A Train Of Bane

Well, Since The World Is Still Here -
 - and has not disintegrated into a blazing inferno as continents collapse into the earth's crust whilst people complain about the price of gas - I suppose I shall pass o'er today's version of the Apocalypse.
     Instead, I thought I'd research the etymology of the word "Bane", because we here at BOOJUM! take our didactic purpose seriously.

Art!  You're ruining our serious credentials!

     Hoorah!  For once, a word that doesn't originate in that zombie language, Latin.  Instead "Bane" derives from the Teutonic root "Bano", meaning "Death".  Thus, generally a bad thing all round, I'm sure you'll agree.*
     Now, in order to have a positive train of things on a theme of "Bane", let us proceed at Gas Mark 3 and 4/5 into the rest of this article -

"Black Henbane" A.k.a. Hyoscyamus Niger
As inspired by The Poison Garden website, which I urge you to go read, as you can never know too much about poisons, particularly those that you can get for free at the bottom of your garden.
     I think a picture is in order.  Art?

Flowers of eeeeevil

     Apparently this thing is so potently toxic that merely sniffing it can send one reeling across the room, so heaven only knows what effect you'd get if you were downwind of an allotment of them.  And yes, they used to be grown commercially, as they were widely used in treating toothache.  Given that they can send one into an hallucinogenic stupor that may last for days, you begin to understand why our ancestors used them when the back molar was a bit boisterous.
     The thing is, overdosing on the plant can have some unwanted side-effects, to wit - being dead.  Again, this state of things can really put a crimp in your day and affect your plans to go shopping or paint the back door, so - avoidance is the best policy.

Doctor who?

     That above is Doctor Crippen, who fatally poisoned his wife with black henbane, which might have been said to have blackened it's name - Ha!  Do you see wh -  O you do - and it's rare to find it in gardens today.  This is probably a relief to the hens, as well as most other living creatures.
     Next!
     
"Wolfbane" By Pohl And Kornbluth
I have to say that I preferred Fred Pohl's stuff that he wrote in collaboration with his mate Cyril; I find his solo work rather cold.
     Okay, this is a sci-fi novel set in the twenty-third century, where a wandering alien planet has torn Earth from it's orbit and hoiked it off into deep space, together with the Moon, which has been converted to a miniature sun.  The human population of Earth has been reduced to one seventieth of it's current number, and consists of the docile, subservient and passive Citizens, and the individual, criminal and aggressive Wolves - who dub the Citizens "Sheep".  

The edition I had

     The top of Mount Everest has been levelled off, and an alien Pyramid sits atop the peak, doing who knows what, except that it's bound to be eeeeevil.
     Enter Glen, who isn't quite sure what title he comes under, but who ends up on the alien planet as a human Component -
    And that's all I shall tell you.  Worth reading.  Art?

As originally published

Durin's Bane
This was an otherwise anonymous Balrog, a demi-god from the very beginnings of Tolkein's Middle-Earth; if you have seen "The Fellowship of the Ring" then you know Gandalf's apt description: "A demon of the ancient world".  Apparently fleeing the overthrow of the Big Bad himself (Morgoth), this fiery foe sneaked into the caverns beneath the Misty Mountains and had a bit of a nap.  Art?

CAUTION!  Do not serve spirits to a Balrog.
(Nor petrol)

     Obviously Balrog's don't have alarm clocks, because Ol' DB slept for about five thousand years, until posses of dwarves digging for mithril woke him (her?  It?) up.  This put him in rather a bad mood, so he killed Durin, the king of the dwarves, and for good measure took over the entire kingdom of Khazad-Dum.  This is a bit dog-in-the-manger of Ol' DB, as it's far too big a piece of real estate for one entity - which may explain why he allowed a host of orcs and trolls to squat there.

Possibly a design influence?

This Is Cheating A Bit -
Did you know that there's a town called 'Bane'?  Not in South Canada, though: this one is in Nigeria, in the Rivers State, which means it might not be pronounced "Bayn".  Still, it's spelled the same way, which is all we were looking for here.  Art?

The Bane of Nigeria, so to speak

     
Oh Go On Then.  Bane The Bad Guy
Apparently all that stuff on his head is there to pump a chemical into his brains, as otherwise he'd undergo some variety of ghastly cold turkey.  Probably acts as a kick-ass zombie-repellent, too.  The chemical was originally injected into Bane as an experimental process whilst he was in prison.  One can imagine the wardens discussing his case with cool, clear, clinical logic:

Prison Warden One:  So - we're going to take the most intelligent, ruthless, brutal, heavily-muscled prisoner there is -
Prison Warden Two: Exactly!  Bane.
Prison Warden One: - and pump him full of a drug that will boost his already enormous strength to superheroic proportions -
Prison Warden Two:  You've got it down pat.
Prison Warden One: - and it's called "Venom".
Prison Warden Two:  I bet you were expecting something along the lines of "XBZZ2257", weren't you?
Prison Warden One:  Let's do it!  After all, what could possibly go wrong?

He has a very small head, hasn't he?

     One handy thing about Bane is that his name is nice and short, hence unlikely to get mis-pronounced or spelled incorrectly, unlike, say, Oojamaflippy Googlefetzer.

Time to disappear!

*  Zombies and fans of Justin Bieber may differ.