Chapter 101: The Fettered Tern (1)

As Halfdan watches the sea, his son Sigurd reports that he has locked down a fair deal for the territory of Byarny, swearing he did nothing to shame the family. Halfdan, more taken with a lone tern stranded past its migrating season, muses that he might keep the bird only if it accepted its own helplessness and let itself be chained to him. He hands Sigurd the Byarny land as an early wedding gift, then the two spot incoming boats carrying the bride, aboard which Gudrid watches the same tern wheel overhead.

Inside Helga's home, Ylva sets about trimming Thorfinn's long hair and shaving his beard, arguing that neatness matters to women and that at nearly twenty-three he is well past due to marry. She proposes he wed one of Snoggi's five granddaughters and take over the old man's fishing trade. The suggestion floors Thorfinn, who only then grasps why she pushed the haircut. He briefly wonders whether a settled island life of marriage, children and quiet old age might suit him, yet resolves that he must leave, promising to lay out his past and his intentions once everyone gathers that night.

That evening his family laughs at the boyish cut and clean-shaven face, and Einar notes the new look makes him seem far less dangerous. By the fire, with the children asleep, Thorfinn recounts sixteen years reaching from Thors's death to his departure from Ketil's farm. He speaks plainly, but the tale of hatred, ruin, despair and slow recovery leaves his listeners silent. Owning the gravity of the lives he took and the slaves who died hopeless, he declares he must sail to Vinland to raise a land of peace. Helga blesses the idea, recalling how she and Thors themselves fled the warriors' home of Jomsborg to reach Iceland, and urges him to build a refuge for those escaping war and bondage. Ari warns that founding such a country demands enormous money, which Thorfinn lacks; when Ari notes only Halfdan holds that kind of wealth, Thorfinn perks up despite being told the man is a scoundrel who will never lend.

Released January 25, 2014, this twenty-six-page chapter opens Volume 15 and begins the multi-part Fettered Tern storyline, its title rendered Tsunaga Wata Ajisashi (Kuria) 1. Portions correspond to the closing pages of the forty-eighth anime episode. Flashback glimpses of Thors, Thorkell, Gardar, Snake, Canute, Arnheid and Askeladd accompany the present-day cast of Halfdan, Sigurd, Gudrid, Ylva, Thorfinn, Bug-Eyes, Leif, Einar, Ari and Helga.