History
Malekith the Accursed was the ruler of the Dark Elves, one of the Nine Worlds of Asgardian cosmology. The Dark Elves are also known as the Faerie of Celtic mythology and of Arthurian legend. The principal nexus between Earth and Svartalfheim lies beneath a palace (that is now in ruins) in the Cotswolds of Britain. The exact connection between Malekith's Dark Elves and Morgan Le Fey, the half-faerie half-sister of King Arthur Pendragon has not yet been revealed.
Centuries ago, Malekith proved himself to be an enemy of both the human beings of Earth and of the gods of Asgard. Malekith's greatest weapon was the Casket of Ancient Winters, which contained mystical forces that could reproduce the over-whelming frigidity of another of the Nine Worlds, Niffleheim, the realm of ice. To prevent Malekith from releasing the casket's contents, a mortal human being who was later known as Eric Willis stole and hid the Casket. Without the magic of the Casket, Malekith was unable to conceal himself from the wrathful Odin, monarch of Asgard. Odin banished Malekith into an other-dimensional "black limbo" where the Dark Elf remained until recent times.
Malekith was finally released from his otherdimensional exile by the fire demon Surtur, master of Muspelheim, another of the Nine Worlds. Malekith and the Dark Elves regarded Surtur as their master and served him in his attempt to conquer Earth and Asgard. Surtur intended to destroy the Nine Worlds; presumably Malekith and the Dark Elves did not realize that Surtur would destroy Svartalfheim in the process and kill all of them. Surtur ordered Malekith to regain the Casket of Ancient Winters and to use its power to create chaos on Earth that would prepare the way for its invasion by the legions of Muspelheim.
Malekith made an agreement with Hela, the Asgardian death goddess, whereby she revealed to him how to prepare the food of faerie in such a way as to enslave mortal beings to whom it was fed. The souls of Earth beings who ate this food would become entrapped in Hela's other-dimensional realm of Hel, while their still sentient bodies lived on, subservient to the commands of the Dark Elves. Through this means Malekith took control of large numbers of people on Earth.
Odin dispatched his ravens Huginn and Muninn to investigate events in the distant "burning galaxy," where Surtur was active. Surtur slew Huginn and Malekith unsuccessfully pursued the injured Muninn. (Later, the Asgardian Balder succeeded in restoring Huginn to life). Surtur also had Malekith go to Loki, the foster so of Odin, and gain Loki's pledge to withhold his support from Asgard's forces when Surtur attacked them. Loki, however, deceived Malekith; knowing that Surtur desired to destroy Asgard. Loki intended to oppose him if necessary.
Due to the magic of the Casket of Ancient Winters, Eric Willis had remained alive and young ever since he had stolen it. Willis, who lived in New York, was menaced by Malekith's human agents and was finally killed by Malekith himself, who had used his shape-shifting ability to take the form of a beautiful woman named Angel. Suspecting that danger had befallen Willis, his lawyer mailed a package to Willis' son Roger, containing papers that explained about the Casket. Following the instructions in the package, Roger found the Casket.
Now, however, Malekith launched "The Wild Hunt" to track Roger Willis and the Casket down. Willis was attacked on a bridge by Malekith, in his guise as the Master of the Hounds, and a horde of demonic dogs. Odin's son, the thunder god Thor, arrived and together he and Willis, who was armed with a gun, slew a number of the hounds. Thor hurled an iron girder at Malekith, wounding him and forcing the Dark Elf to retreat. The hounds left once Malekith was gone.
Subsequently, Malekith captured the Asgardian goddess Lorelei, who had been attempting to get the unsuspecting Thor to drink a potion that would force him to fall in love with her. Malekith used his sorcery to cause a piece of wood to take on the form of Lorelei and become animate. This false Lorelei tricked Thor into drinking the potion. Then Malekith revealed to Thor that he held the true Lorelei prisoner and demanded the Casket in exchange for her release.
Filled with passion for Lorelei, Thor went to the Dark Elves' palace in the Cotswolds, accompanied by Willis, who brought along the Casket, although they intended to rescue Lorelei without surrendering it. The two allies then passed through the nexus into the Realm of Faerie itself (presumably Svartalfheim).
Malekith had assigned a powerful Dark Elf named Algrim the Strong to attack Thor. While Algrim and Thor fought, Malekith had a chasm opened beneath their feet. Using his enchanted hammer, Thor managed to save himself, but Algrim plunged into the pool of molten lava at the bottom of the chasm and was nearly killed.
While Thor had been battling Algrim, other Dark Elves captured Willis, and Malekith took the Casket from him. Thor next fought Malekith himself, who took the form of a gigantic, armored warrior, but the thunder god quickly defeated him. Thor scattered the rest of the Dark Elves and rescued Lorelei, but Malekith, recovering, seized Willis's gun and hurled it at the Casket. The impact shattered the Casket, releasing its magical force, which spread frigid temperatures and blizzards over the Earth, even in regions where in the usual course of events it never snows. Thor struck Malekith down and then took him to Asgard, where Odin sentenced the Dark Elf to imprisonment in the Asgard's Dungeon of No Escape.
There followed the war between the forces of Asgard and those of Muspelheim, in a confrontation with Odin, Surtur drew the magical forces of the Casket away from Earth, thereby restoring its normal weather, in order to use those forces to imprison Odin within ice. But while Odin had been battling Surtur in Asgard, Willis had been reassembling the broken Casket. As soon as Willis finished his task and closed the Casket's lid, its enchantments returned within the Casket. Simultaneously, the ice imprisoning Odin ceased to exist, and soon Odin succeeded in defeating Surtur.
Afterwards, Thor invaded Hel and rescued the souls of the Dark Elves' human slaves, which were restored to their rightful bodies. Thus the Dark Elves' slaves were freed from the Elves' control.
Still later, Malekith escaped from his prison and went to the palace of Loki, claiming to want to be his ally. When Balder was about to be crowned as the missing Odin's successor as ruler of Asgard, Malekith tricked Lorelei into giving Loki a drugged drink that rendered him unconscious. Malekith then cast a spell on Loki to give him Malekith's own appearance. Loki, as Malekith, was captured at the stage where the coronation was to be held, and Thor, unaware of who the prisoner really was, had him placed in the Dungeon of No Escape wearing enchanted bonds that prevented him from casting spells. The true Malekith had taken the form of Balder, who had not yet arrived in Asgard; thus Malekith intended to be made the new ruler of Asgard himself.
However, the other-dimensional entity known as the Beyonder had saved Algrim from death and had transformed him into the vastly powerful being called Kurse. Kurse was obsessed with taking vengeance on Malekith, who was responsible for his near death in the pool of molten lava. Finding Loki, as Malekith, in the Dungeon of No Escape, Kurse began beating him, but somehow finally realized that he was not really Malekith. Kurse invaded the coronation ceremony, and seeing through Malekith's magical disguise as Balder, leapt upon Malekith and broke his neck, killing him. Suspecting what had actually happened, Thor ordered an observer, Agnar, to touch the supposed Balder's corpse with his sword. By doing so, Agnar undid Malekith's spell and the corpse of Malekith reverted to its true appearance.
Eventually, having manipulated Hela to undertake a false mission to Muspelheim, Malekith projected an illusion from Hel, tricking the Thing (Ben Grimm) into battling Thor and his paramour Sif. When that ploy failed to slay Thor, Malekith lured Kurse to Hel with taunting visions and fooled him into believing he had slain Hela. Disguising himself as Lorelei and bewitching Kurse to see Thor as Malekith, the dark elf had Kurse lead a force of the thunder god's dead foes against Thor, then slipped away mid-battle. Summoned by Sif, Hela arrived to dispel Malekith's enchantments, but to prevent her unleashing her subjects on Earth to search for Malekith, Thor swore fealty to her. However, Kurse tracked Malekith down, finding him disguised as Jane Foster-Kincaid, and, at Sif's urging, traded him back to Hela in return for Thor's freedom.
When Odin transformed the Asgardian gods temporarily into mortals, hoping to avert Ragnarok, Malekith again escaped. Malekith captured the Valkyrior, coveting their Odin-gifted ability to transverse the Nine Realms that he hoped could move his armies between worlds. However, the Valkyrie Brunnhilde escaped long enough to alert the Valkyrior's mortal member, the mutant Danielle Moonstar, who brought her X-Force allies to Asgard. They freed Malekith's prisoners and captured him, handing him over to the dwarf Eitri to imprison in an iron cell until Odin returned.
An unidentified benefactor soon freed Malekith again, helping him fake his death; in return for promised help conquering the Celtic mystic realm Avalon, Malekith agreed to trick his benefactor's enemies, the Dragon Malcolm Drake and Avalon's champion, the Black Knight (Dane Whitman), into killing one another. Adopting the identity of human businessman Malcolm Kieith, Malekith sought to manipulate the gold market, seeking control of the mana (magical energy) rich metal, and used trolls disguised as federal agents Bala Nenon and Charlie Boatner to send Whitman to investigate Drake. When Whitman and Drake, keeping calm heads, merely talked instead of fighting, Malekith impersonated each one in turn to launch unprovoked attacks on the other, prompting a battle; however, the two swiftly compared notes, figured out what had really happened, and confronted Malekith, who narrowly escaped incineration by dragon breath.
The Dark Gods of Narcisson captured the newly restored Asgardians and many of their foes, including Malekith; Odin put aside past enmities long enough to free them all. Later, while Odin was in his regenerative Odinsleep and Sif serving as Asgard's regent, Malekith learned the Casket of Ancient Winters had come into the elf Jagrfelm's possession. Hunting him down, Malekith reclaimed it, then used it to dispatch the ice demon Pentigaar to Earth to slay Thor; instead it encountered and was temporarily destroyed by Balder and Thor's alien ally Beta Ray Bill. With Thor still on Earth, Malekith unleashed the Casket's power on Asgard, encasing the realm and most of its inhabitants in ice, then attacked the city; finding Kurse, Malekith bewitched him back into service, then invaded Odin's bedchamber, with Pentigaar overpowering the defending Sif. Before Malekith could smother the slumbering Odin, Thor and his allies Beta Ray Bill and the Warriors Three arrived. Deliberatley letting slip about the Gem of Infinite Suns, a magical artifact that could counter the Casket, Thor tricked Malekith into pursuing Sif as she purportedly went to retrieve it; while Malekith was decoyed away, Thor got the Gem from its real hiding place and used it to destroy Pentigaar, free Kurse, and melt the ice holding Asgard. Confronting Malekith, Thor bound the Casket to the Gem, blocking its powers, then sent both items to a distant dimension out of Malekith's reach. Defeated, Malekith was re-imprisoned.
Eventually escaping, Malekith discovered elfin Queen Alflyse had deposed him as Svartalfheim's ruler and renounced his regime's aggressive foreign policy for bringing the elves nothing but grief. Impersonating Balder, Malekith convinced Hercules (Heracles) to disguise himself as Thor and attack Alflyse, allegedly to make them fear Thor but really hoping his foes would weaken one another. Malekith then impersonated troll leader Ulik and fooled Nornheim trolls into thinking Alflyse had enslaved trolls into her army. However, "Thor" instead defeated the attacking trolls and bedded Alflyse, accidentally marrying her; emboldened by having "Thor's" power, she decided to invade Asgard. Thor and the Warriors Three intervened, and Thor and Hercules fought as the Asgardians' and elves' respective champions in lieu of an actual invasion, with Hercules throwing the fight. His plans thwarted again, Malekith sent his servant Grendell against them, believing his foes weakened by their duel. However, Hercules' father, a semi-amnesiac Zeus, accompanying Hercules in child form, struck down Grendell with a lightning bolt, prompting Malekith to flee.Attributes
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See Also
- 78 appearance(s) of Malekith (Earth-616)
- 7 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Malekith (Earth-616)
- 6 minor appearance(s) of Malekith (Earth-616)
- 20 mention(s) of Malekith (Earth-616)
- 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Malekith (Earth-616)
- 1 invocation(s) of Malekith (Earth-616)
- 63 image(s) of Malekith (Earth-616)
- 15 quotation(s) by or about Malekith (Earth-616)
- 5 victim(s) killed by Malekith (Earth-616)
- 2 item(s) used/owned by Malekith (Earth-616)