War on both coasts
Ragnar Lothbroks great army of revenge feeds the fish at the bottom of the sea.
His boats sink into darkness, never to be seen again by human eyes.
Yet Ragnar and Ivar endure.
Credit: Jonathan Hession
Father and son wash ashore.
They know the locals will arrive soon.
They must move but Ivar, little Ivar, cannot walk with his father.
Im not going to stand around all watching you take a stab at be normal, says the King.
You never will be.
Once you realize that, that is when greatness will happen.
Ragnars first son, Bjorn, isnt normal, either.
Alone among his brothers, he remembers a time when his father was a farmer.
Bjorn sails southward on his journey to the Mediterranean.
This land is overseen by a strange man.
He came from the North but can never return.
Raised with the old gods, he was baptized into Christianity as a joke.
See Rollo, the great warrior, now a Frankish noble.
He sees his nephews arrival and smiles.
There is gray in his beard.
He has three children with his trusting wife, Gisla.
He welcomes his old friends and old enemies.
I have to sail along your coastline, says Bjorn.
I need safe passage for my fleet.
Rollo has them held captive.
We have 60 ships outside your port, says Floki.
Dont you think they will come knocking soon, if we dont return?
Every journey these Vikings take, they know there is the possibility they will never return.
But it seems the once-great King Ragnar has a unique plan for his current journey.
We can no longer travel with our friends.
It can only be you and me.
They paid the warriors and now the warriors are paying for it.
There is no mercy; a shieldmaiden offers herself to Ivar and he kills her.
Is the great Lothbrok family a coalition of traitors?
How many more people will trust Ragnar, and how much longer can he betray that trust?
One of the first people Ragnar betrayed was Lagertha, once his wife, then his ally.
Lagertha has her own plans.
What are they preparing for?
Im taking Kattegat back, Lagertha says, a dream given voice at last.
Aslaug isnt fit to be Queen.
NEXT: What comes next
Lagertha has her reasons.
She must justify herself.
She says Aslaug was born of a witch.
She points out that three of Ragnars sons are gone, leaving only two behind.
She meets Margaret, the slave girl.
She was being used, Lagertha learns, by the sons of Ragnar.
Lagertha hears Margarets tale.
She meets with Torvi and begins to plot in earnest.
In Wessex, the great King Ecbert receives his son, Aethelwulf.
Mysterious doings are afoot.
Ecbert must leave for a Council meeting.
He considers Ragnar to be the eternal wolf, assailing the humble lambs of god.
Whatever my son says, Ecbert notes, He is, after all, just a man.
And that man is busy.
He carries Ivar on the road to Wessex.
Only when you talk, jokes Ragnar.
Your legs have given you a strength, a strength that even your brothers dont have.
Youre like a deaf man whose eyesight is sharper than anyone else.
You are special, not in spite of your legs, but because of them.
In Normandy, King Harald and his brother are not happy.
But Rollo surprises his former brethren.
He invites Bjorn into his study; he sent for a librarian, who could explain Bjorns map.
And he will not promise Bjorn safe passage unless Bjorn allows Rollo to join his quest.
Gisla is not happy with that plan.
You embraced our world and our God and I have had your children, she tells her husband.
They are not Viking.
If I thought they were Viking, I would kill them before killing myself.
And so, on they move, these warriors and dreamers.
