Chapter 5: Troll

On a Saturday in November of 1002, the English exploit the Viking habit of bathing that day and fall upon a settlement in Northumbria, striking the unarmed inhabitants and, by royal command, sparing neither women nor children. The scene then crosses to Iceland, where Thorfinn and the village children stage mock battles with wooden gear; as always, the boy is cut down first. His friend Faxi shrugs off dying early, since a warrior's death promises Valhalla, prompting Thorfinn to wonder whether his mother and sister, being no fighters, could ever join the feast.

Leif Ericson passes by and the boys tag along to his knarr, where he explains he sails for Norway the next day to trade furs and rugs for wine bound for Greenland's Christmas celebrations. When Thorfinn suggests simply asking Thors for mead, Leif notes the wine carries symbolic weight. Spotting a warship on the horizon, Leif sends Thorfinn running to warn Thors, who is failing to patch a stewpot at the smithy. The boy reports a vessel larger than Halfdan's is approaching.

At the shore, armed men aboard the ship call for Thors the Troll, baffling the villagers until Thors steps forward and greets them as Warriors of Jom. The crew bow and their leader, Floki, removes his helm, remarking that he never expected a man of Thors's stature to be hiding at the world's edge. Inside the home, Floki and Thors speak by the fire while Thorfinn, Ari, Magni, and other boys eavesdrop, stunned to sense Thors was once a great warrior and a deserter. Floki reveals that the English slaughter in Northumbria killed Princess Gunhilde, sister to King Sweyn, giving Denmark cause for war, and that Chief Sigvaldi has recalled every Jomsviking, active or deserter, to Jomsborg. The captain named Thors the Troll is required for the coming campaign against England.

The English massacre a Viking settlement in Northumbria, killing women and children on the king's orders. In Iceland, Thorfinn plays at war and questions who can reach Valhalla, while Leif prepares to sail for Norway. A Jomsviking warship arrives seeking Thors the Troll, and Floki reveals Thors's past as a deserting captain. The killing of Princess Gunhilde becomes Denmark's pretext for war, and Sigvaldi orders all Jomsvikings, Thors included, to muster at Jomsborg.

Titled Senki in Japanese, this fifth chapter closes Volume 1 and was adapted in Episode 2. It first establishes Thors's hidden history as a legendary Jomsviking and sets the war machinery that will pull him, and eventually Thorfinn, out of Iceland. The volume's closing pages add a map of Thorfinn's travels, a comedic Ylva short, a supplemental design of the family home, and an afterword on the etymology of the word Viking.