Thorgal

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Thorgal is a Belgian comic book series by the Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and the Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński. It has first appeared in serial form in Tintin, and was later published in hardcover volumes by Le Lombard from 1980 on. Translations exist in English, Dutch, German, Polish, Danish, 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.

Thorgal' is one of the most popular French language comics. In 2006, Album 29 was the fifth best selling new comic in French, with 280,000 copies published.^[1]

Contents 1 Central Characters of the Series 2 Other Important Characters 3 Thorgal's Youth 4 Volumes 5 The End? 6 English version 7 Notes 8 See also 9 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 courageous and skillfull 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.
• Aaricia: Thorgal's wife, daughter of Viking leader, Gandalf the Mad, bound to Thorgal from the moment of her birth by a magic object which, in the end, wasn't needed at all.
• Jolan: Thorgal's son who possesses strange supernatural powers - the heritage of Thorgal's mysterious ancestry.
• Louve: Thorgal and Aaricia's daughter, can talk with animals.
• Kriss of Valnor: young, beautiful, unscrupulous and deadly warrior-woman, incredible with a bow. She appears for the first time in the 9th album, "The Archers" and re-appears intermittently in the following albums. She is in some ways Thorgal's greatest foe, trying to hurt him and his family out of pure hate, but sometimes showing hints of admiration and even love 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; trieds to kill Thorgal as he's the adopted son of the previous Leader and supposed to be the heir of his father belongings.
• The Guardian of the Keys: powerful magician, who is (or maybe just assumes the form of) a beautiful woman; the gods have entrusted her with the task of guarding the passages between worlds; she walks between the worlds wearing nothing but a golden belt, that grants her powers and immortality
• Snake Nidhogg: a powerful, mythological monster 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 with a good heart and a silly mind.
• 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 Qâ land (kind of Pre-Columbian civilization), who ordered endless human sacrifices to himself. Demented man with supernatural powers and advanced technology knowledge, which he used to fool the people of Qâ to become their ruler.
• Tanatloc: another "god" living in the land of Qâ, the nemesis of Ogotai, with whom he shares a secret past, kept hidden from his people.

[edit] Thorgal's Youth

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

After of being lost at sea for a long timethe ship of Viking leader Leif Haraldson miraculously finds its way home, guided by a mysterious light in the fog. The light is seen as a sign from the gods. On shore the Vikings find some sort of capsule which appears to be the light that guided them to safety. The capsule has a baby in it. Leif adopts the child and names him 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 from the Gods.

Thorgal grows up, and on his eighth birthday receives two strange artifacts from Leif - both taken from the capsule he was found in. One is a jewel made with the metal that cannot exist. The jewel brings Thorgal on his first adventure, and binds his fate forever with that of Aaricia (his then future wife), who was 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 he's a survivor from a group of space-farers that come from a highly advanced civilization, where people are capable of changing the molecular composition of matter with their mind; 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 a new leader is elected: 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. Actually because Thorgal is Leif's heir. In the meantime Thorgal's relationship with Aaricia, Gandalf's daughter, develops and strengthens. While her wishes do not have much influence on her father, she is 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 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] Notes

1. ^ Ratier, Gilles. ACBD bilan 2006. ACBD.fr. Retrieved on February 8, 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