Donald Duck – A Fantasy Comic ? Fantasy in Don Rosa’s The Quest for Kalevala
Transcript of Donald Duck – A Fantasy Comic ? Fantasy in Don Rosa’s The Quest for Kalevala
Katja KONTTURI
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN
DON ROSA’S THE QUEST FOR KALEVALA
Introduction
One wouldn’t instantly associate Disney’s Donald Duck comics
with the fantasy genre. Colourful comics with animal characters
would fit better as children’s tales, but we can separate at least two
Disney artists and writers whose comics can be seen as fantasy
because of their distinctive features. Those artists are the late Carl
Barks (1901-2000), who created both Duckburg and most of the
known characters including Scrooge McDuck; and Don Rosa
(1951- ), one of the most famous of the current Donald Duck
comic artists.
Keno Don Hugo Rosa or Don Rosa, as he’s better known for
the public, started his career as Disney artist in 1987 with a comic
called Son of the Sun. It was nominated for Harvey Awards, which
is a noted comic award named after Harvey Kurtzman, the founder
of the MAD magazine. The most appreciated of Rosa’s works has
been The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, a collection of
stories describing the history of Rosa’s favourite character based
on the facts given by Carl Barks in his comics. This collection won
the Eisner award, which is given for a creative achievement in
American comic books and is generally considered “the academy
award” of the comic industries.
Rosa is said to be the follower of Barks, as he refers to his
stories, writes sequels to them and generally follows the history
Barks wrote for the ducks. Rosa also shows his respect for his idol
by hiding the letters D.U.C.K. in his large “pin-up” pictures and in
the first frames of the comics. The letters indicate “Dedicated to
Unca Carl from Keno”.
Along with his dedication to the history Barks created, Rosa
stands out from the general Disney artists with his unique and
detailed style of drawing. In his comics it is common to see the
events of the plot in the foreground and something completely
different, almost slapstick type of comedy in the background. But
Rosa hasn’t become famous only by his humour and style of
drawing. One of Rosa’s biggest merits can be said to be his ability
to create long adventure tales in which he mixes the fantasy world
of Ducks with our own history, showing for example how Scrooge
was on the Titanic1, or how he’s a good friend with Theodore
Roosevelt, former president of the United States2.
My paper discusses Don Rosa’s comic The Quest for Kalevala
(original in 1999) and its fantasy elements. The fantasy in this
particular comic rises from its true origin: the myth. Rosa
combines the fantastic elements of the Finnish national epic The
Kalevala with iconic world-known Disney characters. The comic
takes place in Finland, where Scrooge, Donald and the nephews
travel in search for Sampo, the cosmic mill of prosperity.
As told in The Kalevala, Sampo is a mythic grinding mill, built
by the blacksmith Ilmarinen after Väinämöinen3, the hero of the
epic, asked him to create this device. The nephews’ Woodchuck
Guidebook knows that Sampo’s “[f]irst side produced grain, the
second side salt and [- -] the third side produced an unending flow
of gold coins!” (Rosa 2004, 6.) After this description, it is no
wonder why Scrooge wants to go to Finland to search for this
magical mill.
I have divided this paper into three sections. At first, I present
the primary world Finland and how the two separate fantasy
worlds, Kalevala and Tuonela, appear alongside with it. How do
the characters enter these secondary worlds from the primary
1 The Titanic episode happens in the comic The Empire Builder from
Calisota, published in the collection of The Life and Times of Scrooge
McDuck (2005). 2 Theodore Roosevelt appears in three comics by Rosa : The Buckaroo
of the Badlands, The Invader of Fort Duckburg (both belong to The Life
and Times of Scrooge McDuck series) and in The Sharpie of the Culebra
Cut (published in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck part II). 3 In the English translation, Väinämöinen has been traslated as
Wainamoinen. I use the original name because that’s how Rosa himself
refers to the hero of The Kalevala.
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 3
world? Is there some sort of portal between them, or a mystical
object that helps them?
Secondly, I examine the two magical objects: Kantele (Finnish
zither) and the sword of Väinämöinen. What makes these objects
so special that they affect the whole story? Lastly I look into the
characters and their counterparts: who is the Väinämöinen of
Duckburg and how is it shown in the comic? How are these
characters from completely different settings combined in Rosa’s
story?
With all this I aim to show how the fantastic elements are part
of the story, both in the text and in the imagery, and how they can
be studied with the comic analysis of Scott McCloud and Will
Eisner. I also contemplate whether the use of these fantastic
elements has some sort of purpose. Is there a function or a deeper
meaning behind them or is the fantasy adventure of the ducks only
an ordinary, humoristic Disney comic?
The three different worlds
Finland – the primary world
The most important feature of fantasy literature is the
juxtaposition of the two worlds: the primary world, in which
everything is normal and follows the natural laws; and the fantastic
secondary world, where magic and supernatural elements are
present in an otherwise realistic world and the laws of nature can
be broken. (Nikolajeva 1998, 12-13.) With this definition, I argue
that we can most certainly look at Rosa’s comic The Quest for
Kalevala as part of the fantasy genre.
The comic presents primary world Finland, where the ducks
travel to search for Sampo, the eternal mill of prosperity. Finland,
which in this comic is represented mostly by its capital Helsinki, is
shown as a representation of the real country: it has all the actual
well-known and famous places drawn based on photos taken from
the city, which are easily recognizable for anyone who has visited
Helsinki.
Rosa truly makes an effort on making the representation of
Finland in his comic similar to the actual world Finland. This can
be seen for example in Rosa’s depiction of the building of Finnish
Literature Society (SKS) situated in Helsinki:
© Disney (Rosa 2004, p. 7.)
The only thing that differs between the drawing by Rosa and the
official building in Helsinki is the colour of the paint which is
yellow in the frame, but almost pink in the real building. There is a
good reason for that, as Don Rosa situates most of his comics to
the 1950s, so the representations of the local attractions are
described the way they were in that decade, not as they were in the
beginning of the year 2000. The reason behind this is the timeline:
Rosa has created an entire history for Scrooge McDuck, who –
according to both Barks and Rosa – was born in 18674. So he is
4 This comes clear in Rosa’s collection The Life and Times of Scrooge
McDuck. On the pages 6 and 23, there is a portrait of Scrooge when he
started shining shoes. The year in the small frame is 1877. On the first
comic of the collection, The Last of the Clan McDuck, Scrooge’s father
says it’s Scrooge’s tenth birthday – and he gets that shoeshine kit as a
present. (Rosa 2005, 6 ; 8 ; 11.) Hence, Scrooge was born in 1867.
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 5
already very old in the 1950s, and it would be impossible for him
to be alive in the year 2000. Hence Rosa’s stories usually take
place in that decade, which also was the golden age of drawing for
Carl Barks.
The Finland that Rosa depicts is logical and in every way
normal place without any hint of fantasy elements like a primary
world should be – until the ducks arrive. After they’ve entered both
Kalevala and Tuonela, they release the supernatural events also
into the primary world Finland. I will come back to this matter at
the end of this chapter.
Kalevala – the land of heroes
After giving a missing piece of Lönnrot’s notes to the director
of the Finnish Literarature Society, the ducks get a clue where the
fragments of Sampo might be located according to that piece of
notes Scrooge had received from Lönnrot as a boy. (Rosa 2004, 5;
7-8.)
Ducks travel to the coast of Western Finland, to a place called
Mustasaari. An old man directs them to the point of Mustasaari and
tells them to “visit the ancient lighthouse”, which is strange, as
the cape seems to be barren and unsettled. But as the ducks travel
closer, a massive snowstorm appears out of the blue sky and
suddenly the ancient lighthouse stands in front of them. (Rosa
2004, 9-10.)
Things get even more mystical when the ducks find a sword,
which is embedded in the solid floor of the lighthouse. After seeing
the sword Scrooge himself comments: “That’s the stuff of myth,
all right!” which hints that he also starts to wonder, whether there’s
something supernatural going on. All kinds of weird events start to
occur, most importantly the spirit of Väinämöinen, who possesses
Scrooge via the sword and calls the inventor of Sampo. The words
Scrooge speaks in the voice of Väinämöinen after the his spell
summons the inventor Gyro Gearloose instead of blacksmith
Ilmarinen are quite important: “Welcome, brother Ilmarinen –
Welcome home to Kalevala!” (Rosa 2004, 10-11; 13.)
This indicates that the ducks aren’t in Finland anymore. The
spirit of Väinämöinen, the hero of The Kalevala welcomes his
brother back home – he is reliable enough a character to be trusted,
so even the readers get a clear perspective on where the ducks are
and why the lighthouse could not be seen at first.
Later on even the nephews realize the truth and tell that to their
uncle Donald: “Ever since we entered the “astral lighthouse”,
we’ve been in a “different reality [- -] in Kalevala! (Rosa 2004,
16.)
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 16.)
The boat in the image above is one of the mysteries that take
place in the Mustasaari point, where the lighthouse has appeared.
When the ducks need to go to Tuonela, they find the boat on the
cape. It wasn’t there before and its sail filled instantly, even though
there was no wind. (Rosa 2004, 16.) The boat is obviously part of
the Kalevala magic: it stretches out of the frame, so we can see it
isn’t bound by the normal laws of physics – in this case these
frame borders which we may translate as the borders of the comic
world. As Will Eisner tells in his book Comics & Sequential Art,
the shape of the frame may indicate both time and feeling. By
breaking out from the frame, the image is brought closer to the
reader (Eisner 1994, 44; 46), and thus its power is shown in the
story.
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 7
Also noteworthy matters are the clouds in the sky. In the image
of the building of the Finnish Literature Society in the primary
world Finland, the clouds were quite ordinary, but the clouds in the
frames describing Kalevala world are long, stretching from the
border of the frame to another. It is a minor detail, but Rosa is
known for his little details which deepen the narration and the
composition.
So these are the final evidence on the transition to the other
world – even the characters speak of a “different reality”, which
can be translated as the fantasy world.
Kalevala can be seen in Maria Nikolajeva’s terms as a parallel
fantasy world. Parallel worlds may remind closely the folk legends
and seem to be quite the same as the real world, but at the same
time they may include weird habitants and magic. (Nikolajeva
1998, 49.) Since the world of Kalevala is part of the Finnish
folklore and an epic, and as it seems to be similar to real world
Finland but differs from it with the magical events, the term
Nikolajeva used is quite valid.
But how did the ducks move from the primary world Finland to
Kalevala, the fantasy world? Where was the door? The thing with
Kalevala is that there isn’t any concrete gate to it; instead there is a
magical object5 which opens the portal to Kalevala and the ducks
just slide between the worlds while the snowstorm covers
everything. They transfer from one world to another without
realizing it, and what happened and when isn’t clear for the readers
either. The first clue is the appearance of the lighthouse, which
wasn’t anywhere to be seen at first. Later on it becomes obvious
that the lighthouse cannot be part of the primary world Finland,
hence it has to be in Kalevala.
Tuonela – the realm of sleepers
5 I will return to that magical object in the next chapter.
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 16.)
Unlike Kalevala, Tuonela, the Underworld, has a distinct
“door”. It is a massive gateway guarded by two scary-looking
statues in an island covered with snow and ice. One must pass
between them to enter the land of Tuonela. Rosa describes Tuonela
as “the realm of the sleepers (2004, 16)”, a place where the dead
can sleep forever, as it can also be intepreted from The Kalevala:
Quick the hostess, Tuonetar,
Waves her magic wand of slumber
O'er the head of Wainamoinen,
Puts to rest the wisdom-hero,
Lays him on the couch of Mana,
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 9
In the robes of living heroes,
Deep the sleep that settles o'er him. (The Kalevala, Rune XVI)
6
The place of Tuonela is visually described as an icy cave
guarded by the skeletal, skull-headed figure Tuoni, the Lord of
Darkness. In the icy cave there are several doors behind which the
sleepers lie in their eternal slumber. And when Tuoni states: “None
who sleep in my chambers – May escape my greedy fingers!” it
becomes clear that when one enters to eternal sleep, one stays
sleeping and will never wake up. It is the place of death, as Donald
puts it. (Rosa 2004, 17.)
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 16.)
Tuoni can be seen as a typical character representing death in
Western culture with his skeletal appearance, though it is unlikely
6 Original Finnish text is ”Tuonelan emäntä [- -] [u]uvutti unehen
miehen, pani maata matkalaisen / Tuonen taljavuotehelle. Siinä mies
makaelevi, / uros unta ottelevi: mies makasi, vaate valvoi” (Lönnrot 2002,
112).
that he would pick up a scythe and go collecting people’s souls. He
is a definite fantasy genre character of the world of Kalevala. The
balloon representing his speech is covered with ice and the bottom
of it looks like little icicles. It also hangs up in the air without
pointing directly to the speaker; seems like the voice of Tuoni
comes from everywhere and at the same time it could freeze you
over. The balloon also rises above the frame, which indicates
someone so powerful that he’s not binded by the borders of the
frame.
The Kalevala’s Tuonela can’t be seen as a direct representation
of Christianity’s hell, as it isn’t the place of punishment for the
sinners. Though as a frozen, icy place it has a connection to hell as
it was described in Dante’s Divine Comedy, where the deepest
circle of hell was a cold place. But in this case, Tuonela is a
separate secondary world, an icy island inside the world of
Kalevala. It is a world within a world with distinct borders
separating it from Kalevala.
Messengers travelling between the worlds
What is also important about these two secondary worlds is that
not anyone can enter there. One of the main things of the passage
between the primary and the secondary world is the gate between
them and the fact that the gate isn’t open to just anyone
(Nikolajeva 1998, 77). The mere fact that the ducks were allowed
to enter to the lighthouse with the help of an old man, and to
Tuonela by Tuoni, shows readers that Rosa is definitely dealing
with fantasy.
Nobody else had entered to lighthouse before the ducks, as the
sword was still there. Donald’s remark can be seen as a revealing
one on this matter: “[- -] And I suppose it’s just been stuck in that
rock for thousands of years and nobody even noticed it?! (Rosa
2004, 11)” It is unlikely that the sword would have been there, if
someone else had found the lighthouse before the ducks. And the
only way the ducks managed to do it, was with the help of the old
man mentioned.
The expression on old man’s face was quite reclutant when the
ducks first declared they were searching for ancient ruins, but
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 11
when Donald reveals they are after Sampo, the look on man’s face
changes instantly. (Rosa 2004, 9.) He realizes that if these people
know enough of this place being the “misty headlands”, they are
worthy of finding the lighthouse too.
And when it comes to entering Tuonela, Tuoni tells Scrooge
and Donald: “Only those whose names are honored in my Book of
Sleep may enter.” According to this, it is also clear that not anyone
can just step inside of Tuonela. The only reason why Donald and
Scrooge may enter and talk to Louhi is Donald’s ability to sleep. In
Tuoni’s Book of Sleep, Donald is referred to as “a devotee to
slumber”, so he can enter the place freely – and take his uncle with
him. (Rosa 2004, 17.)
With these two examples provided, I claim that the ducks are
messengers, characters that can both open portals to another world
and move between them more easily than anyone else. Nikolajeva
describes a messenger as someone who comes from the secondary
world and has magical abilities (1998, 82), but I suggest that the
ducks should be regarded as messengers. They’re not from the
primary world as they live in Duckburg, which is a fictive place,
and their abilities to both find the portals to secondary worlds and
open them indicate that they aren’t in the same level as the other
characters. Even though they don’t possess magical abilities, they
must have some special qualities to do so.
A good example of this suggestion is how the ducks release the
supernatural elements from Kalevala and bring them to primary
world Finland. As they enter Tuonela, they anger Louhi, the
mistress of Pohjola by stealing the lockpin of Sampo from her. But
Louhi absorbs some of Scrooge’s life essence, and by using that
she calls to the help of Magica DeSpell. Together these two
witches attack the ducks and Louhi summons the ancient monster
Iku-Turso to destroy primary world Finland. (Rosa 2004, 19; 24-
25.) Even though it is Louhi who uses Väinämöinen’s kantele to
call the giant frog-like Iku-Turso, it was initially the ducks who
gave her the power to break free from Tuonela.
So it is the messenger abilities of the ducks that enabled the
supernatural beings from a fantasy world to move across the border
between the worlds, and cause the damage to Helsinki city center.
On the next page we see the monster Iku-Turso standing on top of
the Helsinki Cathedral in Senaatintori holding the tower of the
Stockmann building in its hand.7 This is also a good example of
why crossing the borderline between the primary and secondary
world is so difficult. If the portal were open to just anyone, these
kind of monstrosities would gain access to a normal world much
more easily.
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 29.)
The magical objects in The Quest for Kalevala
Sampo
One couldn’t write a paper on The Kalevala’s fantasy without
referring to its most mystical object: the Sampo. As a source of
eternal wealth, Sampo has been the object for many scholars,
artists and writers, who have tried to grasp something of its
essence. The Kalevala describes Sampo as a mill that grinds grain,
7 We can interpret this frame also as an intertextual reference to the
original King Kong movie (1933) in which King Kong is standing on top
of the Empire State Building holding an airplane in his hand.
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 13
salt, and gold coins (Lönnrot 2002, 68; The Kalevala, Rune X). It
can’t be nothing but magical, but it’s not a means to travel between
the worlds, only a means of getting wealthy. In this paper, the term
“magical object” refers to a different kind of matter.
The magical objects are typical motives in fantasy literature.
They’re similar to the gates and portals as their function is to create
a passage from the primary world to the secondary world.
(Nikolajeval 1998, 87.) According to this definition, Sampo can’t
be seen as a magical object, since it hasn’t got anything to do with
the passage between the worlds. But there are two distinctive
magical objects in Rosa’s The Quest for Kalevala: kantele (Finnish
zither) and the sword of Väinämöinen.
Kantele – the Finnish zither
There are two different kanteles in the comic. The first one is a
regular, in every way ordinary kantele that the old man starts to
play after he’s met the ducks and pointed them to the lighthouse,
which is not anywhere to be seen, as Scrooge comments. The man
himself answers: “Of course not... Not yet! [- -].” But he’s willing
to help them. After the ducks leave he starts to play the kantele.
Soon after that a massive snowstorm rises and covers everything –
and then the ducks find the lighthouse. (Rosa 2004, 9-10.)
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 9.)
It is quite obvious that the lighthouse wasn’t there in the first
place. It was unseen to both the ducks and the readers. But when
the mystical old man plays his kantele the music opens the portal to
another world, to Kalevala. And that portal is hidden in the
snowstorm.
At this point it is important to note that it wasn’t only the
kantele doing the trick, as it wasn’t the famous kantele from The
Kalevala, but also the man himself. As Don Rosa tells in his
preface to the Finnish translation of The Quest for Kalevala, he
was pondering how to describe the heroes of The Kalevala. He
ended up in a solution: to distinguish the The Kalevala’s heroes
they were drawn humanlike so they would get the dignity they
deserved. (Rosa 2000, 6.) On the contrary, all the other “human”
characters have animal-like features, like dog’s ears, pig’s snouts
or black button noses; even Elias Lönnrot, the assembler of The
Kalevala, as you can see of the frame below.
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 5.)
This is a common feature of all the characters in Disney comics,
no matter who is the artist. The people are generally described in
an animalistic way to “soften” their actions. Deborah O’Keefe says
that it’s easier for the reader to enter the fantasy world when the
habitants are animals who act like humans. The normal
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 15
assumptions of their perhaps morally questionable actions can be
set aside as they’re not entirely human. (O’Keefe 2003, 61.)
And another fact is, as Scott McCloud points out, “the
universality of cartoon imagery”. So the more “cartoony” the face
is, “the more people it could be said to describe”. (McCloud 1993,
31.) It is much easier to identify with a character that hasn’t got
many distinctive features. That’s why Disney uses these iconic
characters, and for the same reason Rosa distinguishes the heroes
of The Kalevala from normal people: they are indeed different
from the ordinary.
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 35.)
The man ducks met on the coast was indeed very much
humanlike with his regular nose. This is the first hint the readers
get that we’re not dealing with a typical Disney character – but
with Väinämöinen himself as we see the resemblance with the old
man and the hero later on in the comic.
There are also other proofs that the old man is disguised
Väinämöinen, who has been guarding the pieces of Sampo. When
Väinämöinen is about to leave, he declaims lyrics of a song to
Scrooge and the lyrics are the same as in the image above: “Don’t
distress yourself for silver – Never betray yourself for gold! (Rosa
2004, 31)”. In addition to that, the old man in the final frame of the
comic speaks to Scrooge the same way Väinämöinen does: his
balloons are wavy and the font in the balloon is the same as the
font of Väinämöinen8. (Rosa 2004, 35.) These are clear evidence of
the identity of this mysterious man.
The other kantele that appears in the comic is of course the
famous kantele made of pike’s jawbone. It was long lost in the sea,
but Donald manages to rake the kantele from the waves. With this
kantele, it doesn’t matter who plays it and how; only a single chord
is enough to fulfil the wishes of the player. Scrooge only needs to
touch one string with his cane and thus call Väinämöinen to help
them against Magica DeSpell. The same way Donald is able to lure
the monster Iku-Turso back in the sea with his very off-key
playing. (Rosa 2004, 23; 29.)
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 23.)
As one can see, a mere desire is enough for the kantele to work
its magic. You don’t have to be a bard or a shaman, only a little
twang of the string brings the owner of the kantele to its presence.
Väinämöinen is such an impressive figure that the whole character
8 This use of different font for the heroes of The Kalevala can be seen
even more clearly in the Finnish translation, in which the first letters in
the balloon are written in very ornamental capitals. It is a distinct way of
showing who’s talking at the moment.
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 17
of him towers over the borders of the frame. His presence doesn’t
fit in a space of a regular character.
Scrooge did get a clear note from the kantele, but Donald’s
musical abilities only allow him to produce very off-key tunes. Yet
he manages to get Iku-Turso’s attention and distract him from
destroying the city of Helsinki, and finally lure him back to the sea.
(Rosa 2004, 29.) Both of these cases demonstrated the magic of the
kantele: how it is capable of working wonders even in the hands of
a non-magical being.
On the other hand, with a skilled player the kantele can do
incredible things. When Louhi takes the kantele, her playing calls
Iku-Turso from the sea. Her notes take place on the staff and form
a real melody. In proportion, when Väinämöinen plays, his notes
alike are in order on the staff and not just hang loosely in the
balloon.9
The kantele of Väinämöinen has various magical abilities. As
mentioned above, it is able to summon people and beasts to its
presence. It can also send people away, like Donald sends both
Magica and Gyro Gearloose back in their homes.10
(Rosa 2004,
30.) And as it is told in The Kalevala, the kantele enchants its
listeners: “That music – even more beautiful than gold!” Scrooge
says and forgets the coins Sampo is producing when Väinämöinen
starts to play his instrument. (Rosa 2004, 31.)
9 Both of these notes form a melody of real songs. When Louhi plays,
it’s Wagner’s «Ride of the Valkyries», and when Väinämöinen plays, it’s
part of the «Finlandia» by Sibelius. (Rosa 2000, 6.) These choices might
refer to a battle between good and bad : Louhi is willing to conquer
Finland with her choice (it is said that some European dictators favoured
this song by Wagner), and Väinämöinen’s choice « Finlandia » can be
seen as a song of national pride of a small country, whose epic hero
Väinämöinen is, and how the people of this country fought the big Soviet
Union during the Winter War (1939-1940) and never surrendered. 10
But it’s also worth mentioning that Donald’s abilities to use kantele
aren’t that good: he sends Gyro to Magica’s hut in Vesuvius and Magica
to Duckburg in Gyro’s workshop.
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 31.)
On the frame above, we can see the notes setting neatly on the
staff, when a true master of kantele is playing. The magic of the
instrument goes beyond the frame borders preparing the spell and
changing the weather. We can also see the clouds I mentioned
earlier: again they stretch all the way from border to border and get
darker as the weather chages.
Most importantly, the kantele can open portals to different
worlds. In the end of the comic, as Väinämöinen starts to play the
kantele, the weather changes and the boat the ducks were travelling
on starts to lift up to the air. “This is just like in the conclusion of
the Kalevala - - he’s going back to eternity!” the nephews realise
and they head off from the boat. Väinämöinen himself states he
goes “beyond the Northern Lights”. (Rosa 2004, 32.)
In The Kalevala, it is never minutely said that Väinämöinen
would go to eternity, but his journey in the English translation is
described to as:
Sailing o'er the rolling billows,
Sailing through the azure vapors,
Sailing through the dusk of evening,
Sailing to the fiery sunset,
To the higher-landed regions,
To the lower verge of heaven;
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 19
(The Kalevala, Rune L.)11
However, this description fits to Rosa’s story as well, because
the boat Väinämöinen and Scrooge are in is rising up higher in the
sky. At the same time the borders of the frames are turning wavy
and more decorative, as my example below demonstrates. Usually
in comic analysis this states a dream narration, or dream-like
situation, like Will Eisner described (1994, 44), but in this case we
can interpret this as a transition to another world.
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 32.)
When Scrooge finally realises he’s not ready to go with
Väinämöinen, he lets both him and Sampo go. As you can see from
the frames on the next page, he drops far from the air through a
cloudlike portal to a pile of snow next to Donald and the nephews,
who claim they had swum ashore “hours” ago. But for Scrooge it
seemed like seconds (Rosa 2004, 32; 34), which is another proof of
them being in a different world.
11
The original Finnish text shortly describes how Väinämöinen’s
journey takes him to « yläisiin maaemihin, alaisihin taivosihin » (Lönnrot
2002, 364).
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 34.)
An element typical of myths and folklores and also of some
fantasy stories based on them is that the time in the secondary
world goes in a different pace than in the real primary world;
usually slower (e.g. Nikolajeva 1998, 65). What seemed to Scrooge
to be merely seconds was several hours for the other ducks.12
It is
also important to note that when Donald and the nephews jumped,
they were in the world of Kalevala, but Scrooge was on his way to
much further, to a whole new world behind the northern lights.
You can see from the images how he’s dropping from far, far
away, and actually falls down through the frame border – like he’s
been somewhere else but in this comic. This time difference
distinguishes the primary world and the secondary worlds from
each other and clarifies the fact that we indeed are talking about
separate realities.
The Sword of Väinämöinen
The previously mentioned sword of Väinämöinen is the other
magical object of the comic. Cast by the blacksmith Ilmarinen, the
hilt of the sword is beautifully decorated: the pommel is shaped
like a head of a dog and the guard is cast to a shape of two horses.
Huey, Dewey and Louie recognise it as the sword of Väinämöinen
12
A similar thing happens also in C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series in Prince
Caspian, when the children from the primary world return to the fantastic
Narnia and realize hundreds of years have been passed in Narnia’s time
yet it was only a year since their last journey.
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 21
based on the illustration they find in The Kalevala. (Rosa 2004,
11.)
Kalevala itself describes the sword of the Väinämöinen in a
following way:
On the sword-point gleams the moonlight,
On the blade the sun is shining,
On the hilt the bright stars twinkle,
On the edge a horse is neighing,
On the handle plays a kitten,
On the sheath a dog is barking.
(The Kalevala, Rune XXXIX.)13
It is clear that Rosa has read the description of the sword from
The Kalevala and created his own version of the sword for his
comic. There is even the image of the sun on the blade, just as it
described in the poem.
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 11.)
13
The original text goes: ”Olipa miekka miestä myöten, kalpa
kantajan mukahan, / jonka kuu kärestä paistoi, päivä paistoi lappeasta, /
tähet väististä välötti, hevonen terällä hirnui, / kasi naukui naulan päässä,
penu putkessa puhusi.” (Lönnrot 2002, 285.)
Embedded in the solid floor of the lighthouse, surrounded by a
“spotlight” coming from the ceiling, the sword is left there for a
purpose. When a right person finds the place and so for the sword,
it is there to create a mental connection to Väinämöinen himself.
So when Scrooge touches the sword as seen on the previous
page, a greenish glow surrounds him and his eyes turn yellow. As
he starts to speak, it is not his voice anymore, but someone’s who
speaks in a more archaic tone. This is shown with the use of a
different font for the readers. There is also a difference between the
balloons of Scrooge and Donald in the image: Donald’s balloon fits
nicely in the space of the frame whereas Scrooge’s (or to be exact
his possesser’s) balloon rises above the frame borders. (Rosa 2004,
11.)
When it comes to the images of the comic, the reader is
provided with even a clearer interpretation, when a grey figure of
Väinämöinen appears behind Scrooge to prove that it is indeed him
speaking through Scrooge’s mouth. The figure of Väinämöinen can
be seen as a pale reflection behind Scrooge, but it is so clear that
even the nephews notice it, so it is not there for only the readers to
see, but visible to the characters also. (Rosa 2004, 12.)
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 12.)
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 23
As for this kind of “astral receiver” (Rosa 2004, 15), the ducks
can also use the sword to summon people – or more likely,
Väinämöinen does the work through Scrooge, as he calls out to the
blacksmith Ilmarinen, the inventor of Sampo. But because Scrooge
is the vessel Väinämöinen uses, the magic of the sword gets a little
twisted and the spell summons the inventor Gyro Gearloose from
Duckburg instead of the blacksmith from The Kalevala. (Rosa
2004, 13.)
The goal of Väinämöinen is to forge Sampo back together and
for that he needs a blacksmith. But even though Scrooge is under
the influence of an ancient shaman and wizard, he is still Scrooge
and the only inventor he knows is Gyro Gearloose. Hence, he is the
one Scrooge manages to summon with the power of Väinämöinen.
Characters and their mythical counterparts
There are cases of fantasy stories in which the primary world
and the parallel fantasy world are connected, and when the
protagonist from the primary world enters the other world, he or
she discovers that the inhabitants of that world have counterparts in
the “real” world. They might not have exactly the same names or
appearances, but there is some kind of similarity, which indicates
that we can talk about counterpart personalities.14
Even without Rosa’s explanation in his preface (Rosa 2000, 6);
it is clear for the readers that some of the duck characters have
their mythical counterparts in Kalevala world. Scrooge is no doubt
Väinämöinen and Gyro Gearloose represents Ilmarinen. Less than
obvious though is Donald being Lemminkäinen, but yet again quite
obvious is that Magica DeSpell is the counterpart of Louhi, as she
helps her to take on Scrooge to get Sampo back.
All these representations come out visually clear in the comic,
as Rosa has included a couple of adaptations of the famous
Kalevala paintings of Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela: The
Forging of the Sampo and The Defense of the Sampo.
14
A good example of this kind of fantasy story is The Talisman by
Stephen King and Peter Straub.
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 14.)
Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Forging of the Sampo (1893)
15
15
Oil on canvas, 200 x 151 cm, Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki,
Finland. (Suomalainen taidegalleria 1999, 57.) Photo © Seppo Ilpo.
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 25
On the previous page we can see the clear connection between
the frame from The Quest of Kalevala, and the painting by a
famous Finnish painter, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, who is most known
worldwide of his illustrations of The Kalevala mythology. The
composition of the characters and the old forge is almost the same,
even though the positions of the images are the exact opposite:
Gallen-Kallela’s original painting is set in vertical position and
Rosa’s frame in horizontal position.
Rosa’s frame also makes clear Gyro Gearloose’s position in the
story: he is the new blacksmith, the Ilmarinen of Duckburg, whose
goal is to forge Sampo back together. When Gallen-Kallela’s
painting shows us how Sampo was forged, Rosa’s frame creates an
adaptation of it with the slight change that now Sampo is being
forged back together from the pieces.
The other adaptation of Gallen-Kallela’s paintings is Rosa’s
version on The Defence of the Sampo on the following page. Here
we see clearly how Scrooge represents the comic’s Väinämöinen
and Magica DeSpell is the counterpart of Louhi. Yet again, the
composition of the characters corresponds perfectly the original
painting: even the earmuffs of the caps on the nephews’ heads
mimic the hair of the oarsmen in the painting. On the basis of the
storyline, these details don’t really matter, but they do create a
clear connection to the paintings and add some sense of familiarity
to the readers who know their Kalevala.
But the counterpart issue is not that simple. For instance, the
blacksmith Ilmarinen never appears in the comic, only his
representation Gyro Gearloose is present. Gyro is comprehensively
taking over the place of this hero of The Kalevala. However, both
Scrooge and Magica and their counterparts Väinämöinen and
Louhi appear in the comic. So there is a time when Scrooge is
taking over the place of Väinämöinen (guiding the forging of the
Sampo and finding the famous kantele), but their roles separate as
soon as Scrooge calls him to their aid against Magica. Magica also
turns over her place as the main villain in the comic to Louhi when
she realizes she’s not a match for the mythical hero and shaman
Väinämöinen.
© Disney (Rosa 2004, 22.)
Akseli Gallen-Kallela, The Defence of the Sampo (1896)
16
16
Tempera on canvas, 122 X 125cm, Turku Art Museum, Finland.
(Suomalainen taidegalleria 1999, 73.) Photo © Seppo Ilpo.
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 27
Quite soon after the events described on the frame based on the
painting The Defence of the Sampo on the previous page, all the
ducks get separated from their counterparts of the ancient heroes
and realize they no longer fulfil the purposes of the heroes and
have only been puppets in a larger story to get Sampo back.
These two frames which represent “the duck view” on the
famous paintings, offer a link between the myth and the
contemporary comic; thus providing the reader a unique view on
Finnish culture and the national epic. These frames are not in any
way emphasized to point out their importance, they’ve just been
added as a part of normal comic narration. To realize the
references, the reader needs to know the original paintings and then
the poses and the composition of the ducks create a link to the
Gallen-Kallela’s paintings and offer the clear vision on the
relationship between the ducks and their mythical counterparts.
In the end of this chapter, I would like to add that I have
hesitated talking about parodies in this context, because the point
of Rosa isn’t to ridicule the original, but to show it a short of
homage in a “duck way”. But to confirm: the postmodernist view
on parody has other forms and meanings than only making the
original piece ridiculous. Linda Hutcheon says that “[p]ostmodern
parody is a kind of contesting revision or rereading of the past that
both confirms and subverts the power of the representations of
history” (Hutcheon 1989, 95).
With Hutcheon’s description on postmodern parody (1989,
107), I can agree on these frames being parodic. By making these
images Rosa is conscious of the cultural continuum, but at the
same time he challenges this authority that Gallen-Kallela has had
with his paintings based on the events of The Kalevala for over a
hundred years. Rosa shows that even an artist of a popular
contemporary comic can use these famous paintings as a source
material to create a new way of describing the events of The
Kalevala and combine them to the modern Disney characters.
Conclusions
In this paper, I have discussed widely the fantastic features of
Don Rosa’s The Quest for Kalevala. I have shown how Rosa uses
both the primary world and the two different secondary worlds in
his comic. Both Kalevala and Tuonela have distinctive features as
fantasy worlds and entrance to both requires the use of different
portals. In Tuonela’s case, the portal is a concrete gate, but to
access Kalevala, you have to use a magical object, the kantele.
Even the title of the comic refers to the most common fantasy
theme: the quest. With these examples provided, we can surely
remove the question mark from my article’s title and state that
Rosa’s comics can be regarded as part of the fantasy genre.
Rosa’s ability to combine the fictive representation of the real
world, its people and events, with the fantasy world that arises
from the Finnish national epic is unlike in any other current Disney
comic artists works. It is also a typical act for postmodern narrative
which combines both fictive and historical elements and deals with
high and popular culture oppositions crossing constantly their
borders (Hutcheon 1989, 15; 28).
By putting contemporary (and quite popular) culture characters
in an adventure in a world of high literary epic Rosa makes his
comic a postmodern piece of narrative. This kind of playing with
the opposite genre styles and combining them both explores and
comments the possibilities of the field of a mass production comic.
In addition, Rosa uses characters of Disney, one of the symbols of
the Western capitalistic world, in an epic which was put together to
strengthen the rising national pride of a small country under the
supremacy of Russia. These facts create a strong contrast of
opposites which is how postmodern stories question the ruling
discourses of different genres.
But to put postmodernist discourse aside is there a point behind
the story and the quest of the ducks? Why add such fantastic
elements to a Donald Duck comic? Is it all just for a laugh, for a
thrill of an adventure, or is there a deeper meaning behind Rosa’s
comic?
This sort of adventure comic in which the ducks are on a quest
in search of different kind of treasures is very typical of Don Rosa.
The treasure might be mythical, like the hidden city of Eldorado, or
lost during the history, like the destroyed library of Alexandria.
What is common to this type of stories is that the treasure does
exist, but when it’s found Scrooge is unable to collect it as an
DONALD DUCK – A FANTASY COMIC ? FANTASY IN DON ROSA’S THE
QUEST FOR KALEVALA 29
addition to his fortune. It might belong to a museum or it might be
lost just after being discovered. What is left of the adventure hunt
is usually a single item of memorabilia that Scrooge carefully
places in his special trophy room.
The same thing happens also in The Quest for Kalevala. The
hunt for the mythical mill of eternal prosperity ends when
Väinämöinen takes the Sampo with him beyond the northern lights.
Scrooge is left behind with the handle of Sampo. Scrooge’s greed
for easy money was literally sinking their boat, when the amount of
coins was building up. He was about to destroy not only his own
but also the lives of his relatives. Only the music from the kantele
could wake him up from this hypnotized state. When the boat
started rising up to the sky, Scrooge still wouldn’t let Sampo go,
not until Väinämöinen reminded him: “Are you ready to go with
me? – Have prosperity eternal? – Forsake your own Kalevala –
Where a lost love still awaits you?” (Rosa 2004, 31-33.)
Väinämöinen refers to Scrooge’s time in Yukon, where he was
prospecting gold and where he left the love of his life, Goldie
O’Gilt. Scrooge has never admitted it in public, but the most
valued of his possession is a lock of hair from Goldie’s head17
. The
words of Väinämöinen made Scrooge realise what he values most
in life: it is not money, it is his memories. This tendency to discuss
moral questions of greed and wealth appears in various comics by
Rosa and it’s his way of showing that there is much more in
Scrooge’s personality than his greediness and penny pinching
lifestyle – like his name should suggest.18
So as Rosa discusses (yet again) the themes of greed and
whether money makes one happy, he does that by using fantasy
and at the same time touches both the readers of the contemporary
comics and the readers of old folklores and epics.
To conclude, I have showed that Don Rosa’s Disney comics can
be regarded as fantasy comics. His postmodern way and talent on
combining mimetic elements to a fantastic narration brings new
17
This is revealed in Rosa’s final comic The Prisoner of White Agony
Creek (2006). 18
One of the most revealing comics on this matter is Rosa’s A Letter
from Home (2004).
readers acquainted with the Finnish national epic, and offers a new
view on the known story as we see it from the duck perspective.
REFERENCES
EISNER Will, 1994, Comics & Sequential Art, USA, Poorhouse Press.
HUTCHEON Linda, 1989, The Politics of Posmodernism, London,
Routledge.
The Kalevala, 1888, translated by John Martin Crawford, in
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/ .
LÖNNROT Elias, 2002 (original 1849), Kalevala, Viborg, Denmark,
Nørhaven Paperback a/s.
McCLOUD Scott, 1993, Understanding Comics, the Invisible Art, New
York, HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
NIKOLAJEVA Maria, 1998, The Magic Code. The Use of Magical
Patterns in Fantasy for Children, Göteborg, Graphic Systems.
O’KEEFE Deborah, 2003, Readers in Wonderland. The Liberating
Worlds of Fantasy Fiction, London, The Continuum International
Publishing Group.
ROSA Don 2000, Sammon salaisuus ja muita Don Rosan parhaita,
Portugal, Norprint Artes Gráficas S.A.
ROSA Don, 2004, The Quest for Kalevala, Uncle Scrooge, 334,
Gemstone Publishing, pp. 3-35.
ROSA Don, 2005, The Last of the Clan McDuck, The Life and Times of
Scrooge McDuck, Timonium, Maryland, Gemstone Publishing, pp. 8-
23.
Suomalainen taidegalleria : Albert Edelfelt, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Juho
Rissanen, Helene Schjerfbeck, Hugo Simberg, 1999, edited by Eija
Kämäräinen, Porvoo, WSOY.