The Sorceress Betrayed: Comics crossing cultures and changing accuracy standards

The article focuses on the classic Franco‑Belgian comic book series Thorgal created by Jean Van Hamme and the Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński, which enjoys a special status in Polish culture. Combining elements of fantasy, science‑fiction and Norse mythology, thirty years after its creation, it belongs to one of the most popular titles on the Polish comic book market. The focus of the present study is on the opening album of the series, La magicienne trahie [The sorceress betrayed], which was translated into Polish at three different moments in time, i.e. in 1978, 1988, and 2004. The aim of the article is to establish the nature of the discrepancies between the three translations with regard to their accuracy and the translators’ treatment of cultural specificity.