Didja Notice?

 

The issue opens in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales.

 

Indy, Marcus, and Marion visit a local pub called Cat and Fiddle to question the locals on the whereabouts of Marcus' former Princeton classmate, Austin Coleridge. Though there a number of pubs called Cat and Fiddle in the UK, this one in Merthyr appears to be fictitious.

 

At Cardiff Airport, Hans Degen questions a woman working there at the ticket counter about the whereabouts of Indy. The woman remembers the handsome Indy and that she rented a car to him and told him how to get to Merthyr Tydfil, explaining to Degen that it is a valley some miles south. But Cardiff Airport, the only commercial passenger airport in Wales is actually south, about 32 miles, of Merthyr Tydfil, so she would have had to direct him north.

 

The Devil's Heart artifact and it's location, the Lucifer Chamber, appear to be fictitious bits of mythology. "Lucifer" is considered by most modern Christian denominations to be the proper name of Satan before his fall from grace from Heaven. In "End Run", the Devil's Heart is said by Ayoob to contain Satan's soul.

 

The ruins of Wyndham Abbey, where the druids used to gather, as told by Coleridge, appears to be a fictitious monastery.

 

On page 10, Tarrant sends his eagle hawks after Indy and, as he flees, Indy reflects that he hates birds almost as much as snakes! We might prefer to take this reflection of his as hyperbole of the moment, as he has evinced no fear or hatred of birds in other adventures. In fact, the American Indian medicine man Aguila assisted Indy with finding his spirit animal in a visionquest, which turned out to be an eagle (as seen in a flashback to Indy's youth in The Peril at Delphi)! On a side note, "End Run" has Indy revealing that, in addition to snakes and birds, he hates the red shoes Marion likes to wear, in a confession to Marcus, even using the phrasing he uses for snakes near the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, "I...hate those red shoes, Marcus...I hate 'em..."

 

Coleridge claims to have had possession of the Philosopher's Stone for a brief time and it turned his left hand gold when he picked it up. He believes the stone is now in Agharta, a secret city of the druids made of gold at the Earth's core. Indy himself has encountered a couple of purported "philosopher's stones" in the past, in The Philosopher's Stone and The Cursed Grimoire, and will come into contact with yet another in the later adventure The Iron Phoenix. The Philosopher's Stone is a mythical alchemical substance capable of transforming base elements into gold, and for use as an elixir of life (rejuvenation or immortality). Agharta (or Agartha) is an ancient Buddhist myth about a race of supermen at the center of the Earth, though the Buddhist myths usually refer to the kingdom as Shambhala. The name Agartha comes from French author Louis Jacolliot's 1873 book Le Fils de Dieu (The Son of God), in which he speaks of some Hindu Brahmins of Central Asia who told him stories of Agartha, a city many millennia old that was the home of the Aryan civilization.

 

On page 17, Marcus holds his own against Coleridge in a tussle between the two aging men, and Coleridge mutters that Marcus has not forgotten how to box. According to Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide, Marcus had a bantam-weight boxing title at Princeton during his time as a student there. In boxing, bantam-weight is a fighter in the 115-118 lbs. range.

 

On the last page of this issue, Degen holds Indy at gunpoint and tells him, "You have caused us a great deal of inconvenience these past few months. Therefore, my direct superior, der Fuhrer...has sent me to kill you." The Fuhrer is Germany's leader at the time, Adolf Hitler. The "inconvenience" caused by Indy to the German regime likely refers to the events of "Tomb of the Gods", Raiders of the Lost Ark, "The Harbingers", "Crystal Death", and "Amazon Death-Ride", all taking place roughly in the period of May-September of 1936.

 

Back to Indiana Jones Episode Studies