By Mark Allard-Will, Jasmine Redford & various (Renegade Arts Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-98975-413-9 (TPB/Digital edition)
There are many heroic stories, but precious few that grow beyond their place of origin to become global forces of imagination. Gilgamesh, Journey to the West, The Mahabharata, the Iliad, Odyssey and Aenid, the Twelve Labours of Hercules, Beowulf, Le Morte D’Arthur and Robin Hood probably all qualify, but only one has shaped modern narrative and been endlessly recreated, reworked and homage, pilfered from and reassembled: The Völsunga Saga.
The basis of Wagner’s loudest operas, Tolkien’s entire mythology, countless fairy tales, comic books – from Natasha Alterici’s Heathen to Marvel’s Thor -, novels, plays, movies and the best animated short ever made (What’s Opera, Doc? was the first cartoon to be entered into the National Film Registry of the United States of America!), these Germano-Danish myths and folktales informed the very nature of heroism in modern culture and have become a potent undercurrent of western concepts of honour, justice and vengeance.
It’s all pretty heady stuff and now writer Mark Allard-Will and illustrator Jasmine Redford have bravely made it their quest to strip back all the accumulated clutter and baggage of centuries and overlapping cultures to share the original saga in a brace of vivid and engaging graphic narratives tailored for modern readers.
Book I (of II) finds oblivious young Prince Siegfried of Denmark hungry for glory even as he is slyly groomed by sinister tutor Regin, whose patient wisdom and many lessons are all subtly honed in on a hidden purpose of his own. This plotter dreams of gold, but of a very special nature, and he deftly plants the notion of the boy killing a certain dragon and claiming both its hoard and acclaim beyond measure…
King Alf is not impatient Siegfried’s father, but rather mother Hjordis’ new husband: a good man hard-pressed by regional politics and growing tired of the unruly disruptive force inside his own castle. Against his better judgement Alf allows the boy’s increasingly wild demands. These include a suitable war-horse, won with the aid of a strange cloaked wanderer with only one eye.
A war sword able to cleave dragon scale is a harder prospect. Regin’s efforts at the forge prove inadequate, but hope comes when the queen shows her son fragments of a mighty weapon and shares the story of her son’s dead father Sigmund. Long ago at a wedding, a one-eyed stranger plunged a magnificent magical sword into a tree. After all had failed to pull free the blade “Gramâ€, timid, cautious Sigmund easily loosed the sword. After Sigmund refused to sell it to his brother – King Siggeir – the monarch instituted a plague of murder and fratricide employing, incarceration torture, werewolves and shapeshifters.
Surviving to win justice and the crown, Sigmund attempted to unite the eternally-warring German kingdoms, but his political marriage to Hjordis only enraged rival suitor King Lyngi, who brought carnage and conflict where there was briefly peace. In a climactic duel, the kings clashed and a one-eyed stranger smashed Gram, leaving Sigmund to his fate…
The queen’s intent was to dampen her son’s passion for great deeds, but had the opposite effect. Having Regin reforge Gram, Siegfried sets out on a downward path, brutally and covertly raiding Saxony to kill Lyngi in just revenge before finally acquiescing to Regin’s persistence and seeking out the dragon Fafnir.
The boy’s hunger for glory overrules his growing suspicions about his tutor, and Regin can only dream of his own long-delayed vengeance and a certain ring of gold…
This accomplished adaptation of the original Germanic myths fairly crackles along, blending mystery and intrigue in a stylish yet restrained animated style. The narrative is rendered in a limited colour palette reminiscent of scrollwork and tapestries and the tome also offers a range of concept and character sketches by Redford, as well as a trove of full-colour treats in a ‘Pinup Gallery’ by guest artists Steven Charles Rosia, James Francis, Matt Smith, Elaine M. Will, Davis Dewsbury & Sharon Gauthier and Audra Balion.
Siegfried: Dragon Slayer story, characters and art © 2021 Mark Allard-Will and Jasmine Redford. All rights reserved.