Sam

**Samuel**, or **Sam** for short, (Danish: *Søren*) (pron. [ˈsæmjuəl]) is a young teenage devil boy who were formerly a human. He was a student at Philip Engel's school and had the reputation as the school's worst bully, being dubbed **"Devil Sam"** (Danish: *Djævlesøren*). At school, Sam invented the bullying tactic called "Condemned of the Week", every week selecting a new kid as Condemned of the Week and terrorizing them all week until Friday. Sam was originally the human handpicked by the ailing Devil to be killed and brought to Hell in order to become his apprentice and heir, however, by mistake, Philip, the Condemned of that week, was killed and sent to Hell instead, when Sam accidentally pushed him out in front of the car meant to hit him. Philip returned from the afterlife, and only 2 seconds had passed on Earth, but Sam was so shocked over almost having killed the boy that he became friendly towards to Philip, and started acting like he was his personal bodyguard for the next year.

Trying to bring Philip back to the afterlife to take revenge on him for getting him banished to Outer Reach, Aziel Stofeles had Grum alter Sam's soul by writing in his Soul Book that wanted to kill Philip. Sam came to Philip's class looking for him, but Philip was absent. Since Sam had a headache, he stole and swallowed one of two summoning pills from Philip's pencil case mistaking them for painkillers, causing Sam to die from a car impact only shortly after and sending him to Hades as Sam had come to read the name in Philip's religious studies book and had thought of it when taking the pill. Sam's untimely death had upset fate and when Philip realized what had happened, he used the other summoning pill to return to Hell to retrieve his soul. When it was found out that Sam's Soul Book had been tampered with, Lucifer repaired the damage to Sam's soul. When Philip and the she-devil, Satina Dargue, came to Hades to save him, all three of them were imprisoned, but with the help of the demigod Heracles they escaped and the three managed to flee back to Hell. In Hell Sam quickly became good friends with the devil Flux. As the Great Devil War drew closer, Lucifer was unable to get ahold of Vita, so Philip and Sam were forced to stay longer in Hell. In addition, Satina had recently been abducted by one of Aziel's hushers and Philip had travelled to Outer Reach to retrieve her. Following Philip's transformation into a devil, Sam had moved away from the castle out of fear and into the home of Flux, whom he had become best friends with. In Hell Sam had finally found a place where he fit in and during the prolonged stay he began turning into a devil. For this reason, following the Great Devil War, Sam was allowed to stay in Hell while Philip returned to Earth.

## Physical appearance

Sam is overweight and has dark, curly hair.

As a devil, Sam is only just beginning to grow his two horns, which are only black points just above his eyebrows. His wings, which are black bat wings, are tiny and also still developing. He still has no tail.

## Appearances

### *The Great Devil War*

* *The Devil's Apprentice*
* *The Die of Death*
* *The Wrongful Death*
* *The Angel of Evil*
* *The Fallen Angel* (to be released in English May 28, 2020)
* *The Fallen Devil* (to be released in English Fall 2020)

## Trivia

* In the stage musical adaptation of *The Devil's Apprentice*, the character of Sam (Søren) is played by Danish actor debutant Bjarke Atterdag.
* In the English translation of *The Devil's Apprentice*, Sam is given as a short nickname for a longer first name, Samuel, while in the original Danish text his name is simply "Søren", a common Scandinavian name. Furthermore, the author Kenneth B. Andersen chose the the Danish name "Søren" as a play on the fact that it is often used a stand-in for swearwords that involve the word "Satan" or "Devil" to make it more socially acceptable, e.g. "Hvad Satan?" becomes "Hvad Søren?" The two sayings might be translated as "What the Devil?" and "What in Søren's name" respectively, or rather "What in Satan's name" and "What in Søren's name?"
* Lucifer's great-grandfather was named Samuel (Søren in Danish), and when he first meets Philip Engel he mistakes him for the boy Samuel (Sam), whom he had originally chosen to be his sucessor. Lucifer expresses glee over the fact that the "dark name will once again drip with evil". Lucifer's great-grandfather, like Lucifer himself, was once an angel, and the name Samuel in the English translation might have been chosen to keep with the tradition in Christianity and Judaism of ending angels' names with "EL", e.g. Michael, Gabriel, Uriel etc. The practice originate from Judaism, more precisely the language of Hebrew, where the ending "EL" is etymologically derived from a Northwest Semitic word meaning "god" or "deity", or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. In Abrahamic tradition El and Elohim are sometimes used to refer to the Jewish, Muslim and Christian singular God. The original Danish editions of the books do not have this detail, as his name is "Søren" in them, which was possibly chosen for comedic reasons but it ends up seeming silly and making less sense than "Samuel". Furthermore, the name *Samuel* is similar to the name *Samael*, who is an archangel in Jewish Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore, who as a figure is often interpreted by Rabbis as well as Christian priests to be the accuser (Satan), seducer, or destroyer (Mashḥit, referring to the angel of death or destroying angel).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Devil's Apprentice*. Høst & Søn, October 19, 2018 (English print-on-demand paperback). Høst & Søn, October 11 2018 (English e-book). (Original Danish version published September 30, 2005 by Høst & Søn)
2. ↑ Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Die of Death*. Høst & Søn, October 19, 2018 (English print-on-demand paperback). Høst & Søn, October 11 2018 (English e-book). (Original Danish version published August 31, 2007 by Høst & Søn)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Wrongful Death*. Høst & Søn, October 19, 2018 (English print-on-demand paperback) (Original Danish version published April 30, 2009 by Høst & Søn)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Angel of Evil*. (Publication House) October 20, 2019. (Original Danish version published April 29, 2010 by Høst & Søn)