Characters / Norsemen

Vikings of Norheim

Chieftain Olav

Played by: Henrik Mestad

• Big Brother Instinct: Season 3 shows him trying to man Orm up rather than simply belittle him. He also volunteers to make a raiding expedition to England in return for sparing Orm from execution via blood eagle.
• Happily Married: He and Hildur adore each other.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: By Viking standards, anyway. Olav is a pretty cool dude to hang out (or Rape, Pillage, and Burn) with. He even displays occasional sympathy for the slaves.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Though fairly sensitive and thoughtful himself, Olav the mighty warrior is pretty much the polar opposite of his little brother Orm.

Orm

Played by: Kåre Conradi

• Ambiguously Bi: Though he mostly seems gay, he does seem to be legitimately attracted to Frøya—although she is taller and substantially stronger than he is.
• Butt-Monkey: Nothing Orm does ever works out to his advantage.
• Cain and Abel: Eventually decides to murder his big brother Olav to claim his position, and makes his move when Olav is bedridden and unable to even lift his arms. Of course, Orm is such a pussy that he fails (twice) to smother him with a pillow and has to reach into Olav's gaping chest wound to literally strangle his exposed heart.
• Dirty Coward: Orm is a complete pussy both physically and psychologically.
• Hated by All: Nobody likes Orm. Not the other Norsemen, not his own wife, not even the slaves. Even Kark just tolerates him. The only one who sort of gets along with him is Rufus, who has his own reasons for sticking by him.
• It's All About Me: One of the most self-centered assholes you could ever hope to meet.
• Kick the Dog: Freudian Excuse or not, Orm is a consummate douchebag to almost everyone.
• Non-Action Guy: The one time he actually goes on a raid, he almost drowns getting out of the boat, then gets his ass handed to him in hand-to-hand combat by a little girl.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Subverted. More than once throughout the series, Orm says "maybe this is where your journey ends" before killing someone. In these instances, however, it comes before he commits an act of murder treacherously and not very efficiently.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Norheim goes to shit once he's in charge.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Remember that Olav took a huge risk to save him from a very nasty execution.
• Younger Than They Look: Despite his full beard and looks that suggest late 40s (his actor was 44 when production started) Orm is just turning 18 in season 3, making him roughly 20 in season 1.

Arvid

Played by: Nils Jørgen Kaalstad

• Amazon Chaser: Falls in love with Frøya, who's as lethal as he is.
• Awful Wedded Life: He's initially excited to be married to Liv, but she soon turns out to be a selfish, gold-digging harridan.
• Book Dumb: Skald poetry, farming, or really anything other than fighting all goes right over his head. He is a brilliant fighter, though, and saves Norheim by having the good sense to hide a stash of swords when Orm orders them all melted down.
• Crippling Overspecialization: As he himself admits, if it doesn't involve killing or raping, he sucks at it.
• Stout Strength: Arvid is built like a brick shithouse and can cleave a man in half (lengthwise at that) with a single swing of his sword.

Hildur

Played by: Marian Saastad Ottesen

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As it turns out, Hildur is not as sweet as she seems.
• Happily Married: She and Olav adore eachother.
• It's All About Me: All too interested in maintaining her status as the chieftain's wife, though unlike Liv, she is also devoted to her husband. After he dies, her claws really come out.

Frøya

Played by: Silje Torp

• Action Girl: Easily the deadliest of Norheim's warriors, which is saying something.
• Awful Wedded Life: Can barely stand her husband Orm.
• The Stoic: In Season 3, the prequel season, she seldom shows much emotion and reacts to most things with a mild annoyance. She's notably warmer in seasons 1 and 2, after she's built up a camaraderie with the other warriors and starts to have a romance with Arvid.

Ragnar

Played by: Mikkel Bratt Silset

• The Fashionista: Puts entirely too much thought into his clothes, armor, and hairstyle, and will tell you all about it at length. He also experiments with horns on his helmet.
• Hates Small Talk: Looks like he wants to shoot himself when Torstein attempts to shoot the shit with him.
• Those Two Guys: With Bjorn

Bjorn

Played by:

• Those Two Guys: With Ragnar

Liv

Played by: Kristine Riis

• Gold Digger: Liv wants to marry into power, and doesn't care who she has to abandon or step on in order to do so.
• It's All About Me: doesn't think twice about selling her children and first husband back into slavery just because Olvar started buying her jewelry.

The Lawsayer

• Plot Allergy: Allergic to hornets, so Orm unleashes a swarm of them in his house.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: In season 2 chooses to disregard Orm's hereditary claim to the chieftainship due to his sheer incompetence and makes him a slave.

Sturla "Bonecrusher"

Played by: Richard Skog

• The Big Guy: A mountain of a man.
• Meaningful Name: As Liv points out, you don't get a nickname like "Bonecrusher" for having a Hidden Heart of Gold.
• Only in It for the Money: Sturla is an enforcer-for-hire. He'll kill, maim, and intimidate people for his employer, but only as long as he's getting a steady paycheck. The moment Rufus' money runs out he's gone.

Slaves of Norheim

Kark

Played by: Øystein Martinsen

• Happiness in Slavery: Kark loves being enslaved, and declines when Olav offers to free him. Keep in mind that a slave's normal day is hours upon hours of backbreaking labor, little food, random abuse by Vikings just because they can, and the possibility of getting picked to be a human sacrifice. And Kark loves it!
• Vague Age: Claims once in season 2 to be only eighteen years old, just worn down by his harsh life. However he's suggested to be Olav and Orm's older brother in season 3, which would imply he's at least early twenties.

Rufus of Rome

Played by: Trond Fausa Aurvåg

• Cunning Linguist: Speaks Norse and Old English fluently, in addition to his native Latin.
• Entitled Bastard: Rufus is such an obnoxious, entitled asshole, he's arguably the only character who deserves to be a slave. The other slaves can't stand him, and he's happy to use and abuse them once he's (temporarily) freed.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: He's always getting his ass kicked and deserves it every time.
• Only Sane Man: Not that he can't pick up the Idiot Ball at times, but for all his obnoxiousness, entitled attitude and Fish out of Water tendencies early on, Rufus has a clearer head and is more savvy than most. Too bad it never does him any good.

Other Vikings

Jarl Varg

Played by: Jon Øigarden

• Aristocrats Are Evil: “Jarl” is the root word of “earl”, an English title of nobility.
• Artificial Limbs: After Frøya cuts off his hands Arvid gives him the “latest in 8th century prosthetics”, a spoon and a bunch of sticks shaped vaguely like a hand. Later he upgrades to a pair of rigid gauntlets half-curled into fists, with some nasty surprises.
• Bald of Evil: He used to have luxuriant, flowing locks of blonde, and he was a nice guy back then. Losing his hair made him evil, and he embraced it by shaving off what was left.
• Vocal Dissonance: Though he usually speaks in a low, terrifying rasp, his voice is hilariously squeaky whenever he yells.
• You Have Failed Me: He has the blacksmiths who present him with unsatisfactory prosthetic hands beheaded with a sledgehammer.

Torstein

Played by: Bjørn Myrene

• Undying Loyalty: He's devoted to Jarl Varg, no matter how cruel and unhinged Varg gets. Season 3 shows that Varg was once a Nice Guy.

Jarl Bjorn

Played by: Thorbjørn Harr