He put up a valiant fight
against a group of English soldiers.
But he was stabbed from behind with a spear, and tragically...
Please accept my sincere condolences, Your Highness.
We were eating rabbit stew,
and then he left suddenly.
That's weird.
Just now...
But...
We shall leave immediately.
Get ready.
Thorfinn.
Don't leave him alone.
What? You're kidding me! I don't want to!
Hey! Wait!
Guarding the prince is your job!
No!
He's paralyzed with fear.
Is that weakling of a prince going to be okay?
I think your plan backfired, Askeladd.
Maybe you shouldn't have killed Ragnar.
HISTORY OF BEASTS
Don't talk so loudly.
Most of the men don't know what really happened.
The English are the ones who did it.
Don't let the secret out.
I wonder...
Everyone knows you didn't get along with Ragnar.
He may be weak, but he's going to realize what happened.
As long as there's no proof, it will be fine.
The reason the prince is so weak
is because Ragnar spoiled him.
I had to make Ragnar disappear.
Otherwise, he'd cause me grief.
The fact that he's weak is a good thing.
It makes him easy to control.
He can be used as the perfect stepping stone to achieve greatness in the world.
Bjorn.
Why have you served me for all this time?
Well, it's...
because I wanted to.
I'm the same.
I choose my own lord too.
My lord
must be the type of man that makes me want to serve him.
Just kidding.
I'm making a gamble, Bjorn.
If we get lucky,
that prince might completely change.
What are you going to do if you don't get lucky?
He might get depressed and never recover.
If that happens, I'll abandon him.
He wouldn't deserve to be my lord.
How's it going? Is he going to crack?
He pisses me off.
He won't even scream.
He thinks he's a martyr.
This is why I hate Christians.
You didn't kick him hard enough.
I'll show you how to do it.
This is how you kick!
Like this!
Good job.
You're bad at kicking too.
Kick him in the jaw.
Wait! It's my turn next!
Stop!
Come on!
Don't overdo it, you guys!
If you kill him, we can't get him to talk!
Go ahead and kill me.
The Lord sees everything.
He's seen all the evil things you Danes have done.
He still has some fight left in him.
Do you have any shears?
Go find them.
What?
Shears, right?
Well, then.
I'll say it again, English captain.
There are three things I want to know.
How many reinforcements do they have?
And how long until they get here?
Lastly, how did they find out we're here?
If you tell me, I'll let you live.
You beasts!
You bastards.
You shall be punished.
A death befitting of you bastards
awaits you...
Hey. Will these shears work?
Yeah.
Captain.
Your fingernails are long.
Long fingernails are dirty.
You should cut them.
Oh, sorry!
I cut too deep.
Hold him down.
There are three things I want to know.
I'll skip the rest.
Oh, I cut too deep again!
I did it twice!
That's so nasty.
What's he holding out for?
Go to hell, you Danes!
You bastards!
If you bastards hadn't come...
You bastards burned down my village!
You tortured my wife and daughter and killed them!
You beasts!
This is our land! Leave!
I see.
We're beasts?
You guys are ignorant.
Let me teach you some history.
You should thank me for sharing this,
you Saxon.
Or is it the Anglos who live in this area?
Well, they're the same thing.
This land
didn't belong to you originally.
The first inhabitants were the Celts.
They lived in the forests and worshiped the spirits.
They were the ancestors of the people who live in Wales now.
Then one day, the Romans came.
They were the rulers,
but they lived on this land alongside the Celts
and gave them their knowledge, technology and culture.
The Romans left,
and then you Anglos and Saxons arrived.
It happened 500 years ago.
You didn't give anything to the Celts.
Instead,
you drove out the Celts from these fertile plains
and forced them to live in the wastelands.
You're lying!
I'm not lying.
If the Danes are beasts,
then you Anglo-Saxons are beasts too.
You stole these lands using violence.
We Danes are going to steal these lands from you using even greater violence.
You have no objections to that, right?
Shut up!
I don't believe you, you savages!
Teachers hate kids that don't listen.
What?
Captain.
Now that I've got a good look at your face...
Your nose is long.
Askeladd!
How many are there, Ear?
I'm not sure. But there's a lot.
They're coming from the south!
Enemy reinforcements?
In the middle of the night?
The English are attacking at night? Impressive.
They're here!
It's too late! You bastards are going to die!
I can't wait to see you Danes eat each other alive!
-Danes? -I'll tell you what's happening.
Thorkell's coming!
Not a bad match, right?
It's Thorkell!
Did he say Thorkell? What are we going to do?
Hey.
Did he say Thorkell?
Who knows? I thought that's what he said.
If it's true, we're in trouble.
Thorkell?
Did you say Thorkell?
No way!
Really?
Thorkell's coming!
Is that the village?
That's what it looks like.
All right! We're going to surround them!
Vali and Ingolf's units, take the left!
Oddr, take the right!
I'm going to take the middle.
Kill anyone you see!
But don't kill the prince.
And there should be a kid with a knife.
Don't kill him either.
He's my playmate.
Thorkell's coming!
Let me go, you buffoon!
Are you going to disobey my orders?
I can't leave Ragnar behind!
I'm not going without Ragnar!
Forget about it, Your Highness.
We only have three sleds. We don't have room for a corpse.
Then let's hold a funeral for him.
Pay your respects to the death of a warrior! This is an order!
We don't have enough time for that either.
You bastard!
No! I'm not going!
Ragnar! Ragnar--
Ragnar is dead. He won't come even if you call for him.
You bastard...
Askeladd!
They're deserters. They were planning to join Thorkell.
They were hiding in the straw.
Ragnar was right!
Luck's not on your side right now.
We're not the only ones.
Everyone knows we're in trouble.
We're in big trouble this time. You're...
Thorkell has you by the tail.
Go ahead.
Listen, men. Follow whichever leader you want.
If you're going to leave, then leave! I won't blame you.
If you're going to come with me,
then march!
We're going to march until we lose Thorkell!
Walk while you eat, and walk while you sleep!
Listen, men!
If you can't keep up, then you're dead.
Wait, Thorkell!
We're not like Askeladd.
We want to join you--
So, your leader's name is Askeladd?
Oh, what a nice sword.
-It's mine now! -Oh, nice.
The fact that some of their men deserted
means they must be really worried.
Poor things.
You should've just let them join us.
It's okay. They're worthless.
I don't need cowards who surrender without putting up a fight.
Men, to the east! We're going to chase down the prince!
Give it everything you got!
Yeah!
The right! You're too far to the right!
Move it back.
No! I meant my right.
JANUARY 1014 AD UPPER SEVERN RIVER, EARLDOM OF MERCIA
-That's right. Keep going. Go slow. -Heave ho!
Hurry up!
You're holding us up back here!
Torgrim. Atli. Come with me.
-Okay. -Okay.
Destroy this bridge. You guys take the lead.
-Hurry. -Okay.
We're going to take the bridge apart.
Pitch in if you have an ax!
I'm so tired.
Is Thorkell nearby, Ear?
They're being too loud. I'm not sure.
We might have enough time to destroy the bridge.
Hey! Hold on! You, there, priest!
What are you doing?
Do you have any booze?
Even if I did, I wouldn't give you any.
We don't even have enough for ourselves.
I don't have any booze for you.
Can't you tell we're in a tight spot right now, priest?
The water's really cold.
Hey! This river's pretty shallow.
They'll be able to cross it on foot!
What's the point of destroying the bridge?
But we can't just leave it here.
Maybe it'll piss them off at least.
Looks like Askeladd ran out of those bright ideas of his.
Bjorn! Thorfinn!
-What's wrong? -Come over here.
What's going on?
Bjorn. Move the prince over to this carriage here.
You be the driver.
Thorfinn, you ride with the prince. Be on standby.
What?
Hey!
Askeladd!
Are you serious?
It's my special talent.
I can tell what a man is like
just by looking at his face.
Whether he's an important man, or a nobody. Smart, or dumb.
I can tell that there are some traitors among the loyal.
What?
Take the prince? Are you crazy?
Idiot! Don't say it so loudly!
Atli.
This army is done for already.
Let's join Thorkell's army and give him the prince as a gift.
More than half of the other men are already on our side.
We'll be able to convince the other half easily.
You're going to betray him?
Betray Askeladd?
Don't call it a betrayal, Atli.
He's a good leader. He's done a good job.
That's why we're going to make him take responsibility as the leader.
We'll be fine! We'll be able to escape!
We've always been able to escape, right?
Well, up until now.
But what about recently?
He's made the wrong call, one after the other.
He's run out of luck.
And Thorkell found us, even though we thought he was beat.
Don't look at me like that.
Well, you're right. He's a good leader.
Then why did he mess with Thorkell?
Brother...
I'm not happy about this either.
But we can't help it.
Askeladd made a bet, and he lost.
That's all.
Good job.
They're going to have a hard time getting their sleds and cargo across.
What if they abandon their cargo and keep chasing us?
Then they're going to lose time finding food.
They won't be able to follow us very far without eating.
All right! Resume the march!
They're here!
Oh, I saw a flash!
I...
found you!
-Unbelievable! -No way...
-A spear? -Three of them? That's impossible!
No! There were four of them!
-This is bad. -Damn! This is bad!
-This is really bad! -All right!
Calm down, men!
He's still far away.
And we destroyed the bridge. Forget about that spear just now.
Bridge?
What about the bridge?
They'll be able to cross that river on foot!
Destroying the bridge was useless!
Is that what you think?
If that's what you think, then we're leaving right now.
Every minute is precious.
Not again!
You keep saying march, march, march!
Don't you know any other words?
You!
We can't win against Thorkell.
Just bear with it for one more day.
Destroying the bridge will start to pay off then.
They can only march as fast as they can carry their cargo.
They're going to have trouble getting their cargo across.
If they leave their cargo behind to chase us, they won't be able to replenish supplies.
They'll only be able to march for one day like that.
Understand, men?
If you understand, start marching!
There's no guarantee we'll be able to survive one more day!
Oh, really? Then this is where we say goodbye.
I'm in a hurry. Excuse me.