With season two of Vinland Saga coming out this winter many people may be unable to watch it so this article should give you a good enough summary of the first season. Keep in mind watching it will always be better than just reading a summary. Vinland saga is a story about redemption. But by just watching the first season one would think it’s much more about death, revenge, and fighting. This is because of the nature of the first season being a prologue. In order for Thorfinn to be redeemed he must have done something wrong this first season is what he has the need to repent for.

This story opens onto a small village in Iceland where we meet Thorfinn, Helga, Thors, and Yilva. Thorfinn is young at this time around the age of 6 or so when his father Thors is called to fight in a war for Denmark. His father however seems against this idea as he deserted the army and usually desertion means death. But the vikings threaten the town so he goes along anyway. Thorfinn sneaks onto his boat when he leaves because he wants glory on the battlefield and does not want to wait until he is older. The boat they take gets ambushed by Askelad and his pirates; they kill Thorfinn’s dad and take his boat.

Thorfinn stays on the boat that Askelad steals, swearing revenge for his father in a duel of men against Askelad. However he is only six years old so he has no way to beat Askelad so he ends up just tailing along with the pirates doing whatever they want in order to get a duel with him. This leads him into the war in England that the Danish have been fighting for many years. In this part of the story we meet other important characters being the antagonist King Sweyn of Denmark, Prince Cannute, and Thorkell the tall. King Sweyn is a conniving and manipulative king who proves to be trying to kill Canute to ensure his other son takes control of the government. Prince Cannute is a weak and small person who is just trying to live his life. Thorkell is a very large, very strong man who longs for the battlefield and wants never ending war.  Long story extremely short Askelad’s group and Thorkell’s group end up joining with the prince to plot his takeover as king of the newly taken England.

In the end Askelad gets backed up into a corner by the king diplomatically and has to make a decision so he kills the king ensuring Cannute’s leadership of England. In the process though he ends up pretending to go mad, Cannute who sees Askelad’s plan kills him. This leaves Thorfin without a purpose in life because Askelad is dead, Cannute the king of England, and Thorkell to fight more battles.