Death here, death there, death everywhere.
How strange life is.
Two rulers of two great lands, speaking the same words, hundreds of miles away.
Credit: Bernard Walsh/History
Emperor Charles has never met King Ecbert.
Perhaps he never will.
Both men have met Ragnar Lothbrok, the unclean pagan conqueror from the North.
Emperor Charles has married his daughter away to Ragnars brother.
Ecbert romanced Ragnars ex-wife, and he now holds Ragnars bastard son as an honorable hostage.
How strange life is.
How curious this world can become, when one man sails further than any other before him.
In Paris
Celebration throughout the streets of the Frankish capital.
The Northmen are gone all thanks to a Northman.
But Count Odo does not think it is the time to celebrate.
He advises Emperor Charles not to trust Rollo.
I fear he may revert to his instincts, he says.
There is nothing else in the mind of the pagan Rollo but the destruction of Paris and its Emperor.
After all, the Emperors daughter is still young.
She can marry again, to someone more respectable, someone older: Someone like Odo, in fact.
The Emperor considers this advice.
He knows that Odo is plotting against him.
Perhaps it is just a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils.
The Emperor dines with his daughter and son-in-law, commending him for all hes done for Paris.
The defeat of Ragnar Lothbrok, says the Emperor, Will resound down the ages.
Rollo isnt so sure.
His brother is still alive.
Paris must be watchful.
They need a protector.
You talk as if you no longer need me to protect you, says Rollo.
Princess Gisla has happy news, which she delivers with exquisite timing.
You should also know that Im carrying Rollos child, she tells her father.
How strange life is, he responds.
They drink to the Frankish-Viking alliance, and to the child whose existence seals that alliance in blood.
Count Odo sees his mistress, Therese.
It has been a long time; perhaps he is bored of her.
She whips him, and he laughs: A woman isnt strong enough to hurt him.
Enter Roland, the traitor, who opens up Odos back with bloodstains.
They gag his mouth, and the whip falls again, again.
Blood splatters across Thereses face.
She wipes some of it off; only some of it.
Thus dies Count Odo, executed by the Emperors order for disloyalty and high treason.
He held off the Northmen once, and worked with Rollo to hold them off again.
Perhaps he was too ambitious.
Perhaps he was just unlucky.
The Emperor puts all his trust in Duke Rollo and gives him the Iron hand of Frankia.
You have made the right choice, Father, says Princess Gisla.
The court leaves, but the Emperor begs Therese to remain.
He saw a look upon her face.
I think you carry a terrible burden, she says.
And you carry it alone.
Perhaps a woman doesnt need to be Emperor; perhapsthiswoman only needs to control an Emperor.
In Wessex
King Ecbert returns from Mercia.
His forces have won a great victory.
There is no more ruling council.
Kwenthrith is excited: She will return to her country, and rule, as is her right.
She has exciting news for Ecbert.
Kwenthrith is pregnant, for the second time.
Your son, Aethelwulf, she reveals.
After he rescued me, we formed an attachment.
How strange life is, says Ecbert.
It is long years since Ecbert and Kwenthrith went abed together.
But there are greater complications than romance here.
He is now the King of Mercia.
Not in the eyes of women; not in the eyes of this woman.
You are a monster, Kwenthrith tells her ally-turned-captor.
She turns to Judith for help.
She admits that her baby is Aethelwulfs, and Judith forgives her.
Judith goes to Ecbert and he, too, asks for her forgiveness.
I cannot ask for Gods, says the King.
Im already beyond that.
Ecbert has a confession to make to Judith.
I love you, he says.
You may treat this statement as compromised, disingenuous, perhaps even as a lie.
And why shouldnt you.
But the funny thing is, its true.
It is the most intimate statement weve ever seen Ecbert say.
Perhaps he is telling the truth.
Perhaps this is a rare occasion when the truth is helpful for his cause.
The King cannot let them go.
He needs Magnus, most of all.
Is this to be Kwenthriths fate?
No, no, no, no.
Her destiny calls her to greater things or to an end of all her torment.
She says goodbye to her child and sneaks through the night.
A soldier tries to stop her, and she stabs him in the neck.
She holds a knife up to Ecberts neck.
How does it feel to be so close to death?
If you kill me, my guards will kill you with no questions asked, Ecbert says, desperate.
What does it matter, to die in a world like this?
Do you know what would have been better for me?
To have been born a man.
And then she is killed.
A knife in her back from trusted, angelic Judith.
She falls onto the bed, two lives pouring out of her.
Poor Judith, says Kwenthrith.
You have killed twice over.
The rest is silence, almost.
Judith turns to her lover.
Look what you have made me become, she says.
The blood drips onto the floor; it has to go somewhere, after all.
(For more on the death of Kwenthrith,read my interview with Amy Bailey here.)
NEXT: Into the water
InKattegat
Harbard sits in Ragnar Lothbroks throne room, entertaining the women and children.
Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye isnt impressed by this wandered from far away.
All the adults in the village seem to love him.
I love all of you!
Harbard tells them, over and over.
And he means it.
Back in her chamber, Aslaug screams and throws all her belongings in a frenzy.
Harbard asks her: Why are you so angry?
He loves her, never mind the other women.
I have sex with them to free them of their troubles and their fears, he says.
He takes all their troubles into himself just as he did for Ivar.
Aslaug looks skeptical, but he lays it on thick.
I reject everything of this world, he says.
Honor, glory, love of oneself, even shame.
I only care about the will of the gods.
She loved him, and thought of him when he was gone.
I have broken my life for your sake, she says.
I do not know if you are a god, but all I longed for was your presence.
Do not have a go at possess me, he says.
Obsession is the opposite of love.
And with that, he leaves again.
Perhaps Aslaug thought Harbard was her salvation.
Perhaps, like her husband, she can no longer see all that she has gained from this life.
Only what she has lost.
Among the Northmen
Away they row, Ragnar and his Northmen.
I cannot believe this is happening, says Harald Finehair.
We cannot accept compromise.
We cannot accept failure.
Someone is always responsible for failure.
He has lost his faith in the myth of Ragnar Lothbrok.
Lagertha doesnt take kindly to his tone.
But she looks at Ragnar, huddled in the prow of his boat, a man ruined.
Who knows what to think?
Even Ragnars son Bjorn can see his father has fallen.
This weakens you in every way, says Bjorn Ironsides.
And then an idea.
Ragnar looks at the cliffs edge.
And, for the first time in a long time, he dreams of the impossible.
We are going to lift the boats up off the cliff.
They will simply go around those Frankish forts.
Ragnar doesnt know how to do it.
But a man doesnt need to know everything.Thisman only needs to know someone who knows everything.
you might do it, cant you, Floki?
Or am I wrong?
And there is a glimmer in Flokis eye, a smile we havent seen in a long time.
I can do it, Ragnar, says Floki.
I can do it for you.
Everything I do, Ragnar, is for you.
Up the boats go, up and up.
Ragnar watches and looks tired.
The young King Harald comes to say hello.
Youre insane, Ragnar Lothbrok, he says.
But this is beautiful.
After everything we heard, we still underestimated you.
I feel stupid, Ragnar.
They are honored to be with him, these young warriors with this man of myth.
Perhaps triumph awaits back in Paris.
But dark omens circulate.
Dont die, Floki, says Helga.
And then there is Ragnar, and Yidu.
He needs more of his medicine.
At first, her medicine healed him; now, the medicine has enslaved him.
He is weak; no one can tell him, but we can see it.
Theres nothing left, says Yidu.
That is a problem, says the King.
He only wanted her to come for the medicine.
But didnt Ragnar say she was free?
I never said you were free, he says.
I said you could come and go as you kindly.
Youre a liar, says Yidu.
Youve lied to me, and youve lied to your people.
But you made the mistake of telling me the secret of the slaughter of the families in Wessex.
Ragnar turns and sees his two sons, watching him.
There is a wild look in Ragnars eyes.
He speaks words of comfort.
Its all right, he tells them.
He has to leave them behind.
They must disguise the boats.
He will return, he promises, but now is the time to go.
He returns to the dead Yidu and finds her store of medicine.
She sinks into the water, another victim of Ragnars ambitions.
But the Northmens boats wont stop for anything.
Not even for land.
Across Frankia they go, on the wooden planks created by Floki.
Onward they go, pulled by the Vikings, an inexorable march to Paris and fame and doom.
