Valac

Valac, as depicted in the Dictionnaire Infernal.

Valac is a demon described in the goetic grimoires the Lesser Key of Solomon (in some versions as Ualac or Valak[1] and in Thomas Rudd's variant as Valu),[2] Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (as Volac),[3] the Liber Officium Spirituum (as Coolor or Doolas),[4][5] and in the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic (as Volach)[6][7][8] as an angelically winged boy riding a two-headed dragon, attributed with the power of finding treasures.[6][1][4][5][7][3]

Variations

The Lesser Key, the Munich Manual, Rudd, and Weyer further agree in ranking Valac as a president and attributing him with the power to locate, summon, and control serpents.[6][1][2][3] The Officium Spirituum similarly attributes Doolas with the power to give the summoner command of serpents as well as "household spirits," but it ranks Cooler and Doolas as princes instead of presidents.[4][5]

Valac is listed sixty-second in the Lesser Key (even by Rudd) and the forty-ninth by Weyer, with either version claiming he leads thirty legions of demons (though some manuscripts say thirty-eight).[1][2][3] The Munich Manual describes Volach as controlling twenty-seven legions of spirits.[6][7][8] The Officium Spirituum (depending on the manuscript) ranks Coolor as either twenty-first (with no note of how many spirits he commands)[9] or (in the copy found in the Folger Shakespeare Library) twenty-second and commanding thirteen legions of spirits.[5] All extant and complete versions of the Officium Spirituum list Doolas as twenty-fifth demon, commanding twenty legions of spirits.[10][5]

Rudd's version uniquely has Valac opposed by the Shemhamphorasch angel Iahhel.[11]

A manuscript titled Fasciculus Rerum Geomanticarum lists him as Volach.[12]

Valak, as featured in The Nun (2018), played by Bonnie Aarons.
  • The 1998 movie "Vampires" features a character named "Valek" as the first vampire.
  • "Volac" appears in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic book series. In issue #7, a young Edward Spellman, father of Sabrina Spellman, summons the demon at the request of Alphonse Louis Constant.
  • The 2016 horror film The Conjuring 2 has "Valak" as the main antagonist, taking on the form of a demonic nun. However, the character bears no resemblance with mythology besides the name. The Nun would later have a cameo in the 2017 film Annabelle: Creation and receive its own spin-off film, The Nun, released on September 7th, 2018.
  • Valac appears as the fourth boss in the game Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon for the 3DS and PC. He is depicted as a two headed dragon that can fuse to make an even bigger dragon.

Bibliography

  • Boudet, Jean-Patrice (2003). "Les who's who démonologiques de la Renaissance et leurs ancêtres médiévaux". Médiévales (in French) (44). Revues.org.
  • Kieckhefer, Richard (1997). Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 161. ISBN 0-271-01750-3.
  • Peterson, Joseph H., ed. (2001). Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis: The Lesser Key of Solomon, Detailing the Ceremonial Art of Commanding Spirits Both Good and Evil;. Maine: Weiser Books. ISBN 1-57863-220-X.
  • Porter, John (2011). Campbell, Colin D., ed. A Book of the Office of Spirits. Translated by Hockley, Frederick. Teitan Press. ISBN 0933429258.
  • Porter, John; Weston, John (2015). Harms, Daniel; Clark, James R.; Peterson, Joseph H., eds. The Book of Oberon: A Sourcebook for Elizabethan Magic (first ed.). Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 978-0-7387-4334-9.
  • Rudd, Thomas (2007). Skinner, Stephen; Rankine, David, eds. The Goetia of Dr Rudd. Golden Hoard Press. ISBN 073872355X.
  • Weyer, Johann (1563). Peterson, Joseph H., ed. Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (Liber officiorum spirituum). Twilit Grotto: Esoteric Archives (published 2000).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Peterson 2001, p. 35.
  2. 1 2 3 Rudd 2007, p. 164.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Weyer 1563, par. 50.
  4. 1 2 3 Porter 2011, pp. 14-15.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Porter 2015, p. 198.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Kieckhefer 1997, pp. 166, 292.
  7. 1 2 3 Rudd 2007, p. 34.
  8. 1 2 Weyer 1563, Introduction by Peterson.
  9. ↑ Porter 2011, p. 14.
  10. ↑ Porter 2011, p. 15.
  11. ↑ Rudd 2007, pp. 376.
  12. ↑ Boudet 2003, par. 25.
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