Manga

The opening chapter of Vinland Saga drops into a Frankish siege gone sour, where the mercenary captain Askeladd smells easy profit. He sends the boy Thorfinn to bargain with the stalled attackers, setting a head-for-a-duel price that sets…

Somewhere Not Here is the second chapter of Vinland Saga. Askeladd winters at his uncle Gorm's village, goads Thorfinn into a rigged duel, and a night on his late father's ship pulls Thorfinn back to a childhood memory of Leif Ericson…

Beyond the Edge of the Sea is the third chapter of Vinland Saga, in which the explorer Leif Ericson fills young Thorfinn's head with tales of a green land far to the west while a half-frozen runaway turns up buried in the Icelandic snow.

The slaver Halfdan storms the village hunting his runaway, whom Thors shelters and comforts with tales of Vinland as the man dies. After buying the slave's freedom for eight sheep too late to save him, Thors buries him, and young Thorfinn…

A dawn massacre in England opens the chapter before the scene shifts to peaceful Iceland, where young Thorfinn plays at war. A towering warship then docks bearing the Warriors of Jom, and their captain arrives to summon the deserter Thors…

The village sees Thors and five young men off to war, unaware that he secretly plans to spare the boys by leaving them in Norway. Unable to find his son to say goodbye, Thors sets sail, only for young Thorfinn to burst from a stowaway…

The ninth chapter of Vinland Saga strikes the bargain that dooms Thors. In a Faroe Islands village Floki hires Askeladd's band to kill the retired warrior for gold, and Askeladd reads the deal as a personal scheme rather than any true…

Under cover of darkness, Thors steers alongside Leif's knarr and opens up to young Ari about the night his firstborn Ylva came into the world, the moment dread of the battlefield first gripped him and drove him from the Jomsvikings. When…

The rubble hurled from the cliffs misses Thors's crew but dams the inlet mouth, sealing off any escape. As Askeladd's two longships close in, Thors arms himself, presses a short sword on Thorfinn for defense alone, then vaults into an…

More Than a Monster is the twelfth chapter of Vinland Saga, collected in the second volume and later adapted into part of the anime's fourth episode. It captures Thors standing alone against Askeladd's raiders, his bare-handed strength…

In Smell, Thors gambles on a single duel to spare his men a bloody boarding fight. He calls out Askeladd as the raiders' chieftain, both warriors sensing a kindred menace in each other, and the challenge is set as Askeladd springs an…

The fifteenth chapter of Vinland Saga brings the duel between Thors and Askeladd to its treacherous close. Thors has won honestly, but honour means nothing to his opponent, and the price of sparing one life is paid in a hail of arrows as…

The 16th chapter of Vinland Saga and the last in the second volume closes the ambush that fells Thors. Dying on his feet, the warrior secures his village's safety and his son's release, then Thorfinn stows away aboard the captured ship,…

Set in the war-torn English countryside of 1008, this chapter follows a wounded young Thorfinn taken in by a kindly English mother who shelters him from soldiers. Her compassion collides with the boy's grim role as Askeladd's scout when he…

England, 1013 opens the London campaign of the Vinland Saga manga. King Sweyn drives his Danish fleet into England, and the advance stalls at London, where the giant Thorkell has thrown in with the defenders. Askeladd sends Thorfinn to…

On London Bridge, Thorfinn stakes his life on a solo duel against the towering Thorkell, gambling that a kill will finally earn him his shot at Askeladd. The nineteenth chapter pairs that brutal clash with King Sweyn's cold decision to…

Ragnarok is the twentieth chapter of Vinland Saga. As Askeladd's dwindling band lingers in the English countryside near Bath, word arrives that Thorkell has crushed Canute's army and seized the prince, prompting Askeladd to make a ruthless…

Set in the autumn of 1013, this installment trails Thorkell's raiding band as they haul their royal captives down a wooded road. Idle banter about ale and rival gods gives way to a staged rescue, a hurled spear, and a doomed charge that…

The Troll's Son is the twenty-second chapter of Vinland Saga, in which Askeladd torches the forest to snatch Prince Canute from Thorkell's grip and Thorfinn learns that his enemy once knew his father, the legendary Thors.

Reinforcements is the twenty-third chapter of Vinland Saga, in which Askeladd sends a secret message across the Severn to summon allies while confiding his doubts that the timid Canute has the makings of a king.

The Land on the Far Bank is the twenty-fourth chapter of Vinland Saga, in which Askeladd leads his band into Wales, pairs Thorfinn with Canute, and Willibald preaches on love before a Welsh ambush closes in.

Bluff is the twenty-fifth chapter of Vinland Saga, in which Askeladd reads through the Welsh archers' show of force and tries to push the trembling Canute into playing the fierce prince, only for the boy to hide once more.

Artorius is the twenty-sixth chapter of Vinland Saga, in which Askeladd reveals his descent from a legendary British hero and his long game to steer Danish politics, while the disarmed band poses as prisoners to cross Brycheiniog.

The Warriors and the Monk is the twenty-seventh chapter of Vinland Saga, a quiet interlude in which the raiders puzzle over Willibald's idea of love and a tale of a mysterious barehanded fighter stirs the friar's memory of Thors.

Night Attack is the twenty-eighth chapter of Vinland Saga and the finale of Volume 4, in which a blizzard drives Askeladd's band to seize a Mercian village, and a devout girl named Anne survives the massacre that follows.

Father and Son is the twenty-ninth chapter of Vinland Saga and the opening of Volume 5, in which King Sweyn shrugs off Canute's disappearance, Thorkell picks up the band's trail, and the prince fiercely defends the love of a father.

Master and Servant at the Table is the thirtieth chapter of Vinland Saga, in which Canute cooks a shared meal for Thorfinn before Askeladd has the dying Ragnar reveal that King Sweyn wants his own son dead.

After feeding Canute the lie that Ragnar fell heroically in battle, Askeladd defends his gamble to Bjorn, mutilates a captured English officer during interrogation, and discovers that Thorkell is closing in on his exhausted band, forcing a…

In January 1014 Thorkell overtakes the village Askeladd's band abandoned and executes the deserters who stayed to join him. As the fleeing band destroys a bridge to slow the pursuit, Torgrim plots to seize the prince, and Askeladd's…

When his mutinous men demand the prince, Askeladd caps a decade of shared campaigns with a confession of pure hatred, then beheads the nearest traitor and springs his counter-plan. Bjorn flees with Canute as riders give chase, a crash…

A childhood memory reveals the legend that shaped Askeladd, as his dying mother speaks of the hero Artorius awaiting rebirth in Avalon. In the present, arrows finally bring the cornered captain down, only for Thorkell's arriving warriors…

The two forces collide as Thorkell orders his men to kill everyone but Askeladd. When Torgrim breaks under the giant's goading, Thorfinn crashes into the fray to claim Askeladd as his own kill, and Thorkell gleefully turns the standoff…

Thorfinn and Thorkell trade blows in their duel while Askeladd frees himself of arrows. In a dream, Ragnar bids Canute a tearful farewell, and the waking prince, mourning that no one is left to love him, is confronted by Willibald with an…

As the duel presses on, Thorkell questions what makes a true warrior and sends Thorfinn flying into a tree with a single kick. Meanwhile Willibald leads Canute to a devastating conclusion, that death completes a man and the entire living…

Atli wakes to find his comrades slaughtered by the berserker Bjorn, who now turns toward Canute and Willibald with no enemies left to fight. Refusing to flee, the prince rises and faces the raging warrior without a trace of fear.

Embracing the raging Bjorn, Canute emerges transformed, resolving that men must build paradise themselves and claiming the calling of a king. As the duel pauses, Thorkell begins revealing his hidden kinship to Thorfinn and the true story…

Thorkell recounts his final meeting with Thors in 987 A.D., when the deserting captain, refusing to draw a blade, knocked him out and vanished with Helga and their baby. Back in the present, Thorkell's taunts about a fading spark nearly…

Coached by Askeladd to feign helplessness and bait the giant closer, Thorfinn springs a sunlight trick recalled from the Battle of Maldon to blind Thorkell and knock him down. As his enraged men move to intervene, Asgeir defies Thorkell,…

The closing installment of Volume 6 settles the standoff on the Severn. Thorkell concedes his forfeited duel, Canute lays bare why he is useless to his father, and both the giant warrior and Askeladd bind themselves to the transformed…

A newly commanding Canute rides into Gainsborough with Thorkell and Askeladd at his back, unsettling Floki and his father's spies. Behind closed doors the prince maps out his bid for the throne and voices a vow to build an earthly…

Face to face at last, Sweyn tells his son that the crown wields a will beyond any king and demands he retire to Cornwall or die. Askeladd talks the ruler back from the brink, only to be cut to the bone when Sweyn correctly names him the…

While Thorkell drinks the chieftains into friendship, Askeladd sends Atli home with a warning never to fight again. On a snowy hill the mortally wounded Bjorn asks for one honest answer before their duel, and the confession that follows…

Thorfinn's long-awaited rematch collapses in moments as Askeladd discards his sword and beats the boy senseless with bare hands. Halted by Canute before the killing blow, Askeladd delivers a scornful lecture on rage and control, then…

Askeladd unfolds his own childhood: a slave mother's faith in a returning hero, a lord father who owned him, and the patient two years he spent earning trust before killing that father. His point to Thorfinn is blunt, that heroes never…

Still hunting the boy he swore to save, Leif combs the slave markets of Jorvik as Canute's ships arrive. A crossbow bolt fells the prince, Thorfinn cuts down the assassin on the docks, and the two men from Thorfinn's lost childhood finally…

The shot prince proves a slave woman decoy, and the real Canute walks free while guards learn the young docker they nearly arrested is the famed Thorfinn Karlsefni. Leif at last embraces the boy he searched eleven years for, only to find…

As soldiers gossip about who tried to kill Canute, Askeladd explains that keeping the attempt a mere rumor ties the king's hands. Suspecting the timid Gunnar of treachery, he sets Thorfinn to shadow him, and the trail leads straight to…

Newly crowned over England, Sweyn distributes lands at Jorvik and grants Canute rich Mercia, seeming to disarm the assassination rumors. Then he announces a spring invasion of Wales, and the news jolts Askeladd, who has just realized the…

Given leave to speak, Askeladd argues Wales away, only for Sweyn to demand Canute's head in private and mock his slave mother. In answer, Askeladd insults the king before the whole court, reveals his true name Lucius Artorius Castus, and…

During October 1018 in Jelling, Canute lays out a ruthless plan to fund his army by seizing the estates of a handful of wealthy subjects rather than taxing the whole realm. Ketil arrives bearing gifts for a king already dead, while his…