Thorgal

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Image:Thorgalarchers.jpg Thorgal is a Belgian comic book series by the Belgian author Jean Van Hamme and the Polish artist Grzegorz Rosinski. It has first appeared in Tintin, and later was published by Le Lombard from 1980 on. Translations exist in English, Dutch, German, Polish, and other languages. In 2002, parts of the storyline were adapted into a point-and-click adventure game, titled Curse of Atlantis: Thorgal's Quest, that was released for Windows by Cryo Interactive Entertainment, a small French game developer.

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

1 Volumes
2 Storyline
3 Main characters
4 English version
5 See also
6 External links

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Volumes

The volumes are composed of some story arches and a few stand-alone stories. The English titles in the below list are translations of the French original titles.

The Betrayed Witch (start of the Ice Queen story arc)
The Island of Frozen Seas (end of the Ice Queen story arc)
Three Ancients of the Realm of Aran
The Black Galley (start of the Brek Zarith story arc)
Beyond the Shadows
The Fall of Brek Zarith (end of the Brek Zarith story arc)
Child of the Stars (short prequel-like stories)
Alinoë
The Archers (start of the Qâ story arc)
The Land of Qâ
The Eyes of Tanatloc
City of the Lost God
Between Earth and Light (end of the Qâ story arc)
Aaricia (short prequel-like stories)
Master of the Mountains (very intricate time-travel story)
Louve
The Guardian of the Keys (start of the Memory story arc)
The Sun-sword
The Invisible Fortress
The Mark of Exile
The Crown of Ogotaï
Giants
The cage (end of the Memory story arc)
Arachnea
The Blue Plague
The Kingdom under the Sands
The Barbarian (start of a new story arc?)
Kriss of Valnor

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Storyline

Image:Rosinskithorgal.jpg

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The basic storyline – who Thorgal is – is explained in album 7, Child of the stars. The main character is Thorgal Aegirsson, who is found as a baby in some sort of stasis capsule by the Viking chieftain Leif Haraldson after his ship is torn to pieces by the elements of the Atlantic Ocean. 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.

What the world does not know, save for a few, is that Thorgal is the soon-to-be last survivor of a highly intelligent group of space-farers, that are capable of psionics — changing the molecular composition of materials — powers that Thorgal himself does not have. Thorgal grows up, and on his eighth birthday he receives some strange artifacts from Leif. 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 gifts prompt him to visit an old wise man, who tells him who he really is, and that he should forget his identity. The old man then erases Thorgal's memory of what he has just been told.

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Main characters

Thorgal Aegirsson: Viking, adopted by Leif Haraldson
Aaricia: Thorgal's wife, daughter of former Viking leader, Gandalf the Mad
Jolan: their son, who possesses the mystical power of disintegrating and reshaping matter
Louve (She-wolf): their daughter, who possesses the mystical power of conversing with animals
Kriss of Valnor: alternating lover and arch-enemy of Thorgal
Treefoot: an exceptional bowman and -maker, has a pegleg
Tjall (self-nicknamed Tjall-The-Fiery): nephew of Treefoot
Shaigan the Merciless: alter-ego of Thorgal, notorious pirate leader, one-time husband of Kriss
Frigg (Freya): wife of Odin, goddess and some-time protector of Thorgal. She is the ultimate link between Aaricia and Thorgal.
Tanatloc: peace-loving Maya-type god, nemesis of Ogotai, died of old age
Ogotai: war-loving Aztec-type god, nemesis of Tanatloc, deceased