The Norsemen | The Saxons
The Norsemen
In General
- Badass Army: They're Vikings, and when they do partake in battles they really bring the pain.
- Barbarian Longhair: If a Viking has long hair, it'll likely be this.
- Beard of Barbarism: As Vikings, most of them have this style of beard.
- Blood Knight: Because being such will allow them to enter the Halls of Odin, a Warrior Heaven. Even the christian vikings haven't relented in their warlike ways.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Norse raiders.
- Real Men Love Jesus: Both the christian and pagan vikings are shown to be pretty devoted to their god(s).
- We ARE Struggling Together: The Vikings have been united under the danish king, but are divided due conflicts between the christians and pagans.
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Pagans
Leif Eriksson
Played By: Sam Corlett
A Greenland sailor haunted by his family's history who becomes involved in the power struggle in Scandinavia and England.
- Actual Pacifist: Leif Eriksson tries his best to not kill his opponents.
- Big Brother Instinct: The series begins with him leading a mission to avenge the rape of Freydis. He later agrees to fight for Harald as blood-money for Gunnar's death so Freydis won't be killed.
- Character Development: Starts season 1 as an Actual Pacifist and ends the season by having what seems to be his Start of Darkness.
- Crisis of Faith: Leif is undergoing one for the Aesir-religion. He is visibly uncomfortable with human sacrifice and very coy about claims about the gods. Which comes to season 1's big tearjerker moment when due to his reluctance to subscribe to pagan belief concepts he fails to reassure a dying Liv that they will meet again in Valhalla before she passes.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Leif does not want to be like his father despite having the genes to be so.
- Notorious Parent: His father Erik is a wanted criminal.
- Work Off the Debt: In a sense, as Leif joins Canute's armada as a way to repay for Freydis' murder of her rapist Gunnar.
Freydis Eriksdotter
Played By: Frida Gustavsson
Leif's sister.
- Action Girl: Takes over Lagertha's position as the principal shield maiden, but is thankfully not an expy but has her own personality and has motivations that are more similar to Floki than Lagertha.
- Damsel out of Distress: She kills jarl Kåre before Harald arrives to get her out of Kattegat. Instead he is wounded fighting Kåre's men and Freydis ends up saving him!
- Notorious Parent: Like Leif, her father Erik is the old Scandinavian equivalent of Jesse James.
- Rape as Backstory: She is introduced searching for the viking Gunnar who raped her as a child.
- Religious Bruiser: Freydis is the most religious pagan character in the show and her fighting against the forceful Christianization of Norway becomes central to her arc.
Jarl Estrid Haakon
Played By: Caroline Henderson
The current ruler of Kattegat and defender of the pagan faith.
- Black Vikings: A North African-descended woman in a position which neither is known of having. The closest thing is the Heljarskin-brothers, who were of White Sea-descent which places them much closer to Norway and it's trade routes.
- Flat Character: Haakon has a Motive Rant about her backstory to Freydis and acts like The Mentor, but does not have that emotional depth and is more or less "main pagan leader person" and is the least rounded of the main cast, with guest star jarl Kåre being given much more development.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Notable for being the only female leader in Vikings: Valhalla who is also an Action Girl.
Liv
Played By: Lujza Richter
Leif's love interest.
- Action Girl: All of the Greenland-girls are this.
- The Heart: Liv is the most emotional member of the Greenlanders and is crushed by the deaths of Njall, Skarde and Ulf. She frequently tries to share up Leif when he is sad and questioning his motivation.
- Love Interests: To Leif.
- Sacrificial Lion: Her death in "The End of the Beginning" pushes Leif into his latent berserker-genes.
- Screaming Warrior: She shrieks unusually highly in battle.
Njall
Played By: Gavan O'Connor-Duffy
A member of Leif's crew.
- The Big Guy: He is very tall and strong.
- The Quiet One: He does not speak much, rather making noises.
Arne Gormsson
Played By: Pääru Oja
The son of Jarl Gorm who becomes a friend of Leif.
- The Atoner: He is motived to clear his family from the bad reputation caused by his father's bad behavior.
- Reason Before Honor: Why he decides not to try to avenge his father's death.
Jarl Gorm
Played By: Julian Seager
One of the last pagan jarls.
- The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Gorm starts a fight with Leif because he does not think he navigated the ship right. Leif kills him in self defense and the last thing Gorm sees is England, realizing Leif was right.
Christians
Harald Sigurdsson
Played By: Leo Suter
The Great-Grandson of Harald Finehair of Vikings who wants to be the king of Norway. He is more diplomatic than his older brother Olaf.
- The Berserker: Harald is one of the last berserkers. In England he goes into battle bare chested, draped in a wolf fur.
- Prince Charming: Fits the trope quite well. He is a brave warrior prince who is a real lady killer. He also risks his life to save Freydis in episode 8.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni to Olaf's red.
- Standing Between the Enemies: Harald is similar in his tolerance for different faiths to king Canute. His strongest trait is that of the mediator. He calls jarl Kåre out for wanting to kill pagans without giving them the chance to surrender and convert instead.
Olaf Haraldsson
Played By: Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson
The jarl of Ringerike. He has raided the Baltic Sea in the past, defeating baltic pagans at Herdaler and raiding Osilia, which earned him the nickname "Sea Wolf".
- Aloof Big Brother: He's quite indifferent to his brothers feelings and ambitions.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Shares the role of the main villain for season 1 with Kare.
- The Big Guy: A tall, broad monster of a man.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even Olaf thinks Kåre is crazy upon seeing talk to an empty cage.
- The Fundamentalist: He's Olaf the Holy, what did you expect?
- Hero Killer: He kills Liv at the end of season 1.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In the season 2 finale Freydis impales him horizontally from armpit to armpit.
- Large and in Charge: He is Olaf the Stout after all.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Harald's blue.
Jarl Kåre
Played By: Asbjørn Krogh Nissen
A jarl who wants to root out paganism of Norway.
- Arc Villain: He is the primary villain of season 1.
- Ax-Crazy: He regularly slaughters anyone who isn't christian and is considered deranged, even by other vikings.
- Bald of Evil: Is bald and has long beard which makes him look like templar.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: He teams up with Olaf near the end of season 1.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Through not the leader of the christian faction, he is still their most dangerous warrior.
- Freudian Excuse: Kåre's brother was offered by his pagan parents as a human sacrifice at Uppsala which traumatized him as a young child.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: He is considered crazy by the other christians.
- The Fundamentalist: His plan is to exterminate all traces of paganism in Norway.
- Knight Templar: Kåre believes he is doing god's work by murdering pagans and their holy shrines. His hatred originates in his horror at the human sacrifices practiced by the pagans but his massacres are shown as much, much more destructive.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He speaks in a soft and quiet tone, even when committing his atrocities on the pagans.
The Danish Royal Family
King Canute
Played By: Bradley Freegard
The king of Denmark.
- Composite Character: In real life, it was Sweyn who Forkbeard, Canute's father, who led the invasion of England in revenge of the St. Brice's Day Massacre
- Ethnicity Monarch: Canute is said to be the highest authority among vikings (used as a stand in for Scandinavians). Given he controls Denmark, Norway and (in the show's continuity) Iceland it's not a unreasonable claim.
- Genre Savvy: He beheads Eadric Streona due to the possibility of a future betrayal.
- The Good King: He is a Reasonable Authority Figure who is tolerant to most faiths and is capable of showing mercy.
Sweyn Forkbeard
Played By: Søren Pilmark
King Canute's father who overthrew his father Harald Bluetooth and Norway's king Olaf Tryggvason, laying the foundation of the North Sea Empire.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear what position Sweyn actually has. It's unclear if he has abdicated in favor of his son Canute or they are co-rulers - Norse law forbade kings from ruling alone if above the age of 80 so in case a king became that old he would share the throne with his successor to ease the transition of power.
- Bait-and-Switch: He starts a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Emma which at first seems to be how she should Stay in the Kitchen by asking if she is a good cook and then glowingly describe how his mother could cook large yet always perfect meals. Then he reveals that it's a parable about logistics, noting that his mother could handle multiple pots at once which he does not think Canute can: that is handling multiple countries.
- The Cynic: He does respect people that prove themselves to him and seems to have low expectations of everyone and everything
- The Dreaded: Most of the characters are afraid of him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's implied quite heavily that despite his general coldness he still does love his son and grandchildren a great deal.(To Aelfgifu) "YOU THREATENED MY SON'S KINGDOM, AND WHAT'S WORSE, YOU CROSSED ME. [...] BE GRATEFUL YOU ARE STILL ON THIS EARTH."
- Frontline General: Through Canute is the one who does the serious battling, Sweyn is still a warrior king at heart that leads his men from the front. Preferbly with his grandsons behind him to teach them how it's done.
- Lack of Empathy: The most unnerving thing about Sweyn is how little he cares for the feelings of everyone, even the people he likes. His attitude to his grandsons possibly loosing their inheritance is basically shit happens.
- The Mentor: At the end of season 1 he has taken Harald Harefoot and Svein under his wings as students.
- Retired Badass: He is not as active as he once was, but is still very formidable as a politician.
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Unexpected Character: Given his role as the instigator of the penal expedition against England after the St. Brice's Day Massacre and how he only got a very brief allusion, history-savy viewers would not expect him to show up in the series as he did.
Queen Aelfgifu
Played By: Pollyanna McIntosh
King Canute's wife, and queen of Denmark. She was born into a high-status Mercian family.
- Iron Lady: She at least views her this way.
- Proper Lady: Unlike other queens in Vikings, she is very much a conventional medieval queen.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: During her time in England she manages to get Mercia in line through diplomacy rather than force.
- Unwanted Spouse: As soon as Canute sets eyes on Emma who is younger, prettier, smarter and fiercer than Aelfgifu. Not a spoiler since she is introduced at the same time as Canute starts to pursue Emma.
Svein Knutsson
Played By: Charlie O'Connor
Canute's and Aelfgifu's oldest son. He's named King of Norway by Swein Forkbeard in Season 2.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After Freydis kills Olaf, Svein begs her to spare his life.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: His mentor and protector Olaf tries to teach him this behavior throughout the season, pushing him to become not just a warrior but also being capable and willing of killing a beaten foe.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Season 1 ends with him finding Leif who has awakened his berserker genes out of grief for Liv and quickly turns and runs away not questions asked.
[[folder:Harald Harefoot]]
Played By: Ruben Lawless
Canute's and Aelfgifu's second son.
- Tag Along Kid: To Sweyn Forkbeard.
- Young Future Famous People: The future king of England and Denmark.
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Princess Gytha Thorkelsdóttir
Played By: Henessi Schmidt
Canute's niece and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Emma.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Despite Godwin originally intending to marry Aelfwynn out of true love, both get along well and share genuine affection towards the other.
- Replacement Goldfish: Of sorts. She's married to Godwin after Aelfwynn's death by torture at Emma's orders, but she's aware he'll never love her as much as he loved his betrothed.
The Jomsvikings
Lord Harekr
Played By: Bradley James
The leader of the Jomsvikings and ruler of Jomsborg.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: He 's a firm believer in the inherent superiority of Jomsvikings when compared to the norse refugees, which he dismisses as inferior due to being a mix from different norse tribes. He cites this supposed inferiority as the reason to reduce them to thralldom.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He appears friendly towards Freydis and the settlers of Jomsburg, but secretly he exploits the refugees that have been rescued by his followers, subjecting them to forced labor and having them to live in the forest.
Lady Gudrid
Played By: Yngvild Støen Grotmol
The widow of Harekr's brother, mother of Jorundr, and a leading figure in Jomsborg.
Jorundr Torvilsson
Played By: Stanislav Callas
Harekr's nephew and Gudrid's son.
