupert Giles surely had this manuscript in the Sunnydale Library. Of course the phrase "From Beneath You It Devours" plays a role in Season Seven as the Hellmouth wreaks havoc on Buffy and the Scooby Gang and threatens to destroy the world.


Detail of a bas-de-page scene showing a demon carrying souls to Hell in a wheelbarrow, from the ‘Taymouth Hours’, England (London?), second quarter of the 14th century, Yates Thompson MS 13, f. 139v. 
From the British Library Manuscripts Blog - "Prepare to Meet Your Doom"

The rather horrifying motif of the Hell-mouth was not confined to medieval manuscripts. It appears – most commonly as a hairy, fanged beast – in stained glass windows and wall- and panel-paintings as well. It was therefore visible to ordinary medieval people, for whom owning an illuminated manuscript was an unimaginable luxury, and the prospect of suffering an eternity in Hell an imminent possibility. St John’s visions of the end of the world and the Last Judgement were frequently depicted in ‘Doom paintings’ on the walls and rood-screens of medieval churches. Though mostly destroyed at the Reformation, examples have survived, particularly in East Anglia, some of them ironically protected and preserved by the very whitewash that was meant to obliterate them.

. . . Hell-mouths were commonly depicted in illuminated Apocalypse manuscripts, swallowing up the souls of the damned, while God, the angels and the souls of the saved look on from the safety of Heaven.

See More Hellmouth Illuminations Here

Buffy, Spike and Faith Facing the Hellmouth
For the Final Battle in Season 7

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday: "Early One Morning"

The English folk song "Early One Morning" plays an important role in Spike's character development, which is ironic given the title and the fact that he is a vampire who sleeps or hides from the rising sun.

Early one morning, just as the sun was rising
I heard a maid sing in the valley below
"Oh don't deceive me, Oh never leave me,
How could you use, a poor maiden so?"

Remember the vows that you made to me truly
Remember how tenderly you nestled close to me
Gay is the garland, fresh are the roses
I've culled from the garden to bind over thee.

Here I now wander alone as I wonder
Why did you leave me to sigh and complain
I ask of the roses, why should I be forsaken,
Why must I here in sorrow remain?



From Songfacts:

This folk song is particularly notable for its use in a number of well known arrangements. In the UK its usage in the opening bars of the "BBC Radio 4 UK Theme" by Fritz Spiegl, which until April 2006 was played every morning at 5.30 am is the best known.
The song has been used in a number of television programs. It was sung by Samantha in the TV series Bewitched, by Pernell Roberts (Adam Cartwright) in "The wooing of Abigail Jones" episode of the TV series Bonanza and was used as a trigger for the Vampire Spike in the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was also the theme song for the children's CBC TV show The Friendly Giant, which run from 1958 to 1985. In the UK, it was Frank Spencer's choice of song in the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.
The song has also featured several times in the movies. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "Early One Morning" is played in the background at the beginning of the tale of Sir Launcelot, just before his assistant is 'mortally wounded' with an arrow. Also Hayley Mills and Nancy Olson sung this song in the 1960 Disney film Pollyanna.

In "Lies My Parents Told Me" (season 7) Buffy and Giles learn that the song has become a "trigger" put there by the First Evil which makes Spike kill people even though he now has a soul. Through the use of a magical stone, Spike remembers that his beloved mother once sang the song to him when he was a still a rather hapless and poetic mortal named William. When Spike is turned into a vampire by Drusilla he returns to his family home and bites his ailing mother to make her immortal like himself. However things do not turn out the way he expected. Spike forgot that his mother would become half evil demon as a vampire, and when she proceeds to take delight in describing their mother-son relationship as twisted and unnatural, Spike is shocked and realizes he has to kill her. At the last moment his mother returns to her original loving form.


Principal Robin Wood is wrestling with his own mother issues. We learn that he is the son of Nikki Wood, the New York Vampire Slayer whom Spike admits to killing in Fool For Love. In "Lies" Robin Wood and Giles conspire to put a stake in Spike against Buffy's wishes. Giles is thinking of the safety of the potential slayers, while Robin just wants revenge for his mother's death. As a result of their deception, Wood and Giles lose Buffy's trust, and she defends Spike as "the strongest warrior we have." This is foreshadowing for the final episode when Spike becomes Buffy's Champion and he saves the world.



Buffy echoes Nikki Woods advice to her son "The Mission is what Matters." Spoken like the true Slayers they are!

Geek Out with Felicia Day on YouTube

Felicia Day played a "Potential" in the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and went on to sing as the sweet character Penny on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Of late she can be found on "Geek and Sundry" which is both an Official Website and an entertaining YouTube Channel.

Here she is on Twitter also: @FeliciaDay

There are loads of videos on the channel, so Check it all OUT! And Geek Out! Far OUT! ....Peace Out.



"Gastro Geek" is a cross between the Food Network show "Chopped" and SyFy's geeky monsterfest "Face Off" - contestants make monsters out of food and then Judges give them a VERY SERIOUS ARTISTIC critique. Featuring actors Alexis Denisoff (Angel, Much Ado About NOthing) and Colin Ferguson (Eureeka).

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Heather Nova in "Touched"

Heather Nova is a singer-songwriter born in Bermuda and raised in New England.
More background on Nova Here



The song "It's Only Love" is in Episode 20 of Season Seven, as Buffy loses leadership of the Potential Slayers to Faith and leaves the house feeling betrayed, even by the Scooby Gang and Giles. Thinking no one will stand by her, a defeated Buffy has to be convinced to come home by her most loyal and true friend, Spike. I get a little sappy and sentimental over this song! Maybe because Spike gives such a great homage to Buffy out of his love and respect for her - they went so far as a couple before the end of the series! *wipes away tear*

Spike - "You listen to me. I've been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I've seen things you couldn't imagine, and done things I'd prefer you didn't. Don't exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood, which doesn't exactly rush in the direction of my brain. I've made a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years, and there's only one thing I've ever been sure of: you ... Here, look at me. I'm not asking you for anything. When I say "I love you", it's not because I want you, or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are. What you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand, with perfect clarity, exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman. You're the One, Buffy."

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Aberdeen

The California "Twee" group Aberdeen had two songs in Episode 13 of Season 7 "The Killer in Me."

From their Biography on LTM Recordings

Californian indiepopsters Aberdeen featured John Girgus (also of Languis) and Beth Arzy (also of Trembling Blue Stars), and released five sparky singles on Sarah Records and The Tremelo Arm User's Club between 1994 and 2004. Their album Homesick & Happy To Be Here appeared in 2002.

. . . Twee is really just a label the music press began slapping on bands like Belle and Sebastian in order to describe, in one word, a band who makes jangly, pastoral, pretty (and mostly UK) pop music. Yet, like with most labels, the term twee is a little unfair to the bands. Obviously there is more going on in Belle and Sebastian's music than hippies cavorting around in the Scottish heather. The same goes for the music of Aberdeen. Yes, it's poppy, fun, and innocent but it's also dark, foreboding, and to a degree... violent.

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Aimee Mann

Today we have two from Aimee Mann, a singer-songwriter who is the only performer at the Bronze to ever have a line of dialogue in the Buffy episode "Sleeper" in Season 7.

And it's really a good line:

Man, I hate playing vampire towns.

She utters her line while coming offstage at the Bronze after watching Spike dust a vampire in front of everyone.

Spike meanwhile has become a "Sleeper" agent for the First Evil, who triggers his vampire rage with a song his mother used to sing to him called "Early One Morning" - an ironic title referring to "as the sun was rising," which is deadly to vampires.

The song "Pavlov's Bell" is especially appropriate for this episode because it refers to the classic psychology experiment in which a dog is conditioned to search for food when the master rings a bell. In this case, Spike obeys the First whenever he hears that song playing, and that leads him to kill and then bury his victims.

"Pavlov's Bell" and "This is how it goes" can be found on Mann's album Lost in Space. "Pavlov's Bell" is included on both versions of Radio Sunnydale.











Another interesting musical reference in this episode:

In one scene, the bouncer refers to Spike as "a Billy Idol wannabe," and Buffy starts to say that Billy Idol actually stole the look from him (implying Spike had told her this in conversation at some point). In Season Five's Fool for Love, Spike's resemblance to Billy Idol was depicted (though not acknowledged in dialogue) during his flashback fight with the Slayer Nikki Wood in 1977, at which time Spike's attire and hair mimicked Idol almost perfectly, several years before Idol's fame.

Aimee Mann started her singing career in the Big 80s band Til Tuesday and their hit Voices Carry. She even had the Spike-worthy bleach-blond hair!