Assassin's Creed Valhalla Song of Glory #1 Featured Annotations 

Isu Codices, Volume 13: Catching up with “Assassin’s Creed”

By | November 3rd, 2020
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Welcome back to the Isu Codices. A few things have changed about the Assassin’s Creed franchise and its approach to comics.

First off, the English translation of second installment in the “Assassin’s Creed: Bloostone” duology has been delayed to January, and so will be kept until then.

Secondly, the rights to the Assassin’s Creed comics going forward appears to have transferred to Dark Horse Comics, barring those already published by Titan Comics. The first of those published by Dark Horse is “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla: Song of Glory” (alternatively also printed without the first colon), a three-issue miniseries that acts as a prequel to November’s Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, taking place during the late ninth century around the Viking expansion into the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

History Lessons

Kjotve the Rich

The rival king that Styrbjorn, adopted father of Eivor, is facing off against, the killer of her biological father Varin, is called “Kjotve the Cruel” in the text. While there is no direct mention of a “Kjotve the Cruel” in historical sources, there is mention of a petty king (as in king of one of the smaller “petty” kingdoms, not necessarily indicative of his personality) known as Kjotve the Rich.

Normally, the repetition of a name could be chocked up entirely to coincidence, but for a few other connections. The lands that Kjotve’s forces are attempting to conquer at the start of this issue are in a Norwegian location called Rygjafylke, known to modern times as the county of Rogaland. One of the counties that border Rogaland is Agder, which was the seat of power for Kjotve the Rich.

What else we know of the petty king appears to be minimal at best, but still interesting and useful: he led the western Norwegian kings against Harland Fairhair in the Battle of Hafrsfjord during the unification of Norway, with said battle commonly assumed to be around 872 CE, where he was not necessarily killed, but rather fled from his defeat and left his berserker son Thor Haklang as well as fellow leading king Eirik of Hordaland, who died in that same battle, Norway consolidated into a single kingdom thereafter. Of note, the most detailed interpretation of the battle was put together by Icelandic poet, historian, and politician Snorri Sturluson three hundred years after the battle actually took place, so its historical accuracy is of course debatable. However, according to that source, Kjotve had “fled to a little isle outside, on which there as a good place of strength.” Thereafter, his forces apparently scattered to various places.

Meanwhile, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is set to take place starting in 873 CE. If Kjotve the Cruel is the very same person as Kjotve the Rich, it does not seem too far out of the question. He does have a sizable amount of riches (including at least one seer as a slave), and as far as can be currently known, there is no official record of when “the Rich” died.

New Concepts
Seers and Prophecy

Eivor meets Gull, an apparent seeress in ninth century Norway

Those who can see into the future are not unique in Assassin’s Creed lore. Several people seem to possess this trait, be it a few seconds into the future or viewing events across time and space, most commonly through Isu-based artifacts such as the Pieces of Eden. However, while the Isu have difficulty fully understanding their “calculations” of possible futures through quantum mechanics and their own triple-helix DNA along with their sixth sense, humans have even less understanding, especially early in their history when they were prone to give full weight to the “gods” they saw. Furthermore, the artifacts seem to function on the basis of Isu genetics, so those closer related to the creators would be able to use such things better.

However, many of these artifacts remained highly limited, and so were the “seers” under examination here. An Isu Crystal Ball could grant access to an audience with a member of the Isu across space and time, but not direct knowledge of what to do next beyond a best guess. Other artifacts such as Prophecy Disks only allowed vision going backwards in the first place, rather than direct foreknowledge, most famously the human-built Animus that resulted from such items.

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As such, while abilities such as the aforementioned sixth sense known to fans as Eagle Vision (or “Odin-Sight” to the Norse who used it) could give an inkling as to what could happen in the immediate future, reliable assessments of the future are next to impossible for not only normal humans and most Isu-human hybrids, but also Sages and even the Isu themselves, making Gull’s apparent ability to see both the male and female Eivor, along with have intensive knowledge of her history, all the more odd and worthy of further examination.

Damascus Steel

Sigurd Styrbjornson discusses crucible steel with a blacksmith.

Damascus steel, also known as “crucible steel” to the Norwegian Vikings such as Sigurd Styrbjornson, was a type of steel originating from the city of Damascus in what would become modern-day Syria. The steel is characterized by a distinctive pattern reminiscent of flowing water across its surface, and was reputed to create blades that were tough, resistant to shattering, and capable of being honed to a sharp and resilient edge, in addition to having an ability to bend to seemingly unnatural degrees. It does not have a particularly significant role in the overall story of Assassin’s Creed, despite the original game in the franchise taking place partially in that city itself, but others used such weapons in later centuries, albeit without much narrative significance. For example, Assassins facing the Spanish Templars in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the British Assassin twins Evie and Jacob Frye used a weapon known in-game as the “Adept Kukri” forged with Damascus steel in 1868 while facing the London Rite of the Templar Order.

New Issues

Due to the way in which ‘Song of Glory’ seems to be written, using two concurrent narratives, we will be addressing that of the game’s protagonist, Eivor in chronological order, followed by her adopted brother, Sigurd Styrbjornson. Furthermore, while the game allows for a choice of either male or female biological sex for Eivor at the player’s choice, the comic seems to go with the female variation, as does an upcoming novel, so that choice will be thought of as the de-facto canonical choice for the time being.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla: Song of Glory #1

Eivorigins

Eivor is a shield-maiden (a female Viking warrior) who was raised by Styrbjorn Olafsson, Jarl (king) of Stavanger, following the death of her biological parents, her father Varin and possibly her mother Rosta (names supplied by other sources) personally killed by Kjotve the Cruel.

We look away for ONE second…

Decades later, she, along with her apparent friends Tora and Dag, watched a village raid on Rygjafylke by Kjotve’s forces. Seeking to expand the border of her adopted father’s lands, Eivor barreled into battle without thinking, forcing her companions to keep up. Despite Dag suffering an injury, the trio managed to fight off the raiding party, with only two of Kjotve’s men seeming to escape, and even then one of them having lost his legs from the knees down courtesy of Eivor, who had denied him a warrior’s death in battle instead of letting him bleed to death (a major insult to the Norse). With exception of an attempted martial resistance from the village elder (which swiftly turned lethal for him), the others of the village agreed to give fealty to Jarl Styrbjorn.

… Jean Valjean?

As Eivor sought out a sound inside of a nearby building, she was attacked by an apparent tattoo-covered madwoman with a broom, in an assault that was nonlethally dispatched. Though the woman appeared to be quite mad, she revealed that she was a slave named Gull, and also claimed to know much of Eivor herself in visions granted by the gods, even seeming (from readers’ perspective) to be aware of both the male and female versions of Eivor shown as options in the game to come. Intrigued by her promise for a song in Eivor’s honor (apparently the eponymous ‘song of glory’), Eivor brought her back with her to her father’s seat at Stavanger to act as a skald.

Eivor… needs to think a bit more about what she takes.

Unfortunately, the Jarl was enraged at his adopted daughter, seeing her “theft” of Gull as breaking the long-held stalemate between his forces and those of Kjotve. By the look of Gull’s clothes and collar, she was prized by the rival king, and would be missed, meaning that Eivor had unwittingly brought disaster and death to her home.

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Maybe not the best choice for them to try and ambush an apparently hardened Viking.

Meanwhile, at Dniester Trail in Bulgar, Eivor’s adopted brother and Styrbjorn’s biological son Sigurd Styrbjornson visited a swordsmith named Tekin while in search of a blade made from crucible steel. Unfortunately, the blade this blacksmith had available was forged for his own fallen brother, an apparently peaceful man who had been killed by other Norsemen for his silks, the blade called “Vengeance” in reference to its purpose. After the ensuing ambush, only one villager out of three is left alive, who tells Sigurd that he can tell the Viking where to find “the richest man alive.” Perhaps this “richest man” is Kjotve himself, another trap?

Catch you next time as we take another drink from Mimir’s well with the second installment of this miniseries, hopefully with more information from the game itself to flesh it all out!


//TAGS | Isu Codices

Gregory Ellner

Greg Ellner hails from New York City. He can be found on Twitter as @GregoryEllner or over on his Tumblr.

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