Thorkell

True to his nickname, Thorkell looms over everyone he meets, a mountain of muscle mapped with scars from a lifetime of war. Spiky blond hair sits beneath a bandana above a modest beard. His first duel with Thorfinn cost him the tips of two fingers on his right hand, and their rematch took his left eye, leaving him with an eyepatch. Being burned alive in 1019 later turned his hair curly. Decades earlier, in 987, he carried much the same build though far leaner and shorter-haired, and he once fought with a single two-handed poleaxe before adopting the pair he swings in the present day.

Thorkell is a boisterous, cheerful giant who laughs and grins his way through life and combat alike, but starve him of a fight for too long and he sinks into gloom and irritation. He is not cruel and takes no pleasure in tormenting the weak or unarmed; he only wants opponents who can defend themselves, and he will even hand a defenseless enemy a weapon so they might die gloriously and reach Valhalla. His craving for battle runs so deep that peace nearly undoes him, sending him barging into homes to join brawls out of sheer boredom and even collapsing from shock when Canute disbands the troops.

Loyalty means little to him beyond his own men; he trades allegiances and betrays former comrades to chase the most thrilling engagement, caring nothing for rank or the outcome of a war. Against a worthy foe he insists on single combat, forbids his men from interfering or mocking a challenger, and once killed a soldier for laughing at Thorfinn. Beneath the battle-lust, though, he is sharper than he seems, an astute reader of tactics and politics who simply prefers fighting to intrigue. He is quietly troubled by what it truly means to be a warrior, haunted by the last words of his old friend Thors, and he long hoped Thorfinn might supply the answer. A former Jomsviking commander, he deserted once war grew dull and undefeatable, joined the English because they promised a harder challenge, and later served Canute.

Both Floki and Garm regard Thorkell as the mightiest Viking drawing breath, and Askeladd dubbed him the Invincible. His superhuman strength is staggering: he hoists a boulder of some five tons and hurls it hard enough to sink longships, throws tree trunks and swings them like staves, launches a spear from over a kilometer to skewer armored men, punches a horse into the air, knocks teeth from a bear before crushing its spine in a bear hug, and levels two houses with his axe. Only Thors ever defeated him in single combat.

His toughness matches his power. He shrugged off a dagger driven clean through his hand, kept fighting after being set aflame, and hurled men about while still bandaged, unbothered by grievous wounds. For all his bulk he is startlingly quick, able to trade blows with the swift Garm and force even Thorfinn to rely on pure agility to survive. He is a master of his twin poleaxes, cleaving armored warriors and trees apart with accurate, blistering strokes, and he leads his band of five hundred with charisma and a keen strategic mind. His presence alone is a weapon; his demonic aura shattered Torgrim's sanity without a single blow struck, and the mere mention of his name unsettles seasoned fighters, Askeladd among them.