Vinland Saga (2008)

[ヴィンランド・サガ]

Volume 6

Author/Artist: Makoto Yukimura
Publisher: Afternoon KC

Synopsis:
Thorfinn duels Thorkell for the sake of his claim on Askeladd's life.

Story/Characters:
Most of this volume runs the Thorfinn and Canute plotlines in parallel. With Thorfinn's duel, you have Thorkell baiting him by talking about Thord and asking about what it means to be a true warrior, which cuts deep as Throfinn has no idea about the philosophy of the father he respects so much. Meanwhile, Canute has a vision of Ragnar's ghost. I'm inclined to accept the supernatural interpretation as Ragnar says things that I have trouble imagining Canute could process for himself. When he comes around, Canute and Willibald debate over the nature of love, leading to some interesting conclusions. This results in an awakening in Canute, who casts off his weakling self and starts to take his first steps toward becoming Canute the Great. As noted before, you can tell Canute internally conflates God the Father with his own father and in standing up for himself, he rejects both. With his freshly dropped stones, he's able to face down the berserk Bjorn and stop his rampage. He then resolves himself to go to Thorkell and stop the fighting.

Speaking of the fighting, poor Thorkell got punted like a football and his arm ends up bending at a right angle (and not at the elbow). Askeladd steps into Thorfinn's corner to help him out and while Askeladd is busy doing a patch job on Thorfinn, Thorkell decides to regale his young challenger with a story about Thord. He reveals that he's actually Thorfinn's great-uncle and talks about Thord's apparent death, his last encounter with Thord when he returned to Jomsborg to get Helga and Ylva, and how he's been haunted by whatever it was that changed Thord. Then he proceeds to berate Thorfinn for not having learned anything from Thord. Fortunately for Thorfinn, he's got Askeladd there to put the brakes on him before he jumps at the easy provocation and gives him a strategy to have some chance of pulling through in spite of his injuries. I won't say it's fair, but neither is pitting a little shrimp like Thorfinn against a monster like dear ol' Granduncle. Anyway, thanks to Askeladd's trickery, Thorfinn manages to take the advantage, but then Thorkell's men intervene, much to the fury of their captain. Then Canute shows up to call off the duel and invite Thorkell to serve him. Thorkell fully intends to pound the princeling into paste, but then he sees the same sort of unnerving resolve he saw in Thord. Thorkell's not all that happy, but Canute is aiming for the crown and he was looking to pick a fight with King Sweyn anyway. This turn of events was more than a grand plotter like Askeladd could imagine, so he takes the gamble of revealing that he was responsible for Ragnar's death and offers Canute his sword to put his life in the Prince's hands. A testament to how Canute has changed, he coldly tells Askeladd he's going to have to work Ragnar's worth before calling on the others follow him to drag Sweyn from the throne.

Art:
As you might imagine, the duel with Thorkell is a lavish action set piece with stunning visuals. Bjorn's berserker rage is rather striking as well. We get a poignant sendoff for Ragnar and then you see the change come over Canute. It really is something to see.

Other:
We get the travel map plus two one-page omake comics in the art style of Gegege no Kitarou.

Conclusion:
The duel with Thorkell would make this volume a worth having for the spectacle alone, but with the reveal of Thord's past and the massive character development for Canute, it's an absolute must-have. If you've been liking the series so far, you're going to be quite happy with this.

Rating:
Own It