Song of Glory 1: Treasure of Aesirs Awaits!

Games of Assassin’s Creed series do not need a praise: they rightfully deserved their place among games that changed (and for some degree formed) the industry and won hearts of uncountable fans, who now impatiently await not only new games of the series, but every alternative piece of information about their favorite universe. Inspired by this, Ubisoft lately uses every opportunity to make the Assassins’ stories fans happy with MAL’OPUS publishing house endeavours to provide fresh comics and artbooks to gamers in Ukraine!

We already saw processes and curiosities of creating a world for the latest game in “Art of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.” Now we got an official prequel as a contrast comic. Are you brave enough to ride along Eivor in search of Aesirs’ treasure?

In Search of Glory

In this comic we learn about events that happened before start of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla in two very different places: Rygjafylke, in the midst of a battle not just for the village but for Eivor’s pride, and somewhere near Dniester river, where Sigurd (brother of the main character) searches easy riches but finds unexpected enemies instead. Only 63 (but tightly packed) pages show us the behavior and character of Eivor, her attitude towards problems and what troubles her heart. The comic is quick and easy to read. Events unfold with dramatic pace and you just cannot stop reading (and you don’t need to!).

Roses are red, violets are blue…

The visual aspect of the comic has a very distinctive feature – artists use contrast colors to distinguish Eivor and Sigurd stories. Line of coldblooded and focused Eivor coloured in blue tones with only splashes of color from the blood of her enemies. Sigurd’s story, on the contrary, has warmer colors because he, despite being a warrior as fierce as Eivor, does not unsheathe his weapon at slightest threat and enjoys every chance to have fun that destiny places on his way to the riches. This contrast is especially noticeable on spreads, where we switch to the other story.

Translation curiosities

As always, vikings made our work harder with their names which have pretty hard combinations of vowels and consonants. Eivor’s sister-in-arms is called Wolf-Spit which could be translated as derogative Вовкослина or Вовкоплюйка, but we chose more neutral Вовча Слина.

This time, the sounds were easier than usual. Bloodthirsty warriors decided to show mercy to translators and mostly used something like “sluk,” “thuck,” and “clatter” during battles and modest “ptoo”s in peaceful moments.

In general, the translation process was fast and effective. We had an extra opportunity to fall in love (or start to hate) Scandinavian mythology and Assassin’s Creed in general.

So, are authors worthy to sit at Valhalla’s table?

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Song of Glory is a wonderful prequel which will be interesting for players who have already got acquainted with the game and for players who only plan to start their way to eternal glory alike. The only flaw I see is that many players already have their “own” clear image of Eivor in their heads. This could lead to a mental barrier where players will not feel connection with her comic’s version because authors tried to make her more neutral. However, even this cannot spoil enjoyment from two completely opposite stories starting with the common aim – to be someone great.

Don’t forget to support MAL’OPUS and us to enjoy quality content on Ukrainian in the future! But if you find vikings boring, feel free to take a look at our other comics. Maybe you will find something more to your taste!

If you want to learn more about the project, go here.

Ukrainization of the Universe marches on!

Bogdana Vozniuk

Translation: Oleksandr Lukianov