Review by Ian Keogh
Rather than a continuation of Kid Beowulf’s adventures, Songs & Sagas is five adventures taking place in broadly the same society, with the title page of each introducing the cast and location, and noting when in the continuity the story takes place. However, as they’re all by Alexis E. Fajardo quality is guaranteed. Regular readers will love this glimpse into the background world, while new readers can pick this up without knowing anything about Kid Beowulf.
‘Shild and the Dragon’ is set 25 years before Kid Beowulf is around, and stars a hunter who’s not having a very successful time, so decides to accompany a herbalist looking for specific plants in territory where there’s said to be a dragon. Well, there is. The story title tells us as much, but what it doesn’t tell us is the sheer joy of the comedy adventure, while fans who’ve read the series to date will discover some extra background information.
‘Lay of the Last Survivor’ is a wordless tale showing how it is that Kid Beowulf while still a baby survived the massacre of his village, with Grendel’s mother Gertrude brave and instrumental in the process.
‘Lookin’ for Lingonberries’ occurs after the first Kid Beowulf adventure, with Beowulf and Grendel already friends. It’s Lingonberry season, and Beowulf wants some, so sets off imagining all the ways they can be cooked. However, he’s not the only person to discover the large lingonberry patch. If you’ve ever wondered when Beowulf first met Emer and Ermlaf, the answer is provided here.
The far longer ‘Paladin’s Tale’ takes place in what’s now France, but back in the day was Francia, and occurs midway through The Song of Roland after a bunch of King Charlemagne’s Peers are betrayed and imprisoned. The four of them are separated, and the smart story details their creatively different methods of escape.
‘Boudi’s Bounty’ slots between the third and fourth books and is by a few pages the longest story here, in fact as long as a Asterix book. It’s hilarious in focussing on Beowulf in love for the first time, and Boudica in hiding in France as there’s a bounty on her head back in England. Emer and Ermlaf are there to complicate matters as a group of bounty hunters target Boudi.
As with all Kid Beowulf books, Fajardo’s European style of comedy cartooning sets the right tone for accompanying his comedy adventure plots. A selection of stories set during previous adventures is a smart move as not only is it a subtle push towards those books for new readers, it offers extra treats for regulars, and they’re every bit as much fun as the earlier epics.
This is strangely absent from conventional book sites except in digital form, so if you want a physical copy you’re best buying it directly from Fajardo here.
