Manga Thoughts: Vinland Saga 13
Feb. 1st, 2023 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerWith the Vinland Saga anime adaptation picking up again right when I’d decided to put myself sixty-odd “old” anime episodes away from watching anything not on that timeline, it seemed the right moment to get to the thirteenth double-length volume of Makoto Yukimura’s original manga. The twelfth volume had concluded with Thorfinn and his fellow voyagers setting sail for the west of their world and Vinland itself at last. Getting to that point as a mere spectator to the story had been affecting, but from the moment Thorfinn had begun to dream of going to a new land beyond war and slavery, for all of his own efforts to master himself first of all I had to keep facing thoughts of “but can they get beyond what’s carried inside everyone?” The previous volume had made a point of showing the worm was already within the bud.
This volume did pick up with the expedition reaching the established settlements in Greenland. There was a reminder of how much time had passed within the story (and its volumes have accumulated for a while now, too), and also of a generation passing. When the ships sail further west there’s a “there are mysteries in the sea” moment that did have me pursing my lips for a moment and making efforts to integrate it into all the other “bigger than reality” moments of the story. (Later on, I did happen to think “wasn’t it a Japanese ship that fished up and photographed a thoroughly rotted mystery of the sea?” I am, though, aware of the more skeptical interpretations pointing out how basking sharks rot in such a way they wind up looking not like themselves any more...)
Sailing west from Greenland in the Viking fashion, keeping on a line of latitude according to the height of the sun, means that once land appears over the horizon (amid some discussion about whether there’s an edge to the world or not) it’s a gradual process of working south to fertile land. Along the way the voyagers find a hut built by the Vikings who’d reached Vinland before the story began (the somehow romantic name “L’Anse aux Meadows” swam through my head), but stone arrows stuck in that hut reminds Thorfinn of a past fight with the “Skraelings,” and he pushes south again.
When the group does reach an ideal site I took slight notice of Einar’s commenting on “red soil” before finding more interest in the efforts to clear land and set up something permanent. (An earlier comment that at least referred back to the voyage to the eastern Mediterranean during a “time skip” returned again, although now also invoking an earlier and more emotional moment in the story.) Along with that, though, there are the first glimpses of other people watching from the forests...
The people descended from those who’d actually stepped into “empty land” get their own emphasis as they start discussing all the possibilities and consequences of the woods being felled on their island. (Once I’d sorted out just where the story had led to I did get to thinking “Anne of Green Gables is popular in Japan, isn’t it?”, and then wondering if that amounted to making a condescending assumption on limited information.) A translation note explains both the Japanese and English-speaking people working on this manga benefited from guidance from modern Mi’kmaq. (I guess I did have to consider how the Beothuk who’d lived on the island of Newfoundland when other Europeans reached it have no descendents now...) The first contacts are peaceful and the groups begin learning something from each other, even if Viking children are shown arguing over a swing and then adults are shown arguing over land division. I took slight note of the design of a Mi’kmaq named Niskawaji’j, told myself I shouldn’t jump to conclusions, and then noticed the Vikings using “her.”
Even with an ominous vision of the future (reaching much further than Atlantic Canada), this part of the story does end with a redemptive and emotional moment. The moment also left me considering how Thorfinn might not have a valuable figure by his side in dangerous situations any more, if only through escaping “I’m going to be the one to kill you.” Even that much was something to appreciate in a story that’s gone on for this long, though, as I keep wondering when I’ll be able to see its next instalment.
This volume did pick up with the expedition reaching the established settlements in Greenland. There was a reminder of how much time had passed within the story (and its volumes have accumulated for a while now, too), and also of a generation passing. When the ships sail further west there’s a “there are mysteries in the sea” moment that did have me pursing my lips for a moment and making efforts to integrate it into all the other “bigger than reality” moments of the story. (Later on, I did happen to think “wasn’t it a Japanese ship that fished up and photographed a thoroughly rotted mystery of the sea?” I am, though, aware of the more skeptical interpretations pointing out how basking sharks rot in such a way they wind up looking not like themselves any more...)
Sailing west from Greenland in the Viking fashion, keeping on a line of latitude according to the height of the sun, means that once land appears over the horizon (amid some discussion about whether there’s an edge to the world or not) it’s a gradual process of working south to fertile land. Along the way the voyagers find a hut built by the Vikings who’d reached Vinland before the story began (the somehow romantic name “L’Anse aux Meadows” swam through my head), but stone arrows stuck in that hut reminds Thorfinn of a past fight with the “Skraelings,” and he pushes south again.
When the group does reach an ideal site I took slight notice of Einar’s commenting on “red soil” before finding more interest in the efforts to clear land and set up something permanent. (An earlier comment that at least referred back to the voyage to the eastern Mediterranean during a “time skip” returned again, although now also invoking an earlier and more emotional moment in the story.) Along with that, though, there are the first glimpses of other people watching from the forests...
The people descended from those who’d actually stepped into “empty land” get their own emphasis as they start discussing all the possibilities and consequences of the woods being felled on their island. (Once I’d sorted out just where the story had led to I did get to thinking “Anne of Green Gables is popular in Japan, isn’t it?”, and then wondering if that amounted to making a condescending assumption on limited information.) A translation note explains both the Japanese and English-speaking people working on this manga benefited from guidance from modern Mi’kmaq. (I guess I did have to consider how the Beothuk who’d lived on the island of Newfoundland when other Europeans reached it have no descendents now...) The first contacts are peaceful and the groups begin learning something from each other, even if Viking children are shown arguing over a swing and then adults are shown arguing over land division. I took slight note of the design of a Mi’kmaq named Niskawaji’j, told myself I shouldn’t jump to conclusions, and then noticed the Vikings using “her.”
Even with an ominous vision of the future (reaching much further than Atlantic Canada), this part of the story does end with a redemptive and emotional moment. The moment also left me considering how Thorfinn might not have a valuable figure by his side in dangerous situations any more, if only through escaping “I’m going to be the one to kill you.” Even that much was something to appreciate in a story that’s gone on for this long, though, as I keep wondering when I’ll be able to see its next instalment.