Thorgal

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Thorgal is a Belgian/Polish comic book series by the Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and the Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński. It has first appeared in Tintin, and later was published by Le Lombard from 1980 on. Translations exist in English, Dutch, German, Polish, Swedish (in the swedish "The Phantom" comic), Turkish and other languages. In 2002, a new story was invented for a point-and-click adventure game, titled Thorgal: The Curse of Odin, that was released for Windows by Cryo Interactive Entertainment, a now defunct French game publisher.

The comic unites many themes and legends into one, consistent world, ranging from Norse mythology and Atlantean fantasy to science fiction.

Contents 1 Central Characters of the Series 2 Other Important Characters 3 Thorgal's Youth 4 Volumes 5 The End? 6 English version 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Central Characters of the Series

• Thorgal Aegirsson: raised by Vikings, but not one of them; he shows traits of character and morality that many Vikings consider those of a weak man, in reality, if there is such a need, he's a couragous and skillful warrior with amazing archery skills; his life's goal is to find a place for himself and his family to live in peace, but the gods seem to have cursed him with a life full of danger and supernatural influences, possibly something to do with his strange orgins
• Aaricia: Thorgal's wife, daughter of Viking leader, Gandalf the Mad, bound to Thorgal from the moment of her birth by a magic object, but in the end it wasn't needed at all
• Jolan: Thorgal's son who, who possess strange supernatural powers - the heritage of Thorgal's mysterious ancestry.
• Kriss of Valnor: young, beautiful, unscrupulous and deadly warrior-woman, incredible with a bow, in some ways Thorgal's greatest foe, trying to hurt him and his family out of pure hate, but sometimes showing hints of admiration for Thorgal

[edit] Other Important Characters

• Gandalf the Mad: Aaricia's father and a Viking leader after Thorgal's father's death; greedy, cruel and mad; tried to get rid of Thorgal many times.
• The Guardian of the Keys: powerful magician, who is (or maybe just assumes the form of) a beautiful mortal woman; the gods have entrusted her the task of guarding the passages between worlds from intruders; she walks between the worlds wearing nothing at all except a golden belt, that grants her immortality
• Snake Nidhogg: a powerful, immortal creature, which Thorgal dared to go against in his youth with the help of the goddess Frigg; based on Níðhöggr from Norse mythology.
• Treefoot: a warrior past his prime and with a pegleg, but still an exceptional archer and bowmaker, Thorgal's friend, one of the few
• Tjall (called by some people Tjall-The-Fiery): the young, hot-headed nephew of Treefoot and friend of Thorgal, excellent archer as his uncle, has a good heart, but in some moments he lets his emotions and desires cloud his better judgement
• Shaniah: a teenage girl from a Viking village enamored in the adult and married Thorgal; out of jealousy she will cause a great tragedy in Thorgal's life.
• Ogotai: a war-loving, merciless god brought by the sea into the land Qâ, who orders neverstopping human-sacrifices to himself, but probably is just a mad, demented man with supernatural powers, which he used to fool the people of Qâ to became their ruler
• Tanatloc: another god living in the land of Qâ, the nemesis of Ogotai, with whom he shares a secret past, that he hides from his people

[edit] Thorgal's Youth

(recalling episodes of Thorgal's life presented in short stories from albums 7 & 14)

After a long time of being lost at sea the ship of a Viking leader Leif Haraldson miraculously finds it's way home. On the shore the Vinkings find some sort of stasis capsule with a baby in it. Leif adopts the child and names it Thor-gal Aegirs-son, after Thor, the Norse God of thunder, and Aegir, the ruler of the sea, because he considers Thorgal to be a gift of the Gods.

Thorgal grows up, and on his eighth birthday he receives two strange artifacts from Leif - taken from the capsule, he was found in. One of the gifts, the metal that cannot exist, brings Thorgal on his first adventure, and binds his fate forever with that of Aaricia, who is born on that day. When Thorgal is twelve, the other gift prompts him to visit an old wise man, who reveals Thorgal's true identity. He tells him that Thorgal is a survivor from a group of space-farers that come from a highly advanced civilisation, where people are capable of changing the molecular composition of materials with their minds; powers that Thorgal himself does not have. Then, the old man erases Thorgal's memory of what he has just been told, believing that it will be easier for him to live among the Vikings without this knowledge.

Soon after this event Thorgal's stepfather dies and the new leader becomes a man always despised by Leif - Gandalf the Mad. He tries to get rid of Thorgal, because of him being - as he constantly reminds everyone - an outsider and not of Viking blood. What motivates Gandalf a lot more, however, is simply, that Thorgal had been brought up by Leif. In the meantime Thorgal's relationship with Aaricia, Gandalf's daughter, develops and strengthens. While her wishes do not have great influence on her father, she is often able to save Thorgal from certain death by her father's hand through her determination and ingenuity.

The first album of the series starts some years later, when Thorgal is already an adult, and Gandalf decides to murder him offently after learning of the deep affection his daughter has for Thorgal.

[edit] Volumes

The volumes consist of several story arcs and many stand-alone stories. The English titles in the following list are translations of the original French titles.

1. The Betrayed Sorceress (incl. another story: "Almost Paradise")
2. The Island of Frozen Seas
3. Three Ancients of the Realm of Aran
4. The Black Galley (start of the Brek Zarith story arc)
5. Beyond the Shadows
6. The Fall of Brek Zarith (end of the Brek Zarith story arc)
7. Child of the Stars (3 short stories from Thorgal's youth)
8. Alinoë
9. The Archers
10. The Land of Qâ (start of the Qâ story arc)
11. The Eyes of Tanatloc
12. City of the Lost God
13. Between Earth and Light (end of the Qâ story arc)
14. Aaricia (4 short stories from Aaricia's youth)
15. Lord of the Mountains
16. She-Wolf
17. The Guardian of the Keys
18. The Sun-sword
19. The Invisible Fortress (start of the Shaigan story arc)
20. The Mark of Exiles
21. The Crown of Ogotaï
22. Giants
23. The Cage (end of the Shaigan story arc)
24. Arachnea
25. The Blue Plague
26. The Kingdom under the Sands
27. The Barbarian
28. Kriss of Valnor
29. Sacrifice

[edit] The End?

The 29th volume - "Sacrifice" - is the last one written by Jean Van Hamme (at least for now). The new writer is rumored to be Yves Sente. The new episodes are going to center around Jolan rather than Thorgal and this is set up in "Sacrifice". The question remains, if this will be the extension of the current series, or a new, spin-off series with another title.

[edit] English version

Thorgal, Child of the Stars was published by Donning Company Publishers in 1986 with ISBN 0-89865-501-3.

Cinebook Ltd will restart the series by reprinting Child of the Stars in March, 2007.

[edit] See also

• Franco-Belgian comics

[edit] External links

• Official web site, in French only
• Thorgal English fanpage
• List of comics, cover gallery, English