As I’ve noted before, the best epics are always deeply personal.  There’s no paradox in that – for me at least, if you can’t make me feel some connection to the characters playing out the saga, it’s just a history textbook.  The very best examples of the genre – The Iliad or Heike Monogatari for example – certainly bear this out.  Historical epics have to have the right canvas, but that’s all those historical events are.  It’s the lives of the people who made those events happen which are the actual work of art.

Maybe Vinland Saga ain’t The Iliad, but an epic it is nonetheless – and it has the advantage of a linear narrative with a relatively small number of central characters.  It utilizes that advantage to full, well- advantage, giving us an intensely personal story about these indelible men (and boys).  Long operating in Askeladd’s shadow, Thorfinn is finally starting to emerge from it as the full pathos of his arc kicks in.  And then we have Thorkell – but I’ll get to him in a minute.

This episode takes place on two fronts, as Canute, Askeladd and Thorkell march into the council of elders sans Thorfinn.  That’s because he’s both physically and mentally wrecked about his physical and mental ass-whupping by Askeladd.  Eventually he has a run-in with a trio of lowlifes too zaku to make it into the council.  Even half-dead and all dazed Thorfinn makes laughably easy work of these mulyaks, but it draws the attention of the local constable, who throws him into the local jail to keep the peace during the big event.  I think we could all see what was going to happen next, but there’s other stuff that happens first.

This was a bit of a different Askeladd than we’re used to seeing.  When the king gives Canute Mercia (once the most powerful kingdom in Britain but already in decline by this time) and generally dances to a predictable tune, Askeladd allows himself to gloat.  He’s rarely been this cocky – if ever – and as if the fates are listening, he pays a heavy price for it.  Sweyn’s announcement that he intends to invade Wales and crush all resistance once and for all may have only coincidentally been a broadside across Askeladd’s bow, but broadside it was.  And Askleadd slips up here in a major, major way – he betrays his shock for a few moments, long enough for Floki (to whom Askeladd is especially dangerous) to take notice.

Is Askeladd slipping in his old age?  Merely exhausted?  Whatever it is, this news has thoroughly unhinged him as we’ve ever seen him.  I also thought it a bit out of character to admit the truth to Thorkell, but I suspect he’s trying to cement their connection as much as possible because he realizes now, more than ever, how desperately he needs him.  As for the big man, I’m struck – far from the first time – that he’s playing up this feckless giant persona as much as possible in order to hide just how smart he really is.  When you look like Thorkell no one will ever underestimate you physically, but they might be lured into underestimating you mentally.  And if you were really smart, you’d use that to your advantage…

As for Thorfinn, Leif does eventually come to visit him – as I knew he would.  This was Leif’s signature moment of the story so far, and he doesn’t disappoint.  He’s another one of those unsung heroes of Vinland Saga, a decent and complicated man always on the fringes of the narrative.  Having failed to persuade Thorfinn to return home for his own sake, he turns it around and uses his own pledge to Thors as a weapon – that, and the promise of Vinland.  The problem for Thorfinn is that for all his hopelessness and despair, he knows every word Leif says about his father is true.  He knows he’s betraying Thors’ wishes with every day he walks this path, but he can’t bring himself to feel worthy of having hope.

Askeladd is the rock star here, but Thorfinn’s personal tragedy is still the spine of Vinland Saga.  At some point his path and Askeladd’s must surely diverge – they have to, in order for their arcs to maintain their structural integrity.  I don’t know if it’s going to happen now or later – or if we’ll see it happen in the anime at all – but it’s going to happen.  Meanwhile for all Leif and Thorfinn’s emotional appeal, the lasting memory of the episode for me is the rueful smile Askeladd offers up at the last – always the scene-stealer he is.  It’s a testament to the man, the mangaka, and the anime staff that so much can be communicated in just a look.