Valhalla (comics) - Album Titles and Summaries

Album Titles and Summaries

All the individual albums that were originally published by Interpresse are now published by Carlsen Comics.

1. Ulven er Løs ("Cry Wolf"), Interpresse (1979). Thor and Loki visit Midgard, the world of humans, and take on farmer's children Þjálfi and Röskva as their servants. At their return to Valhalla, they find that the monstrous Fenris Wolf has escaped its bonds. A flashback tells the story of how Loki and Tyr brought the wolf to Valhalla. An educational edition of this comic received The Danish School Librarians' Association's Children's Book Prize in 1982.

2. Thors Brudefærd ("Thor's Wedding"), Interpresse (1980). Based on the Þrymskviða. The giant Þrymr has stolen Thor's hammer Mjölnir, and will only return it in exchange for marrying the goddess Freyja. Thor and Loki have to dress up like Freyja and her maid to trick the giants.

3. Odins Væddemål ("Odin's Wager"), Interpresse (1982). Odin is disappointed with the warriors the Valkyries bring for his army of Einherjar. He makes a wager with the Valkyries, that he can find better ones in Midgard by himself: three warriors that can best any and all of the Einherjar. The terms of the wager states that he is not allowed to use magic, and he therefore travels to Midgard personally. Odin remains gone for a long time, and rumor has it that he is dead, and his brothers Ve and Vili claim his throne. They change a lot of things in Asgard and become increasingly unpopular. They consolidate their power by stationing jötunn troops in Asgard. Meanwhile Odin scouts Midgard to find the three warriors he needs. There are a lot of warriors but they all have some flaw: They are either too stupid, anti-authoritarian, Christian or about to get married. He finally finds three warriors called Fander, Hogur and Voldsdag who are indeed fierce warriors. He takes them back to Asgard where they defeat the jötnar, and dethrone Ve and Vili. To Odin’s great surprise, the three warriors turn out to be Balder, Thor and Loki in disguise. Odin argues that he has won the wager anyway because those three are the mightiest warriors in Asgard. The story is not based on any particular myth alone, it consists of bits and pieces from the Prose Edda, Heimskringla and other sources. Fander, Hogur and Voldsdag are based on Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg from Marvel Comics.

4. Historien om Quark ("The Story of Quark"), Interpresse (1987). Loki returns from a visit to Utgard with a jötunn boy named Quark. The boy behaves horribly and becomes disliked by all the gods, Þjálfi and Röskva being the only ones he finally learns to like. (Quark isn't based on any original Norse myths, but is an original creation of Peter Madsen.) The story continues in the next album.

5. Rejsen Til Udgårdsloke ("The Journey to Útgarða-Loki"), Interpresse (1989). Thor, Loki, Þjálfi and Röskva travel to Utgard to have a competition with the jötnar led by Útgarða-Loki. The losers of the competition will have to keep Quark.

6. De Gyldne Æbler ("The Golden Apples"), Interpresse (1990). Loki is forced to help the jötunn Thjazi kidnap Idun and her apples of eternal youth. As the gods grow old without the apples, Thor and Loki travel to bring back the apples from the jötunn and his beautiful daughter Skadi.

7. Ormen i Dybet ("The Serpent in the Abyss"), Carlsen Comics (1991). An argument between Thor and Tyr leads them to see if either of them can catch the Midgård serpent that embraces the world. They travel to Utgard and stay with the giant Hymir, where Tyr is forced to face a past he would rather have forgotten. The comic was elected best comic album of 1992 at the Comics Mecca Convention, Ballerup, Denmark.

8. Frejas Smykke ("Freya's Necklace"), Carlsen Comics (1992). Freyja, the goddess of love, is bringing springtime to the worlds of men and gods. Odin plots to finally seduce her while Heimdall falls in love for the first time, and Loki gets caught in the middle of the trouble he starts between them all. The jewellery in the title is Brisingamen, and the story is originally a part of the Húsdrápa. The comic was chosen as the best foreign comic album of 1992 in Norway.

9. Den Store Udfordring ("The Big Challenge"), Carlsen Comics (1993). A jötunn boy named Magni appears in Valhalla claiming to be Thor's son. Odin is travelling Utgard, and makes a bet with the giant Hrungnir about whether Odin's Sleipnir or the giant's Guldfaxe is the faster horse. They race to Valhalla where Rungner proceeds to terrorise the gods. Thor challenges him to a duel, bringing Tjalfe and Magni along while the giants plot to kill Thor.

10. Gudernes Gaver ("The Gifts for the Gods"), Carlsen Comics (1997). The story of how the young Thor and Sif met, and of how the young Loki was made to travel to the dwarven realm and brought back several fantastic gifts, most notably the hammer Mjølner.

11. Mysteriet om Digtermjøden ("The Magic Mead"), Carlsen Comics (1998). Odin attempts to steal the special poet's mead from the giants. We are told the story of how the tribes of aesir and vanir made war back in the days, and of how they exchanged members to ensure the peace that was finally reached. The comic is a pastiche of Film Noir featuring Odin as the detective in what starts as a murder case. Peter Madsen won The SAS Prize for Best Nordic for this comic at the Raptus Festival in Bergen, Norway.

12. Gennem Ild og Vand ("Through Fire and Water"), Carlsen Comics (2001). The story is an amalgamation of the Grímnismál and the Þórsdrápa. The human king Geirröd has allied with the jötnar and brought misery to his country. As Odin and Loki travel to his kingdom to see what is happening, Odin is captured, though Geirrød does not know who he has caught. Loki and Thor return in an attempt to free him.

13. Balladen om Balder ("The Ballad of Baldr"), Carlsen Comics (2006). A rather free adaptation about the slaying of Baldr, based both on the accounts of the Poetic and Prose Edda, as well as Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. Since Loki never had been really evil in any earlier books, he isn't a deliberate perpetrator, here.

14. Muren ("The Wall"), Carlsen Comics (2007). Mostly based on the myth of Skírnismál. It also includes the myth on how Loki gave birth to Sleipnir, appearing in the Prose Edda. It was released one page at a time on the online edition of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten as of January 5, 2007.

15. Vølvens syner ("The Sibyl's Visions"), Carlsen Comics (2009). The final album in the series contains the story about how Vafþrúðnir sets off Ragnarok. It was released in 2009.

The albums have also been collected in anthologies in some countries. All albums have been translated into Swedish and Norwegian with the earlier albums also translated into Dutch, German, French, Finnish, Icelandic, Faroese and Indonesian, so somebody who knows these languages or anyone a bit familiar with Norse Mythology can enjoy these renditions of the adventures of Thor and Loki.