The tale of Viking warrior Amleth's revenge in "The Northman" has plenty of twists and
turns leading up to an epic vengeance-filled climax.
The ending is full of startling revelations, but what does it all mean to Amleth's destiny?
Stay tuned, because this is the ending of "The Northman" explained.
In "The Northman," audiences first meet Amleth as a young boy who idolizes his father, King
Aurvandil, as well as the kingdom he expects to inherit.
That, of course, doesn't go according to plan.
Aurvandil's brother, Fjölnir, executes a brutal plan that ends with the king's death.
Fjölnir's brutal takeover of Aurvandil's kingdom sends young Amleth into exile, and
he does not emerge again until years later, now a man and a member of a fearsome Viking
tribe.
For nearly the entirety of "The Northman," Amleth is guided by three goals: to avenge
his father, save his mother Gudrún, and kill Fjölnir to earn his vengeance.
"I will avenge you, Father!
I will save you, Mother!
I will kill you, Fjölnir!"
As an adult, Amleth stops at nothing to achieve these goals as he murders his way through
Fjölnir's village in Iceland.
Even when it grows clear that he may die in the process, the character embraces the prospect
of death from injury on the battlefield as a personal victory that will send him to Valhalla,
or as it's called in the film Volholl.
Amleth runs the risk of truly losing himself in the process of achieving a goal he set
for himself as a child solely in the name of revenge.
At one point, Amleth sets aside a necklace given to him by his father so that he can
disguise himself as a slave to get closer to Fjölnir, and in that moment, he ceases
to be himself.
Instead, he becomes a tool of prophetic revenge.
Amleth's meetings with the Seeress and other visions tell him that his children with Olga
will rule the kingdom that should have been Amleth's in the future.
For Amleth, his destiny lies on the battlefield with his uncle.
Shortly after Amleth's destiny is revealed to him and he remembers his vengeful oath,
the Viking warrior learns that his uncle has fled to Iceland.
This flight happens because after deposing Aurvandil, Fjölnir is defeated by another
ruler, fleeing to the small North Atlantic island to start a new life.
After an arduous journey, Amleth finally arrives in Iceland to exact his revenge, but "The
Northman" offers a messy conclusion that sets it apart from other vengeance sagas.
Amleth doesn't really have a kingdom to return to, and to take for his own, once he's defeated
his uncle.
All that's left of Fjölnir's domain is a small farming community.
To infiltrate Fjölnir's village, Amleth brands himself and travels as a slave across the
ocean.
Once under the control of his uncle, the prince sees that Fjölnir's home is just a small
village in Iceland.
Fjölnir lives there with Gudrún and their son, Gunnar, Fjölnir's older son Thorir,
and a small grouping of villagers and their slaves.
Fjölnir has already been humbled by external forces by the time Amleth reaches him, and
aside from murdering Aurvandil, he seems to be a capable leader.
In fact, when we meet him again he's teaching Gunnar the importance of doing physical labor
alongside the rest of the village.
It's a moment reminiscent of young Amleth's experience with his father.
When Fjölnir and Amleth finally do battle in head-to-head combat at the base of an active
volcano known as the Gates of Hel, Amleth finally achieves his goal of killing his traitorous
uncle.
However, considering the state Fjölnir is already in by the time Amleth reaches him,
it's hard to say how satisfying reaching this conclusion of his journey actually is.
Robert Eggers portrays Amleth as a single-minded protagonist.
He's driven solely by his need to achieve vengeance for his father's death.
And the film rarely suggests that Amleth will fail at that goal.
"Your fate is set, and you cannot escape it."
As an adult, the exiled prince is a violent and fearsome combatant.
He even kills a man larger than himself when he is conscripted to play an early version
of the Irish sport, hurling.
When Amleth is captured by Fjölnir toward the end of the second act of the film, his
captivity is brief.
Ravens release him from his bonds, suggesting his revenge isn't just his goal, but a true
destiny bestowed on him by the gods.
And completing the gods' mission, Amleth ascends to Valhalla, signified by the electrifying
visions of a valkyrie flying through the night sky.
Amleth's revenge plays out even as he learns that the reality of his family's existence
was not what he once thought.
The film's first act implies that Fjölnir keeps Gudrún against her will after Aurvandil's
death.
But in a surprise twist, we eventually learn that it was Gudrún herself who plotted to
kill Aurvandil.
Brought into his kingdom as a slave, Gudrún was forced into marriage when Aurvandil took
notice of her.
This startling revelation makes one-third of Amleth's vengeful mantra obsolete.
It further emphasizes the ways in which "The Northman" muddies the waters of a classic
revenge saga.
Not only is Amleth driven by a single-minded drive to fulfill his destiny, but when he
learns the truth, he realizes that he doesn't even have a clear idea of who he is actually
seeking revenge on.
Ultimately, his own violent destruction is the only way his story can end.
"The Northman" is the third outing from Robert Eggers following two films that won him immense
critical acclaim.
While "The Witch" and "The Lighthouse" were both made on relatively modest budgets, "The
Northman" and its roughly $90 million price tag represents a huge leap forward for the
filmmaker.
With the film receiving its own glowing reviews from critics, does this mean we can expect
more big-budget blockbusters in Eggers' signature style in the future?
In the lead-up to the film's release, Eggers has been candid in interviews about the difficulties
he faced in making "The Northman."
Despite the significant amount of action in the movie, Eggers noted to The New Yorker
that neither he nor his cinematographer Jarin Blaschke had ever shot a significant action
scene before the project.
Furthermore, Eggers admitted that his filming methods left little extra footage to make
any changes to the film, something he ended up doing after a series of test screenings.
Eggers opened up to The Guardian about modifying the film after submitting it for test screenings,
a process he had not undergone on his first two films.
While he clarified that the give-and-take with the studio helped produce the most entertaining
version of the movie he could make, he also alluded to not necessarily enjoying the process.
While it sounds like Eggers is happy with the end result of "The Northman," he has also
said that he doesn't want to step away from making smaller-scale films.
He noted that he has had meetings with larger studios, but that he doesn't feel his skills
as a filmmaker are useful for franchise blockbuster filmmaking.
So, we may see another grand epic from Eggers down the line, but don't expect to see him
helming a Marvel Cinematic Universe film any time soon.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite movies are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.