Chapter 29: Father and Son

At the Danish army's station in Gainsborough in December 1013, Floki reports to King Sweyn that Prince Canute has vanished. Survivors of Ragnar's four hundred lost him when a wildfire scattered them near Marlborough. Sweyn concludes that with the boy's whereabouts unknown and winter closing in, no rescue can go out until spring, and remarks that a son more suited to rule than his brother Harald might never have been lost at all. In Gloucester, Thorkell grumbles that the snow will pause the war he loves, and Asgeir brings word of a coming Witenagemot in Wessex where England will surrender unconditionally and crown Sweyn king of the Britons, news that unsettles the battle-hungry giant.

Elsewhere, Christian travelers find Anne alive in the snow and notice her fine ring. At Askeladd's farming-village hideout in northern Mercia, Ear admits the snow smothers his hearing, though Askeladd still prefers that to betraying their position with scouts, and he worries over the conspicuously pious Willibald, Ragnar, and Canute. As Willibald leads a prayer for both the slaughtered villagers and their killers, he confesses he has begun to doubt God's love.

Canute rounds on him in fury, declaring that questioning God's love is the gravest failing for a follower of Christ, and insisting no father could fail to love his own son. Back in Gloucester, Thorkell receives a plea for help against a hundred or more Danes who seized a village up the Severn. Overjoyed to have found the trail of Thorfinn and Canute again, he orders his five hundred men to march.

Floki reports Canute missing, and Sweyn coldly rules out a winter rescue. Thorkell learns England is about to surrender and crown Sweyn. Passing Christians find Anne alive in the snow. Canute angrily defends God's love while Willibald wavers. Thorkell picks up the band's trail and prepares his troops to march.

The twenty-ninth chapter opens Volume 5 and was adapted in Episode 15 of the anime. It was published on January 25, 2007. The featured quote, spoken by Canute, insists that no father would ever fail to love his own son.