Episode 11: A Gamble

Thorkell's column tramps through falling leaves, the warriors trading their favorite parts of the season and joking about Christian women and a feeble-looking statue of Jesus. When Thorkell asks his captive whether the Christian god outmatches Thor or Odin, Canute stays silent and Ragnar bristles at the insolence. Thorkell admits he seized the prince only to bait King Sweyn into a fight, then plays the fool when his men liken his obsession to lovesickness. The drunken priest Willibald, revived with more ale, declares the true god must be whoever invented alcohol.

The banter breaks the instant Thorkell hurls a spear into a scout on a ridge, exposing an ambush. A voice claims Ragnar's unit surrounds them two thousand strong, but Thorkell dismisses the boast as a bluff since real numbers stay hidden. As Canute, Ragnar, and Willibald are steered back toward their own side, Thorkell taunts the attackers as cowards until they lose their composure and charge headlong into him.

Thorkell carves through dozens with ease and gauges no more than four hundred foes remain, until the smell of burning charcoal reaches him. Smoke rolls over the hill, and because Ragnar's own men are dying in the blaze, he deduces a third party has entered the field. Watching from cover, Askeladd confirms the fire will only confuse rather than kill, then hands Thorfinn a horse, douses him with water, and sends him to retrieve the prince. He explains to Bjorn that siding with Ragnar's larger force would have surrendered the reward, while a quiet kill of Canute in the chaos would go unnoticed.

Inside the murk, Thorkell's men pose as Ragnar's soldiers to hunt Canute, cutting down anyone who answers. Thorfinn bursts between the groups, shields the prince, and drops an attacker, drawing Thorkell's recognition. The giant halts the fight to ask two things: whether Askeladd's band lit the fire, and whether the boy is truly the son of Thors and Helga. Confirming Thorfinn as the child of the Jomsvikings' Troll, Thorkell names Thors the one man who ever surpassed him before a burning tree crashes between them.

Thorkell leaves Canute in Thorfinn's hands and departs, certain they will cross paths again since both parties are bound for Sweyn's main host. Askeladd waits out the fighting, felling any straggler who nears, until Thorfinn returns with the prince. Forced by circumstance, Ragnar entrusts Canute's safety to the mercenary and agrees to be escorted toward the main army.

The episode ends on a quiet reveal. Askeladd asks to look upon the prince directly, and when Canute lifts off the helmet, the gathered men are startled by how delicate and feminine his features appear. The moment plants the seed of Askeladd's growing fascination with the boy he now guards.