Chapter 21: Valhalla

During November of 1013, Thorkell lounges in a cart while his warriors escort their prisoners, Prince Canute, the counselor Ragnar, and the sodden priest Willibald, along a forest track between Marlborough and Bath. The soldiers swap jokes about the season, English brew, and local women before their talk turns to faith. Remarking that shrines to the old deities keep giving way to churches, they bicker over whether the powers of Asgard or Jesus would prevail, and Thorkell puts the question to the prince for a ruling. Canute holds his silence, and Ragnar snaps that dragging the boy into such chatter demeans him.

Thorkell concedes that seizing hostages runs against his temperament, yet insists it was his only route to make King Sweyn stop overlooking him. When he grumbles about being lonely, a soldier likens him to a lovesick maiden, and the whole party howls. Ragnar asks why a mere five hundred fighters would dare face sixteen thousand, which prompts Thorkell to remind him that true Norsemen hunger for an honest death in combat and the seat in Valhalla it may earn. Willibald then lurches upright, raving that he beholds God and begging to be shown His love, until his drained cup accounts for the outburst; asked who ranks higher, Jesus or the Norse gods, the friar answers that it is whoever invented liquor.

The column stops, and Thorkell flings a spear that draws a scream from the trees, exposing an ambush on the slope. A spokesman declares that two thousand men loyal to Ragnar and Canute have them cornered and demands the captives be handed over in exchange for their lives. He falters on seeing the prince and his companions already walking toward him, freed on the spot. Hungry for a genuine fight, Thorkell goads the loyalists into charging, though he soon reckons their real strength nearer four hundred. As Ragnar despairs at a rerun of London, the raiders catch the scent of charcoal and watch smoke climb, while Askeladd and Thorfinn observe the drifting ash from cover.

Thorkell releases Canute, Ragnar, and Willibald the instant their would-be rescuers surface, stripping the ambush of any leverage, then baits the loyalist warriors into attacking so he can savor the clash he craves. Beneath the bravado, the chapter sets the Norse craving for a glorious, Valhalla-worthy death against Ragnar's weary pragmatism. The decisive move stays hidden from the brawlers: with the wind in his favor, Askeladd orders barrels rolled into position, and the closing panels of rising smoke reveal that his fire trap has been laid while Thorfinn looks on.

This is the twenty-first chapter of Vinland Saga, printed in Volume 3 and first released on April 25, 2006 across thirty-four pages in issue 2006-06. Its Japanese title, ヴァルハラ (Varuhara), renders the Norse afterlife Valhalla, echoing the opening epigraph in which Thorkell describes how the Valkyries gather worthy warriors, the Einherjar, to cross Bifrost into Asgard. The chapter is adapted as Episode 11 of the anime, and Volume 3's bonus pages pair it with the Ylfa side story.