Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. ***
Hi. I'm not the kind of girl and neither is Debbie Harry.
I know that because she told me so, way back, this week in 1980, when she and the rest of Blondie hit the very top of the UK singles chart, with their cover of the Paragons' The Tide is High.
What a lovely song that is but with a terrible video.
Over on the British album chart, meanwhile, it was Barbra Streisand who ruled with an iron fist, thanks to her Barry Gibb produced album Guilty.
Total ignorance reigns, within my head, about the contents of this week's issue.
I would assume the cover image belongs to that strip about the ghost who takes people over in World War II but I could be totally wrong about that.
More alarming is the front cover news that ROM's inert and helpless. It's bad enough being helpless but to be inert as well...
For an actual once, I have information about the contents of a comic.
I do believe that, this issue, Moon-Boy rescues the youthful Devil Dinosaur from a bunch of hungry ape-men, and a beautiful friendship is born.
Conan kills a man called Yorubo to become chief of the Bamula tribe.
Dr Strange is, possibly, up against a menace known as the dweller in darkness, while Clea finds herself threatened by a couple of creatures that resemble shadows.
We get a tale of Asgard in which Odin prevents his kingdom from being captured by Ice Giants, and traps Ymir in a ring of fire. There's no news as to whether it has to share it with Johnny Cash.
And we finish off with more of the Wally Wood narrated tale The Bold and the Brave.
As though that weren't enough, we also get Part 2 of our, no doubt, much-coveted Devil Dinosaur jigsaw.
The Micronauts find themselves back on Earth and having to fight a bunch of toys animated by a young girl.
We get Adam Warlock's first-ever meeting with the High Evolutionary, although Adam's still in his cocoon, at this point, and calling himself Him.
The crew of Seeker 3000 are up to something or other.
Paladin's battling someone called Phantasm.
And we get more of the origin of Star-Lord.
Even more excitingly, we get Part 2 of a spaceship we can build for ourselves!
Egads! Once I have my hands on that, the galaxy itself will be mine to conquer!
Here's an oddity. The cover proclaims it to be the 400th issue, when it's actually the 401st, and it's dated October 12th when it should be dated November 12th. Good to see the Marvel UK proofreaders doing their job there.
As for the insides, from what I can recall, a bunch of bored rich people decide to defeat the Hulk, with a chess-based challenge. I'm sure that'll end well for them.
I'm not aware of what this week's Spidey tale is but it would appear that, yet again, She-Hulk and Spider-Woman are absent from the book.
I do detect this issue features the tale in which Franklin Richards is possessed by Agatha Harkness's evil son, thanks to Reed not being in the habit of locking the door to the Negative Zone.
Elsewhere, Spidey and Valkyrie team-up to tackle the Meteor Man, a villain who's getting a remarkable number of mentions on this site, of late.
And it would appear we get a story in which Spidey and DD unite to combat a trio of the web-spinner's deadliest foes.
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46 comments:
But that Spider-Man & Hulk cover doesn't proclaim itself the 400th issue Steve - its says its the SECOND great 400th anniversary issue. Which I guess it is, because you get part 2 of the Spidey and He-Hulk stories continued from #400.
Perhaps #402 will be the third 400th anniversary.
I wonder why they didn't go with "second great 1st issue" on the cover of Valour and Future Tense.
-sean
That Spider-Man/Daredevil teamup. Any idea where that came from? Or is it a non-canon junk story exclusively for the U.K. market? The sort of thing they put in kids comics these days?
Team-up # 9
Team-up #9's cover - is it a cross between 'The Omen' & 'The Exorcist?' No - in reality, the FF only gets 3 pages, so not much happens. Franklin & Sue are playing; Reed walks in, saying he'll get pizza (but wants to go to the library - no internet in those days!) Ben Grimm accompanies Reed, downtown, and Reed says they must economize, being low on funds. Cross cut to Agatha Harkness's evil son, Nicholas Scratch, escaping from the Dark Realm, ready to cause mischief - and that's it! The cover promised a lot, but doesn't deliver - at least not this week!
Team-up's fun lies in guessing who did the story (no credits). In Spidey & the Valkyrie, the story starts with a pathetic fallacy - about how the miserable murky dawn reflects Spidey's mood exactly. Michael Fleischer's purple prose (like in Ghost Rider)? But no cannibalism, so unlikely.
Suddenly Meteor Man attacks Spidey (despite us last seeing him two issues ago!) - it's a warning - interfere again, and there'll be trouble. If you're a villain, why give the hero a warning, first? (Baron Brimstone did this to Machine Man.) Just finish them off! Meanwhile, Nighthawk's whining to Valkyrie (poor Meteor Man, with his problems) about Spidey, but she disagrees with Nighthawk! Cross cut to a disco (c.f. Spidey & Falcon?) in a church, where a religious wackjob villain, named Jeremiah, disintegrates two cops, in front of his followers. Could Roger Stern be the writer? Who knows? The inking's quite scratchy, like Vince Coletta. The art's middling - maybe Jim Mooney.
After Ms.Marvel's battle with Grotesk, she's been captured & strung up by Modok. He forces her to listen through a boring lecture, as the Hangman does in Spider-woman, but then grafts Ms.Marvel's uniform onto one of his female agents (a bit like the criminal in Firefall's armour, in ROM). Unfortunately, the uniform meld doesn't work, and Modok blasts his female agent, as if it's her fault!
In What if? Spidey's fighting his greatest foes to save Daredevil. Spidey beats them all, then unmasks the mysterious hooded figure (not another one!) behind it all. Turns out it's Jameson! The Watcher points out, it was all caused by showbiz Spidey discrediting Jameson. Once again Spidey learns "with great power comes great responsibility."
Possibly, Morbius is the best tale. Daemon's cat-demon fails to pin Morbius down until sun-up, because as Morbius is a vampire created through science, rather than a natural vampire, the Sun's rays cause him pain & discomfort, but do not kill him! When Morbius escapes Daemon sends the cat-demon after Morbius again. Morbius is astonished as, during their battle, the cat-demon speaks. Stranger still, a mysterious 'higher authority' summons the cat-demon, to bring Morbius to him, disobeying Daemon! The plot thickens!
Torpedo's better than usual (that's not saying much!) Torpedo's battles the Rocketeers in a nuclear power plant, whose reactor - you've guessed it - is going critical! In comics, there's no other kind (see the Hulk story a couple of weeks ago.) We discover Torpedo's jet boots allow him to stamp the ground, making shock waves like the Hulk does. Why didn't Iron Man think of that? The Rocketeers aren't just anonymous goons either - some actually have names - because that makes them more like 'real' characters to the readers! Hee hee! The leader's named 'Westcott.' If this were a Chris Claremont story, he'd have an Italian name, like 'Salvatori.' The gang of rocketeers have a boss, who's a mysterious figure, whom they refer to only as the 'man.' How many times have we had that before? Anyway, the 'man' wants them to steal the Torpedo's suit! Maybe it's Modok; he's already got Ms.Marvel's uniform - with the Torpedo's as well, he'd have a set! Anyway, Wescott cracks the Torpedo over the head & runs, leaving him unconscious in a nuclear plant whose reactor is going critical (yawn.)
Phillip
Spider-man & Hulk Weekly # 401
The Steve Ditko Hulk story continues with more attacks on the Hulk, at famous New York landmarks. Detective Wade & Banner both independently link the attacks to chess (St. Patrick's Cathedral - bishop, Lady Liberty - Queen, etc.) The story's writer clearly doesn't play chess. The villains' leader declares: "And the final gambit is--King takes Queen!" Gambits - if they happen - are near the start of a chess game; so 'final gambit' sounds like an oxymoron! Moreover, a King taking a Queen is highly unlikely. All the other criminals fail in their attacks, so the leader sets an army of robot chessmen on the Hulk. These also fail. The end.
Spidey vs Rapier is actually quite good. We get Rapier's origin. Turns out he's Silvermane's former gangster partner & best friend, whom Silvermane left for dead, only to be rescued from drowning by a girl called Clarissa. She single-handedly dragged an unconscious Rapier from out of the middle of a lake, and all the way to her father's house.
That's one strong girl.
Then again, Steve Jackson & his mate could lift an 850 pound ROM into a car! But I digress!
Rapier recovers from terrible injuries, building himself up to be better than a champion fencer. The girl, Clarissa, is his constant companion. Rapier tries to kill Silvermane, but Spidey steps in. Rapier cuts off Spidey's webshooters, and starts a fencing match, which Spidey still wins, due to his super-fast reflexes. But this avails Spidey nought, as the ever loyal Clarissa knocks him unconscious. She's a lot more loyal than Martine is to Morbius! Rapier turns on Clarissa for helping him, and Silvermane, despite being wounded, shoots his old friend for a second time. The cops & medics arrive, and Clarissa finally sees the light.
Phillip
'Forces in Combat' # 27
The Golem - The Golem defeats the fire-demons because the word, 'emeth' - truth - mysteriously appears on his forehead. That's about it, really. It doesn't make any sense, and it's the last Golem story, anyway, as next week Golem is replaced by 'Weirdworld', starring Tindall the Elf. Tolkien rip off, anybody?
In ROM, the lifters extrordinaire, Steve Jackson & his cop friend, take ROM to Brandy Clarke's lab - see she's smart, too! The leader of the Dire Wraith's High Council - or whatever - summons some evil plant monsters to attack ROM. Could be like the Krynoid on Dr.Who (a reference for our older readers), or maybe the Triffids!
In last week's Kull, I thought the Devil-Condor was escaping with the mystery woman's sword. Turns out I was wrong - it's escaping, carrying off Kull's side-kick, the minstrel Ridondo, in its talons! Let's hope he doesn't go the way of Lorkar the beast man. Kull's new girl couldn't seem to care less what happens to Ridondo. Is Kull starting to realize she's a "wrong 'un", as they say in Yorkshire?
In Machine Man, Madam Menace wants to team up (she's in the wrong comic!) with the alliteration-loving Senator who hates Machine Man (the "rascally robot".) Half of Alpha Flight are going to attack Machine Man, with Sasquatch confronting him at the end of the page count. The best thing in the story was some barbing between Gears Garvin, & Machine Man's class-conscious psychiatrist friend.
In 'Second Chance' Frank Charlesworth & his Italian mates capture a British air sea rescue boat, which is illegally loading black market booze! They get their just desserts when the Italian air force strafe the British boat, thinking the Italians are Brits!
In Fury, the assassination of the allied leaders at the Teheran conference still hasn't happened, as there's more hesitation, deviation, and repetition, as Fury & the Howlers start attacking undercover German soldiers left, right & centre.
That's it!
Phillip
Ah! It was a What If. Cheers Phillip.
Thanks, Phillip, that was a genuinely epic contribution.
Indeed; I felt dizzy just looking at the comments.
Phillip, I had the US MTU with the Nighthawk story, and it was definitely drawn by Our Pal Sal, but I think you're right about Vince Coletta. Fairly sure MTU was written by Gerry Conway at that point. Which would have been 1975, so he obviously had his finger on the cultural pulse including a disco.
-sean
Phil, if you're not currently working as a professional sportscaster, you missed your calling. If think you could even get me to start watching football again. Screw that Joe Buck.
I thought I was one of the few guys who liked Machine Man. Sort of liked it, anyway...
There's an animated series on Adult Swim kinda similar to Devil Dinosaur, called Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal, which is absolutely nuts. It's about a guy and a dinosaur, set in a mythical past, but the similarities end there. Truly horrific and and sometimes astonishing with fantastic animation.
I'm not sure there were bat-people or giant spiders in prehistory, but who cares.
M.P.
No giant spiders, M.P.? Next you'll be suggesting maybe people weren't around at the same time as dinosaurs.
-sean
Well, uh, we're contemplating an alternate Earth, I guess.
I bet we did have giant spiders on this Earth. Maybe as big as cows.
I can see them crawling now...
Thank God for that meteorite!
M.P.
Of course there were giant spiders on this Earth then M.P. - there are giant spiders on this Earth now! They just all seem to be in Australia.
-sean
In the dim mists of equatorial Africa there is the legend of the J'ba Fofi that has a length span of...waitaminnit! How did we get on this ridiculous subject?!
Dammit, Sean, this has nothing to do with Steve's original post.
I blame you for this. Gentlemen, continue as if we were never here.
&%@!
M.P.
Sean - Your brain was sharper than mine, yesterday (I was rushing to finish the summaries before 'Public Eye' - hence the typos!) The year 1975 certainly makes pinning down a writer easier. By a process of elimination, Fleischer & Stern simply weren't around (nor were a lot of other writers), whilst Gerry Conway was so prolific, he's a fairly safe bet! In fact, Gerry Conway was to writing, what Sal Buscema was to art!
I thought, chess-wise, you'd pull me up about saying it's highly unlikely a King would capture a Queen, illustrating it with a grandmaster chess game! I played chess a great deal, a few years ago, but the game's a bottomless pit - and no matter how much time you devote to it, it still demands more & more from you!
M.P. - Unfortunately, I know sod all about sports!
I liked Machine Man, too. Reading the stories when you were young, you develop a relationship with the characters, in a way older readers don't. Marvelites who started reading it when they were older, look on the characters in a more objective and detached way. Hence my defensive response to Daredevil being fundamentally altered, which older readers, perhaps, wouldn't share.
It's also strange how, as a kid, you didn't notice writers using the same devices/motifs over & over again, and across different stories. You always saw each story as being unique, in and of itself. If an adult had pointed out to me that heroes always battle a giant robot (often shortly after an origin story), I'd have indignantly replied that it's a completely different giant robot, and isn't the same at all! Or, if they'd pointed out there's always a mysterious hooded figure, I'd have said it's a completely different hooded figure - or some such...
As regards dinosaur shows, etc, do you remember that cartoon, in which a family got caught it a whirlpool, and went down to a "Savage Land"-type place, with cavemen & dinosaurs?
Also, in the early-mid 70s, did you have the 'How & Why Book of Dinosaurs'? - a veritable classic of the genre!
Phillip
'in' a whirlpool, not it! More typos!
Phillip
Sean - returning to Gerry Conway, my mind has a seed of doubt, as to whether or not Spidey & the Valkyrie is a Conway story. In the past, M.P. has observed that Gerry Conway stories are suspenseful (unintentionally, perhaps), because they lack exposition. Yet this story has lots of clunky exposition - e.g. Spidey: "In the confusion of my recent arguments with my supposed fighting partner, Nighthawk, I'd completely forgotten about M.M.--!" Maybe Marvel UK added this bit (refresh the reader's memory, it being 2 weeks since the last Meteor Man story ), as the lettering & spacing looks slightly different.
I suppose Gerry Conway stories may not always lack exposition - the Punisher's origin (see 'Savage Action', last week) had lots of exposition, being for the Punisher's War Journal entries, which constituted the story.
I've just cheated, by looking it up! Sean you are correct - it is Gerry Conway!
Phillip
When I'm a castaway on Desert Island Discs (only a matter of time) I'll be choosing Blondie's 'The Tide Is High' as one of my 8 records. I've loved that fantastic song since the first moment I heard it but you're right, Steve, the video is embarrassingly crappy.
This week is also 40 years since ABBA's Super Trouper entered the Top 40.
I thought I'd finished with the Marvel UK weeklies by this point but I definitely remember the Future Tense cover so a little bit more to go yet it seems...
Is nobody going to mention the resignation of Dominic Cummings (not even Sean)???
Oh, I just have.
Mocking rich Islington Brexiters like Cummings would be off-topic, Colin.
(The Islington thing is a joke at Cummings expense - no offence to north Londoners intended)
-sean
Phillip, I remember that cartoon. It was Valley of the Dinosaurs.
I think our primary school had the How and Why book of dinosaurs. I also remember having a similar book at home but can't remember what it was called or who it was by.
Colin, I shall have to devote some thought to what records I would take to a desert island with me.
As for Dominic Cummings, I do believe that, if he's mentioned 5 times on a blog, he mysteriously appears. And this is his 4th mention. And it's Friday the 13th. What nightmare terror are we about to unleash?
Ah, How And Why Wonder Books. They were amazing! I had nine in my collection.
One Christmas I got Dinosaurs, North American Indians, Air & Water and Space And Interplanetary Travel.
Then on a trip to Whipsnade Zoo, I bought Wild Animals.
And then on a trip to WH Smith armed with gift tokens, I bought Extinct Animals, Prehistoric Mammals, The Human Body and The Microscope And What We See.
They need to make a comeback.
Thanks, Steve - your memory's - or search - is better than mine.
I didn't realize it's Friday the 13th! That Team-up cover, with Franklin Richards being possessed, seems particularly apt!
Colin - Super Trouper! - I'd forgotten what a year 1980 was!
dangermash - the WHS gift token - happy days!
Phillip
memory - not memory's!
Hokey Smokes, Comics Chop Shop-winkle!
Though I've come across about a dozen UK books, and have been on this site for a few years, it still befuddles me as to why your publications only featured approx 1/3 of a reprint story.
Still trying to understand what the philosophy was by doing that.
Debbie Harry was a big part of me braking away from being fragmented into a classic rock rut. I was so tired of Skynyrd, Boston, Journey, etc that I started reading about & exploring new avenues of music. My pals tore me apart when I played Plastic Letters on my tape player.
Originally Kd, breaking up the stories was a way of reprinting single feature US monthlies in a UK market where comics were weekly anthologies.
So, in the mid 70s getting the Mighty World of Marvel every week was basically equivalent to picking up the US Hulk, FF and Daredevil, only you'd be reading the stories in chunks over the course of a month.
It didn't seem odd to a kid familiar with domestic British comics where stories tended to be 2 or 3 pages long (hyper-compressed to an American reader no doubt).
-sean
I think we can all agree that Debbie Harry is a Goddess.
I did not know that "The Tide is High" was a cover.
It was great when they came out with "Maria" some years back. She still has the magic. I love that song.
And again, I would recommend anyone who hasn't seen it to check to out her duet with Kermit the Frog on Youtube.
I still look at it once in a while. M.P. is a sentimental cat.
"Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection..."
Or check out Gene Kelly on the Muppets doing "Singing in the Rain."
Trust me, it will make you smile.
M.P.
KD, as Sean says, the weekly schedule forced Marvel UK to break stories into small parts.
A good example is the company's flagship title The Mighty World of Marvel. In its early days, the comic reprinted an entire Hulk story every week. Because of that, in October 1972, it was reprinting Hulk stories from 1962 but, just a year later, it was reprinting Hulk stories from 1968. That's how fast the book was burning through material. Eventually, the company realised it had to reduce its page count per story.
Where it gets weird is in the SezDez era when they started to heavily edit the weekly reprints, so you'd short chunks of story AND they'd burn through material quickly.
Although I guess that didn't matter as much when the approach to some semblance of continuity was fairly haphazard.
Cue dismissive remark about the '79 UK Marvel Revolution from dangermash... (;
-sean
Last night, one of my kids was moaning about how the song they were dancing to on Strictly had several bars hacked out of it in the middle and how everyone acted as if nothing had happened. I guess this sort of thing runs in the family.
KD, some Marvel UK weeklies did print the original US story in full such as the 18 weekly issues of Savage Sword of Conan which reprinted Conan The Barbarian #1-18 and the 37 issues of The Complete Fantastic Four which reprinted...er, the Fantastic Four...beginning with Thundra's first appearance.
We also got complete Spider-Man stories, first in the early SMCW comics when Thor was the only supporting character, so before Iron Man was brought in as a third strip and then secondly when the Spider-Man comic went Titans-landscape format.
Killdumpster - As Colin says, the British format wasn't always 6 titles in a comic! It wasn't so bad when glossy weekly comics (MWOM & SSM) contained 4 titles. That way, each title had between 5 and often 7 pages. It was only after Dez Skinn's 1979 'Marvel Revolution' that 6 titles in a comic led to the ridiculous spectacle of some titles only having 3 pages! As Colin says (again) 'The Complete Fantastic Four' gave one title a longer treatment, its tag-line being "A book length thriller every week!" Likewise, Rampage Weekly initially gave the Defenders more pages than was usual (for the UK.) I think, after the 1979 'Marvel Revolution', Dez Skinn was taking a 'scatter gun' approach - like firing buckshot, you are more likely to hit the target (but to less effect!) In other words, Skinn thought the reader was more likely to find something they might like, with 6 titles to choose from.
Obviously, this wasn't a good idea!
Phillip
Thanks for clarifying the publishing situation of the UK books, oh my brothers.
To be honest though, not being able to pick up books every week to complete storylines would've drivin me insane. If I was lucky enough to see a spinner rank every 3-4 weeks, it felt like a miracle. That and having pocket change at the same time.
The thing is Kd, you could also get US Marvels but it was a bit of a lottery which titles were imported from month to month, so even if you lived somewhere with good distribution there was no guarantee of being able to find the next issue.
So actually it was a lot easier to follow extended storylines with the reprints.
-sean
We seemed to have kinda lousy distribution when I was a young kid in Iowa. For example, it was hard to find comics like F.F., ASM or the Avengers, which were the ones I really wanted.
But these were the days of the spinner-rack, so maybe they just got sold out.
Marvel's distribution seemed to be a LOT better in the early '80s, and I became a teenager with a part-time job and a car and had mobility a little money to spend, so I could get what I wanted.
The problem with that was, with the exception of a few titles, Marvel was, on average, pretty crappy.
Of course, being something of a dumb-ass I bought a lotta crappy Marvel comics anyway.
Eventually I said "nuts" and started following some D.C. titles.
But I remember in the late '80's Thor and Spectacular Spider-Man seemed to me to be really great. I followed those religiously.
I feel bad for you guys in the U.K. who had a hard time finding the stuff you liked from the States. I have a theory that maybe heavily bearded Icelanders or Danes were attacking and boarding ships from New York carrying comics to the U.K. and looting them at sword-point. Then they used them as kindling to cook goats.
Of course the mainstream media didn't say anything about it...
M.P.
Fake news M.P. - its a deep state satanist conspiracy, just like the way they keep quiet about all the dead people voting.
Which is odd, as I thought zombies would be for Trump...
Anyhow, Iceland and Denmark have changed somewhat since the early medieval period. Or it seems - I suspect they may be playing the long game, lulling us into a false sense of security - but either way, theres not much in the way of Scandinavian pillage at sea these days.
The vicissitudes of comic distribution in the newstand era are more likely down to them being fairly low profit items imo (I know, boring isn't it?) So, the further you are from a big city, the fewer options you have.
Thats why they were convenient for use as ballast in transatlantic shipping, which is why they were originally imported to the UK.
-sean
Wasn't there a dispute between the U.K. and Iceland over cod fishing? I seem to remember something like that.
Man, if I had a big bunch of money I would go to Iceland for a week.
In summer, preferably. Maybe ride on one of them little hairy horses. That place seems awesome.
M.P.
Yeah, the cod war in the 70s.
But the Brits have moved on since then - these days the flashpoint is with the French, over scallops.
Btw, make sure you do go to Iceland in the summer, because it rains the rest of the time.
-sean
Wow... this is interesting stuff!
So how would a typical UK youth spend their money on comics? First order of preference a current monthly, then if any coins left over maybe a UK weekly?
I can see, given the vagaries of comic distribution, where if you miss 1 weekly out of the 5 consecutive weeklies telling a story, that you only miss... say... 3 - 4 pages of a story and you could get some satisfaction still reading 16 out of 20 pages of a story.
But man, what if those 4 pages you missed are where Gwen fell off the bridge and her neck snapped? You'd miss that week's 4 pages, pick up the next week's issue and.. I guess... go "holy smoke did Gwen die?"
I just use that as an extreme example.
I've always understood there is some connection in the UK for the Danes?
Your oldest book Beowulf is all about Danes chasing down a dragon?
Hamlet opens with "How's Denmark?"
Can someone explain why a ship would need ballast and thus use comic books?
I mean, what would have happened to the ship w/out the comics, all other things being equal, when it sailed?
Would it have bobbed around aimlessly, drifting with the currents...?
And why use comics? Surely there must have been something of value in the USA that someone in the UK wanted, that was more profitable to carry than comic books? Steel? Mutton? Braziers?
I am not a seafarer (though my great uncle did go down on the Murmansk Run on Convoy PQ17) and need some help here!
The Danes used to run most of what is now England, Charlie.
Led Zeppelin wrote a song about it!
M.P.
Back in the ninth century the north of England was known as the Danelaw Charlie - Yorkshire was once part of Scandinavia.
I think with ballast the point was that comics were cheap, so they could be sold on but any damages wouldn't be too costly.
-sean
Charlie - the Danish & UK connections:
King Cnut ("Go back, mighty waves!" - which he probably never said!) was a Dane who ruled England.
King James I (or Scottish James VI) of England, & Edward VII ("Bertie") both married Danish women (Anne & Alexandra).
Shakespeare & Hamlet - When James I became king, Shakespeare's plays included material/references which would appeal to king James (&/or his queen's) & his interests. Hamlet is Denmark-centred, at least partially because king James's wife was Danish. (Macbeth has even more stuff to appeal to James I.)
Sean's absolutely right about Yorkshire's Danish heritage. Around Selby & York, lots of places have Viking sounding names - e.g. Thorganby, Barlby, Ricall, Osgodby, etc.
Also, if you watch Scandinavian detective shows, many words sound like Yorkshire (& Geordie, for that matter ) dialect words - if you want a list, I'll bore you with it!
English places ending in 'by' are Viking settlements - e.g. Derby, Selby, Barlby, etc.
M.P. - as regards Icelandic horses, are you thinking of Shetland ponies? They're from the Shetland isles, not Iceland (as far as I know) - although the said island do have strong Scandinavian links.
My favourite Norse legends book is 'Myths of the Norseman', by Roger Lancelyn Green - it's a classic! The guy used to hang out with Tolkien & C.S.Lewis (the inkhorns?) at that famous pub in Oxford.
Charlie - Sorry if this stuff seems patronizing, if you already know a lot of it.
Phillip
said islands - typo!
Phillip
Sean - I didn't mean Hamlet was set in Denmark literally because Queen Anne was Danish! I know the source was Saxo Grammaticus! But Shakespeare probably decided to pick that material to use because Anne was Danish!
Phillip
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