Berserker rage, grisly punishments,
human sacrifice, and all-out war! "Vikings: Valhalla" bleeds violence in every episode,
but these are the scenes that went too far! Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Historians are unsure how many Vikings perished during the St. Brice's Day Massacre in the year
1002, but they know that it wasn't just Viking warriors who got targeted that day.
The fictionalized version of this historical event, depicted in Episode 1 of "Vikings:
Valhalla," is especially upsetting because we see the inhabitants of Danelaw celebrating together
just before their Viking warriors are called away to meet with the king. Of course, the meeting is
just an excuse to get the best warriors out of the way, leaving the settlements helpless.
King Aethelred of England's army slaughtering all those defenseless Danes as they celebrated
isn't the only reason the opening scene of the series is so difficult to stomach.
It's the cold and calculating way Aethelred deals with the Viking warriors who answered
his call that makes it particularly chilling — he invites them to feast with
him before his men rain arrows down from above, murdering every last one of them.
In Episode 1 of "Vikings: Valhalla"
we meet Freydis Eriksdotter, who has traveled from Greenland to Kattegat
with her brother Leif Eriksson and their friends. She's seeking vengeance against
a Christian Viking who assaulted her and maimed her by carving the shape of a cross on her back.
When Freydis shares this story with Harald Sigurdsson, we as viewers understand why she
has traveled so far. We also understand that, despite what has happened to her,
Freydis is far from broken. She is ready and willing to dish out her own justice, as we see
at the end of Episode 1 when she comes face to face with the man who assaulted and scarred her.
It turns out he's an important man with ties to Olaf Haraldsson, but that means nothing to
Freydis. To the shock of everyone in Kattegat's Great Hall, the Greenlander appears from nowhere,
plunges a knife into the chest of her abuser, and proceeds to carve a cross into it. It's a
shockingly gruesome act of vengeance that shapes the course of the entire series.
One aspect of Viking culture that "Vikings: Valhalla" focuses on is how divided they became
over religion, highlighting the animosity between Pagan and Christian Vikings. When the Vikings
gather in Kattegat to plan an invasion of England in response to the St. Brice's Day Massacre,
many Pagan and Christian Vikings are opposed to fighting alongside the other in battle.
Both groups want revenge, but there's no trust between them.
An agreement is eventually hammered out, but the tension is still there as they
all set off for England. It comes to a head on Leif Eriksson’s boat,
where a mixed crew of Pagan and Christian Vikings can't stop bickering.
"The gods are laughing at us right now." "Shut up, heathen."
Blood is spilled when a Pagan takes offense to a comment and
buries his ax in the neck of a Christian crewmate.
Leif is also a Pagan, so you might assume he would side with the killer. He's also an honorable man,
and he wasn't about to let that kind of behavior slide on his boat. To make things right,
Leif takes the life of the murderer in turn. This scene perfectly depicts the brutality
of the period and the utter disregard for human life some of these warriors expressed.
While Leif goes to England, Freydis is left in Kattegat under the watchful eye of its leader,
Jarl Haakon. Freydis is pleasantly surprised to learn she isn't a prisoner
when Haakon suggests that she visit the Pagan temple in Uppsala.
Freydis sets out with a group of companions from Greenland and guards from Kattegat,
only to be attacked by a berserker as they rest beside a river along the road to Uppsala.
The berserker is a Christian mercenary looking for Pagans traveling to the temple. He callously kills
all but two of their party before Freydis strangles him on the banks of the river.
The scene depicts the extreme animosity Pagan and Christian Vikings felt toward each other.
It's especially brutal because the panic and fear Freydis and her companions
experience when this hulking stranger attacks them is palpable. The sequence
is so well-made that it feels like you went through the ordeal with Freydis.
Once the Viking army has taken down London Bridge, cutting King Edmund off from his city,
they take the young ruler into custody. King Canute, the Dane who has led the war effort,
announces that he intends to stay in England and rule alongside Edmund.
During the celebration feast, Canute thanks Eadric Streona,
the Ealdorman of Mercia, for withdrawing his troops. If the Mercian army had attacked the
Viking army as Streona had promised King Edmund, the outcome would have been very different.
During this scene, it becomes clear that Canute is a different breed of Viking king.
He understands the value of loyalty and the necessity of alliances.
He seems firm but fair, but then the mood quickly shifts.
"But new beginnings cannot happen with a traitor in our midst."
With that, Canute unceremoniously beheads the Ealdorman of Mercia for his betrayal
of King Edmund. His execution of a man whose actions actually benefited the
Viking army is a statement that Canute will not tolerate traitors of any kind.
It's an intense scene that's hard to watch, even if Streona had it coming.
After visiting Uppsala, Freydis returns to a horrifying scene:
her friend is dead and the decapitated heads of the remaining villagers are strewn
around a grove in the forest nearby. Jarl Kåre and his Christian warriors,
who slaughtered the villagers, are still on the scene, waiting for Freydis to show up.
Freydis finding her friend is gruesome enough, but discovering the decapitated heads of the
remaining villagers brings this disturbing scene to an entirely different level. This
scene is a startling depiction of the religious hatred brewing in Scandinavia at the time, with
Jarl Kåre and his mercenaries determined to kill off Pagans rather than trying to convert them.
We soon learn that Jarl Kåre was once a Pagan. As a child, he visited the temple of Uppsala with his
family and was traumatized when he witnessed the ritual sacrifice of his brother to the Norse gods.
Seeing his brother killed by the priests planted a seed of hatred in Jarl Kåre's
heart for the Pagan gods and the people who worship them. The mixture of horror,
fear, and anger on the young Kåre's face is awful to see, despite the monster he becomes.
The scene explains why Kåre has a deep and unyielding hatred for Pagans and their gods.
It's easy to see him as a murderous madman, but this horrific backstory humanizes him to
a certain extent, giving us a front row seat to the grisly Pagan practices of the time.
Human sacrifice is unfathomable, horrific, and way too much for most viewers to sit through
comfortably. Add a child into the mix, and you're guaranteed to get a strong reaction.
After Leif Eriksson, the recovered Liv, and Harald Sigurdsson have returned with the triumphant
Viking army from England, Jarl Kåre sends a ship to the port of Kattegat. As this ship drifts
through the mist, we can see that everyone onboard has been killed, except for a baby in a basket.
Of course, this boat of the dead is a message for the people of Kattegat, where religious freedom
is practiced. Kåre is declaring war on Pagans, and this is a promise of more violence to come.
"Of course, once it has been cleansed of the heathen, as we did with Uppsala."
The spooky ship leads the ruler of Kattegat,
Jarl Haakon, to send Freydis back to the temple in Uppsala to see what has happened
to the people who were not on the boat. She finds that they suffered the same fate.
As Freydis and Liv walk through the remains of the grand Pagan temple,
it is obvious how emotionally wrecked Freydis is by seeing the place she just
visited utterly destroyed. The loss of life and the destruction of a sacred place aren't
the only things about this scene that are hard to take. When Harald pinpoints
exactly what Kåre and his men are doing, the realization is absolutely chilling.
"They are cleansing the land, rubbing away all signs of our Pagan past like a stain."
There are a lot of deaths and decapitations in this series, but the ship of the dead
and the remains of Uppsala are probably the most visually horrific depiction of death in Season 1.
Before the battle with the Christian army, Jarl Haakon asks for someone to travel to Asgard to
deliver a message to Odin. A young man steps out of the crowd, offering himself up as a
willing sacrifice. We can see that this is not something that rests easy with Leif,
despite his sister Freydis embracing this aspect of their Pagan traditions.
If this scene is anything to go by, Leif will face a crisis of faith somewhere down the line.
This young man, Audun, gets treated with respect and reverence for his
bravery and personal sacrifice, but that just seems to make things even creepier.
"The gods will whisper the name Audun among themselves in the halls of Valhalla."
The device they use to paralyze him, which involves a big screw going into the base of
his neck, will give you nightmares. This is definitely a scene you can't unsee.
After Kattegat has been sacked and the brave Jarl Haakon is killed,
Freydis and Jarl Kåre have their inevitable showdown. It's a memorable battle,
one that swings back and forth between the two warriors. At first, Freydis appears to be out
of her depth. But, true to her character, she keeps fighting, even after Kåre has
disarmed her. As Kåre prepares to kill her with the sword she obtained from Uppsala,
Freydis stabs him in the stomach with a hidden knife and hits him with a truth bomb.
"It was my destiny."
Kåre had long believed that he was the subject of a prophecy made by the priests at Uppsala,
and learning in his dying moments that this was untrue was the ultimate humiliation for
him. After he drops to his knees, Freydis retrieves her sword and decapitates Kåre,
bringing a bloody end to their battle. Considering how many people died at Kåre's hands in the same
manner throughout Season 1, it's a fitting end for the Christian zealot, but it's still gruesome.
In Season 1 of "Vikings: Valhalla" we meet three men who are living in the
shadows of their powerful fathers: King Edmund, King Canute, and Leif Eriksson,
whose dad is the infamous berserker and explorer Erik the Red. At multiple points during Season 1,
Leif must defend himself against people who want him dead because of stuff his father did.
"Your father killed our brother Sven."
"My father's history has nothing to do with me." "Your father is a killer."
Although Erik the Red is widely recognized for his prowess as a warrior, he has a bad reputation,
having been banished from Norway for murder when Leif was a boy. He was later kicked out of Iceland
for the same crime. Needing a new home, Erik led a voyage to Greenland, founding the settlement
where Leif and Freydis were raised. He ruled it through fear and intimidation.
It's obvious that Leif wants to get out of his father's dark shadow,
and that he doesn't want to be like Erik the Red. However, when Liv is killed in the Battle
for Kattegat, Leif goes full berserker, killing multiple men in a blind rage. This scene is hard
to watch because we know this is Leif's worst nightmare. The last time we see him in Season 1,
Leif is drenched in the blood of his victims, letting out a primal scream.