Elgar Mills: The Mad Wizard Whose Legacy Haunts a House

Overview

Elgar Mills never appears alive in the story, yet his presence seeps from every rose petal and buried tooth. Sam Montgomery’s great‑grandfather—the “Mad Wizard of Boone”—was an alchemist and sorcerer who created hybrid underground children through forbidden experiments. His century‑old magic still pulses under the lawn, and his influence shapes three generations of women in A House with Good Bones.

The sepia photograph Sam finds in the attic shows a bearded man with Rasputin’s burning stare. That image is the gateway to a hidden family history: a man who corresponded with rocket‑scientist occultist Jack Parsons, who was arrested for public indecency, and who died at the hands of his own daughter after she unleashed his monstrous creations against him.

Plot Role

Elgar is the story’s hidden antagonist. The supernatural horror that Sam confronts—the vultures, the insect‑stripped garden, the child’s hand in a graduation photo, the jar of human teeth—all trace back to his alchemical work. His “other children,” hybrids of an earth elemental and human substance, are the physical threat that nearly kills the main characters in the climax. Even after death, his magic persists through the rose bushes he taught his daughter to tend, and through the buried protective circle that keeps the creatures contained.

Without Elgar, Gran Mae would never have learned sorcery. Without his experiments, there would be no underground children gnawing through doors. He is the root cause of every unexplained event, the reason Sam inherits a green‑glowing power she never wanted.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Elgar’s surviving letters reveal a man driven by curiosity and hubris. He pursued alchemy and geomancy with genuine skill—Parsons called him “the finest divinatory mind” he had ever encountered. Yet Elgar also understood the danger of his own work. In a letter to Parsons reproduced on an occult blog, Elgar warns against creating a “Magickal Childe” because such a being would not obey its maker. He writes, “All Golems and Homunculi must inevitably turn against their Masters.” This shows a man who had learned the lesson of his own experiments the hard way.

His traits emerge in contrast to Parsons: Elgar was scholarly, cautious, and contemptuous of those who abandoned discipline for reckless power. But his own actions contradict his warnings. He had already created something monstrous. Perhaps he believed his own creations were different, or perhaps he was too proud to stop.

The arrest for indecency suggests he flouted social norms, and the way he spoke to the court (“they would pay for their arrogance”) indicates a defiant, even grandiose personality. He dressed like a dusty mystic and lived as a hermit, scaring his neighbors so much that local papers covered his trial.

Chronological Arc

Elgar was born in the 1870s. He appears to have spent decades studying magic, corresponding with figures like Aleister Crowley’s associate Jack Parsons in the 1940s. At some point—probably earlier—he created his hybrid children by impregnating an earth elemental, an act of alchemy that produced dozens of cave‑dwelling creatures. He attempted to keep them contained with a wall of enchanted roses and a jar of human teeth buried in the yard.

When his daughter (Gran Mae) was a teenager, she learned magic by watching him. She eventually turned against her father. Gail later explains that Gran Mae opened the barrier, let the underground children into the house, and they devoured Elgar. He died, but the creatures remained, fed and held in check by Gran Mae for decades.

Relationships

Gran Mae: Elgar’s daughter and eventual betrayer. She learned sorcery from him but resented his madness. Her obsession with being “nice and normal” is a direct reaction to his notoriety. In the climax, the rose‑petal entity (Gran Mae’s ghost) admits she killed him by letting the children free. This act defines their relationship: fear and rebellion mixed with emulation.

Sam Montgomery: Great‑granddaughter who inherits the dormant magical bloodline. Sam initially dismisses the supernatural, but she eventually commands the roses in the same green glow Elgar must have used. She becomes the one to destroy the underground children, completing a cycle her great‑grandfather began.

Edie (Sam’s mother): The middle generation who only wants to escape. Edie paints the house white and says grace because she is trying to appease Gran Mae’s ghost—a ghost empowered by Elgar’s legacy.

Jack Parsons: Occasional correspondent. Their letters show Elgar as a mentor figure who tried to warn Parsons off catastrophic experiments. The relationship underscores Elgar’s dual nature: wise enough to advise, foolish enough to ignore his own counsel.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Creating the hybrid children: This decision produces the monsters that terrorize the family. The consequence is a contained but eternal threat that takes root under the property.
Teaching Gran Mae magic: He gave her the tools to destroy him. This backfires fatally when she learns the secret of the rose barrier and opens it.
Burying the jar of human teeth: This forms a protective circle that keeps the creatures underground. When Sam later digs up the teeth, she accidentally weakens the barrier, leading to the house’s invasion—a direct consequence of Elgar’s layered magical work.
Ignoring his own warning to Parsons: His hubris in pursuing what he told others was a foolish quest demonstrates that knowledge alone does not protect a person from making the same mistakes.
Dying before revealing everything: Because he never told Gran Mae (or anyone) the full extent of his work, she could only contain the creatures, not destroy them. The incomplete knowledge passes down, forcing Sam to figure out the magic on instinct.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Generational trauma and family legacy: Elgar’s dark magic is the original wound. Each generation responds differently: Gran Mae tries to control it through rigid normalcy; Edie tries to paint over it; Sam must finally face it. The story shows how a patriarch’s hidden sins can infect a bloodline for a century. (See generational trauma theme.)

Control through appearances: Gran Mae’s obsession with a perfect, “nice and normal” family is a direct reaction to her father’s crazed wizardry. The Confederate painting, the grace before pizza, the ecru walls—all are attempts to present a sanitized version of the family history. (More at control through appearances.)

Science vs. supernatural: Sam, an archaeoentomologist, tries to explain everything rationally. Elgar represents the antithesis: a man who bent reality through will and blood. The book’s tension comes from the clash between Sam’s evidence‑based worldview and the undeniable supernatural facts. (Related: science vs. supernatural.)

Blood magic and sacrifice: The teeth jar, the underground children fed on Elgar’s flesh, the blood Sam gives to the roses—all involve bodily sacrifice. Elgar’s magic is visceral, grounded in life and death. (Explore blood magic theme.)

Home as a contested space: The house is not just a building; it is Elgar’s tomb, a laboratory, a prison for monsters. His claim on the land persists beyond death, turning the home into a battlefield. (See home as contested space.)

Symbols:

The roses: His enchanted barrier, later used by Gran Mae and Sam.
The teeth jar: A protective charm and a remnant of sacrifice.
The sepia photograph: The unknowable ancestor whose image fuels the mystery.
The underground children: Physical manifestations of his dark hubris.

Questions and Answers About Elgar Mills

1. Did Elgar Mills really consider himself a wizard, or was he just eccentric?
The evidence strongly suggests he practiced ritual magic. Letters show he believed in geomancy and alchemy, and he warned against “awakening that which does not look kindly upon man’s dominion.” His arrest for indecency and his correspondence with occultists indicate he took his craft seriously, and the novel confirms that his experiments produced real, supernatural results.

2. Why did Gran Mae kill her own father?
Gran Mae saw the monsters he created and likely feared what he would do next. She also resented his reputation, which threatened her desire for normalcy. Gail explains that Gran Mae “learned magic from watching him” and eventually let the underground children into the house so they would devour him—a betrayal born of both self‑preservation and disgust.

3. What was Elgar’s relationship with Jack Parsons?
He corresponded with Parsons briefly, warning him against creating a magical child. Parsons initially admired Elgar’s geomantic skill but later dismissed him as a “meddling old woman.” The letters show Elgar as the more scholarly and cautious of the two, though both were deeply involved in occult circles.

4. Could Sam’s inherited magic come from Elgar?
Yes. When Sam commands the roses to burn, she taps into the same green‑glowing power that Elgar used. Gail confirms that magic runs in the bloodline. Sam’s ability to use it without training mirrors Elgar’s innate talent, though she employs it to destroy his creations rather than perpetuate them.

5. Are any of the underground children still alive after the house collapse?
Gail warns Sam that some may have survived and are wandering westward, following the bloodline. While most died in the conflagration Sam caused, the threat is not fully eliminated. This open‑ended danger shows that Elgar’s legacy continues to haunt his descendants even after they relocate to Arizona.

For further analysis, see the ending explained or frequently asked questions about the novel.