Our all recurring hero Donald Duck is a security guard atthe Duckburg Museum and in the opening window he stares at a large Viking ship. Curiously he enters the ship and on the lower deck he finds a pequiliar man apparently examining the ship. Donald aproaches him and tells that the ship is only to be watched from the outside.
Suprised the man turns around, excuses himself and tells he must have been wrongly informed. Pointing to the outside Donald dismisses him and shortly thereafter Donald finds an ancient parchment made of deerskin in one of the logs of the ship. The parchment looks like a map of some sorts with runes on the backside, minutes later Donald has taken it to the curator and informed him about the man on the ship.
Without their knowledge, he is listening on the other side of the door. After a brief translation the runes tells the story of Olaf Blue, a viking who discovered America long before Columbus. To prove that this new land belonged to him and his ancentors he made a helmet of gold, shortly after the king of Norway called him back. Angered Blue returned to Norway, but made a secret map to show the hiding place of the helmet in case he would return. The location seems to be somewhere along the 49th longitude in Labrador
After he finished reading, the curator understand to his fear what it would mean if the helmet would be found again: the finder would be supreme ruler of the whole American continent. At the same moment the door opens and two men enters, one of them being the one from the ship and the other carries a briefcase.
The man with the briefcase prenounces himself as Lawyer Sharky and the other as Azure Blue, a decendant of the aforementioned viking. Sharky demands that the map shall be given to Azure Blue or else the museum will be sued. Jumping out of his seat the curator shouts "Can you prove that he really is the decendant of Olaf the Blue?", with a sly smile Sharky replies "Prove he is not, if you can." Soon Blue grabs the map and the couple leaves the room in triumph, probably to got fetch the helmet.
Fortunately the curator has photographic memory and draws the map on a sheet of paper and makes another copy. Donald say they have to obtain the helmet, before Blue does and destroy it. Agreeing the curator suggest they shall go two different ways in hopes of finding it quicklier and bring one copy each with them. Back home Donald tells his nephews that he will go to Labardor, after a brief discussion what Labrador really is the nephews joins him.
After some weeks at sea they finally reaches Labrador, meanwhile the curator is trying to get to Labrador by plane but as the plane runs out of fuel he must go by foot. After a seemingly endless search for the helmet they finally found it, only to get it taken by Blue and Sharky mere minutes later. Blue claims America as his sole property and prepares to kill Donald and company.
The curator shows up just in time and saves them. Just as he is about to throw it into the ocean, Sharky tells him that he can become king of America instead of Blue and backs him up. From this point the helmet switches owner from all of the adults (whoever it is Sharky always back him up) and finally to be put in the hands of Sharky.
Here is the helmet in the possesion of Donald with Sharky to the left
At the end Huey annoyed by the arguments who the helmet belongs to throws a snowball on it so Sharky looses the grip of the helmet and it disappears into the bottom of the sea.
Now for the analysis:
First of all this is a very interesting story as always Barks manage to keep the reader interested with his humor and hidden sarcasm. His drawing technique is also very impressive, especially the scenes in Labrador and the Sea.
You really get the impression you are there with Donald and his nephews. The helmet the story revolves around is very similar to the One Ring in J.R.R Tolkein's works which was to be published some years after. What I mean is everyone who have the intention to destroy it becomes addicted to it in a way very closely related to the One Ring and want to use it for their own.
Even though it was published in 1951 Barks knew very early how powerful a dominion over America would be. Time has now come to talk about the most interesting aspect of this story: Sharky! At first I thought he was just a henchman of Azure Blue. But when he provokes the curator and Donald to use the helmet instead of destroying it and takes their party I begin to think differently. Why do he always take posseser of the helmet's party and who is he really? Question like this has very often circulated in my head and now I will do the best I can to answer them in my own way.
To me he is the true villain of the story, Blue may be cruel but is more reasonable, Sharky is maybe the true decendant of Olaf the Blue! More radically I belive he may be Satan or something like that, I mean he acts like a tempter, is very coldblooded and is very attached to the helmet.
Maybe the helmet is an unholy artifact and a portal to the other side? The finale when all adults are incapacitated and Sharky is last man standing is very chokeholding and almost scary. Fortunately Huey makes an abrupt ending to this shaking scene by stoping Sharky's malevolent intentions with a snowball.
Well I dont have so much more to say then, read this comic if you find it somewhere. I strongly reccomend it, it is one the best comics that has been written, ever!
If you look at the all parts you find it quite avant-garde in how it is composed, it doesn't really follow the standard pattern of how a story shall be unfold.
The drawings are as said before superb in the wein Barks always do them, but it is nature scenes in this comic that make it somewhat unique on that point also.
If you have found more interesting things I have not noticed I am looking forward to hear them.
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