ANDAR OF BEZFARDA

Real Name: Andar (last name unrevealed)

Identity/Class: Human (Hyborian Era)

Occupation: Cult Leader

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Red Sonja, unnamed unicorn

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Andar of Bezfarda

Base of Operations: Argossean forest, possibly Bezfarda (Hyborian Era) (see comments)

First Appearance: Red Sonja I#1 (January, 1977)

Powers/Abilities: Andar did not possess any powers, but was a ferocious leader and was probably very intelligent due to the extensive studying he had done since his youth.

History:

(Red Sonja I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Andar of Bezfarda was just a young boy when he saw a beautiful white horse with a horn protruding from its head, feeding in an Argossean meadow. The sight of this magnificent creature burned a passion in his heart. He wanted to touch it, but before he could it ran off with incredible speed.

(Red Sonja I#1 (fb) - BTS) - After the experience Andar spent his entire life learning as much as he could about the mythical creature called a unicorn. His studies taught him two separate accounts of the animal. The one most accepted by people was that of a myth, a creature that was not real. The other stated otherwise; that one Andar believed, after all he had seen the animal. He also discovered that anyone who could catch the creature and claim its horn would be given the gift of eternal life.

(Red Sonja I#1 (fb) - BTS) - In his adult life, Andar built a kingdom of his own in the Argossean forests. He became the Cultish leader of a group of people who believed in his desire and destiny to one day catch a unicorn.

(Red Sonja I#1) - That day came, and in the very same forest where they lived, they cornered the beast with a horn on its head. Andar was desperate to learn if the rumors of eternal life were true. His followers tossed ropes over the unicorn as it tried frantically to escape. The unicorn thrashed about and hit a thick branch, snapping the horn from its head. Andar triumphantly lifted the horn over his head in jubilation.

    Red Sonja, who had witnessed the ordeal, stepped in to save the unicorn and rode off on the animal's back. Andar of Bezfarda was furious. He had the horn, but he wanted the entire animal. He was plagued for days and nights by thoughts of the red haired woman and the animal, haunted by the nigh-mystic tie they had displayed. He called for their deaths as the only way to end the curse on their kingdom.

    Andar labored in his workroom to create a potion using the unicorn's horn, using a method he had learned by following a pre-Cataclysmic formula to create his eternal youth nectar. He had almost finished drinking it when two of his cult members entered his workroom to announce they had found the two he had been looking for and feared. Andar angrily announced that he feared no mortal, and threw the unfinished bottle of potion on the ground. One of the two men, knowing what must have been in the shattered bottle, knelt down to lap it up, but Andar stuck a sword through his back.

    With their location known, Andar plotted an ambush to kill Red Sonja and the unicorn at night, under cover of darkness. At the moment of the attack Andar noticed that the unicorn had grown a new horn and told his men to leave the animal to him. Moments later Red Sonja had been knocked unconscious by one of the cult members. Andar stood over her with a spear ready to plunge it into her body, but before he could the unicorn came up behind him. Andar turned and tossed the spear at the beast, but he only grazed it. With lightning speed the unicorn skewered Andar on its horn and then with a powerful thrust tossed his lifeless body several yards through the air. His life's work had become his fate. (See comments)

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas and Clara Noto (writers), Ed Summer (plot) and Frank Thorne (art and color).

    In the history of unicorns, I have never seen it mentioned that a unicorn's horn or alicorn had ever been credited with giving eternal life, but in medieval times it was believed that the alicorn existed and could cure diseases and was an antidote to any poison. They were very valuable in those days as you can imagine and some museums such as the "Liverpool Museum in England" have an alicorn on display. This museum believes this alicorn is actually the tusk of a narwhal, a very rare arctic whale.

    In one version of the history I read, it says unicorns themselves can heal, just by touching them, but it also states that the person must be pure of heart. In that case it might explain why Andar was not able to touch the animal; perhaps even as a child he was corrupt.

In his appearance the question is never quite answered about whether or not Andar had actually received eternal life, because we know he winds up dead. The scenarios I see are as follows:

  1. His pre-cataclysmic formula may have been produced incorrectly.
  2. The formula was correct, but being skewered on another horn neutralized the effects of the 1st.
  3. The potion never worked in the first place.

    My personal guess is that it never worked in the first place. Andar threw a bottle on the floor, shattering it, and one of his followers got a few drops lapped up but was killed by Andar with a sword. It is unlikely that Andar who had studied unicorns his whole life would mix the formula wrong. Just a thought.

    The use of the name Andar of Bezfarda is used two or three times in Red Sonja I#1. It is unclear if Bezfarda was the birthplace of Andar or if it is the name of the Kingdom he now rules. In either case a Spanish web site with extensive Hyborian maps places Bezfarda in Argos.

Profile by Nemedian Chronicler.

Clarifications:

Andar of Bezfarda has no known connections to

The unnamed unicorn has no known connections to

unnamed unicorn

The unicorn found by Andar and his men had its horn broken off in a struggle to capture it. After some time under the care and protection of Red Sonja the unicorn grew a second horn. After being confronted by Andar and his men a second time the unicorn used it's horn to kill

--Red Sonja I#1

 

 

 

images:

Red Sonja I#1, p3, pan 1 (Andar)

Red Sonja I#1, p16, pan 1 (Andar)

Red Sonja I#1, p3, pan 3 (unicorn)

Appearances:
Red Sonja I#1 (January, 1977) - Ed Summer, Roy Thomas & Clara Noto (writers), Frank Thorne (artist), Roy Thomas (editor)

First Posted: 12/09/2004
Last updated: 12/16/2004

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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