#VIKINGS THE WANDERER FREE#

Ragnar has obviously accepted that his ex-wife is only a political ally to him now, but it is difficult to imagine that he will be as understanding if he returns to Wessex to find Ecbert in bed with her.īut while Ragnar might be kept at bay (at least on the surface) by his lack of official claim on Lagertha, Judith has no much legal protection. So Ecbert may unintentionally be blithely walking into an explosive situation. It is clear that he is still in love with her, and despite the fact that, when Lagertha left him, she clearly shut the door on any future reconciliation-getting on with her life by taking another husband and all-but-proposing to another after she widowed herself-we just know that she still loves him. So while Ragnar does not have any legal or moral claim to the shieldmaiden he wronged, that does not mean that he has no emotional attachment to her. Creator/writer Michael Hirst has down an excellent job of making clear that, despite the medieval setting, the Vikings did not perceive women the same way that Christians of the period did (as chattel who had little choice when it came to their destinies).

#VIKINGS THE WANDERER FREE#

While she is technically free (and I love the fortitude and self-respect she showed in walking out when Ragnar took a second wife over her clear objection), that does not mean that a man set to woo her has a clear path to do so. When he asked, last week, if she was “a free woman,” the answer was quite misleading. If it was not clear before, Ecbert is more than a little taken with Lagertha, enough not only to follow her out to the farmland she now oversees, but to give her more personal gifts and learn a bit of her language. In fact, we are left to wonder if this is simply the hollow promise of a man who wishes to win a woman. While he informs her that he has every intention of defending her claim to them, we have to wonder how he intends to do so when he is in need of their foreign forces in order to do the same with Princess Kwenthrith’s to Mercia. Canny Lagertha questions the king about the origin of the lands he has given the Vikings, and he reveals that some of his own subjects were evicted from the farms she now overseas. There’s little doubt that Torstein will continue to harry the Mercians, even down one arm.īut it is back at the court of Ecbert that we are shown the greatest potential storms forming. The scene in which director Ken Girotti shows the ship builder removing the arm and cauterizing the limb is well executed, not only conveying the feeling of “there-but-for-the-grace-of-Odin-go-I” among the other Vikings, but the grim and ruthless determination of both patient and physician. The incident is used with varying degrees of subtlety to portray Viking fierceness, priorities, and relationships when Bjorn offers to do it himself but Torstein insists that Floki do so since, as Floki points out, were the situation reversed, Torstein would do the same for Floki. Sensing that he is dying as a result of the wounded arm, Torstein asks Floki to cut it off. I’m hoping it’s the latter because it’s frustrating watching Clive Standen just moping around.Īnd Torstein’s limb too is hacked off, though this time at the request of its owner. It’s clear that Ragnar’s brother is ramping up to some kind of breakdown or epiphany. This is so nonsensical that even Torstein, who seems to be going mad from sepsis in his own limb, questions Rollo’s behavior. Rollo, who has been out of sorts since his brother forgave him his betrayal, attacks one of the wounded enemy soldiers, hacking away at one of his legs (because it was at an odd angle? he later indicates) and eventually, it seems, killing him outright. This is not the only savagely crazy thing to go down in the camp, however. One wonders what treatment her younger brother has to look forward to, despite her insistence that she loves him. As she hacks at his head with a dagger, we are horrified, Floki is amused, and Ragnar seems only a little satisfied to finally have some understanding of the woman he has promised to fight for. Her uncle sexually abused her starting at age six and invited his men (including her eldest brother) to do so as well. We can hardly blame her as she finally reveals not only the reason for that desire but also for her consistently bizarre behavior. The first to be freed from its trunk is the head of the fallen Brihtwulf, when his niece demands it of Ragnar. Ragnar and his men (and women) are giving their weary limbs a rest-those limbs (and other body parts) that are not being removed, that is.

Vikings the wanderer