- Mature
- Book Villains
- Exploitation Villains
- Dark Fantasy Villains
- Horror Villains
- Internet Villains
- Western Villains
- Fictionalized
- Male
- Satan
- Nihilists
- Fighters
- Bogeymen
- Symbolic
- Rapists
- Sadists
- Chaotic Evil
- Animal Cruelty
- Sophisticated
- Mutilators
- Karma Houdini
- Enigmatic
- Jingoists
- Leaders
- Mercenaries
- Serial Killers
- Faux Affably Evil
- Corrupt Officials
- Demons
- Dark Forms
- Evil Vs. Evil
- Corrupting Influences
- Destroyers of Innocence
- Mastermind
- Master Manipulators
- Doctors and Scientists
- Immortals
- Humanoid
- Genocidal
- Perverts
- Charismatic
- Torturers
- Liars
- Heretics
- Successful
- Psychopath
- Kidnappers
- Mongers
- Bond Destroyers
- Master Orators
- Social Darwinists
- Cult Leaders
- Nameless
- Paranormal
- Dark Messiah
- God Wannabe
- Misanthropes
- Magic
- Arrogant
- Trickster
- Conspirators
- Abusers
- Brutes
- Failure-Intolerant
- Slavers
- Poachers
- Soul Collectors
- Hegemonic
- Businessmen
- Crime Lords
- Warlords
- Tyrants
- Deal Makers
- Supremacists
- Control Freaks
- Thieves
- Oppressors
- Power Hungry
- Opportunists
- Wealthy
- Gangsters
- Thugs
- Egotists
- Dark Priests
- Satanists
- Immortality Seekers
- Mind-Breakers
- Disciplinarians
- Strategic
- Harbingers
- Usurpers
- Destroyers
- Hypocrites
- Harbinger for Rebirth
- Totalitarians
- Assassins
- Muses
- Pimps
- Military
- Mascots
- Propagandists
- Protagonists
- Evil from the Past
- Extravagant
- Con Artists
- Terrorists
- Weapons Dealers
- Addicts
- Drug Dealers
- Defilers
- Right-Hand
- Giants
- Greedy
- Obsessed
- Stalkers
- Cheaters
- Parody/Homage
- Incriminators
- Archenemies
- Thrill-Seekers
- Elitists
- Gaolers
- Fanatics
- Saboteurs
- Psychological Abusers
- Traitors
- Provokers
- Aristocrats
- Homicidal
- Barbarians
- Rivals
- Extortionists
- Cormac McCarthy Villains
Judge Holden
 | ||
  | This article's content is marked asMature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, strong drug use, extremely traumatic themes, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
|
Holden Second-in-Command ofGlanton's Gang Genius-level intelligence Kill the Native Americans. Genocide
Full Name
Alias
The Judge
The Devil
Great Ponderous DjinnOrigin
Occupation
Serial Killer
Terrorist
MercenaryPowers / Skills
Multilingualism(fluent in English, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Native American dialects)
Mastery of manipulation and corruption
Mastery of intimidation
Mastery of deception
Master of dancing
Immense charisma
Immense scientific and artistic knowledge
Immense wealth
Vast influence and resources
Extreme pain tolerance
Superhuman strength
Superhuman durability
Superhuman stamina
Superhuman hearing
Self-sustenance
Immortality(possibly)
Sleeplessness
Playing the fiddle
Enhanced stealth
Fighting skills
Eloquence
Leadership
Gunmanship
Marksmanship
Peak human speed
Agility
Non-dualityGoals
Spread and impose his philosophy.
Further corrupt the already evil Glanton Gang.
Get away with all his crimes(all succeeded).
Corrupt the Kid or kill him otherwise(presumably succeeded).
Become suzerain of the Earth(unknown; possibly succeeded).Crimes
Mass murder
Mass corruption
Mass infanticide
Serial rape
Pedophilia
Terrorism
Crimes against humanity
Assault and battery
Torture
Mutilation
War crimes
Brainwashing
Jailbreak
Stalking
Child abuse
Hate crimes
Inciting a riot
Reckless endangerment
Mass property damage
Psychological abuse
Animal cruelty
Human trafficking
Arms dealing
Racketeering
Bribery
Conspiracy
Disturbing the peace
Kidnapping
Obstruction of justice
Theft
Arson
Indecent exposure
Incrimination
Enslavement
Malefic(heavily implied)
World domination(implied)Type of Villain
| “ | Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden expressing his desire to know and control all of existence. |
| “ | Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all. [...] This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence.War is god. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden philosophizing his views on war. |
Judge Holden, also referred to simply as theJudge, is the main antagonist of the lateCormac McCarthy's 1985 epic anti-Western horror novelBlood Meridian.
He is an enigmatic polymath who joins ascalper gang in order to 'help them', only for it to be revealed he is a deranged sadist, mass murderer and child molester.
Holden holds both a sinister side and a curious side. He enjoys harming and raping people but also has a fondness for geography, mathematics, reading, shooting, horses, and (his personal favorite) technical drawing. Holden is theorized to be a demon by most fans (with the novel seemingly hinting this too) due to his almost monstrous appearance and hatred of religion, which is shown when he manages to convince a peaceful town to brutalize their local preacher for no reason.
Holden also holds some form of enigmatic power over the people around him, as everybody wishes to shoot him but somehow find themselves compelled to not do so. In the end, Holden's goals are truly unknown, but his survival in the novel's ending indicates he plans to continue killing for the rest of eternity.
In the audiobook, he is voiced byRichard Poe, who also voicedMr. Biggeroo fromMoville Mysteries.
Quick Answers
What is the role of Judge Holden in Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian'?
What real-life figure inspired the character of Judge Holden in 'Blood Meridian'?
What is known about the origins of Judge Holden in 'Blood Meridian'?
Where is Judge Holden active in the novel 'Blood Meridian'?
Is Judge Holden portrayed as the devil in 'Blood Meridian'?
Appearance[]
The Judge is a man of strange appearance. He has an enormous frame, being both immensely muscular and close to 7 feet in height. His skin is extremely pale, to the point of being described as fluorescent and purely white in coloration; his lack of pigmentation is possibly the result of albinism, as exposure to direct sunlight is painful to him, as evidenced by how desperate he was to purchase a hat from Toadvine to protect himself from the harsh sunlight of the desert. According to Tobin, he weighs 24 Stone 336lbs/152kg.
He lacks any hair, including his head, facial hair, and body hair, raising the possibility that he suffers from an autoimmune disorder such as alopecia universalis. In contrast to his apparent age and strong features, the Judge has a strangely childlike element to his appearance, having hands and feet that are small in proportion to the rest of his body and possessing a childish aspect to his face.
The Judge is often partially or entirely nude, but (when clothed) will tend to wear clothing typical of his era, such as long coats, linen shirts, boots, and wide-brimmed hats. Often, the Judge can be seen smoking a cigarillo.
In Samuel Chamberlain's autobiography,My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue, Holden's appearance is described almost identically to that of his fictional counterpart, though he has a head of hair.
He stood six foot six in his moccasins, had a large, fleshy frame, a dull, tallow-colored face destitute of hair, and all expression, always cool and collected.
Personality[]
Judge Holden acts like an affable, kind and polite gentleman with impeccable manners who will bow to criminals and gentlemen alike. However, this is just a very well crafted façade; in reality, Judge Holden is an immeasurably sadistic, callous, cruel, hateful, selfish, utterly depraved, monstrous, and heartless psychopath who takes an immense pleasure in abusing and murdering those weaker than him, particularly children. He is also extraordinarily intelligent, having an exceptional degree of encyclopedic knowledge of science, languages, and philosophy. The Judge is perennially calm and rarely loses his cool throughout the novel.
Befitting of his immensely violent nature, Judge Holden has a nasty penchant for depravity, brutality, and cruelty that he demonstrates on multiple occasions, such as buying two puppies just so he could toss them off a bridge to drown in a river (before the two puppies were shot and killed bythe Vandiemenlander). The Judge is also a murderous child molester who habitually lures children into his clutches with sweets. A child goes missing in nearly every town that he visits, and he is, on several occasions, seen with a naked child in his room.
Biography[]
Background[]
The novel is vague about the origins of the Judge to the point where there is almost nothing known about him. The narrator states that Judge is something "wholly other than their sum, nor was there system by which to divide him back into his origins for he would not go" and that he has "no beginning or end" hinting toward the Judge having a supernatural origin.
Blood Meridian[]
It is known that the Judge was active around the Mexico–United States border in the 19th century and seems to be a possibly middle-aged man. He is first seen entering a revival to falsely accuse a priest of being an imposter, as well as an illiterate, zoophilic criminal wanted for pedophilia, agitating the people in attendance of his service to the point where they try to kill the priest on the spot.
The Judge later met a group of nomadic mercenary scalp hunters who were out of gunpowder and at risk of being overtaken by a group of Apaches. They encountered Holden sitting on an enormous boulder in the middle of the desert as if he had been waiting for them, even though there was no way he could have known that they were coming.
The Judge climbed a mountain with them, extracting potassium nitrate (referred to as nitre in the novel) from bat guano and manufacturing charcoal while he was there, amongst other scientific pursuits. The Judge later led them to a small area of volcanic activity, while Apaches were following them closely. When they arrived, he collected native sulfur and mixed it with the charcoal, potassium nitrate and urine, producing a crude gunpowder. The Judge then staged a false surrender against the Apaches. However, when the natives approached the mercenaries, Holden and his fellow men brutally gunned all of them down. Shortly after, the Judge formed a partnership with the captain of the gang, a small, dark-haired man namedJohn Joel Glanton.
The Judge was involved in several more conflicts with natives, including a raid that resulted in the slaughtering of multiple babies and defenseless non-combatants. After a year, Glanton and most of his gang were slaughtered in a conflict with Yumas Native Americans. Holden was one of the few that managed to survive. The other four remaining members ofGlanton's Gang (the Kid,Benjamin Tobin,David Brown, andLouis Toadvine) encounter the Judge andthe Idiot after the Glanton Massacre. After Davy Brown and Toadvine leave, Holden suddenly attacks Tobin and the Kid, stalking them across a field before the duo is forced into hiding to escape him. The duo manages to get into San Francisco, but Tobin goes missing. His ultimate fate remains unknown.
The Kid encounters Holden decades later in a saloon, although the Judge has not aged at all. Holden describes the Kid as a disappointment, stating that he held in his heart "clemency for the heathen." He then follows the Kid into an outhouse, dragging him into a stall with a little girl who was also present in the saloon. After this event, two men approach the outhouse, and another man walking back to the saloons tells them that they should not go near the place. They open the door and are confused and horrified by what they see.
What happens to the Kid is unknown. One theory is that Holden rapes and kills the Kid. Another is that the Kid is tempted by Holden to rape the girl. The latter is supported by the fact that an unknown man was walking away from the outhouse and told the other men not to approach. This may have been the Kid walking away from his actions. The Judge has attempted to corrupt the Kid throughout their acquaintance and make him commit acts of evil. However, the Kid already committed many sins and killed a 15-year-old boy in the previous chapter (albeit in self-defense), so the Judge may have simply come to end his life.
The Judge is last seen dancing in the dance hall attached to the saloon. He is completely naked and has enchanted the crowd. He says that he never sleeps, and he claims that he will never die.
Powers & Abilities[]
The Judge is extraordinarily strong and durable. He can hold a heavy howitzer under one arm, break an arm with ease, lift a rock weighing "perhaps a hundred pounds" and use it to kill a horse in a single blow with such force the horse died instantly, and crush a man's head between his hands with such force that he bleeds from his ears and dies. Holden also has incredible stamina, being capable of walking vast stretches of desert without ill effect. His large size betrays his capacity for stealth, and he often appears and disappears like a phantom without anyone noticing. It is these traits that suggest the judge is not, in fact, human but a demon of some sort.
The Judge is an appointed judge of law and enjoys all the privileges that come with such a position, including the ability to negotiate for the pardoning of criminals. While his jurisdiction is not known, he can cite the words of the law from several jurisdictions from memory. He is a genius polymath with an exceptional level of intelligence and has extensive knowledge of many branches of science, including geology, botany, history, chemistry, and archaeology, and also can draw lifelike portraits of objects.
He is skilled at hiding his atrocities and never leaves behind any evidence. He can speak several secondary languages, including Spanish and Dutch. He possesses great strategic and tactical prowess, so much so that it causes Tobin to believe he cannot be overcome in battle.
Quotes[]
| “ | Ladies and gentlemen I feel it my duty to inform you that the man holding this revival is an imposter. He holds no papers of divinity from any institution recognized or improvised. He is altogether devoid of the least qualification to the office he has usurped and has only committed to memory a few passages from the good book for the purpose of lending to his fraudulent sermons some faint flavor of the piety he despises. In truth, the gentleman standing here before you posing as a minister of the Lord is not only totally illiterate but is also wanted by the law in the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Arkansas. | „ |
| ~ First appearance of the judge. |
| “ | Only nature can enslave man and only when the existence of each last entity is routed out and made to stand naked before him will he be properly suzerain of the earth. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden's desire to exercise complete dominion over the world. |
| “ | The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden to Toadvine. |
| “ | The freedom of birds is an insult to me. I’d have them all in zoos. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden after being asked why he catches birds. |
| “ | It makes no difference what men think of war, War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden about war. |
| “ | Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak. Historical law subverts it at every turn. A moral view can never be proven right or wrong by any ultimate test. A man falling dead in a duel is not thought thereby to be proven in error as to his views. His very involvement in such a trial gives evidence of a new and broader view. The willingness of the principals to forgo further argument as the triviality which it in fact is and to petition directly the chambers of the historical absolute clearly indicates of how little moment are the opinions and of what great moment the divergences thereof. For the argument is indeed trivial, but not so the separate wills thereby made manifest. Man's vanity may well approach the infinite in capacity but his knowledge remains imperfect and howevermuch he comes to value his judgments ultimately he must submit them before a higher court. Here there can be no special pleading. Here are considerations of equity and rectitude and moral right rendered void and without warrant and here are the views of the litigants despised. Decisions of life and death, of what shall be and what shall not, beggar all question of right. In elections of these magnitudes are all lesser ones subsumed, moral, spiritual, natural. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden in his moral law lecture. |
| “ | Hear me, man, There is room on the stage for one beast and one alone. All others are destined for a night that is eternal and without name. One by one they will step down into the darkness before the footlamps. Bears that dance, bears that don't. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden to the man. |
| “ | He wafts his hat and the lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two passes, dancing and fiddling at once. His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die. | „ |
| ~ The ending ofBlood Meridian. |
Trivia[]
- Literary critics have pointed out that the Judge's white skin references Chapter 42, "The Whiteness of the Whale," in the novelMoby-Dick byHerman Melville, which strongly influenced Cormac McCarthy.
- Judge Holden's characteristic is based off a reportedly real individual documented byMy Confession: Recollections of a Rogue by Samuel Chamberlain, a book that also documented the Glanton Gang. The reportedly real life Holden had many similarities towards Judge Holden, including his ruthlessness, his suspected victimizing of children, his stature as well as his extreme intelligence and education. However, many aspects of the real Holden are different from the book, including his albino and hairless appearance as well as the real Holden being known as a coward who would run away from a fight, something the book is not.
References[]
External Links[]
Navigation[]
 Villains | ||
Blood Meridian No Country for Old Men Outer Dark Child of God The Counselor The Road | ||
