Thorgal

"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, Finnish (in the Finnish "The Phantom" comic), Swedish (in the Swedish "The Phantom" comic), Norwegian (in the Norwegian "The Phantom" comic [no icon [http://home.no.net/kwalker2/Biserier/thorgal.htm List Thorgal publications] in the Norwegian "The Phantom" comic.] ), Turkish, Greek 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. [cite web|last=Ratier|first=Gilles|url=http://www.acbd.fr/bilan/page/bilan-2006.html#5|title=ACBD bilan 2006|publisher=ACBD.fr|accessdate=2007-02-08]

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. For a time they strip him of his memory, and he becomes the pirate lord Shaigan, though his compassionate personality remained unchanged.
*Aaricia: Thorgal's wife and daughter of Viking leader Gandalf the Mad. She is bound to Thorgal from the moment of her birth by a magic object named Tjahzi's Tears. Aaricia is a spirited, strongwilled woman, and she loves her family dearly despite all the mishappenings Thorgal's fate has brought to their lifes.
*Jolan: Thorgal's son who possesses strange supernatural powers - the heritage of Thorgal's mysterious ancestry. During the majority of the series, his power is limited to disintegrating things - and mostly only when he is sufficiently angered or in grave danger.
*Louve: Thorgal and Aaricia's daughter. She has the ability to communicate with animals.
*Kriss of Valnor: young, beautiful, unscrupulous and deadly warrioress, incredible with a bow. She first appears 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 secret love for Thorgal. When Thorgal loses his memory, she tricks him into believing they are married, and convinces Thorgal he is the ruthless pirate lord Shaigan. She becomes pregnant with his son shortly before Thorgal regains his memory and leaves to find his family. Later, she ends up as a slave in Byzantium and sacrifices her life to help Thorgal's family escape from the same slave pits.

Other Important Characters

*Aniel: the child son of Thorgal and Kriss of Valnor, conceived while Thorgal lived as the pirate lord Shaigan Without Mercy. He and his mother fell prey to Byzantinian slavers, and his vocal cords were cut to forestall crying, leaving him mute. Later, Kriss and Aniel escaped the slave pits with Aaricia, Jolan and Louve, who had also been brought there. When Kriss was wounded by her pursuers and prepared to make her last stand, she asked Aaricia to take care of her son. Aaricia agreed and took Aniel in as one of her own children.
*Ogotai: the war-loving, merciless "god" brought by the sea into the land of Qâ (a presumably South American pre-Columbian civilization). He leads his people into countless conquests of the neighboring tribes and orderes endless human sacrifices to himself. He has superior intelligence, knowledge of highly advanced technology, and supernatural powers, which he uses to trick people into believing he is a true god. In reality, his is a grief-stricken, crazed man, driven by the vengeance against the planet he believes responsible for the death of his beloved wife and son.
*Tanatloc: another "god" living in the land of Qâ. He is the nemesis of Ogotai, with whom he shares a secret past. He is kept hidden from his people.
*Darek and Lehla: brother and sister children of banished Vikings who met Aaricia and her family after they had been banished from their village following Shaigan's raids against their people. They joined Thorgal and his family on their journey, but after a few adventures they decided to stay behind on an island Thorgal and Louve had just liberated from a tyrant (Issue 24, "Arachneà"). Lehla has become Jolan's first sweetheart, and their parting was a heart-felt one.
*The Key Guardian: a 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 girdle that grants her powers and immortality. She has (like many other female characters appearing in the series) a crush on Thorgal, but she respects his loyalty to his family.
*Tjall (called by some people "Tjall-The-Fiery"): the young, hot-headed nephew of Treefoot and friend of Thorgal. An excellent archer with a good heart and a silly mind, who has a crush on Kriss. He later dies while accompanying Thorgal to the City of the Lost God (issue 12), saving him from a raging mob.
*Shaniah: a teenage girl from a Viking village enamored in the adult and married Thorgal. Out of jealousy she causes a great tragedy in Thorgal's life, but later redeems herself by giving her own life for his.
*Gandalf the Mad: Aaricia's father and king of the Vikings of the North. He became the leader of his tribe after Thorgal's adoptive father's death. Greedy, cruel and mad, he makes repeated attempts at Thorgal's life, whom he perceives a threat to the legitimacy of his own rule.
*Tiago and Ileniya: brother and sister descendants of a group of space-farers who had landed on Midgard and formed the fabled kingdom of Atlantis. They foiled their elders' plan to enslave the world and travelled together with Thorgal and his family. Soon afterwards, however, they were all taken as slaves to a Byzantinian governor and his sadistic son Heraclius, who made Ilyena his personal 'pet". When Tiago tried to stop Heraclius from abusing his sister, the nobleman murdered him; in revenge, Ileniya killed Heraclius later on and, facing imminent death, joined her brother by throwing herself off a cliff.
*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. One of Thorgal's few friends.
*Volsung of Nichor: A cunning, treacherous schemer. He first appears as Thorgal's competitor in "Three Elders of Aran", but apparently dies in the tests they have to face. Actually, Nidhogg saves him to be her servant; his mission is to gain the Girdle of Immortality from the Guardian of the Keys. For betraying her, she transforms Volsung into a toad and keeps him with her trapped in the neverness.
*Muff: A dog that belongs to Jolan & Louve. He appears for the last time in "The Blue Sickness", when he stayed on the island of Our Ground, together with Darek de Svear and his sister Lehla, because he was too old to travel any further.
*Alinoë: Appeared in the volume of the same name as a violent, primitive boy with green hair and was revealed to be part of Jolan's imagination and he vanished when Jolan's mysterious bracelet was removed by Thorgal.

Thorgal's Youth

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

After of being lost at sea, the ship of Viking leader Leif Haraldson suddenly finds its way home, guided by a mysterious light in the fog. To the supersticious Vikings, the light is seen as a sign from the gods. Once on shore, they find a sort of capsule, which appears to be the source of the mysterious light. Leif opens the capsule and finds a newborn baby boy. He names the child 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. Leif takes Thorgal under his care as his adoptive son.

As Thorgal grows up, he is curious about his origins and often ostracized by his peers for not being a "real" Viking. On his eighth birthday, Leif gives him two strange artifacts taken from the capsule he was found in. One is a jewel made form "the metal that doesn't exist". The jewel brings Thorgal on his first adventure, and binds his fate forever with that of Aaricia (his future wife). When Thorgal is twelve, the other gift prompts him to visit an old wiseman, who reveals to Thorgal his origins and true identity. He tells him that he's one of the last survivors of a group of technologically advanced space-farers who came to the planet in search of new energy sources. His people have great supernatural powers like changing the molecular composition of matter with their mind; powers that Thorgal himself seems not to have. Thorgal learns about his real parents and grandfather, and the events that preceded his birth. The old man decides to erase Thorgal's memory of their encounter and the knowledge he just learned, believing that it will be better for Thorgal to grow up as a "normal" Viking boy with no supernatural powers. Thorgal, however, continues to grow up as curious and conflicted about his true identity as ever.

Soon after this event Leif Haraldson dies and Gandalf the Mad is chosen as his successor. Gandlaf repeatedly tries to get rid of Thorgal, because - as he constantly reminds everyone - Thorgal is an outsider and not of Viking blood. In reality, Gandlaf feels threatened 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 devises a plan to kill him after realizing how deep the love his daughter has for Thorgal really is.

Albums

The albums consist of several story arcs and many stand-alone stories.

Jean Van Hamme (story) and Grzegorz Rosiński (drawings)

* 1. "La Magicienne Trahie" - ("The Sorceress Betrayed") (incl. another story: "Almost Paradise") (1980)
* 2. "L'Ile des Mers gelées" - ("The Island of Frozen Seas") (1980)
* 3. "Les Trois Vieillards du pays d'Aran" - ("Three Elders of The Land of Aran") (1981)
* 4. "La Galère Noire" - ("The Black Galley") (1982) (start of the Brek Zarith story arc)
* 5. "Au-delà des Ombres" - ("Beyond the Land of Shadows") (1983)
* 6. "La chute de Brek Zarith" - ("The Fall of Brek Zarith") (1984) (end of the Brek Zarith story arc)
* 7. "L'enfant des étoiles" - ("The Child of the Stars") (1984) (3 short stories from Thorgal's youth)
* 8. "Alinoë" (1985)
* 9. "Les Archers" - ("The Archers") (1985)
* 10. "Le Pays Qâ" - ("The Land of Qâ") (1986) (start of the Qâ story arc)
* 11. "Les Yeux de Tanatloc" - ("The Eyes of Tanatloc") (1986)
* 12. "La Cité du Dieu Perdu" - ("City of the Lost God") (1987)
* 13. "Entre Terre et Lumière" - ("Between Earth and Light") (1988) (end of the Qâ story arc)
* 14. "Aaricia" (1989) (4 short stories from Aaricia's youth)
* 15. "Le Maître des Montagnes" - ("The Lord of the Mountains") (1989)
* 16. "Louve" - ("The Wolf") (1990)
* 17. "La Gardienne des Clés" - ("The Key Guardian") (1991)
* 18. "L'épee-soleil" - ("The Sun-sword") (1992)
* 19. "La Fortresse Invisible" - ("The Invisible Fortress") (1993) (start of the Shaigan story arc)
* 20. "La Marque des Bannis" - ("The Mark of Exiles") (1994)
* 21. "La Couronne d'Ogotaï" - ("The Crown of Ogotaï") (1995)
* 22. "Géants" - ("Giants") (1996)
* 23. "La Cage" - ("The Cage") (1997) (end of the Shaigan story arc)
* 24. "Arachnéa" - ("Arachnea") (1999)
* 25. "Le Mal Bleu" - ("The Blue Plague") (1999)
* 26. "Le Royaume sous le Sable" - ("The Kingdom under the Sands") (2001)
* 27. "Le Barbare" - ("The Barbarian") (2002)
* 28. "Kriss de Valnor" - ("Kriss of Valnor") (2004)
* 29. "Le Sacrifice" - ("The Sacrifice") (2006)

Yves Sente (story) and Grzegorz Rosiński (drawings)

* 30. "Moi, Jolan" - ("I, Jolan") (2007)
* 31. "Le bouclier de Thor" - ("The Shield of Thor") (2008)

The End?

The 29th volume - "Sacrifice" - is to be the last one written by Jean Van Hamme (at least for now). This episode centers around Thorgal escaping the curse of godfather Odin at last and find peace in the only home he knows: the Viking village of his adopted father. In order to save his father's life, however, Jolan must strike a bargain with an immortal and enter his services upon his family's return to Midgard. The story ends with a somber but understanding farewell between Thorgal and Jolan which Thorgal simply defines as the inevitable way a grown child must take: to set out on his own path in life.

The new writer of the series is Yves Sente. The next few episodes are going to center around Jolan rather than Thorgal and this is set up in "Sacrifice", afterwards his father is to return. The series will continue under the same title. [pl icon Citation
last =Miaśkiewicz
first =Waldemar
author-link =Waldemar Miaśkiewicz
title =Rola pierwszych żon (A review of "I, Jolan")
newspaper =Nowa Fantastyka
pages =76
year =2007
issue =12]

English version

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

Cinebook Ltd has begun reprinting the series starting with "Child of the Stars" in 2007

* 1. "Child of the Stars" (ISBN 9781905460236) - (collects "L'enfant des étoiles" and "Aaricia")
* 2. "The Three Elders of Aran" (ISBN 9781905460311) - (collects "Les Trois Vieillards du pays d'Aran" and "La Galère Noire" [as "The Black Gallery"] )
* 3. "Beyond the Shadows" (ISBN 9781905460458) - (collects "Au-delà des Ombres" and "La chute de Brek Zarith" [as "The Fall of Brek Zarith"] )
* 4. "The Archers" (ISBN 9781905460670) - (collects "Alinoë" and "Les Archers")
* 5. "The Land of Qa" (announced for 2009) - (collects "Le Pays Qâ" and "Les Yeux de Tanatloc")
* 6. "City of the Lost God" (announced for 2009) - (collects "La Cité du Dieu Perdu" and "Entre Terre et Lumière")

Notes

External links

* [http://www.thorgal.com/ Official web site] , in French only
* [http://pc59te.dte.uma.es/cdb/series/lombard/thorgal_series.htm Thorgal] English fanpage
* [http://jim-on-the-web.com/comics.php?comic=Thorgal List of comics, cover gallery] , English