Skellig (スケリグ Sukerigu?) was the island where Elfhelm[1][2] and other landmarks were located.[3] It stood in the Western Sea,[4] within or adjacent to the waters of Ys.[5] After the earthquakes that followed the appearance of Griffith and the emergence of blood mounds,[6] the island collapsed, its remains sunk.[7]
Isma's mother told Guts and his company about the flow of time on the island being different outside its shores.[8] As explained by Danan, a night in the outside world equated to a few days in Skellig.[9] According to Danan, the island had an affinity that comprised its inhabitants and dictated whether outsiders were welcome.[3] Its inhabitants were able to notice the appearance of Griffith,[10] Danan included.[11]
Appearance[]
Skellig's shore was steep and rocky, featuring coves and cliffs. Further on land, it was guarded against outsiders via different means, such as barriers. One such warding measure was an enchanted field with scarecrows[3] and animated pumpkins, chiefly using the power of gnomes.[8] The island proper housed a village of mages. Nearby, the territories closer to the Flower Storm Monarch brimmed with a vast od. These territories, known as Elfhelm, comprised a dense, barytes-lacking forest inhabited by astral creatures (up and including fauns, unicorns, elves, centaurs and wind-aligned beings) as well as a massive spirit cherry tree which doubled up as the seat of the Flower Storm Monarch.[1] Underneath, the cherry tree featured a "magic mushroom bed" made of fungi which had drawn plenty of spiritual energy from its roots.[12] The roots of the spirit tree also housed the mausoleum of the Lady Priestess of the Cherry Blossoms.[13]
The island also featured a ravine that led to a dimly lit gorge that was populated by astral beings of a darker disposition as well as the witch Volvaba. Schierke likened it to a dark enclave, namely a qliphoth. The gorge also housed a so-called forest of stone, a barytes-cramped location where dwarves lived and worked.[2]
Background[]
According to the Skull Knight, its foundations and masters of the place were a blob similar to the one that rose in Albion during the Incarnation Ceremony.[6] As explained by Puck, the island belonged to the Interstice. Being unrecorded in the Western Sea, regular humans could not reach it.[4] According to Schierke, though originally supposed to exist in the Astral World, it ended overlapping the physical one after the Great Wave of the Astral World. Thus, pirates and other humans started reaching it from the physical world.[3] Despite this, at one point in the past, a legendary group of sea warriors (their name misremembered by Danan as "Vikins") were able to reach the island. The warriors had their armors and weapons swiped and magicked into golems.[14] Molda tells Schierke that the island was attacked long ago by a large nation in the continent. Captured soldiers were sacrificed, and their souls were used to animate wicker men.[2]
Story[]
Millennium Falcon Arc[]
Guts and company travel there first as a way to keep Casca safe[15] and later on in hopes of curing Casca of her dementia,[16][17] something the Skull Knight says that the Flower Storm Monarch is capable of doing.[18]
Fantasia Arc[]
When Guts and his company reach ashore, they find themselves facing obstacles while being observed by a group of young mages [3] who use a wicker man to attack them[8] before Great Guru Gedfring puts off the flames within, chastises the witch who used the wicker man and asks the newcomers to follow him to their village.[19]
Guts' party is led through the woods to a village of mages and its hall.[19] It is then that they meet the island's archmages as well as a witch that presents herself as "Danan the Domestic". There, the party's adventures up til now, Guts' identity, and Griffith's machinations are discussed, before they continue their journey to meet the Flower Storm Monarch.[20] Venturing into the woods and to a massive spirit tree blooming with cherry blossoms, they finally meet the elf monarch, who has actually been with them since they got to the hall: Danan.[1] In order to conduct a Corridor of Dreams ritual, Schierke, Farnese and Casca fall asleep in a "magic mushroom bed" near the cherry tree roots.[12] That night, a banquet is held at the mage village.[21]
A day later, a relatively-restored Casca is bestowed forest sentinel clothes and trains with enchanted straw-filled golems made of enchanted armors that once belonged to "Vikins".[14] After her collapse, Schierke and Farnese are taken to a class in which they display their magic prowess. Elsewere, Guts trains on top of a cliff and is visited by the Skull Knight.[22] Both are taken by Gedfring to the forest of stone in which a blacksmith dwarf named Hanarr lives. They are followed by Molda and Schierke, having flown away during a flying broomstick class and visited Molda's mistress.[2] They all return to the cherry tree and briefly visit the mausoleum of the Lady Priestess of the Cherry Blossoms. In the forest, Schierke deals with a pranking Isidro, who is stopped by a kelpie befriended by Isma.[13] When the Moonlight Boy appears in Skellig, he is seen playing among the mages-in-training and frolicking in water zones.[9]
When Griffith kidnaps Casca, the ground quakes[11] and a mound appears, one that is identified by Serpico and Isidro to be similar to the blob made of human blood they faced in Albion during the Incarnation Ceremony. According to the Skull Knight, a bright light shone upon the land, turned into a wedge and opened a crack across the whole island. The island starts collapsing, and the mound covers it.[6] Though its mage inhabitants are saved, the astral ones depart.[23] With the spirit tree gone, the native mages start losing their power.[24][5]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Named after a pair of islands off the coast of Ireland, Skellig holds many similarities to mythical islands: Avalon from the Arthurian Legends in England as it houses wizards and could only be found by those who have seen the island before, Tír na nÓg from Irish myth, and Ryugujou from the story of Urashima Taro in the retrospect of differing time flow.
References[]
- ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 39, "Elfhelm"
- ^ a b c d Berserk :: Volume 41, "Ravine"
- ^ a b c d e Berserk :: Volume 38, "Landing"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 27, "Roar of the Sea"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume TBA, "Is the Sleeping Dark Beast Just Standing Quietly?"
- ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 42, "Devourers"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 42, "A Dying Light in the Pitch Black Night"
- ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 39, "Blazing Puppet"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 41, "Teardrop of Morning Dew"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 42, "Lull of the Waning Moon"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 42, "Vanishing Cherry Blossoms"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 39, "Flower Storm Monarch"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 41, "Leaping Monkey"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 41, "Barrier"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 22, "Prologue to the War Chronicle"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 28, "Proclaimed Omen"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 29, "In the Garden"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 28, "Boy in the Moonlight"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 39, "Village of Witches"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 39, "Great Gurus"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 39, "Corridor of Dreams"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 41, "Cherry Orchard"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 42, "Fading Isle"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 42, "Rusty Iron Rings That Bind"