Prince Valiant summary through Jan 1 1961

The classic strips begin with Val's family being ousted from Thule by the usurper King Sligon. Val grows up in the wilderness of King Arthur's England, becoming famous through heroic deeds, but also suffering under a witch's prophecy that he will have a life of adventure without contentment. Val falls for the beautiful maiden Ilene and rescues her father, but discovers she is betrothed to Prince Arn of Ord. When Ilene is kidnapped by Viking raiders, Arn gives Val the charmed Singing Sword and together they try to rescue her, but alas she dies at sea.

Val loses a joust with Sir Tristram and returns to his father, not knowing that King Arthur wishes to knight him. Together he and his father plan to return to Thule to retake the throne, but they are delayed by a Saxon invasion of England. Val devises a strategy to defeat the Saxons, and is knighted following the battle. Returning to Thule, Val and his father King Aguar gather allies to overthrow Sligon, but Sligon barters away the throne in exchange for a quiet retirement.

Val travels to the continent seeking adventure, and learns that western Rome is collapsing under pressure from the Huns. He takes part in a great battle at the castle Andelkrag, builds an army, frees the city of Pandaris through trickery, and finally defeats the Huns in a clever trap. He travels to Rome, where he is falsely accused of the assassination of the general Aetius. Val escapes, but is captured as a slave by Angor Wrack, the Sea King. Angor takes the Singing Sword, but Val escapes again with the help of a magical necklace. Sailing from island to island without any provisions, he has a strange vision of a beautiful young queen named Aleta, and wakes to find his little boat filled with food.

Through a series of adventures Val pursues Angor Wrack to Jerusalem and beyond, eventually regaining the sword and making peace with the Sea King. He goes in search of Aleta, but through a misunderstanding comes to believe she is a villainous tyrant, and through youthful foolishness he believes also that his growing love for her is the result of a curse. Val befriends a Viking named Boltar, with whom he travels to the jungles south of the Sahara in search of gold, though he spends all of his share paying a ransom for his friend Sir Gawain. He and Gawain enjoy a few adventures together as they return once more to England.

In England King Arthur sends Val and Gawain to gather intelligence against the Picts. Gawain lingers at a castle to indulge in luxury, but rescues Valiant when he is captured. Arthur leads his men in victory against the Picts and their Viking allies, aided once again by Val's clever strategy, but Val leaves to search for the witch who had once prophesied his life of empty adventure, hoping she can cure Aleta's curse. When that fails, he travels to Merlin, who knows Val's enchantment is a delusion and sends him on his way.

Val returns to Thule, where he foils a plot against his father. King Aguar calms further unrest among the Vikings by offering them rewards for voyages of exploration and for opening trade routes, as well as granting them permission to raid anywhere but King Arthur's realm. After a series of adventures battling the Finns on Thule's border, Aguar asks Val to consider marriage, but Val believes he is still under Aleta's spell.

Val sails with his squire Beric to confront Aleta, but he suffers a head wound in a shipwreck and becomes incoherent. Beric leads the ailing prince to Aleta's Kingdom of the Misty Isles, but Val picks a fight in which Beric dies. Enraged and still unable to think clearly, Val storms into the throne room and abducts Aleta, escaping in a stolen ship. Aleta remembers and has fallen for Valiant, but the dazed prince leads her aimlessly through the North African desert. After a long fever Val comes to his senses, and eventually understands the true nature of his feelings for her.

Aleta is promptly kidnapped by the scoundrel Donardo, but Val raises an army and rescues her from his city of Saramand. They then travel together to Rome with the King of the Vandals, Genseric, and are married in a forest grove by a former cardinal. They travel together back to Camelot, and along the way Aleta recruits a handmaiden named Katwin. In England Aleta tries her hand at knightly adventure and embarasses an outlaw in a swimming contest, and Arthur takes the outlaws on as scouts for his army. Aleta then claims to be involved in a tryst with Sir Launcelot, who has in truth been seeing Queen Guinevere, to foil Sir Mordred's plot against the king.

Val and Aleta go to Thule to meet Val's father, and Aleta defuses a feud with an old friend of the king. She is then kidnapped by a raider named Ulfrun, who sails west across the sea to evade capture. Katwin tries to save her, and swims back to shore with a broken arm to join Val in the pursuit. They chase Ulfrun to the Americas and the lands of what will one day be the Haudenosaunee, where Ulfrun is vanquished and Aleta rescued.

Val and Aleta spend the winter in the vicinity of Niagara Falls, where their first child is born. The infant prince is named Arn in honor of Val's boyhood rival. The natives believe Aleta is a goddess and assign a woman named Tillicum to serve her, and when Val and Aleta leave for England, Tillicum comes with them. At Camelot Val and Aleta decide their son's godfather should be his namesake, and when Val goes to find his old friend he discovers Arn has also married, and named his first son Valiant. The two infant princes are christened together at Camelot.

After helping a bumbling wizard named Oom Fooyat clear a haunted castle, Val meets a young boy named Arf Geoffrey and takes him under his wing as a squire. They go to reinforce Hadrian's Wall against the Picts, and in running messages back and forth Arf manages to steal the king's horse twice. Technically banished from Arthur's kingdom for a year, he joins Val and his family on Boltar's ship as they return to Thule.

Val takes Arf on a journey to Rome to recruit missionaries to help settle religious unrest in Thule. Meanwhile Aleta uses some of Val's tricks and some of her own to repel an attack by Hap-Atla, King of the Inner Lands, on King Aguar's castle. After a series of adventures, Val's party crosses the Alps into Italy, but Arf loses a foot to frostbite. Val convinces him to focus on scholarly pursuits, and Arf attains a sort of immortality as the narrator suggests that he will outlive Val and write a biography that will become the basis for the strip.

Aguar continues his efforts to bring quiet to his kingdom through peaceful trade, but Boltar attacks a ship and starts a small war before changing sides for love and helping Aguar to repel an attack by the Danes. He and Tillicum are married shortly before the missionaries arrive to build Thule's first church and christen Val and Aleta's new twin daughters. Several adventures in Thule follow. Val defeats a hostile vassal, Arn is kidnapped and then rescued, and a feud between pagans and Christians is defused.

Val travels to Cornwall to aid Arthur against some Saxons, taking also a detour to Ireland where he overthrows a king with the help of Saint Patrick. Then he and Gawain, accompanied by Gawain's new servant Pierre, travel to meet Aleta, who has returned to the Misty Isles to put down a series of challenges to her authority. After an exciting pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Val prepares to return to Thule with Aleta, taking a route through eastern Europe.

They travel up the Dnieper and, after a battle with the Patzinaks, Aleta is kidnapped and briefly plays the damsel in distress until Val burns a city to rescue her. They pass through Kiev and over a great portage, and Pierre buys and old friend out of slavery, giving Gawain another servant. Gawain leaves the group in Britain, and Val and his family return to Thule.

In Thule, Prince Arn befriends Garm the hunter and enjoys a series of adventures in the wilderness while Val and Aleta deal with some rebellious warriors. Val returns to Camelot and is sent on a mission to Cornwall, where he meets a servant of noble birth, Alfred, who gives up his claim to nobility. Together they use trickery to deal with a king who wished to threaten King Arthur. During their return, Val discovers a beautiful horse at Stonehenge, which he tames.

Back in Thule, Arn is exchanged with the son of Hap-Atla in typical medieval fashion, and in the Inner Lands he engages in a series of pranks with Hap-Alta's daughter. Meanwhile Val sinks an enemy fleet in Thule and deals with a Saxon army in Eastern England, while Aleta befriends Guinevere.

Val travels to Wales to rescue Gawain from being held for ransom, and they enjoy a series of adventures during their return. Val overthrows a deceitful Earl with the help of Hugh the Fox, then goes on a quest to learn more about the Holy Grail, discovering the rather disappointing truth that it is merely symbolic.

After an argument with Aleta, Val fights some Saxons, and then quickly reconciles with his wife. They travel with Boltar as an escort back to the Misty Isles, and during their journey Arn endures a rite of passage in taking the life of an enemy warrior. In Aleta's kingdom, a would-be conqueror is defeated, but Val comes to Aleta's chambers after the battle to find her seemingly ill...