Vinland Saga - Anne's Story

[doodleboy]

Kodansha is publishing Vinland Saga in the US. And well... Vinland Saga is pretty awesome, and you should read it. The writing is great and the art is gorgeous, particularly in the later chapters. So I wanted to share a short vignette from the series, taking place near the end of the second volume.






We don't need much context for this story. We start off in a simple farming village in England, where a family is saying mass.

READ RIGHT TO LEFT, 12 pages of a 38 page chapter.











The man is a Priest who is accompanying the Vikings, he gets beaten and tied up for his troubles. Then the Viking's proceed to do what they do best, pillage. They take all the food they can find, while the dragging villagers out of their houses and gathering them together.











"Just like the moment I stole this ring... My heart is... pounding."

Comments

[crinos]

So I presume this is going to continue with this lady going on a revenge fueled rampage against the vikings.

Or is this not that kind of story?

[timefire]

Yes. No. It's kinda complicated, and I dunno how much spoiler I should be giving out here.

[doodleboy]

Well yes, and no.

Well first thing I'll say is that the characters we're following in Vinland Saga is the viking band that just massacred the village.

The second thing is that this isn't the type of world where a peasant girl can train herself to fight and take on a band of a seasoned warriors without dying really quickly.

You can say a theme of the story is how normal people are helpless in a world ruled by strength and war.

Probably should've posted some scans that are more relevant to the main story (wanted to show Thorkell who's pretty great). But this is nice and self-contained vignette and well... I love misery in my stories.

[jaybee3]

So if I'm reading you right, our heroes/protagonists are the cold-blooded killers of women and children?

[doodleboy]

Well yes.

The protagonists are Vikings, and they are cold-blooded killers and thugs. The manga makes that pretty clear. It also doesn't endorse their actions.

The main character is Thorfinn (shown in the cover). A lot of the series is Thorfinn's journey from a revenge-obsessed killer to a compassionate warrior.

The other protagonist of this arc of the series would be Askeladd, the man ordering the murder. He's amoral, but he has pretty complex motivations. He has admirable goals, but growing up among vikings has made him extremely ruthless in pursuing them.

[janegray]

So what happens to the girl?

It seems unlikely that she will survive if the last we see of her is lost on a freezing mountain with no food.

[doodleboy]

She gets found by travelers from a neighboring-village collapsed in the snow.

Which causes problems for the Vikings, the reason why they killed everyone in the village was because they were trying to travel in secret. Anne's survival pretty much gets soldiers hunting them down.

[janegray]

Protecting the king or whatever, Knight Templars who casually murder innocent people "for the greater good" piss me off. I'm always happy when their callous disregard for casualties comes back to bite them in the ass.

[icon_uk]

This looks excellent, thanks for the recommendation.

[leoboiko]

The moment when the vikings first appeared in this manga literally gave me chills.

[beoweasel]

I have never seen a female protagonist in a Manga with more rough looking hands.

Which makes SENSE, mind you, as she's a peasant girl living during Europe's early medieval period, so she should have hands that have been subjected to serious toil.

However, it creates a REALLY jarring contrast compared to her face, especially in sequences where her face and hands are in the same shot.

[doodleboy]

I really do like how they treated that bit in the chapter. During the first couple of pages where's she's introduced you couldn't see her hands that close up. Then when she puts on the ring we see that yes. She's not some sort of princess, she's not glamorous. She's a simple poor peasant who lives a hard life and that piece of jewelry represents unattainable luxury.

What I do like about the series, is while it's not realistic per say, it's very naturalistic. The author makes sure to add details to make the world come to life.

Consequently the art-style evolves less and less "manga-like" and more realistic as the series goes on. Which is interesting.

But I digress, I can see how the old worn hands can be jarring.

[sharky_chan]

Looks extremely interesting! Thanks for the rec!