Chapter 94: Recommendation of Surrender

The dead are counted for Canute: one hundred and twenty-two lost on Ketil's side against eight of his own. Canute calls the toll unavoidable, a necessary display of power, and confirms another surrender demand has gone out. When Floki relays the Jomsvikings' grumbling and asks leave to plunder the rebel homes, the king refuses, insisting the goal was to seize the whole farm intact rather than petty spoils, and promises the mercenaries a richer reward later. Behind him, the apparition of King Sweyn mocks his show of benevolence, telling Canute his lies cannot fool a father who reads his mind, and urging him to keep stacking corpses until they reach the gates of paradise.

At the guests' lodgings Olmar sees the ruined state of the wounded. Oddny's father, his hands gone, begs him to look after his family, and Olmar recoils, then vomits at a vision of Brodd taunting him that he could not even cut a pig. Inside Ketil's home, Snake announces the fresh offer to surrender under the same terms of outlawry, noting fewer than twenty men remain able to fight. Ketil's wife erupts, blaming Snake's incompetence and hurling a pan at him. Thorgil, however, wants to press on, boasting that twenty men suffice to take a king's head and carve his name into history. Sverkel reminds him the decision is not his, since Ketil already named the farm's next successor.

The household turns to Olmar, who quietly chooses surrender. His mother demands to know how he can call himself a Norseman, and he admits he is ashamed yet more afraid of further death, wanting only to end what he started. Thorgil tries flattery, claiming the king merely used Olmar as an excuse and that honor outweighs life, but Olmar slaps his hand away, rejecting the whole notion of a proud Norseman's courage and declaring he can never be like his brother. Disgusted, Thorgil storms off, done with cowards. Sverkel, watching over his bedridden son, muses that the vast farm brought equally vast misfortune, yet notes it was not wasted, since in trading the farm away Olmar became a man. At the docks Leif prepares to sail, but Thorfinn, realizing the master still lives and the battle is not truly over, tells Einar he has forgotten one thing he must do.

The battle's toll stands at one hundred and twenty-two farm dead against eight of Canute's men, and a second surrender demand is issued. Canute forbids the Jomsvikings from pillaging while Sweyn's apparition taunts him. A traumatized Olmar, named Ketil's successor, overrules Thorgil and chooses surrender, prompting Thorgil to abandon the farm. Sverkel judges that Olmar has become a man. Thorfinn decides there is one more thing he must do before leaving.

The chapter opens Volume 14 and adapts to Episode 45 of the anime. Its Japanese title, Kōfuku Kankoku, translates as the recommendation, or advisory, of surrender. The featured quote is Olmar's declaration that he no longer cares about honor or Norse pride and intends to surrender regardless of mockery.