COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Thor 346 Modern
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Certification #:
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1997070011
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Owner:
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Thorseface
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Thor no. 346: “The Wild Hunt!”
Publication date: August 10, 1984
Census: As of 6/20/23, 45 copies in 9.8 (up by 6), of which 3 are signed (no change). There are no Canadian 9.8s.
Writer, penciler: Simonson
Letterer: Workman
Inker: Terry Austin
Colorist: Christie Scheele
Favorite line and some thoughts:
"Take him, hounds! And carry him with us to our ancient realm in the Cotswolds of England. There we shall entertain him with endless nights of delight and pain."
-Malekith the Accursed, who if you haven't already guessed is something of a deviant.
Svartalfheim is one of the nine realms of Norse mythology that are connected by the World Tree, and the home of the Dark Elves. I'd have to do another careful reading of issues 344–348 but I don't believe it is mentioned by name there. Instead, we find the Dark Elves at home in the Cotswolds, in England, in their underground fastness of Faerie. The relationship between Svartalfheim and Faerie is somewhat clarified much later in the run, in issue no. 377.
So why do the Dark Elves live in the Cotswolds? Well, to begin with, Walt has decided to make Malekith the lord of the Wild Hunt, a motif found across multiple European traditions that probably has its origins in Celtic belief. It involves a spectral huntsman driving a pack of ghostly hounds through the landscape or the skies. Usually the huntsman is Odin or another figure from myth or legend, such as Arthur. Along these lines, in Thor 367, a rather pedantic Malekith explains to Lorelei that "the elves and faeries of Britain were closely associated with the legendary figures of King Arthur and his Round Table." Indeed, the Wild Hunt motif is found throughout England, Scotland, and Wales, as well as Ireland, and always associated with fairies and the underworld. The Cotswolds, in particular, enjoy a strong association with fairies. In any event, this is the direction Walt took us rather than Scandinavia or even Svartalfheim itself. Rather than Odin or Arthur it is Malekith who is the huntsman, and because this is the Marvel Universe he unleashes the hunt in New York.
The demonic hounds, like Malekith and the Dark Elves, are of course harmed by iron. At one point Thor hurls a part of an I-beam at Malekith, which is good policy if you can yank one off the Queensboro bridge (though perhaps not very good for the bridge itself).
In Hawaii there is a tradition similar to the Wild Hunt, the Nightmarchers. Look them up. Back in 2018 over one too many glasses of wine a local revealed to me that he sees the Nightmarchers from time to time. Scared the crap out of me.
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