The July 19 drama "Vinland Saga" was adapted from the manga "Vinland Saga" of the same name created by Makoto Yukimura . "Wenlan" means a land of lush vegetation, and "Sakya" especially refers to a style of stories in ancient northern Europe, which records adventures and heroic deeds, similar to legends or epics. To put it bluntly, it tells the story of a group of Vikings looking for the legendary Pure Land. After being introduced into China, the work was renamed the straightforward "Pirates of War", and then harmoniously became the current "Ice and Sea Wars".
The animated version is handled by Wit Studio, which has produced "Attack on Titan" and is called "Hegemony Society" by domestic audiences. It is a pity that, subject to the niche theme, it encountered Waterloo in China and became an unpopular masterpiece. The works revolve around war and peace, revenge and fraternity, and are meaningful. Several main characters in the play have distinct personalities, have their own burdens and aspirations, and lead to a common desire: the place where the soul belongs.
1. Leif: On the other side of the sea, the beginning of a dream
In a small village in Iceland, the wind and snow were blowing and the weather was freezing cold outside, and people inside the house sat around the fireplace to keep warm. The uncle wearing a feathered crown calls himself Leiv Eiriksson and tells the children about his past glory. He said that under the guidance of the sea breeze, he once arrived at a new world with numerous fruits and vast prairie, and he named it "Wen Lan". The hat is a gift from the local Indians, it is a trophy, and the one who fights with the sea is a "real warrior". The children burst into laughter when they looked at this unremarkable uncle. Who is this uncle? Does the legendary Wenlan really exist here?
The answer is that both Uncle Leif and Vinlan are real. To understand Vikings, two saga must be mentioned: The Saga of the Greenlanders and Saga of Erik the Red. According to these ancient books, the Norwegian exiled pirate Eric was the first European to discover and settle in Greenland. And Uncle Leif in the play is Eric's son. Rafe, inheriting his father's adventurer blood, discovered and landed in Vinland. And this Vinland is located in North America. That is to say, the first person to discover America was not Columbus, but Leif who was about 500 years before him.
For the Vikings, Wenlan is synonymous with paradise, and it is also a symbol of "spiritual belonging" in this work. There is no war and strife, the climate is pleasant, and the land is fertile. At this time, the protagonist Torfin , who is listening to this story , will also follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and set off to the dreamland to write his own legendary life.
2. Thors: The benevolent is invincible
At the end of the 10th century, it was a period when the Viking pirates began to go from strength to decline. In the North Sea at that time, there was a frightening pirate organization "Yum Chapter". The ceiling of combat power in this work, the protagonist's father "Yum's War Ghost", is tired of fighting and looting. People can't help themselves in the rivers and lakes. Thors had to pretend to fall into the sea to die in a battle, and hid in a small village in Iceland and lived a contented life. However, the good times did not last long. After more than ten years, the old owner came to him and threatened him with the lives of the whole village. The vigorous young people in the village shouted that they would follow Thors to the sea to fight. The water surface was calm for a while, and then the undercurrent began to surge again.
The Vikings were home to Norway, Sweden and Denmark in northern Europe. In ancient Nordic regions, the temperature was extremely cold, and local farming and grazing were insufficient to support the development needs of the population. Pirate organizations emerged as the times require. Vikings were not only fierce robbers, but also excellent navigators. They worship the god-king Odin and Thor, the god of thunder, and consider it a great honor to die in battle. They believed that a Valkyrie would descend from the sky to lead them into Valhalla after the battle. In the temple, they indulged in feasts at night, and during the day they honed their skills, and followed Odin to prepare for the mythical end of the day, "Twilight of the Gods."
Thors was in such a big environment, which can only be described as "I am a Bodhisattva, but I have no choice but to Asura's life". Fighting the blade with bare hands, exchanging eight sheep for a dying slave, Thorz's actions all revealed a heart of the Virgin that was difficult for those around him to understand. I think he is more of a spiritual benchmark, an ideal symbol. An existence against the wind like him is destined to be crushed by the trend of the times. In the end, his son Thorfin became his "Achilles' heel", which forced him to end early with noble ideals. Thors used his life to teach his son a final lesson, and also said the core theme of this work: true warriors don't need swords.
*Fun fact: The tenth studio album "Jomsviking" released by the famous Swedish Viking/melodic death metal band Amon Amarth (Mountain of Doom) refers to "Yum Warband". The concept album depicts a murder-accused mercenary joining the Yom Pirates, a tragic tale of love and revenge. The band's name is taken from the location of Doom Mountain in Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings.
3. Asherat: The Approaching Footsteps of Ragnarok
Askeladd is a fictional character, a well-deserved intellectual, and an early spiritual mentor to Torfin and Knut. Its nickname comes from Askeladden (Ash Lad), which means "covered with dust". The prototype is the witty and clever little boy "Charcoal Fire Boy" in European folklore, who can play Troll in the palm of his hand. Ashe is an incredibly complex character, and that's what gives him his special charm. When it first appeared, it would make people feel that this was a refined egoist, cruel and cunning. After learning of his life experience, he will be admired for his national pride and great ambition.
Ashe's mother was a Princess of Wales, a descendant of the heroic king Arudrius (the prototype of King Arthur), who was later captured by Danish pirates and turned into slaves. So Ashe is a mixture of Vikings and Celts. While he felt that Viking pirates were filthy and savage, beasts driven by instinct, he hated his part of the bloodline, and at the same time was proud of his inheritance of King Arthur's bloodline. Of course, his identity was the proper latter.
The mentally broken mother has been repeating the legend of King Arthur to Ashe as a child: King Arthur went to the fairyland "Avalon" (meaning the land of apple trees) after the war to heal his wounds. It was an ideal country of independence, at the far end of the West, where there was no old age and no death. One day, King Arthur will return to protect his people; however, this is a legend 500 years ago, and Wales is still in the dire straits of foreign enemies. So A Xie decided that he could not wait for miracles and heroes, and his hometown should be guarded by himself. Even if his hands are stained with blood, even if he succeeds, his bones will die, even if he has to pay with his own life.
*Anecdote: In the legend of King Arthur, there is a saying that the person who wears the scabbard of the holy sword "Sword in the Stone" never bleeds. This is where Saber's scabbard Noble Phantasm from the Fate series, "Utopia of Independence," comes from. This Noble Phantasm has the ability to heal all wounds for the wounded.
4. Canute: The Last True King
According to records, during the Viking period, pirates were fond of robbing monasteries along the North Sea coast. This aspect reflects the fact that the spread of Christianity in the Nordic region was quite large in that period. In particular, the Danish king "Bluetooth" Harald (Knut's grandfather) took the lead in converting and proclaiming Christianity as the state religion. It is not difficult to understand Prince Knut's Christian identity and why he brought a priest. Once the pirate asked the priest, "Which one do you think is more powerful, Jesus or Odin?" The priest said, "The wine maker is the most powerful." The pirate laughed. Jesus has an allusion to "some water makes wine", so Jesus is better, love is better than killing.
The first-time prince was cowardly, weak and timid, and he only dared to hide behind his personal attendants. Later, due to the death of the attendant (killed by A Xie), he came to his senses, and realized "true love" in the dialogue with the priest (God Hui Chapter 18: Beyond the Cradle). The love of family members and monarchs and ministers is nothing but tenderness that is treated differently. The dead warrior is the real love, he finally no longer resents, no longer fights, and dedicates his body selflessly to the beasts and bugs. The snow, the sky, the trees, the mountains, is true love. The human beings who bear the original sin do not know the meaning of life, the meaning of death, and the meaning of fighting. Heavenly Father, I no longer seek your redemption, I will use these hands to rebuild a paradise on earth.
Originally, Ah Xie used the prince as a chess piece and used the role of the puppet master to exchange benefits for his hometown. After seeing the amazing growth rate of the prince, he decided to assist the prince to ascend the throne. Ashe smelled the same kind of smell on Thors and the prince, but Thors and Ashe belonged to the remnants of the old world, and it was an unstoppable dusk. Mother said to A Xie, when the hero king returns, you must serve him. To Ashe, Prince Knut is his King Arthur, the new dawn in Ragnarok.
How perverted is Prince Knut in history? He was a multiple king of Denmark, Norway, England and parts of Sweden. He established the "North Sea Empire" on his territory and vigorously promoted the spread of Christianity. He was also called "Canute the Great" by later generations. Great). It is said that in the face of the flattery of the minister "You are the conqueror of the sea", Canute once put a chair on the seashore and ordered the sea not to touch the chair. As a result, the chair was wet by the sea, and Knut reprimanded his subordinates: "Did you see it? Only God is the ruler of the world, and the power of the king is negligible." This seems to reflect the idea of "divine empowerment of monarchy" in Western politics. He once incorporated the "Yum Chapter" to serve for him, and no Vikings have achieved such impressive results since the Great Emperor. With the death of the emperor, the Viking pirates also retired from the stage of history, and the turbulent era came to an end.
*Anecdote: Bluetooth technology was invented by a Swedish telecommunications company. The founder Jim Kardach believes that the bluetooth king unified Denmark as great as this technology unified the global standard of communication protocols for mobile phones and computers. The Bluetooth icon we see today is an abbreviation of the ancient Germanic script for the initials H and B of Harald Bluetooth's name.
5. Thorfen: I stabbed you from the heart of hell
There is a saying, as the male protagonist of this work, Torfin's performance this season is quite disappointing. He is an incompetent and furious giant baby boy. No wonder the audience ridiculed him as "Tool Fen". In A Xie's words, he was "a bereaved dog who ran away with a piece of meat." At the moment of his father's death, his heart was filled with hatred, and his body was tempered into a war machine every day, but his mind was stuck in place. And A Xie's death directly negated his long-term meaning of existence. He couldn't see that his father died voluntarily, and he couldn't hear the hatred behind A Xie's harsh tone. Even the sissy prince, whom he mocked as "His Royal Highness", left him far behind. behind.
Of course, you can rest assured. Thorfin's prototype is the famous Icelandic sailing adventurer Thorfinn Karlsefni, who will eventually follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Uncle Leif, and bring the immigrant team from his hometown to Vinland, becoming the second attempt Europeans who settled in the Americas. Let's wait and see what happens next to Torfin in the play. Even though the road ahead is paved with thorns of violence, the door to the new world will still be opened as scheduled, and the ending will be happy in the end.
A Xie said that people are slaves to something. As in "Attack on Titan": "The guys I've seen are all the same. Alcohol, lust, gods, power... If you don't depend on something, you probably can't even live. Everyone. All slaves to something. What are you addicted to? Be a hero?" Tolfin was undoubtedly a slave to hatred. Throwing towards Tolfen, who "killed his father and the enemy" Ashe, is just like Captain Ahab who went to self-destruction in pursuit of the white whale in Moby Dick: I will fight you to the end, and I will sway from the heart of hell. The fork stabs you. In the end, Torfin, who lost his hatred target, became an empty shell. But just right, it has become an empty shell, isn't it suitable to refill with new things?
Only after getting rid of the constant reincarnation of the Shura field, and only after reaching the ideal land in the heart, will people not become slaves of desire, and will not become hanging dogs. Tolfin, you should move on too, and don't stumble on this boring shit all day long. Towards that far ahead, beyond the world Thors reached. It is up to you son of Thors to move on. This is your real fight, go and become a real warrior.
Vinland is a metaphor for the spiritual home, it is the pursuit of the Vikings, and it is also the vision of all mankind.
View more about Vinland Saga reviews
