The History Behind Vinland Saga
Character Comparisons with their Real-life Counterpart
As a Historian who loves the history of the vikings and the middle ages, I was really excited when I found out there was a Viking manga series a few years ago. I picked up the first few books and fell in love. Makoto Yukimura was definitely doing something right. I knew then that someday it would be a huge hit.
The first season of the Anime is highly rated and enjoyed on its own. But I think with a general historical context, the series can be appreciated even more. Yukimura clearly did a great deal of research and the first season of the series is far more historically accurate than most other historical fiction.
This article will attempt to be spoiler-free. I will try to avoid potential spoilers but this article is about the history which inspired Vinland Saga. It will be up to you for the most part to point out what is actually part of Vinland Saga and what Vinland Saga leaves out or changes.
This article is a transcript from my January 2020 YouTube video which you can watch here. Apologizes if the writing is not up to date with my more recent works. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the following information.
I will make it fairly easy for anyone who has seen the show or read the manga to make these comparisons. If you have not seen the series yet, this article will also be helpful because, again, I truly believe the events of the series are even more impactful if the historical basis is understood. If you are still worried that knowing some of the history will ruin the experience of the series for you, please put this article n your read later list and return when you’re ready.
There is no actual historical text with the title of Vinland Saga but there are many Sagas mentioning Vinland or to be broader, North America. The largest two Sagas about substantial Norse exploration in North America are often grouped together and called The “Vinland Sagas” and these would include The Saga of the Greenlanders and Eirik the Red’s Saga. These sagas are where a lot of the characters come from.
Leif Erickson レイフ・エリクソン
Among other things, The Saga of the Greenlanders tells of Leif Erikson and his voyage to America. In Greenland, Leif heard rumors of a land west of them from a Norse explorer called Bjarni Herjólfsson. Bjarni claims to have seen this land but he has not actually stepped foot on the continent.
Leif, wanting to colonize this western land, buys a ship from Bjarni and hires a crew. He tried to convince his father, the legendary Erik the Red to come with him but he refused because of an injury and claimed he was too old. Leif and his crew arrive in approximately the year 1000 and explore and name various parts of this continent and settle there for the winter. On their way back to Greenland, Leif earned the name Leif the Lucky from rescuing an Icelandic castaway crew.
Leif’s adventure here is the one we see him telling the children in Iceland at the beginning of the series. We see Thorfinn looking especially engaged.
Thorfinn トルフィン
Thorfinn, although not being as well known as Leif Erikson, was also a historical figure. His father’s name was Thors Snorrason, Thord hesthöfði Snorrason or Thord Horsehead, this is the inspiration for Thors Snorresson.
Thorfinn’s mother’s name is Thorunn, different from Thorfinn’s Mother’s name in the Vinland Saga, Helga. Also here it may be important to point out that Thord traces his ancestry back to Björn Ironside and therefore Ragnar Lodbrok. Thorfinn was raised by Thord and Thorunn around the Skagafjörður bay in northern Iceland. And unlike the anime, neither Thord or Thorfinn had any obvious connections to the Jomsvikings.
So far we have this isolated community in Iceland with Leif Erikson and Thorfinn’s family. In real life, we do not know for sure where Leif was after his first voyage but we do know that at one point he did get to know Thorfinn. Yukimura was clever to make Leif a community leader and storyteller in Thorfinn’s home settlement, it connects these two characters in a way which makes sense later on in the narrative.
When Thorfinn was an adult, he traveled to Greenland. It was here that he met and married Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, a widow of Leif Erikson’s youngest brother by the name of Thorstein Eiriksson. It is also here where Thorfinn could have first met Leif. Gundrid was supposedly being taken care of by Leif, who was her brother-in-law. Leif had been staying in this land in Greenland which was granted to him by his father, Erik the Red who had died in 1003.
Thorfinn and Gudrid and a large group of men and women decided to leave for the land Leif discovered and together they had a child with the name of Snorri Thorfinnsson, the first European born in the New World.
Askeladd アシェラッド
Another important character in the series is Askeladd. Askeladd, unlike the previous characters, does not seem to easily match up with a historical figure. His name literally translates to “Ash-Lad” and comes from an archetype in Norwegian folklore.
The name refers to a type of character who is usually the youngest of three brothers and is often seemingly lost in thought while playing with the ashes or an even better description is a character who sits and is blowing in the ashes and embers of a fireplace. Blowing the embers in the fireplace was typically a job assigned to someone who was unable to do more serious and demanding work.
Some have pointed out that Vinland Saga’s Askelad can be compared to a character from the Laxdæla saga, Olaf Hoskuldsson, also known as Olaf the Peacock. Olaf was an illegitimate child, born to an Icelandic chieftain and a thrall concubine bought from the Rus. She claimed she was an Irish princess by the name of Melkorka. Olaf and his mother had a special connection, she even taught him Gaelic. Olaf’s father made the decision to move his concubine and his illegitimate son to another farm. Olaf later met his grandfather in Ireland and made good relations with the local king. Olaf the Peacock’s story of course is far more complicated but if you have finished season 1 of the series, you should be able to make connections between the fictional character of Askelad and Olaf the Peacock.
Thorkell the Tall のっぽのトルケル
Thorkell the Tall, with the exception of the Danish monarchs, perhaps has the most information we know about any of these characters. Thorkell was a prominent member of the Danish-allied Jomsvikings. He was present in the battle of Hjörungavágr circa 986 and the Battle of Svolder circa 999 or 1000.
In 1009, Thorkell was assigned an army by King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark to invade England. Thorkell first led his army to the harbor of Sandwich and carved out large sections of England for the Danish Crown as well as becoming very profitable with the imposement of Danegeld payments.
After a few years passed, Thorkell, after a series of events felt that he lost control over many of his men. Thorkell with 45 ships and loyal Danes to accompany him became mercenaries for Æthelred the Unready. In 1013, his army fought against other Danish invaders in service to King Sweyn.
Over the course of a few years, something interesting occurs. And Vinland Saga does a really good job of filling this gap. Somehow Thorkell, the man who traded and fought against King Sweyn Forkbeard, was close to Sweyn’s son, the new Danish king in 1016. We know this because King Canute the Great made Thorkell the jarl of East Anglia.
After this, Thorkel and Canute had a shaky relationship. Canute the Great seemed to realize that Thorkell was such a valuable man that he tried to keep him on his side. Canute made Thorkell the Jarl of Denmark and had him raise his son, HarthaCanute there. For some reason, Thorkell’s rule as Jarl only lasted around a year and Canute’s brother-in-law, Ulf Thorgilsson became the new Jarl in 1024. There is no more historical mentions of Thorkell the tall after this event, it will be interesting to see how Vinland Saga handles this great character.
Also I thought I should just note that the superhuman abilities shown in many characters but especially Thorkell, are not accurate to history of course. These action scenes usually tend to stand out because it doesn’t really match the hyper-realistic portrayal of all the other aspects. These scenes are somewhat true to the Icelandic Sagas themselves. It was common for the sagas to describe certain characters with superhuman abilities or to occasionally complete great feats of man.
Sweyn Forkbeard スウェン・フォークビアード
Finally, we have the two royals in the series. First is King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. Sweyn was born around 960 and he was the illegitimate son of the Danish king, Harald Bluetooth and the grandson of the first historical King of Denmark, Gorm the Old.
In Vinland Saga, we do not get much of an idea of the early life of Sweyn. In real life he is known to have had a rocky relationship with his father. It is true that he did conquer England in 1013 perhaps in response to the St Brice’s Day Massacre. Through doing this he made the English king, Æthelred the Unready retreat and hide in Normandy. But as far as I know Sweyn was never described as the damaged, fatigued, diseased man we see in Vinland Saga. And there is not too much evidence pointing to a hostile relationship between him and Canute. Sweyn was both the king of Denmark and England but unfortunately, he was only king of England for a few months before he died.
Canute the Great クヌート・ザ・グレート
Prince Canute’s birth date and mother is unknown. He was born somewhere between the years of 980 and 1000. He was present in his father’s conquering of England and he is described as being very young there.
He was a trained soldier and took part in battles in England. Some sources even claimed that he learned how to be a soldier from Thorkell the Tall. By the end of his father’s life, Prince Canute was put in charge of the Danish Fleet and Army in Gainsborough.
When Sweyn died in 1014, Canute’s brother, Harald, was crowned King of Denmark, and Canute was supposedly elected king of England by the Danes in England and by the people of the Danelaw themselves. Although this was a position Canute had to fight for because after hearing of Sweden’s death, Æthelred the Unready left Normandy and returned to England to fight for the crown. With the help of his brother, King Canute gained a large fleet of ships in an attempt to conquer England once again. Canute also used Scandinavian allies to fight battles against Æthelred’s oldest son, Edmund, Ironside.
Canute conquered England piece by piece in 1015 and 1016 and he was finally crowned king of all England in 1017. Later that year Canute married the widow of Æthelred, Queen Emma of Normandy. Together they would have a child, by the name of HarthaCanute, who would become the next king of England and Denmark.
It is important to note here that during King Sweyn's raids in England, he actually married off Canute to a Ælfgifu of Northampton and Canute had two sons with her, Sweyn Knutsson and Harold Harefoot. This makes Emma of Normandy his second wife and Harthacanute, his third son.
Plenty happened during the reign of Canute the Great. He was responsible for creating and keeping together what historians call now the North Sea Empire. He ruled Denmark, England, Norway, and Scania. During his prime, he was one of the most powerful rulers in the world. Canute the Great is still looked at to be one of the best Kings of England and Denmark to ever exist.
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