Episode 6: The Journey Begins

In 1002 AD, Askeladd's band reaches the region near Gainsborough and finds the aftermath of a battle littered with corpses. Askeladd explains that Denmark quietly hires fighters like them to soften England ahead of a future invasion, promising good pay for their help. That night he strikes a bargain with a wary Viking leader, but the deal collapses the instant English arrows cut the man down and rain onto the camp. Cornered in the chaos, a terrified Thorfinn is nearly killed before Askeladd saves him, and moments later the boy stabs down his first attacker and screams through his tears.

Over the following years the band drifts from battle to battle, and Thorfinn sharpens into a capable killer while clinging to Askeladd's promise of a duel. By 1008 AD he is scouting deep in eastern England when an arrow finds his hand and dogs are loosed on his trail.

A washerwoman and her daughter find the wounded boy by the river and take him in, tending his injuries and feeding him despite suspecting he is a Dane. The mother combs the fleas from his hair and admits she once did the same for a son who died of illness two years earlier. When an English soldier comes hunting a Danish scout matching Thorfinn's description, she hides him, claiming he is her youngest child, John.

The daughter, resentful that this stranger cannot replace her dead brother, moves to alert the soldier, but Thorfinn seizes a burning brand, warns the pair to flee, and torches a house as a signal to the waiting ships. He cuts down the returning soldiers, then falters when he sees the mother weeping for him. As Askeladd's crew lands to slaughter the villagers, the woman vanishes into the fleeing crowd, and Thorfinn, reminded of his own family, silently rejoins the raiders.

Airing August 11, 2019 as the sixth episode, this WIT Studio installment adapts chapter 17 alongside anime-original content that fills its first half. It also supplies an original explanation for Thorfinn's second dagger, shown here taken from an English soldier, a detail the manga never addresses. Yousuke Yamamoto directed with Takashi Sano on storyboard.