Prince
Valiant
Summary
by Helen Chavez
Screen captures by Pat Paone
Stephen
Moyer (Prince Valiant), Katherine Heigl (Princess Ilene),
Edward Fox (King Arthur), Joanna Lumley (Morgan le Fey),
Udo Kier (Sligon), Ron Perlman (Boltar), Thomas Kretschmann
(Thagnar), Warwick Davis (Pechet)
Plot
Summary
In a time now lost
in the mists of memory, the great King Arthur rules in the legendary
citadel that is Camelot. His Knights of the Round Table commit acts
of derring-do and spend their spare time jousting, much to the delight
of the local citizens and especially to Princess Ilene, a guest at
Camelot.
Watching her from
afar is a young, inexperienced squire called Valiant, and when the
young Welsh princess is sent home to marry Prince Arn Valiant contrives
to accompany her masquerading as Sir Gawain.
Meanwhile, the evil sorceress
Morgan le Fey, sister to King Arthur, has convinced the tyrannical
Sligon, ruler of the Viking kingdom of Thule, that he should steal
Arthur's sword, the powerful and magical Excalibur, knowing that its
loss could bring about Arthur's downfall. So into the fray comes Sligon's
unstable and psychotic brother Thagnar, who manages to steal the sword.
Pandemonium reigns.
But Valiant is having problems
of his own - kidnappers attempt to steal away the Princess, and after
various skirmishes, including one with a mysterious character who
lives in a cave and purloins treasure, women and other things of value,
Valiant manages to return the Princess to her homeland - although
he also manages to have a duel with the Princess' jealous fiancι,
Prince Arn.
All things converge as
Valiant is finally informed of his heritage by the stranger from the
cave
Boltar of Thule. He informs the lad that he is Prince Valiant,
rightful heir to the kingdom of Thule, and with his help, Valiant
returns to the land of his birth to rightfully claim what is his
Boltar
(Ron Perlman)
When Valiant first encounters
the big, brawny and utterly fearless Boltar, it appears the man is
nothing but a kidnapper and a thief.
But he is also clever
and ingenious - when Valiant goes looking for the kidnapped Princess
Ilene, he has to battle his way through a series of trip-wires which
set off a bombardment of fireballs, giving the impression that some
foul, evil beast lives deep within the cave.
Deep in the bowels of
the earth Valiant finds Boltar ensconced in his cavern, surrounded
by plunder and few wenches, the big man sprawled in his huge chair,
listening to Princess Ilene's tirade of anger at her kidnapping.
Boltar is not fazed in
the least. His long, curly hair and the bead he has artfully entwined
in his beard gives him a rakish air as he languidly drinks a heady
cup of wine and grins at Valiant's demand to release the princess.
Valiant's challenge to him leaves Boltar singularly unimpressed.
"Ah
knight checks king
however, king takes knight
"
And with the base of his
wine-cup he releases a dart from the arm of the chair, which Valiant
only just manages to deflect with his shield. Taking advantage of
the young squire's momentary lapse of concentration, Boltar charges,
big hands grappling with Valiant as the feisty Ilene tries to help
out by wrapping her chains around Boltar's neck and hanging on tightly.
She makes barely an impression
on the big man, but Boltar decides the whole thing really isn't worth
the hassle and escapes, his voice echoing through the recesses of
the cavern as Valiant tries to give chase in his heavy armour.
"Catch me if you can, little
boy!!"
The derision in Boltar's
voice only serves to frustrate the young man as he fails miserably
to follow, held back by the restraints of his armour.
But as Valiant and Ilene
return to their escort, they are being watched. High above them, hidden
amongst the trees, Boltar is watching through strange, kaleidoscopic
lenses, and the erstwhile kidnapper is shocked to see an amulet around
Valiant's neck
carrying the symbol of a red stallion.
Valiant's next encounter
with Boltar is equally as violent - Valiant is looking for transport
to Thule in an attempt to recover Excalibur, and makes his way to
a small coastal village. There, in the drunken atmosphere of a tavern,
he rescues a dwarf from the abuse of a local ne'er-do-well, and standing
watching the fracas is Boltar. Disposing of the drunkard, Valiant
spots the big man standing in the shadows, and Boltar just takes Valiant's
accusation that he should be in prison with a philosophical smile.
He munches on a plateful
of food and calls out to the lad.
"Come and take an ale with
me?"
Valiant grudgingly agrees,
and asks in a disgruntled fashion why Boltar is in the town.
Boltar takes a swig from
his tankard of ale.
"Looking for you, actually!"
he tells Valiant he isn't exactly difficult to find, because "You
leave a trail like a Tuscan leper!"
Ignoring the big thief's
comments, he tells Boltar he's looking for a ship to take him to Thule
and of course, Boltar knows of one. The dwarf, Pechet, tips out
a pouch of gold coins on the table that he has filched from his now
unconscious tormentor, and decides that he'll come along too, as Valiant
had told the drunk that Pechet was his squire. Boltar looks at the
small, one-eyed man
and grins. They are, it seems, now a team.
On reaching the shores
of Thule, Boltar carries a sea-sick Pechet ashore, while Valiant asks
how far away Sligon's castle is.
Boltar seems familiar with
the lie of the land, and thinks, calculating the distance.
"We'll need horses."
Valiant makes an instant
decision.
"Let's go borrow some."And
the young warrior heads off inland to look for a spare horse or two.
Boltar is astounded.
"Borrow! Borrow??
This isn't Camelot!!!"
But nevertheless they
'borrow' some mounts from three unsuspecting horsemen and head off
to Sligon's fortress, but Boltar finally shows his hand. Deep in a
forest, as night falls, Valiant realises they are surrounded by hidden
figures
but Boltar lets out a low whistle, and figures resolve out
of the mist.
The leader is an elderly
man, noble and honest, and his face lights up with pleasure.
"Boltar! You have returned!"
Boltar nods, putting a
hand on Valiant's shoulder.
"Yes, I have, Father -
and I bring you
Valiant."
The people surrounding
them are the free people of Thule, downtrodden but not downhearted,
fighting back against the tyranny of Sligon. Valiant at last comes
to know his lineage - he is the one true heir to the kingdom of Thule,
rescued from Sligon when an infant by Boltar and his father. The young
Boltar took the child to England and made sure he was safe and well
in a monastery, leaving him the amulet as a guide for when the young
man wished to find out his origins.
Valiant has, at last, come
home.
With Boltar and Pechet
beside him and with his small army of loyal warriors he storms the
castle, only to discover Thagnar has killed his brother Sligon and
taken the usurped crown for himself.
Battles ensue, and Boltar
leads Valiant's small force into the castle, the big warrior wielding
his Frankish sword with devastating effect, his features painted and
his mass of hair decorated with sticks.
Sweeping all before him,
he is fearsome in battle, but even he is unable to stop the tragedy
that unfolds before him - in an effort to save Valiant's life, Princess
Ilene is run through with Thagnar's sword.
Distraught, Valiant manages
to kill the fiendish Thagnar, but is devastated to find a stunned
Boltar sitting disconsolate beside Ilene's body.
Valiant rails against God,
how could He take Ilene from Valiant in his moment of triumph? How
could he be a king without the woman he loves beside him?
And wonder upon wonders,
the magical power of the great sword Excalibur, symbol of all that
is just and right, breathes life back into the girl's broken body.
She stirs in his arms, and a cry of triumph is raised as the defenders
of the castle surrender, and Valiant is restored to his rightful place
as King of Thule.
Returning to Camelot just
in time to stop Arthur giving up his crown, Valiant gives Excalibur
back to the great king, and requests peace between the kingdoms of
Britain and Thule. And just for good measure, he asks permission for
he, a Viking, to marry his beautiful Welsh princess. Arthur, joy in
his eyes, agrees.
And so the young Valiant
begins his rule, the woman he loves beside him, supported by the ever-faithful
Boltar and the clever little one-eyed dwarf Pechet.
And, as
the stories say, everyone lived happily ever after
Trivia
Thagnar was played
by Thomas Kretschmann, later to play opposite Ron in Guillermo del
Toro's stylish bloodfest film 'Blade II', as the evil, ancient
lord of the vampire nation, Damaskinos.
In the final battle sequence
Ron wears two sticks artfully stuck in his hair - could these be the
same two sticks he wore in the award-winning 'Quest for Fire'
made in 1981? Ron has always said he kept them
Further
reading
Ian Heath, The Vikings
(Oxford: Osprey, 1985)
Mark Harrison Viking
Warrior (Oxford: Osprey 1993)
John Haywood Historical
Atlas of the Vikings (London: Penguin, 1995)
William Ian Miller Bloodtaking
and Peacemaking; Feud, Law and Society in Saga Iceland (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1990)
Thomas Bulfinch The
Age of Chivalry and Legends of Charlemagne, or Romance of the Middle
Ages (New York: Mentor, 1962)
On-line
resources
ORB - The on-line reference
book for medieval studies http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/early/pre1000/ASindex.html
The Viking Home Page
http://www.control.chalmers.se/vikings/indexframe.html
Medieval Slavic Studies
http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/slavic/people/yoo/links/slavic/medieval.htm
Norse & Celtic History
and Culture
http://www.tarahill.com/runesmith/linknors.html
