Chapter 1: Normanni

In the eleventh century, a Frankish noble named Jabbathe leads roughly eight hundred men against a rival fort by a river. Their battering ram fails against alternating crossbow volleys, and the defenders reason that the coming snow will soon break the siege, so long as they hold the hillside gate and let the lake at their backs guard the rest. Watching from a nearby hill, Askeladd's Viking band sizes up the stronghold's treasure and decides to throw in with the attackers, since that side offers the richer payoff.

Askeladd calls on Thorfinn to carry an insulting offer to the attacking leader: the band will secure victory in the morning in return for half the spoils. When Thorfinn presses for his own reward, Askeladd dismissively floats three gold coins before conceding the boy already knows what he truly wants, and promises the duel only if Thorfinn brings back a commander's head at minimum. To a skeptical crewman, the captain admits he entrusts the errand to a stray boy precisely because losing envoys is common and no one would mourn the child.

At the enemy camp, Thorfinn disarms a wary guard, demands a Norse speaker, and is brought before Jabbathe, who scoffs at the price. Thorfinn points out that the gate assaults are only costing Frankish lives and that Askeladd's men will strike from the open lakeside, warning that killing him merely denies Jabbathe the all-clear signal and sends a hundred hardened Northmen to the defenders instead. Jabbathe agrees on pain of taking the boy's head, and Thorfinn looses four flaming arrows, three high and one low, to confirm the deal, though the noble privately intends to cheat the barbarians of their share.

Come morning, Askeladd's band astonishes both sides by hauling their three ships overland through the forest and setting them into the lake behind the fort. Under a hail of crossbow bolts that kills the crewman Olov, Thorfinn vaults the moat, anchors his short swords into the wall to climb it, cuts down the defenders, and beheads the feathered-helm commander before diving after the falling head. The attackers finally breach the gate only to find the garrison already slaughtered and the treasury, church, and lords' houses stripped bare.

Out on the water, a crowned and jeweled Askeladd magnanimously grants Jabbathe the victory and the fortress while his band keeps the plunder. Their smashed ships leave the Franks unable to pursue by river. Thorfinn hurls the commander's head aboard and hauls himself up from the frigid water, invoking his father Thors to demand the duel he was owed. Askeladd, swearing on the name of his ancestor Artorius, accepts, but only once they have escaped, and the dragon-headed ships plunge down the waterfalls to freedom.

Released April 13, 2005 in issue 2005-20, this eighty-eight-page installment is the very first chapter of the series and the opening of its War arc, functioning as the prologue. It was later adapted as Episode 7 of the anime. Several characters, including Bjorn, Jabbathe, and Olov, make their debut here, and it establishes the mercenary-and-vengeance dynamic between Askeladd and the young Thorfinn.