Edward Carrigan

Edward Carrigan
Season(s)	3
Species	Deity
Status	Deceased (killed by Dean Winchester)
Title/Alias	Hold Nickar
Occupation	Teutonic God
Affiliation	Madge Carrigan
Family	God (creator) Madge Carrigan (Hold Nickar)
Portrayed by	Spencer Garrett

“	All of a sudden, this Jesus character is the hot new thing in town. All of a sudden, our altars are being burned down, and we're being hunted down like common monsters.	”
	— Edward Carrigan in A Very Supernatural Christmas

Edward Carrigan was a pagan deity of the Winter Solstice along with Madge.

History

Background

Much like other pagan deities, he and Madge once had many willing worshipers who gave them sacrifices, taking over a hundred tributes a year, but with the coming of Jesus, they lost almost all of their followers, and without sacrifices they were weakened. They have lived for over 2 millennia amongst the humans having assimilated to their way of living though secretly carrying out sacrifices.

Season 3

Madge makes wreaths out of Meadowsweet, and the people who buy the wreaths are taken for sacrifices. When she and Edward Carrigan find Sam and Dean snooping around in their blood-splattered basement, they take the brothers prisoner and start their ritual preparation for sacrifice. This involves cutting them both to obtain blood. Edward pulls out one of Sam's fingernails and is about to pull one of Dean's teeth when they are distracted by the doorbell, and the brothers are able to escape their bonds. Dean stabs Edward with a branch from a Christmas tree while Sam stabs Madge with another branch, killing them.

Supernatural: Bone Key

In this non-canon novel, after learning that Sam and Dean killed Edward and Madge Carrigan, Bobby warns them that the only reason the stake worked is because no one believed in the two gods for centuries, and as an example he says that the Greek god Zeus nowadays could "muster up" a lightning bolt at best, but a thousand years ago Zeus could fry Sam and Dean with just a mere look.

Personality

The deity takes the form of an ordinary citizen, acting exactly like one (even playing bridge on Tuesdays and Fridays), except during the days leading up to Christmas, where he takes human sacrifices as tributes through a ritual. He deeply loves his wife Madge, screaming out in obvious anguish when Madge was killed by Sam.

Physical Appearance

True appearance

Edward appears as an ordinary human, but when light is shone on his face, his true appearance is revealed.

Powers and Abilities

• Invincibility (formerly) - Edward's power was near-infinite when millions of worshippers were sacrificing to him. They had power comparable to the archangels, though they were still weaker than archangels.
• Weather manipulation - He had very limited influence over the weather, being able to bring mild weather.
• Immortality - As a pagan Deity, he would live forever.
• Super Strength - Able to easily overpower and lift a fully grown man.
• Super Stamina - As a deity, he never tires.
• Super Senses/Clairsentience - He and Madge were capable of sensing the presence of meadowsweet and traveling to houses where there was meadowsweet
• Super Agility - He and Madge were able to climb up onto the roof of a house, squeeze down a chimney, grab someone, and pull themselves and their victim back up the chimney.
• Invulnerability - He could only be killed by a stake made from the branch of an evergreen tree.

Weaknesses

• Evergreen Stake - He could be killed by being stabbed with a stake made from the branch of an evergreen tree.
• Light – When light was shone on him, his true face was revealed.

Appearances

• Season 3
  • A Very Supernatural Christmas
• Season 8
  • Clip Show (book cover)
• Season 15
  • Atomic Monsters (on poster)
• Supernatural: Bone Key (mentioned only)

Trivia

• Hold Nickar is a singular deity, Madge and Edward weren't actually two gods, but one, split into female and male halves. Those two halves being Edward and Madge. This is alluded to when Sam is explaining the lore to Dean and referring to the god in singular terms. This seems to be a survival method as the only way to truly kill Hold Nickar is if both halves are destroyed, otherwise the god will continue to exist in the remaining half of itself.

Lore

There are thousands of churches named in St Nicholas' honor, most of which were converted from temples to Hold Nickar. (As many ancient pagan gods were demonized by the Christian church.) Hold Nickar's name also became associated with Satan, known as "Old Nick."

A fan of Christmas television specials growing up, series creator Eric Kripke desired to make "the most violent Christmas special in the history of television". The myth of the anti-Claus—an evil antithesis of Santa who "stuffs his victims in sacks and takes them off to eat them"—became the episode's inspiration. However, the writers were hesitant to establish the creature as an anti-Claus because it would implicate the existence of an actual Santa Claus. To remedy the dilemma, they incorporated the mythology of the pagan god Hold Nickar, who generally is believed to be the precedent of Santa. Kripke proudly noted that the lore is "one of [their] most accurate" since most Christmas traditions have pagan origins.

Though the episode itself was penned by Jeremy Carver, the writing staff contributed their ideas to the storyline. Within five minutes of brainstorming, they envisioned three scenes they had to do: the teaser, where a grandfather pretending to be Santa is pulled up the chimney and slaughtered; a boy witnessing the Santa-dressed villain brutally killing his father and then eating one of the cookies for Santa; and the Winchesters killing someone with a Christmas tree.