By Rosinski & Van Hamme
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 9781849181860
After years of being separated from his family, not even remembering who he once was, Thorgal is now returning home, but what he doesn’t know is what he’ll find there, if anything at all.
With the assistance of Galathorn from volume 3 Thorgal is sent on his way with a well-stocked boat and a small bag of silver, but he has also left Galathorn’s sister frustrated and angry by spurning her advances and now she wants retribution. While at sea, Thorgal is hunted down by a swifter boat and the small crew overwhelm him, but not to kill him but to leave him stranded at sea in a disabled craft. Naturally, this doesn’t end well for them.
Meanwhile Aaricia is planning to leave the island and seek an ally in rescuing Thorgal, who she still believes is living as Shaigan the Merciless. Taking Jolan, they sail to a port seeking Sardaz the Flayed, but although his interest is at first piqued, he turns on Aaricia and it’s only Jolan’s intervention that sees them clear.
Having passed his wife on the sea without realising it, Thorgal arrives on his island home to find it deserted, and walks into a trap in his own home that knocks him out and leaves him trapped in a wooden cage. When he comes to he meets Darek, Lehla, and his daughter Wolfcub, who he’s not seen since she was a toddler, and he struggles to convince them of who he is. Wolfcub insists that their dog, Muff, says it’s Thorgal, but they’re cautious, and Thorgal is willing to wait and win their trust. It’s only when Aaricia returns with Jolan that things become tense as she refuses to acknowledge that he is indeed who he says he is.
Unfortunately Sardaz and his men have followed Aaricia to the island although they believe it is just home to one woman and some children. Thorgal slips out of his cage, collects his weapons, and proceeds to thin the numbers of Sardaz’s men, although Lehla and Aaricia do their best to even the odds too. It’s through these actions that Aaricia is able to believe that her husband has returned and that they are a family once more.
For all it’s hope and reuniting, this is a rather melancholy tale of distrust, fear, anxiety and loss, and it’s only the dogged determination of the various members of the family that overcome it. We know Aaricia is still in love with Thorgal, despite the life he’s been living, because she’s seeking a way to extricate him, but even when he’s right before her she needs more than the physical presence – she needs the father, husband, warrior and friend and these qualities have to be shown by actions.
It’s good to see them altogether again, but all the joy at being reunited is tainted by the knowledge that they must leave their island home and seek out somewhere new, and so Rosinski and Van Hamme open a new chapter in Thorgal’s life as the family prepare to sail south.
I was particularly pleased to see a further five volumes shown on this book’s back cover, so plenty more Thorgal on the way. If you’re reading this and weighing up whether or not Thorgal may be for you, then if you’re a fan of the richly developed world in Game of Thrones then your going to appreciate the subtle blurring of history and fantasy here – a consistently excellent series infused with the exceptional imaginative talents of its creators.
And if you liked that: Take a look at Rosinski’s other work on Lament Of The Lost Moors
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