Episode 30: We Need a Horse

Struggling to wrench a stubborn stump from the ground, Einar and Thorfinn finally free it by cutting more roots, then rest and gripe about being denied a horse for tilling. Thorfinn explains the retainers only lent a horse earlier to make the slaves do the retainers' own hauling. When the pair ask for a horse, they are refused and mocked as livestock. An old man working the neighboring field overhears their plight, calls them over, and offers to lend them a horse after learning their situation.

The old man, Sverkel, first sets them to clearing rocks from his field, then chopping firewood, then fetching water, until Einar suspects he is simply working them for free. Sverkel clarifies the bargain: in exchange for borrowing the horse, they will do chores at his house whenever they collect and return it. With the horse, the two pull stumps with ease, and Einar happily keeps up his end of the deal. They soon manage to borrow a plow as well and begin preparing the soil, marveling at the wealth of a master who owns ten heavy plows when Einar's home village shared a single one among eight families.

Some retainers accuse them of stealing the horse, not believing a man named Sverkel would lend it, until one realizes Sverkel is the old master, Ketil's own father and the most important man on the farm. When rain threatens, the pair rush to return the plow and find Ketil visiting Sverkel, worried that the stubborn old man lives alone and recently collapsed, saved only because Snake was nearby. Sverkel refuses to move in with his son, insisting they would only quarrel.

Invited inside out of the rain, Einar is startled to find Snake asleep in the back, who wakes at the smell of cooking and scolds Sverkel for eating without him. Over the meal, Snake explains that thieves, sometimes armed, prowl the farm, and that his thirteen men are stretched thin; fifty or sixty attackers could seize the estate. Sverkel argues that nothing worse than thieves will come thanks to the heavy tribute Ketil sends King Harald twice a year in exchange for protection, and warns that wealth only breeds the fear of losing it. Thorfinn feels he has learned much. Later, as the two begin planting, Einar tells Thorfinn to trust him as a friend, and Thorfinn, smiling, agrees that they are indeed friends.

Refused a horse by the farmhands, Einar and Thorfinn strike a chore-for-loan bargain with the eccentric old farmer Sverkel, who turns out to be Ketil's father and the farm's original master. With a borrowed horse and plow, their land-clearing accelerates. Over dinner, Snake outlines the farm's thin defenses while Sverkel explains that Ketil's tribute to King Harald keeps them safe. Thorfinn openly acknowledges his friendship with Einar for the first time.

We Need a Horse aired on February 14, 2023, as the sixth episode of Season 2, adapting chapters 63 through 65. Kento Matsui directed from a storyboard by Shingo Uchida. The episode formally introduces Sverkel and expands on the farm's economy and precarious security.