The sons of Ragnar Lothbrok react to bad news, while Floki finds a new religion.
In Kattegat, his first wife Lagertha cannot believe he is dead.
But her responsibility is clear.
Credit: Bernard Walsh
She must pick up the burden of rule, no matter the cost.
“Ragnar hated it,” she tells her lover Astrid.
“It weighed him down, perhaps it even killed him.”
And she thinks Ragnar is watching her.
In Wessex, Ecbert mourns his friend, while his son Aethelwulf fears the worst.
Ecbert had an agreement with Ragnar, a promise the Viking’s sons would seek vengeance only against Aelle.
Lagertha assumes her own seat of power, sitting in the high throne at the center of Kattegat.
Lagertha, in charge, has some new ideas.
Kattegat has become large, “the largest, richest trading center in Norway.”
All the citizens of Kattegat agree with her.
Well, almost all.
Their little brother, Ivar, is more expressive.
He challenges Lagertha to single combat, in full view of all Kattegat.
She refuses; she does not want to kill him.
But none can miss the fire of Ivar’s words.
“One day, I will kill you, Lagertha,” he tells his father’s true love.
“Your fate is fixed.”
To the South, Bjorn sails.
He sails with his half-brother, his uncle, and two of his father’s most trusted friends.
They are in the fog, but the mist is nothing compared to the clouds in Floki’s minds.
“I no longer know who I am,” he tells his wife Helge.
“Why I am here.
Why my purpose here.”
Floki has always been a believer, in old ways and old gods.
But perhaps his final meeting with his old friend Ragnar has changed him.
“I feel like an empty vessel,” he says.
“I’m all alone.
I need something to fill me up.”
Helge feels the same.
She wants another child, someone who will live on after they have left the world.
Elsewhere in the fleet, King Harald and his brother Halfdan whisper plots to each other.
Harald wonders if their leader, Bjorn Ironside, is cursed, as his father was.
“One day, we must overcome the Lothbroks,” Harald tells his brother.
“How else can I become the King of all Norway?”
Why should they wait, these ambitious young Vikings?
Perhaps the time to strike is now.
Halfdan cautions his brother and teases him.
“The gods will give us a sign,” he says.
“They love us.”
Barbarians attacked centuries ago; the city was rebuilt by the Moors.
They set about their violent business, Rollo laughing to be a Viking once again.
But Floki and Helge are much changed here in this strange city.
Floki hears the call to prayer and follows it to a temple.
He is struck by their worship.
Their gods are nowhere to be seen, “yet they’re praying with such passion.”
Harald has no time for cultural investigations and prepares to slay everyone in the temple.
“No more killing,” he says.
“Not in here.
Not in this place.”
Floki had criticized Ragnar and his brother Rollo for their flirtations with one religion.
Helge finds her own answers in Algeciras.
She watches Harald slay a man and a woman, watches their child flee.
She chases after the child, and rescues her or, if you like, takes her captive.
She wants to take the child with them on their journey.
She joins the march of prisoners and plunder.
“Enjoy Valhalla,” she says.
“You deserve it.
But don’t forget me.”
Lagertha is a believer.
She goes to see the Seer, and the Seer says he, too, has seen Ragnar.
“He was so happy!”
Lagertha asks the Seer: Will one of Ragnar’s sons kill her?
Or, to be specific, “Will I be killed by a son of Ragnar?”
The Seer hears her and ponders.
“Yes,” he says, offering her an answer but also several more questions.
The sons of Ragnar are far spread.
Yet words do travel.
Ubbe sharpens his arrows, Sigurd sharpens his axe, Ivar hacks away in the blacksmiths.
Yet Bjorn knows, deep in his soul, that his father is dead.
Perhaps Ragnar is somewhere, or perhaps he is nowhere.
For his sons, there is no mystery.
Vengeance calls them, from across the sea.
