 Who do you intend to kill with a sword? A Norseman should value his honor over his life. Vinland Saga is set in a ruthless period of time where physical strength or power, where one's blood, can take you anywhere and grant you the ability to be anybody and do anything. The most violent, the most powerful win. This is a period in time when a man's pride and honor are more valuable than anything. A time where war is everything. It's a period where a father will teach his son how to fight and how to wield a weapon and he will see his son off to war, proud of the fathers, the brothers, and the sons that his son will kill. In this story, the glorification of war has touched every corner of Europe, even the secluded Iceland. In the year 1002, as we follow a young Thorfinn back in Iceland, the young men still dream of battle and children here still run around with their wooden swords pretending to be warriors, aspiring to kill their enemies. The Valhalla is the reward for those who die in battle, a reward reserved for men and only for warriors. When it's announced that they will be going to war, they celebrate, as if they've been waiting their whole lives for this moment, and they have. To fight and to kill is every man's calling, it is their purpose. Even in these early chapters is no different, he is one of the many victims of this romanticization of war. As a boy, he even criticizes his ancestors for running away from it. The way Thorfinn sees the world and responds to its many trials and tribulations is that of a child who has grown up in this culture. He gets angry and aggressive when play fighting amongst his age mates. The other adults are impressed when he breaks one of the other kids arms, a born warrior they call him, because he has his father's blood. Thorfinn wants to be a warrior so bad, he wants to go on an adventure more than anything, he wants to be respected like his father, so much so that he begs life to accompany him on his journey every time he returns home. So much so that he sneaks onto his father's ship as they head into what he believes will be one of the greatest battles he has dreamed of. Thorfinn is but a product of his surroundings. Once our protagonist sees the great Thorfinn's die unfairly at 6 years old, he responds as any child who dreams of war could. He vows to avenge his father and he spends the next 11 years of his life wholly entrenched in his quest for vengeance. He throws away any and all lessons that Thorfinn instilled into him and disregards the family he left behind. Eyes have a great significance in this story, and when Thorfinn's father is taken down by Oshelot, his eyes become one of a man, though only a boy, with hate in his heart. Eyes that resemble Oshelot. Whether it was his father's lingering voice that spoke to him as it did in the first chapter or just his lust for revenge blinding him to anything other than his goal, Thorfinn wasn't as bad as the other Vikings, but he wasn't a good person either. In one of Thorfinn's first raids, when he is injured on English soil, the young warrior gets nursed back to health by English farmers, and an old lady saves him from local soldiers. As compensation, he warns them about the incoming Vikings, as he burns a nearby shack to signal them. When the farmers don't leave, and Thorfinn sees the old lady again, his look is one of great remorse. This Thorfinn hasn't entirely changed yet, because in that moment his eyes revert to how they were when he was just a child. Such a jarring contrast, as his face and his top are filled with blood, but his eyes are filled with great sorrow, and you realize how tragic this all is. Here Thorfinn is only ten years old, and he has chosen this cruel life, as the men behind him grin on their way to pillage and kill. Thorfinn then takes a breath, and then his eyes mature once again. They regain that hateful look. I think this was the moment when he flushed any sense of morality that he had down the drain. He then joins the Vikings in their pillaging. It's what he must do to avenge his father, to regain his father's honor at ten years old. He wasn't as bad as the other Vikings, but still he killed innocents and pillaged their homes. He didn't partake in any of the sexual assault that the Vikings did, but he still turned a blind eye to it all. There wasn't any joy in his conquest, unlike Oshalad's band, and yet he continued to follow them because he was so laser focused on his goal. Thorfinn would do anything and ignore any deed, no matter how vile, if it meant being one step closer to killing Oshalad. In the second chapter, the leader of the Vikings says that everyone is a slave to something. And in that very chapter, a slave speaks to Thorfinn, sensing that he and her are alike, given his situation. Thorfinn refutes this idea. He calls himself a free man, but the boy has no ideals, no values, and no motives beyond his current goal. Thorfinn has become a slave to vengeance, and Oshalad holds his chain. Oshalad's relationship with Thorfinn is so interesting in this story, as he is such a massive part of Thorfinn's life, and so it makes Oshalad's relationship with the audience in this story rather unique. Oshalad is such a terrible person. He has wiped out entire villages of innocent people. His men do awful, terrible things. They are terrible people. And yet, sometimes it feels like the worst thing he does in this story is manipulate this child. And despite it all, Oshalad becomes hard to hate, considering his charm, his charisma, his intelligence. It feels so wrong to say it, but Oshalad becomes a father figure to Thorfinn, no matter how badly we want to refute that idea for Thorfinn's sake, and how badly Thorfinn himself refutes that idea. In Ragnarok, Thorfinn dreams of his fallen father, who asks him to protect his sister and mother. Thor is also asked him to give up on this quest for revenge, asking his son if he thinks this quest makes him happy. The young warrior wakes up and sees his bandmates forcing themselves on a captured girl, and he looks down on them, but does nothing. In the episode before this, he mentions how he hates war. Subconsciously or consciously I'd argue, there is a part of Thorfinn that knows what he is doing is senseless, because it's been 11 years and he hasn't gotten any closer to taking Oshalad down, but at the same time it's been 11 years. He can't just walk away. He saw his father as a hero, Thor's the troll, and he died in a way that was so unfair and dishonorable. Thor's won the duel, and still he died. For Thorfinn, what would that say of him if he just lets his father's killer roam free, knowing he had a chance to avenge it? Oshalad understands this, and he uses it to his advantage, as mentioned, but he does show Thorfinn a level of respect that he doesn't show anyone other than Bjorn. Oshalad repeatedly says how he hates the Vikings, he hates Norsemen, but with Thorfinn, he lectures the boy about history, and he subtly informs him about what he is after. In critical moments, he even trusts Thorfinn, like how he entrusts the young warrior to look after Prince Canood. When it's time to fight Thorkel, he nurses the boy back to health while coging him against the giant. When Oshalad fights his former Viking comrade, Thorfinn aids him without question. The leader of the Vikings doesn't hate Thorfinn the way he hates all Norsemen, because Oshalad never hated Thor's either. In fact, in their sole encounter, Oshalad recognizes Thor's ideals and he respects it immensely. Sure he might have said he was joking about Thor's leading his band, but there was undoubtedly some truth to it. I think Thor's was a man that he wished he could have been, and after their duel, he tells the troll that he acknowledges him. He respects his wishes, and he leaves the boat. And that final look on Oshalad's face when signaling his men to kill Thor's was one of disappointment. Oshalad, after a few years of worrying that he would actually be killed in his sleep as he did to his father, slowly came to understand that Thorfinn truly is the son of Thor's, with the potential to change. And a part of that was the fact that Thorfinn sought out a level of honor in revenge. He says he wants to take Oshalad down in a fair duel. That was his goal, as if there was any honor shown to Thor's when he was shot down. Oshalad recognized Thorfinn's soft streak and tried to use it to stray the boy off this path. But no matter how many times he lost to the Viking, no matter how many visits from Thor's and his dreams, nothing could stray him off this path. Not even a reunion with Leaf Ericsson, who had been searching for Thorfinn for the past decade, could talk some sense into it. Thorfinn instead continues to choose rage, allowing it to hack away at his memory and his morality. Only a child when he lost his father, he was beginning to lose his father's guidance as well. And as Thorfinn points it out, he is embarrassed by it. Embarrassed that he has spent the last 11 years going against every word and action his father taught him, because it only got in the way of his anger and hatred. And as Thorfinn says, he wasted those precious years. Thorfinn died staying true to his philosophy, believing that he left a lasting message for himself and his own beliefs and for his son that his actions did. And yet Thorfinn has thrown it all away and when Thorfinn detects this, it triggers the young warrior. There is nothing inside of him but a waning fury. He has no way of living up to Thor's and yet he feels like revenge is the only way at this point that he can truly honor his father and make him proud. But Thorfinn can't just go back home now. He hasn't done enough, he says. He can't just go and face his mother and his sister again with nothing to show for it. Masculinity plays a big part in this society and the way it has been shaped in the Norse world, what does it say of him as a man? As Thorfinn's only son, if he comes home not having restored the honor of their family, the only way his culture has taught him how. He will be branded a coward, someone who ran away, the same way he ridiculed his ancestors when he was just a child. Moreover will Helga and Ylva, will they be proud of the man they see, a man who's killed and pillaged and plundered along with the most savage vikings? And all for what? And while Thorfinn continues on this path with no end in sight, it becomes a bit staggering when you juxtapose Thorfinn's lack of growth with Canute's progress. Canute now has the eyes of a changed man. He doesn't have the eyes of a naive child anymore. He now has the same pitying regard of those who seek a better life. Where Thorfinn only searches for revenge, Canute is offered vengeance by Oshelad for killing his father figure Ragnar and yet Canute declines. And we see where their paths diverge. We see how alike and yet different they are. Regardless Thorfinn marches on, he then takes on Oshelad in what would be their final duel, the most one-sided and heartbreaking one. Coming off Bjorn's death generated a certain level of anger for Oshelad and now Thorfinn is here demanding another duel. Without his weapon Oshelad embarrasses Thorfinn and finally tells him about his past and about his own personal desire for vengeance. How his mother was a slave and his father was a terrible man but a powerful king. How ashamed he is of his own blood. Oshelad explains to Thorfinn what real hatred looks like. It isn't respect, it isn't obedience, it isn't honor among warriors like Thorfinn believes it to be. There is no honor in hatred and vengeance, it is cold-hearted, calculated and ruthless. Just like how Oshelad planned it and killed his father in two years. Oshelad has been around for 11, Oshelad tells him and shows him in their duel that they are not the same, that they are not built the same. Essentially he is telling Thorfinn to give up on his quest. Oshelad doesn't know what it's like to have a sister and a father who love him, he doesn't know what it's like to have a community working together to care for each other. Oshelad parallels Thorfinn but he lives as a cautionary tale. They both desire nothing more than revenge but Oshelad was never able to move on past killing his father. He could never put those nights when his mother yearned for King Artorius to return behind him. He just couldn't do it because that was all he knew. He didn't have anybody to tell him to become a true warrior, to tell him he had no enemies. For Oshelad, everyone was his enemy and he demonstrates that when forced to choose between Wales, his home, his mother and Knut, he cuts the king down and he yells at Thorfinn to stay back and allows Knut to kill him. For political reasons of course, but also to free Thorfinn of his burden. I think he makes a conscious choice to try and steer Thorfinn whom he sees so much of himself to a different path. Oshelad took his vengeance away to ensure that this kid who's had the privilege of being the son of the Great Thors doesn't become like him. Maybe out of respect for the troll, maybe he felt sorry for Thorfinn. People never know, now there was truly nothing for him. More than the fact that this hatred has brought Thorfinn nothing, it's that it is so taxing to hate someone to the level that Thorfinn did, for as long as he did. Every morning, every night, every waking moment is spent dedicating so much of himself to entering that state of mind. Eleven years, rage has boiled inside him, now gone in a few seconds, and couple that with the conflicting emotions that Thorfinn has developed towards Oshelad, he's so confused and lost. Thorfinn has come to respect and even see Oshelad as a father figure. He is just a kid who needed guidance, and he got it in the form of this evil, terrible man. For the second time, he's lost a father figure and he could do nothing about it. And to Thors, he now has nothing to honor him by, nothing to help his soul rest. We know that eyes are symbolic in this story. Eyes that rage, eyes that pity others, innocent eyes, look at Thorfinn's eyes in this panel, as he watches the reason for his existence slowly bleed out. These are not the eyes of a man who is filled with anger or hatred anymore. No. These are the eyes of a man filled with deep, deep sadness and worse, emptiness. There's so many things in this moment. His identity has become synonymous with vengeance, now he has lost it. Thorfinn has become a man with nothing inside, and he's realized that he's forsaken his father's ideals for a fruitless quest. For his crimes against the prince, Thorfinn becomes a slave and how he is depicted here gives us an idea of how much he's changed. Thorfinn has always been small, but as a slave his stature is even more diminished. He's lost a ton of weight, he's been getting crumbs of bread for lunch, and he is so apathetic to his own existence that he won't even ask for more. He's so different now, he used to be so vulgar. As a viking, he took what he wanted and he only did what benefited him. A slave to no one, he said. Now a lifeless man going through the motions, a man who doesn't even desire freedom. He doesn't even want to go home. Hell. Thorfinn hasn't been his home for over a decade. He has no home. Thorfinn says something that enslaved people often feel in this series, that some of them say. What's so great about living? Thorfinn asks, what does he have to look forward to? His days are nothing but agony, and his nights are haunted by nightmares. And Thor's words of wisdom now barely reaches memory after ten years of anger. He doesn't feel worthy of Thor's words now. He is nothing. Thorfinn has reached rock bottom and he is ready to die. Though as his body reacts to snake, he opens up the possibility of having a subconscious desire to live, and he is now forced to investigate that through the life that he now lives for the first time since becoming a slave. Potter shows him great kindness. Einar continues to treat Thorfinn kindly despite his hatred for warriors. Despite the fact that people like Thorfinn are the reason he is a slave today, the reason he has no family, still he sees him and treats him as a friend. These acts are enough for Thorfinn to consider what he gains by living. The fact that Einar has been enslaved his whole life, what good has life given him, and yet he wants to live. He desires freedom. He is still kind. Einar is able to move past it all. Why? But it's not as easy for Thorfinn. Part of his apathy to his new life is that he hates himself. Thorfinn now despises himself for what he has done in the past decade, and for what he had left behind. I think he despises himself for not being able to hate Ashelad anymore. I think Thorfinn still holds on to some ideals of the Norsemen, because that would make him a coward, right, that he doesn't hate the man who killed his father anymore. He's incredibly, incredibly self-loathing. Out on the fact that he is good at nothing other than battle, Thorfinn simply can't see himself as a man with any value. Even after a few months of searching for a will to live for a reason, Thorfinn remains empty. It's been so long that he questions his ability to change, to be reborn. When their wheat gets destroyed, Thorfinn can't bring himself to anger because he feels like he has no right to anger. And in a sense, he is correct. He was the one who spent the last decade of his life looting and pillaging and destroying things that it not belonged to him. He feels like this is deserved, and he also feels that he has no right to any positive emotions or feelings of retribution. As he says it, he is an empty man. Circle tells him, the good part about being empty is that he can fill himself with anything. He has the liberty of choosing the type of man he will be. This is the first step to Thorfinn's true battle. Can he allow himself to be something else? Can he allow himself to begin feeling once again? To fill himself with emotion. But just as he is learning his way around the farm, he too is changing. Learning patience, finding direction. He too is regaining his purpose, his will to live. And what I absolutely adore about this story is that the first time he tries to take a meaningful step towards growth, he fails, because growth isn't linear. Thorfinn's relationship with violence is different than anyone else's. Thorfinn has relied on it for so many years. It has become his battery, his fuel, it has caused so much harm to him and his perception of himself. Going to punch the farmhand accomplished nothing, it only brought him back to the world that he was comfortable in. But the fact that his mind is taking him to this place means that he is feeling guilty, it means that he is feeling something. And the imagery here is so powerful, it's incredibly horrifying, as souls pull Thorfinn back into the world that he left. He doesn't remember them, but they remember him. Each and every one of them, but it's the people like the old lady who combed his hair and nursed him back to health and saved him. The people that he's wrong the most are the people that he needs to satisfy. Those are the type of ghosts that he needs to appease. And the one ghost he does remember is the man who's been at the center of his life for the past decade or so. Oshelot tells Thorfinn that he now has to accept what he's done, he has no choice, and he will have to carry these souls and make it up to them. He will have to atone. He will carry this weight for the rest of his life, and the best he can do is bring them to a place where they can finally rest. And in the panel later on, in this image of the souls, hundreds of them actively tugging on his shirt, pulling his arms down, is one of my favorite panels of the entire series. Because it's such a powerful illustration of how heavy this burden is, and how even one more death, even one more soul would be too much, he says, but he has to carry them with him, everywhere he goes. And while yes, Thorfinn fears for his life here, his most prevalent emotion is regret. Thorfinn is fully sobbing here, he truly feels for them. Fight your true battle, Oshelot urges him. His true battle is to never forget that place, that nightmare, and to never, ever return. Your true battle is overcoming himself. It's so difficult to look past an entire society, telling you what is right and wrong, and glorifying these toxic, violating ideals. That's the battle that Thor is one, and it's the battle that Oshelot was quite aware of, but could never move on from his own past, and his own nature. Now he finally understands his father. What makes a true warrior? He's been asked that by Thorkl. He knows now that a true warrior is not made through the spoils of war. A true warrior is not made through the bloodshed of battle. A true warrior is not defined by their strength or their ability. A true warrior battles man's arrogance and pride and propensity for violence, not with a sword, but with kindness and patience. A true warrior only fights to protect, and they don't kill, and they are strong enough to walk away. Thor's the troll, the strongest warrior in the story, was strong enough to walk away from that life. Knowing he had something bigger to protect, something more important, Thor's chose love over pride and honor. That is what being a true warrior is. After these chapters, I finally took notice of how Thorphin's face had changed, especially the way he's drawn in this panel. This is the first time we ever see Thorphin genuinely smile, genuinely laugh, 73 chapters in. Thorphin the Viking's face was so burdened. The lines are always aggressive, he's always bloody and dirty, his hair was never kept. But now, just like Einar calls him a baby for discovering so much of life for the first time, his face reflects his newfound purpose. Now his eyes aren't the angry eyes of the Viking Thorphin. And they aren't the empty eyes of a man who is nothing. If finally, he now has the eyes of his father, eyes with an earnest desire to live. But what makes Thorphin's road to redemption so compelling is that he doesn't just stop here. It isn't enough to simply throw down my sword, he says. Atonement is not just words and a change of heart, those are good starting points and half the battle is won by desiring change. But the second half is even more challenging, Thorphin says that a man must raise more grain than he has trampled in his life. Atonement requires action, and it finally all comes together when he comforts Arnaid with the promises of Vinland. It's at that moment when he decides to make it his life goal to make Vinland a reality. He promised the souls a place where they can go to rest. He promised Arnaid a place where she would have a desire to live. This brand of non-violence that Thorphin endorses, it's radical and it's outlandish, often times unreasonable. Einar tells him that there is no place in this world without violence, that it's unrealistic. Thorphin himself knows it's unrealistic. But again, we go back to what Thorphin has seen, to the reason he is so vehemently against violence, and it's those bodies that pull on his shirt, those souls that plague his sleep every single night he still wakes up yelling, even after he's changed. He's so against violence because of what he has done. Because of that place that he's visited, the hell of endless slaughter, he is this way because he cannot bear even one more death. Not one more death, he's so repulsed by it, he's so tired of death. And his ideals are challenged constantly. He's put in compromising positions, like when he faces down Knut's army, but to prove his dedication, he withstands 100 blows. When he meets with Knut, he tells him that he will run away. Though he has been absolutely pummeled, the man who hit him is not his enemy. Thorphin believes that peace cannot be brokered through war, that the peace he seeks is not just a place without violence. It is a place where that hell that he endured does not exist. It is a place where nobody has to carry the burdens of hundreds of souls haunting them. Because he knows that the souls weigh you down. He knows that not everyone is as lucky as he is to have escaped that place. Thorphin's brand of peace and pacifism ensures that that place will never exist. And Thorphin's brand of peace ensures that everyone will have a desire to live. And that no one will question why they are alive. Vinland is a place where anyone and everyone can learn what the reason to live is. It's love, family, fun. These are the pillars to life that so many in their world have yet to experience. Where so many have suffered and have lost. Our Nade sought out a reason to keep on living. The slave back in the third chapter sought out a reason to keep on living. Both times they were soothed by the visions of Vinland, a place where they don't need to suffer. That is what life is supposed to be. Vinland's saga is set in the most brutal period of history and yet it is a story about love, forgiveness, redemption, and kindness. A story of resilience. This is the story of a man who has accepted the harm he's done, he's not shied away from it, and now he finally understands that the thing he sought out most, violence and the glory of war, is the very thing that poisons their world. Thorphin doesn't ever ask anyone to forget his past, he makes it known time and again the man he was. There are people in the story that make him never forget it, that keep him accountable, but he blinds people with his goodness and radiance. When it came time to choose who Thorphin was going to be, he has chosen what is considered weakness and cowardice in this world. He has tossed his pride aside and he has chosen a path filled with incredible hardships. Thorphin understands that choosing love and empathy is the most difficult path. Violence is the easiest, but those who can put their pride to the side, who can walk away, who can be loving and kind, that is the mark of the truly strong. He has finally understood why there is no one he needs to hurt. When Leif and Thorphin reunite for the second time here on Kettle's farm, Thorphin refuses to leave Arnaid and the fate of the farm in the hands of soldiers. He gives up his chance at freedom to save another. And to it, Leif tells Thorphin that he is a man now, fully grown. Men are not made through the fires of war and violence. They are not made when they have killed another. Men are made when they choose to help those in need. Men are made when they choose to live as kind men. Thorphin has now made it his life's mission to create a place where no power can reach. A place no slaver knows. Far to the west, across the great sea, and far, far beyond the horizon. This is the road to true redemption.