Chapter 39: The King Awakens

Canute stands before the mushroom-crazed Bjorn, brooding on how humanity gained knowledge yet forfeited something priceless it can never regain, and raging that God would force men to chase what will never be returned. Meeting Bjorn's eyes, he walks forward as the warrior recoils, and asks whether any release from this punishing pain exists besides death for so pitiable a soul, exiled from love and paradise. When Bjorn cocks a fist to strike, Canute seizes his face, halts him, and pulls him into an embrace, so startling Willibald that he drops his drinking barrel. Deciding he no longer wants God's salvation and that men must remake paradise with their own hands, Canute holds on until the drug's fury drains away and a bewildered Bjorn finds himself being hugged.

Atli darts past Willibald and stabs the distracted Bjorn in the gut, asking if the prince is safe. Canute orders an end to the pointless quarreling, checks whether the deeply wounded Bjorn will live, and directs Willibald to tend him while Atli helps gather the scattered horses. When Atli protests that heading to Thorkell means surrender, Canute confirms that is precisely his intent, since he must borrow a sled to carry the injured Bjorn. Bjorn howls that it makes their sacrifices meaningless, but Canute declares the battle has no meaning and tells them to stop dying. He commands Atli and Bjorn to become his subjects, promising to show them the right time and the right enemy for their struggles and to grant their lives and deaths a proper meaning, which he names the calling of a king.

Slumped against a tree, Thorfinn stirs, remembers he is mid-duel, and jolts upright. Amazed he still stands, Thorkell offers him time to see to his wounds, but Thorfinn refuses the courtesy. When he tries to lift his shortsword, he discovers his right arm is broken and bent wrong and screams in pain. Askeladd moves to help while Thorkell calls for his seat, and though Thorfinn snarls at him not to touch him, Askeladd insists he knows how to set bones and tells the boy to calm down and think of a way to win.

Seated now, Thorkell keeps his promise to speak of Thors while the arm is tended. He reveals that he and Thors both served among the Jomsvikings under Sigvaldi, Battle-King of the Baltic, as two of four captains, and that Thors was the finest of them, nicknamed the Troll. So impressed was Sigvaldi that he gave Thors his daughter Helga, Thorfinn's mother. Thorfinn realizes the chief of Jom is his grandfather, and Thorkell confirms it, adding that Sigvaldi is his own brother, making him Thorfinn's great-uncle. Askeladd privately notes the boy is practically royalty. Thorkell recounts that at the battle of Hjorungavagr in Norway the Jomsvikings were crushed and Thors sank beneath the water in full armor, never resurfacing, so they held a bodiless funeral over which Thorkell wept. Yet, he adds, he saw Thors alive again in Jomsborg three months later, a man far removed from the Troll he had known.

Canute embraces the berserker Bjorn, calming his rage and undergoing his own awakening. He resolves that men must build paradise themselves and claims the calling of a king. Atli stabs the distracted Bjorn, but Canute halts the fighting and decides to give himself to Thorkell to secure a sled. Thorfinn wakes with a broken arm and reluctantly lets Askeladd tend it. Thorkell begins recounting his history with Thors and reveals they are blood relatives.

Part of Volume 6, this chapter spans the end of Episode 18 and the start of Episode 19, carrying the Japanese title O no Mezame. It marks Canute's defining transformation from broken prince into resolute king, the emotional climax of the Mercia arc. Thorkell's account also opens the major revelation of Thorfinn's noble Jomsviking lineage and his kinship to the giant warrior.