Episode 31: Iron Fist Ketil

Another food theft has struck the farm, but with the tracks muddled Fox cannot follow them. Snake notes the thieves take little yet have done it repeatedly and must be punished. Elsewhere, Arnheid tells Einar that Sverkel clearly likes him and Thorfinn, since no one bothers to repay slaves; the remark leaves Einar blushing until Ketil's wife slaps Arnheid for idling and warns that Ketil may return with guests to feed. Praying in their field for good weather, Einar pulls a reluctant Thorfinn down to pray beside him.

Ketil comes home with his elder son Thorgil, a hardened Viking who once served as Canute's squire and argues that battle would toughen the soft Olmar. Snake greets Thorgil, surprised he survived, and reveals he has captured two child thieves to hand over for judgment. At the house, Thorgil boasts of the savagery of war and gifts Olmar a necklace strung with the dried ears of English men, sending the horrified boy screaming. Thorgil laughs and recounts the legend of Iron Fist Ketil, a warrior who once fought on bare-handed after his weapon shattered from his own strength.

Ketil questions the captured siblings, the boy Sture and his younger sister Thora, whose father Snorri vanished a year ago while selling vegetables and who owe rent on their land. Their mother lies sick with a baby, leaving no family able to hire them. Thorgil coldly proposes cutting off an arm from each child, and Sture offers to take his sister's punishment too. Pater objects that such maiming amounts to execution and proposes instead that Sture work off the debt and the stolen goods under his own instruction, which Ketil gladly accepts, though Pater adds that a beating is still warranted so people will take the penalty seriously.

Snake removes an axe blade and asks how many strokes; Ketil settles on ten. When Sture begs to take twenty in his sister's place, Thorgil eagerly volunteers and, holding nothing back, sends the boy flying with a single blow, forcing Ketil to rush in and take over himself. That night, lying beside Arnheid, Ketil confesses that the Iron Fist legend is a fabrication and that he is in truth afraid of Thorgil, of war, and of violence. He tells her she is the only one who calls his kindness a virtue, and the only one he shares this with, and pleads with her to stay, since without her his world is only darkness.

Ketil's war-hardened elder son Thorgil returns home and unsettles the household, most of all his squeamish brother Olmar. Two starving child thieves, Sture and Thora, are captured and brought before Ketil for judgment. Pater spares them from mutilation by proposing indentured labor, though a beating still follows. Alone with Arnheid, Ketil admits the Iron Fist legend is a lie and confesses his deep fear of his son and of violence.

Iron Fist Ketil aired on February 21, 2023, as the seventh episode of Season 2, adapting chapters 66 and 67. Michiru Itabisashi directed from a storyboard by Tadahito Matsubayashi. The episode introduces Thorgil and reveals the gulf between Ketil's fearsome reputation and his gentle, fearful nature.