Summary of Season 1 and 2:
Thorfinn, raised in Iceland as the tiny six-year-old son of an ex-Viking, sneaks in the boat with his dad to head off to war together. They are ambushed by mercenary Vikings and the dad fights courageously to get them free. Thorfinn is caught and held hostage. Thorfinn watches as his dad voluntarily allows himself to be killed by Askeladd in order to spare the others.
In rage, Thorfinn vows revenge and follows the band of Vikings who killed his father. In pity, they allow him to live amongst them. As the band of Vikings raid village after village, Thorfinn can't help but also being caught up in the path of gratuitous violence. Blinded by the desire for revenge, Thorfinn will assassinate anyone Askeladd requests in order to be granted a duel to the death.
When the chance for revenge is finally stolen from him by another’s sword, Askeladd asks Thorfinn, “Did you ever think about what you would do after I am dead?” Thorfinn is sold into slavery where he experiences an existential crisis. Suddenly, the memory of all the innocent people he had killed flooded his mind. By being single-mindedly focused on revenge, the moral weight of the collateral damage he caused had never entered his mind. Just as he had suffered from loss and hatred, he had created much more loss and hatred in the wake of his quest for revenge.
The humiliation, brutality, and exhaustion of slavery was nothing compared to the weight of his spiritual burden – the guilt of not treating others how he would have liked to have been treated. How could he have been so hateful of those who killed his father when he was guilty of killing other people’s fathers? He learned that he had no right to judge. He learned that no one deserves to be hurt. He learned that, in actuality, he has no enemies.
How did he come to these conclusions? The anime doesn’t fully explain it, but it seems clear that he realizes that all violence is due to human blindness. He had killed others because he was blinded by revenge. His father’s murderer had killed because he was blinded by greed. Other's killed because they were blinded by the love of bloodshed. His rival, Thorkell the tall, largely killed because he was blinded by the desire for excitement. Others killed because they were blinded by honor and pride. And the king himself killed because he was blinded by his vision of a utopia.
Thorkell, Thorfinn's rival, is presented as a simpleton who just loves the excitement of battle. The cost of human lives lost seems trivial to him. Thorfinn, reacting to Thorkell's mindless love for battle, remarks, "have these Vikings lost their MINDS??" But as Thorkell's character is developed, a more nuanced religious component starts to come to the surface. Thorkell could be considered a "Valhalla extremist". In addition to killing for amusement, he kills religiously. He is passionate about the "way of the Viking". Not only does he believes it is every warrior's religious duty to fight corageously, even more, he believes that every warrior ought to continue fighting corageously without ceasing, in axious awaitment for that glorious moment for when they die a spectacular death in an act of ultimate courage, so that they can be granted the blessing of entering Valhalla. In fact, he finds it a pity to kill those who are not acting corageous, as he fears he will rob them of their chance of entering Valhalla. He preaches a doctrine of courage to those he fights so that he can maximize the number of people he sends to Valhalla. For Thorkill, the act of bloodshed is a type of worship.
Thorfinn frequently listens in on readings of the Bible, offering a sharp contrast to the religious ideals of the Vikings. While the Vikings revered and sanctified courageously fighting to the death, weapon in hand, the Christians abhorred violence and preached turning the other cheek. In fact, he realized that the Christians believed in loving their enemies. He couldn’t help but remember his father’s example and the lesson that no one truly has any enemies and that true warriors don’t need swords.
Thorfinn makes a vow that he will never hurt anyone ever again. Ironically, as Thorfinn's rival becomes a Valhalla extremist, Thorfinn philosophically becomes a Christian extremist. Whereas Thorkell tries to maximize bloodshed for Valhalla, Thorfinn tries to minimize violence for peace.
Einar, his buddy in slavery, is astounded by Thorfinn's resolve to "do no harm" as Thorfinn gets physically abused over and over with zero retaliation. But instead of seeing Thorfinn's actions as weakness, people start to view it as a sign of strength of character. When months of slavish effort on the farm is ruined in one night by saboteurs, Einar is furious and wants revenge. Thorfinn calmly emphasizes that if he wants revenge then he should just kill Thorfinn first, because countless farms had been destroyed at his hands. What normal people would view as justice, Thorfinn begins to see as tragedy. It is a tragedy that people are blind enough to hurt others and it is a tragedy that the same hurt creates even more blindness that perpetuates the suffering with cycles of revenge.
Finally, the king hell-bent on creating a utopia, no matter the cost, sets his sights on seizing the massive farmlands for his own use. Despite being a slave, Thorfinn is grateful to his masters and the opportunity to learn and grow under their care. A Christian ethic of not being resentful about your position in the hierarchy, but rather trying to be the best you can be at the level you are at is Thorfinn’s ethos. Despite seeming obsequious at first glance, Thorfinn makes his humility his strength.
The master of the farmlands, blinded by his possessions, refuses to give in to the King’s demands. A battle ensues as 300 farmhands go up against 100 elite Vikings. As the farmhands get slaughtered, the prideful of the group refuse to give up. But eventually the decision to surrender is enacted. From the Viking perspective, this surrender is viewed as cowardice. But from the Christian perspective, this surrender is viewed as virtuous.
Thorfinn, distraught by the display of another pointless exercise in spilling blood, decides that he wants to put his burgeoning philosophy of peace to the test. He decides to go confront the King himself. Claiming to be a former elite guard of the King, the band of 100 elite Vikings laugh and mock him to scorn. A scrawny slave a former elite guard? Preposterous. A fight breaks out and Vikings begin betting on how many punches Thorfinn can withstand before being defeated. Strangely, Thorfinn refuses to punch back. Instead he makes a deal with the Vikings – if he can withstand 100 punches they will let him have an audience with the King.
Punch by punch, Thorfinn accepts willingly, while positioning himself to take the least damage. And punch by punch, he earns the respect of the Vikings. After 100 punches, the Viking is exhausted, and Thorfinn remains standing with a bruised, battered, and disfigured face. The Viking confesses that Thorfinn is a true warrior, confirming the validity of his father’s teachings. They ask him why he never fought back. He responded that it was utterly pointless to fight when you are trying to negotiate peace. He emphasized that he just barely met these people and has no grudges against any of them. Hence, he has no enemies here. The only people who should be fighting each other are the two people with grudges against each other – the landowner and the King. He is promptly granted access to speak with the King.
King versus slave, they begin their philosophic battle. Yet, wounded by so many strikes to the head, Thorfinn doesn’t seem to have the energy for many words. Thorfinn simply requests that the King leave the farm alone. The King swiftly refuses, citing his need for this land in order to accomplish his goals. Thorfinn replies that he has committed enough atrocity already and that he should just return home. The King emphasizes how God has abandoned humanity, that the natural way of creation is the source of atrocity. The King proclaims his vision of redeeming, reforming, and exalting the Vikings, building a utopia wherein people can live free from suffering. He knows that he must defy the ways of God in order to accomplish this goal, even if it means sacrificing some innocent people along the way.
Thorfinn expresses his humble opinion that it is wrong to hurt people in your quest for utopia, but that he isn’t qualified to judge others, another Christian principle. The King challenges Thorfinn, surrounding him with elite guards, asking him what he will do now that the King has refused to relinquish the farm. Thorfinn pauses and then says that he will just run away, the antithesis of the way of the Viking. The King is confounded by laughter as he realizes that this former assassin had no desire to harm him, and was merely hoping to touch his heart with a simple and seemingly foolish request. The King mocks him for suffering such a beating to the face just so that he could admonish the King. The King then warns Thorfinn that his empire is only growing in size, eventually the conflict at the border will reach the place he runs to. Thorfinn vows that as long as there is another place to run to, he will keep running until there is no more place to run. He vows to create a nation founded upon true peace, that doesn’t sacrifice others in the process. He will create a place of refuge for all the people who are victimized by the King’s ways. The King is skeptical if he has what it takes to pull off such a project. Thorfinn admits that his powers are much weaker than the King, so he hopes that the King will victimize fewer people so as to reduce Thorfinn’s burden. The King is touched by Thorfinn’s vision and decides that he doesn’t want to make Thorfinn’s project more difficult than it already will be. The King decides to pull his troops out and give back the farm to its owners. The King then makes a series of political changes that orient towards disbanding the military and reducing the number of offensive strategies. All this because, in the King’s own words, a beautiful man stood before him with a battered face, asking him to do less harm.
Thorfinn returns to Iceland to reunite with his family and begin planning the voyage to Vinland – a place far to the west, on a promised land where they can build a peaceful nation.
