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Sláine (character)

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Sláine
Sláine graphic novel cover by Mike McMahon 1986; Sláine copyright Rebellion A/S 2005.
Publication information
PublisherIPC Media
First appearance2000 AD #330 (1983)
Created byPat Mills
Angela Kincaid
In-story information
Alter egoSláine mac Roth
Team affiliationsTribes of the Earth Goddess
AbilitiesWarp-spasm
For other characters with the same name, see Sláine.

Sláine (IPA: [ˈslɑːnʲə]) is a comic book hero from the pages of 2000 AD - one of Britain's most popular comic books.

Sláine is a barbarian fantasy adventure series based on Celtic myths and stories which first appeared in 1983, written by Pat Mills and initially drawn by his then wife, Angela Kincaid. Most of the early stories were drawn by Mike McMahon and Massimo Belardinelli. Other notable artists to have worked on the character include Glenn Fabry and Simon Bisley. The current artist is Clint Langley, whose artwork combines painting, photography and digital art.

Sláine's favourite weapon is an axe called "Brainbiter". He has the power of the warp spasm, based on the body-distorting battle frenzy of the Irish hero Cú Chulainn and similar to the rage of the Viking berserker (who have appeared as adversaries), in which earth power "warps" through his body, turning him into a terrifying, monstrous figure who knows neither friend nor foe. He is a devotee of the earth goddess Danu.

Plot

Template:Spoiler At the start of the series Sláine was a wanderer, banished from his tribe. He explored the Land of the Young (Irish Tír na nÓg) in the company of an unscrupulous dwarf called Ukko, fighting monsters and mercenaries in the fantasy tradition. In one early adventure he rescued a maiden, Medb (named after the Irish mythological queen Medb) from being sacrificed in a Wicker Man, only to earn her enmity - she was a devotee of Crom Cruach, the god to whom she was to be sacrificed, and was looking forward to the experience. Her master and mentor, the ancient, rotting and insane Lord Weird Slough Feg, became the series's main villain.

Following stories featured sky chariots (flying longships), dragons and prehistoric alien gods.

As the series progressed, Sláine returned to his tribe and became king (as had been foretold in the narrative of his first appearance), leading them against the Fomorians, a race of sea demons who were oppressing them. Then, in the landmark storyline The Horned God, Sláine united the tribes of the earth goddess against Slough Feg and his allies, while his personal devotion to the goddess led to him becoming a new incarnation of the Horned God Carnun (based on the Gaulish deity Cernunnos). By the end of the story the Land of the Young is no more, and Sláine is the first High King of Ireland.

Sláine in Simon Bisley's version.

Subsequent stories saw Sláine sent through time by the earth goddess to fight alongside Celtic heroes and heroines such as Boudica (with whom he fought against the Romans (and Elfric), and William Wallace, and more recently return to Ireland to defend his people against new enemies alongside his wife Niamh.

These new enemies turned out to be a full Formorian invasion led by Balor and the sadistic Moloch, murdering, raping and eating their way through Slaine's tribe until, wracked with warp-spasm, Slaine was able to take out Balor. The tribal council forced Slaine to let Moloch go, hoping he'd fulfil his promise of keeping the Formorians out of Ireland; instead, he deliberately returned to rape and murder Niamh. Wanting vengeance, Slaine abdicated the throne in order to go to Albion and kill Moloch, which he succeeded in doing. In his absence, his son Kai left the tribe to search for his father (eventually becoming a performer in an Albion carnival) and Ireland faced a second invasion - "the dread of Europe", Atlanteans whose ancestors had lived in Ireland before the tribes of Danu and who had been forcibly turned into hosts - Golamhs - for the symbiotic Sea Demons under Lord Odacon (an offshoot of the Formorians), who easily threw the tribes' Sky Chariots into the Otherworld. Upon Slaine's return, he found the new High King Sethor, former member of the council who'd granted Moloch freedom, was willing to surrender half of Ireland to Odacon in return for the gifts of science and civilisation.

Slaine was able to convince the tribal council that the demons could be killed and war was once more declared on the invaders, but it was clear that Ireland would be constantly attacked by wave after wave of Formorian invasion. Slaine hit on the idea of having the Tribe of Danu escape to the Otherworld that their Sky Chariots had been sent to, thus freeing them from the demons and allowing the Atlanteans to settle peacefully in Ireland; both armies united against Odacon and his Sea Demons. Slaine was able to free the Atlantean leader Gael from being Odacon's Golamh by handing over Sethor to take Gael's place; and they led their armies to bolster the city of Tara. While the tribes fought a defensive battle, Slaine was sent to the Otherworld to secure the blessings of Danu for the Tribes of the Earth Goddess to settle there; this done, he returned with her power behind him and led a charge that decimated Odacon's forces. The Tribe was cast to the Otherworld in the aftermath, and Slaine assisted Gael in finally destroying Odacon and the parasitic spawn with which he had infested the outer-lying villages.

With Gael as High King of Ireland and founder of the eventual Gaelic race, Slaine left to track down his son. He found Kai at a travelling carnival, and later embarked on a quest to track down Crom Dubh.

Sources and influences

Sláine's most obvious source is Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, but Mills derived much of the background to the series from Celtic mythology and European prehistory. Sláine himself is named after Sláine mac Dela, the legendary first High King of Ireland, and his "warp-spasm" or body-distorting battle frenzy is derived from the riastrad of Cúchulainn, the hero of the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. "Warp-spasm" is the term Thomas Kinsella used for riastrad in his translation of The Táin. His barbed spear, the gae bolga, is also borrowed from Cúchulainn, although his favourite weapon, the axe, is more usually associated with the Vikings or Anglo-Saxons than the Celts.

His patronymic, Mac Roth, is the name of the steward of Ailill and Medb, king and queen of Connacht, in the same cycle. The death of Sláine's mother, Macha, while forced to run on foot in a chariot race because of her husband's boasting, is taken from the story of an Irish goddess called Macha, who was forced to run against the king's chariot while heavily pregnant for the same reason.

Sláine's seduction of Niamh, the king's chosen bride who was brought up in seclusion until she was of age, is reminiscent of the Irish story of Deirdre. Sláine's feat of crossing a raging river to visit her, weighed down by a heavy stone to prevent him from being swept away, is taken from an episode of the Táin. Niamh is a popular Irish girl's name, and is also the name of a fairy queen from the Fenian Cycle. Her otherworld homeland, Tir na nÓg (the Land of the Young), provides the name of the series' setting.

Sláine's goddess, Danu, and her tribes, the Tuatha Dé Danann, come from the Irish Mythological Cycle, although the worship of a universal mother goddess of the earth is not Celtic and comes from speculations about prehistoric European culture and religion by the likes of Marija Gimbutas and Robert Graves. The Horned God, Carnun, is adapted from the Gaulish antlered deity Cernunnos. Some of the religious ideas in the series are taken from Barddas, a possibly fraudulent compilation of "bardo-druidic" beliefs by the 19th century Welsh antiquarian Iolo Morgannwg.

Mills divides the priests of Tir na nÓg into two factions: the good Druids, the well known priestly class of Celtic Europe, and the evil Drunes, which name derives from the Galatian place-name Drunemeton ("oak-sanctuary"), used in the series as the name of the Drunes' capital. Their leader, the Lord Weird Slough Feg, is partly based on Cernunnos and partly on a paleolithic cave painting in the Trois Frères cave in Ariège, southern France. [1] His acolyte, Medb, is named after the legendary queen of Connacht from the Ulster Cycle. The Drunes' god, Crom Cruach, is an Irish deity who was reputedly propitiated with human sacrifices. The practice of mass human sacrifice by burning in a Wicker Man is mentioned as a practice of the Celts of Gaul by Strabo and Julius Caesar.

The enemies of the Tribes of the Earth Goddess, the Fomorians, and their leader Balor, are taken from the Irish mythological cycle.

Other elements of the series are derived from non-Celtic mythological sources. Sláine's dwarf companion is named Ukko, after the Finnish storm god. Grimnismal, the name of the dark god Sláine and his companions defeat in "Tomb of Terror", is the title of a poem about Odin from the Norse Elder Edda. The term Ragnarok, for the end of the world, is also borrowed from Norse mythology.

Publications

Comics

2000AD:

  • The Time Monster (in 2000AD #330, illustrated by Angela Kincaid).
  • The Beast in the Broch (in 2000AD #331-334, illustrated by Massimo Belardinelli).
  • Warrior's Dawn (2000AD #335, illustrated by Mike McMahon).
  • The Beltain Giant (2000AD #336, illustrated by Mike McMahon).
  • The Bride of Crom (2000AD #337-342, illustrated by Massimo Belardinelli).
  • The Creeping Death (2000AD #343, illustrated by Massimo Belardinelli).
  • The Bull Dance (2000AD #344, illustrated by Massimo Belardinelli).
  • Heroes' Blood (2000AD #345-347, illustrated by Mike McMahon).
  • The Shoggey Beast (2000AD #348-351, illustrated by Mike McMahon).
  • The Origins (2000AD #352).
  • Sky Chariots (2000AD #352-360, illustrated by Mike McMahon).
  • Dragonheist (2000AD #361-367, illustrated by Massimo Belardinelli).
  • The Time Killer (2000AD #411-428+431-434, illustrated by Glenn Fabry, David Pugh and Bryan Talbot).
  • The Tomb of Terror (2000AD #447-461, illustrated by Glenn Fabry and David Pugh).
  • Spoils of Annwn (2000AD #493-499, illustrated by Mike Collins and Mark Farmer).
  • Sláine the King (2000AD #500-508+517-519, illustrated by Glenn Fabry).
  • The Killing Field - Sláine the King preview (2000AD #582, illustrated by Glenn Fabry).
  • Sláine the King (200AD #589-591, illustrated by Glenn Fabry).
  • The Horned God, Book I (2000AD #626-635, illustrated by Simon Bisley. Also published as album).
  • The Horned God, Book II (2000AD #650-656+662-664, illustrated by Simon Bisley. Also published as album).
  • The Horned God, Book III (2000AD #688-698, illustrated by Simon Bisley. Also published as album).
  • Jealousy of Niamh (2000AD #850-851, illustrated by Greg Staples).
  • Demon Killer (2000AD #852-859, illustrated by Glenn Fabry and Dermot Power).
  • Queen of Witches (2000AD #889-896, illustreated by Dermot Power).
  • Name of the Sword (2000AD #950-956, Illustrated by Greg Staples).
  • Lord of Misrule, Part I (2000AD #958-963, illustrated by Clint Langley).
  • Lord of Misrule, Part II (2000AD #995-998, illustrated by Clint Langley).
  • Bowels of Hell (2000AD #1000, illustrated by Jim Murray).
  • Treasures of Britain, Part I (2000AD #1001-1010, illustrated by Dermot Power).
  • Ukko's Tale (2000AD #1011-1012, illustrated by Steve Tappin).
  • Treasures of Britain, Part II (2000AD #1024-1031, illustrated by Dermot Power).
  • The Demon Hitchhiker (2000AD #1032, illustrated by Steve Tappin).
  • King of Hearts (2000AD #1033-1039, illustrated by Nick Percival).
  • The Grail War (2000AD #1040-1049, illustrated by Steve Tappin).
  • Secret of the Grail (2000AD #1090-1099, illustrated by Steve Tappin).
  • Lord of the Beasts (2000AD #1100, illustrated by Rafael Garres).
  • Kai (2000AD #1104-1107, illustrated by Paul Staples).
  • The Banishing (2000AD #1108-1109, illustrated by Wayne Reynolds).
  • The Triple Death (2000AD #1111, illustrated by Wayne Reynolds).
  • The Swan Children (2000AD #1112-1114, illustrated by Siku).
  • Macha (2000AD #1115-1118, illustrated by Paul Staples).
  • The Secret Commonwealth (2000AD #1183-1199, illustrated by David Bircham).
  • Beyond (2000AD #1173b and #2000, illustrated by Greg Staples).
  • The Books of Invasions I: Moloch (2000AD #1322-1326 and #2003, illustrated by Clint Langley).
  • The Books of Invasions II: Golamh (2000AD #1350-1355, illustrated by Clint Langley).
  • The Books of Invasions III: Scota (2000AD #1371-1376, illustrated by Clint Langley).
  • The Books of Invasions IV: Tara (2000AD #1420-1425 and #2005, illustrated by Clint Langely).
  • The Books of Invasions V: Odacon (200AD #1436-1442, illustrated by Clint Langley).
  • Carnival (2000AD #1469-1475 and #2006, illustrated by Clint Langley).

Appearances in special issues:

  • The Battle of Clontarf (2000AD Annual 1985, illustrated by Massimo Belardinelli).
  • The Arrow of God (2000AD Annual 1989, illustrated by Steve Parkhouse).
  • The High King (2000AD Yearbook 1992, illustrated by Glenn Fabry).
  • The Devil's Banquet (2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1986, illustrated by Glenn Fabry).
  • The Return of the High King (Poster Prog Slaine 1, illustrated by Dermot Power).

RPGs

Solo RPG appearances:

Novels

The first Sláine novel was released at the end of 2006:

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