Episode 47: Two Paths

Canute presses Thorfinn to stop him the way Askeladd once did, while a hallucination of the dead Sweyn urges the king to kill this dangerous man before one stray sheep leads the whole flock off a cliff. Thorfinn answers that if authority is all Canute will use, then he will simply run. He concedes he has no right to judge the king's paradise, only to remove himself from it, and turns to leave with Einar. Canute cannot help laughing at the sheer absurdity of a man who came unarmed and let himself be beaten bloody just to ask that a farm be spared, calling it the most ridiculous and beautiful peace talk he has ever held.

Thorfinn explains he means to raise a peaceful land by a wholly different method, one with room for the very people Canute's order would crush, and warns that endless oppression will one day leave the king beyond saving. Behind him, Thorgil returns to discover the royal troops already gone, unable to believe the battle simply ended.

Aboard his ships, Canute cancels his remaining plans to seize other farms, telling Wulf he would rather not add to Thorfinn's burden and admitting he has gained new allies in his cause. He goes further and disbands the costly Danish army stationed in England; the feared uprising never comes, and the English nobility, reading the gesture as trust, begin to warm toward him.

At Arnheid's grave, Thorfinn tells Einar that he could not answer her longing for the peace of death, and so resolves to create a world more inviting than dying for those who yearn to give up. He names Einar his brother, and the two clasp hands on the promise to build that place in Vinland. As they depart with Leif, Snake at last shouts his true name after them: Roald, son of Grim. In the years that follow, Olmar takes up the farm's labor, Snake's men settle as farmers, and a furious Thorgil rides off alone.

Airing June 13, 2023, this forty-seventh overall episode and twenty-third of the season was produced by MAPPA under director Yoho Ishikawa with Atsushi Kobayashi on storyboard. It adapts chapters 98 and 99 along with a portion of chapter 93 and anime-original scenes. A piece of trivia notes that Snake finally discloses both his own name and his father's here.