Chapter 40: The Legend of Thors

Thorkell continues the story of his last encounter with Thors, set in Jomsborg in 987 A.D. Two hooded figures slip from a house, planning to steal a boat, and Thorkell, drinking on the roof, calls down that they are burgling the home of the supposedly dead Jomsviking captain Thors. He leaps down with his axe, warning that grief has left him in no mood for thieves, but the larger figure catches the weapon by its handle, and the slipping hood reveals Thors himself. Laughing in shock, Thorkell embraces him, asks where he has been for months, and recognizes the second figure as Helga, cradling a very young Ylva.

Thorkell wants to wake his brother Sigvaldi to share the news, but Thors stops him, pulls his hood back up, and says they are not meeting the chief because they are leaving, meaning leaving the Jomsvikings, and asks Thorkell to pretend he never saw them. Thors explains he returned only to take Helga and Ylva and continue letting the world believe him dead. Disbelieving, Thorkell asks whether he truly faked his death out of fear of battle and reminds him that Sigvaldi had considered him a successor. Thors apologizes and says he has finally learned what it means to be a true warrior, and that is why he can no longer stay. Thorkell recalls that this was the moment he understood Thors was serious, his eyes gazing past him to the horizon as though filled with pity, a look he never forgot.

Thorkell smashes a beam with his axe and reminds Thors that deserting without the chief's leave is punishable by death. When two guards approach at the noise, he waves them off as beggars and orders them back to their posts, and they obey, murmuring that he has not been himself since Thors died. Thorkell asks where a man who knows only battle could possibly go, and Thors answers only that he will go somewhere else. Thors tells Helga to step back, wishes Thorkell good health, and, asked where his sword is, replies that he does not need it. When Thorkell swings, Thors snaps the axe handle with his bare hands, dodges the follow-up punch, and lays him out. Thorkell woke to find them long gone, and though Jomsborg was thrown into uproar by Helga's disappearance, he kept his silence, believing it the honorable course.

As Askeladd finishes splinting his arm, Thorkell tells Thorfinn that he only learned of Thors's true death fifteen years later, when the famed Leif Ericson brought the body to Jomsborg, a revelation that surprises Askeladd. Thorkell says he did not weep, since what matters in a warrior is the soul rather than the flesh, and Thors's soul had traveled somewhere he still cannot reach, presumably the place he became a true warrior. He asks Thorfinn about the life Thors led in Iceland, but the boy refuses. Stung, Thorkell accuses him of staying silent because he cannot, not because he will not, claiming he can see the spark Thors had is missing from the boy's eyes and mocking him for learning nothing from his father. Enraged, Thorfinn lunges, but Askeladd grabs his shoulder and warns that with broken ribs he will lose if he keeps fighting Thorkell the same way. He reminds Thorfinn that he duels the giant only to earn his own duel against Askeladd, and urges him to take the advice if he wants them both to survive.

Thorkell recounts finding Thors alive in Jomsborg in 987 A.D., leaving the Jomsvikings with Helga and baby Ylva. Thors refuses to fight, breaks Thorkell's axe barehanded, and knocks him out before vanishing, and Thorkell keeps his secret out of honor. Thorkell reveals he learned of Thors's real death fifteen years later when Leif Ericson brought the body. Present-day taunts about a missing spark nearly provoke the wounded Thorfinn into a reckless charge. Askeladd restrains him and presses him to heed his counsel.

Collected in Volume 6 and adapted within Episode 19, this chapter carries the Japanese title Toruzu-den. Its extended flashback fills in the legend of Thors, portraying his renunciation of violence and the pacifist conviction that reshaped his life. The revelation that Leif Ericson delivered the body ties the wandering explorer directly into Thors's history and deepens the mystery of what the true warrior means.