Roots Of The Swamp Thing: Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, The Un-Men And More

Roots of the Swamp Thing: Your Portal to the Universe of Swamp Thing, The Un-Men and John Constantine: Hellblazer

• Part 1: Before Year 1
• Part 2: Year 1 to 1899
• Part 3: 1900 to 1969
• Part 4: 1970 to 1979
• Part 5: 1980 to 1984
• Part 6: 1985 to 1988
• Part 7: 1989 to 1991
• Part 8: 1992 to 1994
• Part 9: 1995 to 1999
• Part 10: 2000 to Present

Born on the Bayou
A history and introduction

Creature Features
Articles and feature stories

Cover Gallery
Judge the books by the covers

In the Swamplight
Issue-by-issue breakdowns

Elemental Lineage
Past lives and other entities

Upcoming Releases
Coming to a bog near you

What's New Bayou?
Archived news updates

About Me
Portrait of a swamp-nerd

Homepage
Go back to the roots

Contact Me
Comments, corrections & tubers

Thanks to Joe Bongiorno, who first dragged me kicking and screaming into the mucky mythos of Swamp Thing, and to Paul Giachetti, who created the amazing header banner.

Thanks also to reader 'Alec Holland,' whose support has been invaluable; Mike Sterling, for promoting Swamp Thing and this site; and Kevin Church, for his excellent optimization advice.

And thanks to Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, Alan Moore, John Totelben, Stephen Bissette, Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis and all the other creators whose work inspired this site.

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In the Swamplight
Swamp Thing Series 1 #5

Story Title	Pub. Date
"The Last of the Ravenwind Witches"	July-Aug. 1973

Writer	Artist
Len Wein	Bernie Wrightson

Cover	Editor
Bernie Wrightson	Joe Orlando


Chronological Breakdown
• 1673: In Divinity, Maine, a religious zealot named Gideon sentences a fellow settler called Ravenwind to death at the stake for the crime of necromancy. Gideon has only one leg, and before dying, Ravenwind puts a curse on him that all future Gideons will be born with the same affliction. The curse lasts on into the 1900s, with numerous one-legged Gideons persecuting Ravenwind witches.

• 1973: Swamp Thing stows aboard a cargo ship to escape the moors. When he surfaces to soothe his cramps, sailor Patrick Larabee sees him. He jumps into the icy waters as seamen attack, washing ashore outside Divinity, Maine. There he meets Rebecca Ravenwind and her younger brother Timothy, who are being chased by an ignorant mob led by a farmer named Gideon. The mob thinks her a witch. She tends to Swamp Thing's wounds, and he decides to protect them. When the mob finds them, a brute named Jocko severs Swamp Thing's arm with a scythe. Swamp Thing mutilates Jocko's face, and the mob chases him off a cliff. Gideon takes the Ravenwinds to town, where a man named Smith jails Tim, and Rebecca is tried for necromancy. The trial is a farce, and she is quickly found guilty. Swamp Thing awakens on shore, stunned to find his arm growing back. He returns to Divinity, breaks Timothy out of prison and rushes to a hilltop where Rebecca is being burned. Fighting a dozen villagers, he rips the stake free. Rebecca stops him from further violence as a storm turns the mob into flowers. Timothy is the witch, she says, and she is his familiar; now that Gideon's evil is over, they will live with friends in Boston. Meanwhile, miles away on a New England porch, simulacra of Alec and Linda Holland enjoy the clean night air.

Trivia
• Timothy Ravenwind returns in issue #166 of the second Swamp Thing series, and also in Seven Soldiers—Zatanna #1, as the master magician Timothy Raven, last of the Ravenwind Witches.


Reprints and Collections

DC Special Series #17— The Original Swamp Thing Saga	Roots of the Swamp Thing #3


Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis	Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis	The Secret the Swamp Thing

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