Return of Valhalla

Okay, I need to ramble a bit. Yesterday I was all nostalgic about Peter Madsen's works - more specifically his Danish comic series “Valhalla” that I grew up on. My Dad always been an enthusiast about our heritage as Danes, in particular the old stories and Myths about the old Nordic gods. And one faved medium to teach us these stories were through those comics, as the cartoonist behind them told the stories quite well, even with his own spin on them.

Those comics back in 1986 inspired to a cartoon movie.

And English for for convenience.

For its time, this cartoon redefined production and style for cartoon creations in Danish production. Just as well caused a huge change in the comic series’ style too, moving on from a rough looking painting style to what overtime became Peter Madsen’s signature artistry.

The movie based its plot around two comic issues in particular, the series’ intro to the human children Tjalfe and Brøskva, and the story about Quark the jætte child of mischief.

These are the appearances I grew up seeing for the characters of these old Nordic myths, while still learning the many different versions these stories come in.

The comic series has long since ended, with Ragnarok of course, its creator moving on to other projects, but still a part of our culture.

Imagine my surprise, the very same day I was being nostalgic about these works… I suddenly received an email from the locale cinema club, about a new movie with premiere tomorrow! A movie based on an old cartoon from 1986, but now in live-action.

Honestly? I have mixed feelings. Not just because of the already oversaturation of the movie market with live-action remakes thanks to Disney, but also because the Danish movie production does not have the best track record for successful fantasy movies.

I’ll definitely still give it a chance tho, just to see where this legacy carries on.

By the trailer seems like they are mixing in more plots than the first movie’s usage of two comic issues. Might be a Quark I saw, they talk of the Fenris Wolf being free again, while obviously still use the first issue as intro. Talk of Ragnarok might just be for the sake of adding in tension. I don’t think this movie could do the actual comic series finale justice as that script worked by knowing the readers knew all the characters from the full series, to get away with Peter Madsen’s spin on it. And they play up the girl, Brøskva, as some sort of “chosen one”, which I’m unsure how I feel about. The human children in the comics were amazing, not because they were special or ascended. But because they were human with their own flaws and strengths, that could help the gods where their humanity where forgotten.

Definitely gonna give it a watch on the big screen to see how it really plays out, either way. Still excited to see the old Vahalla stories being revived. Especially after soooo much Marvel Norse Gods flooding in through the CMU. I have no issue with different spins on these old stories, there are rarely more than just a couple of versions for same stories after all. Marvel just took a waaaayy strong artistic freedom on some things. God of War’s version not helping either, when I ran into some classmates that year who seemed convinced it was the “correct” version of the tales compared to Marvel’s. (both are wrong, oh so wrong).

Anyways, I’ll stop ranting now. Just needed to share these thoughts, about something I grew up with. I have no idea if these comics ever made it beyond Scandinavia, if anyone else recognize them. But I love to share.

Thanks for reading.

(Also if you go search Peter Madsen for more of his stuff… it’s the most basic Danish name out there, even my own Dad is named Peter Madsen. So ad in “Valhalla” as key word, else you’ll instead get the news stories about the Sub Marine Killer Peter Madsen, which is not THIS Peter Madsen. Or my Dad. Just FYI)