Warriors Three

Fandral the Dashing, Hogun the Grim, and Volstagg the Enormous are known across the cosmos as the Warriors Three. They are the boldest of the Asgardian champions, and their place is at Thor Odinson, AKA Thor’s side. As noble and skilled fighters, it is by their swords that there shall be many flattened who doth oppose them.

Band of Merry Gods

Fandral is the inspiration for the legend of Robin Hood due to time he spent on Earth in the 12th century. While there, he marries a mortal woman named Marian but endures the tragedy of outliving her and returns to Asgard heartbroken.

Fandral first meets Volstagg when the latter was still comparatively slim yet muscular. On his way to Asgard to offer his sword to Asgard’s All-Father Odin Borson, AKA Odin, Fandral finds Volstagg guarding a small bridge. He demands Volstagg give way and the two fight with quarterstaves with Volstagg besting him; thus, begins a close friendship.

Volstagg is married to a near-equally voluminous wife, Gundrun, and they have at least 15 natural-born children. He often seeks out adventure to escape the clamor of his home life.

Hogun the Grim hails from a land in the Skornheim Mountains, which Mogul of the Mystic Mountain conquered, a clash which costs the lives of his father and brothers.

When Thor prepares to sail into the unknown to learn what dread power cracked Odin's enchanted Oversword of Asgard, he gathers warriors to accompany him. Such volunteers include Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg. Fandral and Volstagg unite with Hogun and are named the Warriors Three and go on many adventures with Thor, Balder the Brave, AKA Balder, and Lady Sif, AKA Sif.
 

Noble Fighters

As Asgardians, they each possess enhanced strength and superhuman qualities but are unique in their expertise…

Fandral the Dashing is an expert swordsman and winner of women’s hearts.

Hogun the Grim, also known as the silent warrior, is taciturn and deadly with his iron mace, yet possesses a streak of dark humor. He carries the Elixir of Recovery which uses to save wounded comrades from near-death. He is also a superb hand-to-hand combatant. He is said to be a mysterious warrior as no one can probe his thoughts.

Volstagg the Enormous is renowned for his girth, appetite, and courageous words. While the “Lion of Asgard” is among the first to answer the summons to adventure, sometimes self-preservation often brings him last to the battle. He can also consume vast quantities of drink.

The Need for Warriors

The Warriors Three face most of the major adversaries to Asgard alongside Thor including Surtur, the fire demon, the Ennead death god Seth, and Loki Laufeyson, AKA Loki, who sets eternal mischief onto their shared home, most of the time. As the instigator of Ragnarok, the prophesied destruction of Asgard, Loki poses a great threat, and the Warriors Three have risen with Thor to battle him on many occasions.

During the Tournament of the Titans, the Warriors Three and Thor are pit against the Warriors of the Thousand Galaxies, including Brok the Crusher, Tyr of the Blinding Blade, Galp of the Steel Arm, and Drom the Spirit-Weaver.

The Sorcerer Igron has posed multiple threats against the trio when enchanting duplicates of all the Asgardians and displacing Odin by casting Mangog in disguise as the All-Father.

The Giant Gnives, Thermal Man, Surtur, the Olympian Death God Pluto, AKA Hades, Ego-Prime, Mephisto, Mercurio, Xorr the God-Jewel, Zarrko the Tomorrow Man, and the reality-destroying Time-Twisters have also provided significant challenges to the Warriors.

Asgardian Allies

Thor Odinson is the best friend to Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg—and like brothers they go on many missions together as a quartet to fight the enemies of Asgard.

Sif, the shield maiden of Asgard, also fights at their side to protect their homeland and save Thor from various destructive plots conjured up by Loki. She also seeks their aid from time to time.

Heimdall, the sentry of the Bifrost, entrusts the Warriors Three to guard the Rainbow Bridge when he is temporarily endowed with Odinpower while Odin is in his Odinsleep.

While on Earth and during Surtur's attack, the threesome joins with human soldiers and heroes such as the Fantastic Four and Avengers to stop the menace. While there, they also befriend the young heroes of the Power Pack.

The Warriors’ Wars

The Warriors Three volunteered for a voyage ordered by Odin to seek the forces of evil that threatened Ragnarok—the twilight of the gods. After braving encounters with the Utgard Dragon and Thryheim’s Flying Trolls, the Three returned to Asgard to learn the instigator of Ragnarok had been in their midst all along: Loki.

While Odin set up measures to defend Asgard from destruction, the Warriors Three and Thor defended Asgard from the barbarian hordes of Harokin and fought the dragon king Fafnir.

Thor, Fandral and Volstagg helped Hogun attain a measure of revenge for his people by journeying to Zanadu, capital of the Mogul of the Mystic Mountain’s power and defeating Mogul, placing the thief-prince Alibar in command of his kingdom.

When the Warriors Three murdered the giant Holth, his father, Gnives, demanded satisfaction and that they supply impossible to obtain items, such as three apples from the world-ash tree Yggdrasill; an enchanted pig defended by the Olympian god Heracles, AKA Hercules; the spear Slaughter from the Tuatha de Danaan, the Celtic gods; and the sword Grasscutter from the Amatsu-Kami, Japanese/Shinto gods. With Thor drawn into their act of penance, the Warriors succeeded, despite Gnives’ attempt to thwart their endeavors.

When Odin held the Tournament of Titans for the greatest warriors of all, the Warriors Three and Thor faced the Warriors of the Thousand Galaxies. The opponents included Brok the Crusher, Tyr of the Blinding Blade, Galp of the Steel Arm and Drom the Spirit-Weaver. But the contest was disrupted by the enchanted automaton, the Destroyer, who was beaten by the assembled warriors.

The Warriors Three also helped defend Asgardians from outsiders such as Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk, Mangog and Norrin Radd, AKA Silver Surfer.

When Balder the Brave was hospitalized on Earth, Odin sent the Warriors Three to retrieve him. Balder found out Dr. Donald Blake, Thor’s alter ego, saved him and reunited with the trio. They then joined Thor in a battle against the robotic Thermal Man.

Returning to Asgard, they found Odin in Odinsleep, a habitual period of rest required to maintain his powers, and Loki had usurped the throne. The Warriors Three refused to obey Loki and resisted him until the arrival of the fire demon Surtur made Loki flee the realm. They then helped defend Asgard from Surtur until Odin revived and drove the demon away. Subsequently, Loki exchanged bodies with Thor. Odin banished Thor to Hell, where Mephisto tried to claim his soul, but Sif, Balder and the Warriors Three freed him and Thor warriors three reclaimed his body from Loki.

When a sliver of power from the cosmic being Infinity corrupted Odin, he dominated the Warriors’ wills, but Karnilla and Loki released them, and they aided Thor in awakening Odin from Infinity’s influence.

When Loki took over Asgard again after Odin entered the Odinsleep, the Warriors opposed his rule and intended wedding to Sif, so the trio forced Odin to awaken so he could help end Loki’s reign.

Odin sent Thor and the Warriors Three to the so-called “World’s End” to obtain mystical waters from the Twilight Pool to mix with Asgard’s Cosmic Well, granting Odin increased powers which allowed him to best the Mangog. With Odin on the verge of death from his battle with Mangog, the Warriors Three helped drive out the Olympian death-god Pluto, who tried to claim his soul.

The Warriors Three joined Thor, Sif, Balder, and Hildegarde against Ego-Prime, but when they learned that both they and the creature had been pawns in Odin’s scheme to awaken the power of three of the Young Gods, Thor fell out with his father, and all seven Asgardians were exiled to Earth. They temporarily lived at Avengers Mansion and aided Thor against Mephisto and others. When Balder began suffering from madness, Volstagg stood to watch over him while the others returned to Asgard, only to find Odin absent, having been enslaved by the extraterrestrial Vrellnexians. After saving Odin, Fandral and Hogun joined the others against Mercurio and Xorr the God-Jewel before finally returning to Asgard where they reunited with Volstagg and a recovered Balder in battling the sorcerer Igron, who had seized control of the realm with enchanted duplicates of the Asgardians. With Igron’s defeat, Odin resumed the throne and lifted their banishment.

The Warriors Three next joined Thor alongside his foe Zarrko the Tomorrow Man against the reality-destroying Time-Twisters, then briefly stayed in New York during which they fought a gang of diamond thieves and helped unite lovers Mary Miller and Arnold Slackmyster in marriage.

When Igron returned to Asgard and displaced Odin by casting Mangog in a disguise as the All-Father, the Warriors Three and Thor defeated Igron and Mangog, then joined Thor to find Odin. Along the way, they encountered the extraterrestrial Sporr, the Grey Gargoyle and the Soul-Eater before finally retrieving Odin.

After the god Bragi took the form of an eagle to gain perspective on his poetry, the Warriors set out to find him and when he learned of their exploits on the quest, he was inspired to write a poem about their adventures.

When Loki and Tyr staged a coup against Odin and deprived the gods of their immortality-granting golden apples, the Warriors joined forces loyal to Odin in journeying to Earth where they found Thor to lead them against the usurpers, ultimately vanquishing them and retrieving the apples.

As the forces of Surtur amassed against Asgard, the Warriors Three joined Asgard’s forces in fighting Surtur’s army on Earth alongside human soldiers and heroes such as the Fantastic Four and Avengers. During this stay on Earth, the Warriors Three befriended the young heroes of Power Pack, and Fandral helped Thor tie up loose ends from his then-abandoned identity of Donald Blake.

Returning to Asgard, the Warriors Three met the New Mutants’ Roberto Da Costa, AKA Sunspot, who won their favor through a feat of strength: lifting Volstagg off the ground. Volstagg was one of the only Asgardians who overcame a mystical plague Loki placed on the realm and helped defend the city from an invasion by the Frost Giants of Utgard-Loki.

When the death god Seth of the Ennead, Egyptian gods, prepared for war with Asgard, Hogun was sent to Earth to alert Thor. Hogun fought Seth’s forces alongside Thor, Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight, and Earth Force, during which Seth placed his mark on Hogun, claiming he would die when they next met; Fandral and Volstagg stood in Asgard’s defense as war broke out with Seth.

With his family’s lives at risk, Volstagg boldly led Asgardians into battle and, with Fandral and Heimdall, served as the last line of defense when Seth tried to conquer Asgard’s throne room. In a final battle with Seth, Hogun used the Black Knight’s cursed body (rendered with the properties of his Ebony Blade) as a weapon, striking down Seth and causing the death-mark to vanish.

Soon after, the Warriors Three were tricked by Loki into a fruitless quest to restore the Asgardian Mord to normal after he was transformed into a goat. Although Loki sent each man in search of a different mystical cure, they eventually compared notes and turned on Loki; with Thor’s help, Loki was beaten, and Mord restored to normal.

When Odin entered another Odinsleep, he transferred his power to Heimdall, and the Warriors Three assumed Heimdall’s role as guardian of the Rainbow Bridge. Awakening, Odin was controlled by Loki’s spirit, and the young guardsman Arko overheard him plotting with Karnilla. Arko alerted the Warriors Three, but when they investigated, “Odin” had all four warriors imprisoned and sentenced to death. Amora the Enchantress rescued them and when Arko determined to boldly stand with them against the false Odin, Fandral was so impressed he suggested renaming themselves “Warriors Four.”

Loki’s plot was revealed with the help of the temporary replacement Thor, Eric Masterson, AKA Thunderstrike, and Odin’s soul was restored to his body. The Warriors soon found their loyalty to Odin tested when Thor stood against his father and was again exiled from Asgard. Though the Warriors worked alongside Odin’s newly-adopted “son” Roger “Red” Norvell, AKA Roger Norvell, who claimed Thor’s identity during this exile.

The Warriors and Norvell clashed with the Hulk and his group the Pantheon when they invaded Asgard in search of the Pantheon's patriarch Agamemnon. When Odin allowed a false Ragnarok to occur in the hopes of sparing Asgard from the effects of the true event, the Asgardians were all cast into roles as normal humans with no memory of their godly identities. Fandral became fashion photographer Freddie Moyer; Hogun became football coach Tyrone Hammer; and Volstagg became television host Vincent Starwit, “the Gargantuan Gourmet.”

Fandral joined with other “Lost Gods” who learned of their true identities but lacked their full memories and powers in battling Seth, who attempted to claim Asgard’s power from the world-tree Yggdrasil. Although the Asgardians finally regained their true identities, immediately after Seth’s defeat they were conquered by the Dark Gods of Narcisson and imprisoned; Thor Odinson soon returned and saved them, returning them to Asgard.

After Odin perished battling Surtur, the Warriors remained faithful to Thor as their new ruler. Finally, Loki caused the true Ragnarok to be set into motion and, while defending the badly injured Sif, Hogun and Fandral were slain by archers from Loki’s ship Naglfar. Volstagg was left alone in the wild for months, losing much of his girth and taking up remains of Hogun and Fandral’s clothes to cover himself. As the final battle with Surtur’s forces began, Volstagg found his courage in battle and died heroically at war with the fire demons.

Although Asgard was ravaged, this was not the end; Thor survived and used Odin’s power to restore Asgard. All the slain Asgardians were revived but were again cast into mortal forms bereft of their memories. Thor sought the Warriors Three out in Dahran, Africa, where he found they had become security guards: Fandral as Englishman Trevor Newly, Hogun as American Leo Kincaid and Volstagg as German Rolf Mueller. Thor restored them to normal, and they took up residence in the restored Asgard, now hovering near Broxton, Oklahoma.

As Balder grew into the role of Asgard’s ruler under Loki’s counsel, Thor was eventually exiled from Asgard for slaying his grandfather Bor Burison, AKA Bor. The Warriors Three chose to join Thor in exile and made Broxton their home, going to work at the local diner.

However, Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, commander of the United States superhuman forces, attempted to justify laying siege to Asgard by using Volstagg as a pawn. When Volstagg visited Chicago, Osborn dispatched the villainous U-Foes against him, and the force of their assault killed several bystanders in Soldier Field Stadium. Although Volstagg survived, Osborn twisted the event to make him appear the aggressor.

In the aftermath of a confrontation with Surtur, Volstagg traveled to ancient Asgard and recovered the powerful mallet of the deceased Ultimate Thor, thus becoming the War Thor. As Jane Foster took up Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, and became the Mighty Thor in the Odinson’s absence, she endeavored to battle a rampaging Mangog set upon destroying all of Asgardia. When the Mangog arrived in the sacred realm, however, the beast went unchallenged, blinded Heimdall, destroyed the Rainbow Bridge, and—despite the War Thor’s immense power—nearly beat Volstagg to death.