Now, to England will Ragnar return.
Im looking for brave warriors, he announces in the town square.
The response is muted.
Credit: Bernard Walsh
A man tells Ragnar his brothers family went to England to found the Viking colony.
We never did find out what happened to them, the man says.
But it seems you knew all along, and didnt tell us.
He spits on King Ragnar the once-great, who once sailed with ships beyond number.
Now, Ragnar must beg his son Bjorn for ships.
Bjorn will grant them but he has his own plans.
Bjorns plan, bold and perhaps mad: He will send messengers to Rollo.
Can family bonds, once broken, be fixed?
The sons of Ragnar are bonded yet with their mother.
Aslaug wants them to settle down: You should already be married, she tells her three older sons.
You dont have to love the woman, she explains.
You need one to breed with.
Did Aslaug ever love Ragnar?
Her sons have their own legends about their parents.
She has always loved me, says Ivar.
She feels pity for you, he says.
We all feel pity for you.
But sometimes, we wish that shed left you to the wolves.
Ivar tries to attack him, slithering across the floor like a snake.
It seems that my son Bjorn and your son Hvitserk will go on this journey together, she says.
A sacrifice is suggested.
We can both officiate, says Lagertha.
You forget, Lagertha, Aslaug says, gently but firmly.
I am a queen.
Lagertha does not forget anything: Forever the shieldmaiden, forever the mother protecting her homestead from invaders.
NEXT: Gossip and sacrifice
The time has come for the blessing.
Aslaug paints her face and prepares the sacrifice.
Dazed, in a trance, she is perhaps not entirely present when Lagertha approaches her.
I know you’re able to hear me, says Lagertha.
You call yourself Queen, but you willneverbe Queen in Kattegat.
Bold words from an ascendant earl to a monarch with whose power structure has never been shakier.
Pity poor Margaret, a woman doomed to despair by the gods.
She reveals this embarrassing fact to Ivars brothers.
Poor Ivar, says Ubbe, surely the kindest of Ragnars sons.
Ivar himself is busy with his father, Ragnar the returned.
The fallen King digs out a trove of treasure, the better to bribe warriors with.
Ragnars present is a far cry from his past.
Yet he has not forgotten the people from his old life, the characters in his legend.
He visits his wife Aslaug, his Queen.
Love was not what brought us together, he tells her.
But you endured me.
You suffered my words and my neglect.
And you never turned our sons against me.
For all that, with all my heart, I am grateful to you.
Aslaug hears this, and perhaps she ponders Ragnars truths or sees some deeper truth in his generous words.
She sees a vision of Ivar, drowning, consumed.
I dont care if I die, Mother, says Ivar.
Poor Ivar has a chance to prove himself with the gods.
Ivar tells his mother he loves her.
And then he gets on his fathers ship.
Off to England, then to Wessex and Ecbert and vengeance and destiny.
A storm arrives, tossing Ragnars three ships about.
Im terrified of water, says Ivar.
Plenty of worse ways to die than to drown, Ragnar tells his youngest son.
Into the storm they go, and into the water, and into the deep.
There are worse ways to die than drowning, true, but not many.
