The Norsemen | The Saxons
The Saxons
In General
- Decadent Court: The court at London, with everyone driving their own agenda.
- Enemy Mine: The Viking raids give the Saxons a threat greater than each other for them to worry about.
- Real Men Love Jesus: During their time, the Anglo-Saxons were fairly devout Catholics.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The English are a united kingdom at the time of Vikings: Valhalla, but the king still has to struggle to gain the support of his nobles.
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The Royal Family
Emma of Normandy
Played By: Laura Berlin
The great granddaughter of Rollo and current queen of England through her marriage to Aethelred II.
- Age Lift: One of the few aversions in the show. At the time of filming, Berlin was the same age as Emma was during Canute's invasion of England.
- Happily Married: Through the large age difference (larger than in real life, Emma married Aethelred at 18 while he was 36) they seem to get along fine and she reassures the sickly king that she will help her stepson Edmund as much as she can.
- The Man Behind the Man: Emma is the most intelligent member of the royal family
- Only Sane Man: Emma is revealed to be the only member of court to realize how stupid evil the idea of the St. Brice's Day Massacre really was.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Emma is resourceful, clever and fierce. No wonder Canute falls flat for her.
Prince Edmund
Played By:Louis Davison
The son of king Aethelred and stepson of Emma, with his older brother's dead he is the heir to England's crown.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Emma worries that Edmund is not ready to rule due to his youthful hot-bloodedness. The real Edmund was in his 20's when he became king which is young by modern standards, but not by medieval ones. Edmund is far from the youngest king to have led an army. Olaf "the Holy" Haraldsson is said to have led viking expeditions at 13.
- Adaptational Wimp: Prince Edmund is far from the badass warrior prince Edmund Ironside who has often been compared with Alfred the Great.
- Puppet King: Both Emma and Godwin try to manipulate him to suit their respective agenda.
- Reluctant Ruler: As a younger son, Edmund does not feel ready to take up the crown and feels very insecure about himself.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: He is all to ready to fight the vikings, against the wishes of Emma.
Aethelred II
Played By:Bosco Hogan
The descendant of Alfred the Great, Aethelred rules over a united England. However, due to his fear of the danish minority, he has ordered an ethnic cleansing of all "vikings" in England.
- Bad Boss: He is introduced killing his own loyal guardsmen because they were of Norwegian heritage.
- Evil Old Folks: He is one of the oldest characters in the show and responsible for a genocide.
- Happily Married: Through the large age difference (larger than in real life, Emma married Aethelred at 18 while he was 36) they seem to get along fine and Aethelred seems to have a lot of respect for Emma's intelligence.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Through Aethelred ordering the death of all danes in England is 100% inexcusable, the show does not do a good job to contextualize were he was coming from. England had been hit hard by a renaissance of vikings that had caused lots of damage to England. The St. Brice's Day Massacre was more of a desperate man falling into humanity's worst instincts rather than a cold move motivated by an abstract fear of the prosperity of a minority. The show only makes reference to Sweyn Forkbeard having demanded tribute but this is not really mentioned as a motivation behind the killings.note
- King on His Deathbed: Has such a scene in episode 2.
- Informed Ability: Is said to have been a great warrior, which we see little signs of.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He sets off the events of the series but dies off-screen in episode 2 and is the only seen as a corpse in episode 3.
- Stupid Evil: Murders hundreds of innocent people in an act of racist fear of the anglo-danes, which inspires the vikings to unite in order to take him out.
Nobles
Godwin
Played By:David Oakes
The son a disgraced nobelman who now works as an advisor to king Aethelred II.
- Adaptational Villainy: Is made responsible for the assassination of Edmund Ironside.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Pulls this on the English ealdormen, who at first considers him a traitor.
- The Chessmaster: He is very skilled at navigating and manipulating politics and increasing his own power.
- Expy: A lot of reviewers compared Godwin's portrayal in the show to Littlefinger.
- Friend to All Children: He tells Emma's children to close their eyes and pray so they won't see him murdering Olaf's guards.
- Impoverished Patrician: His family used to be important, but has fallen from grace due to the crimes of his father.
- Refuge in Audacity: He rescues Emma's children by dressing up as monk who has come to read mass with the children. Olaf's pious guards let him through and after leading the children into prayer, he offers the guards communion. When the guards kneel, he stabs them to death.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Makes it seem like Edmund's death was an accident which he had not part in after tricking the ealdormen into thinking he was conspiring with Edmund to drive the danes out.
Eadric Streona
Played By:Gavin Drea
The ealdorman of Mercia.
- Ambition Is Evil: Eadric Streona wants to be king of England himself.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: An treacherous, obstructive official who only thinks of himself.
- Historical Villain Downgrade: Eadric of the show is not as downright vile as the historical account of him is. Though he does betray Edmund, the real Eadric first switched sides to Canute. At one point he killed a man and waved his head in front of the English screaming that he had killed Edmund in an attempt to demoralize them. When they realized the bluff they drove his forces back. After being chased by Edmund's army, Eadric switched back to Edmund and marched with him against Canute. But as the battle began, Eadric withdrew his forces, having led Edmund into a battle he could not win which led to a disastrous defeat for the English. There is a reason BBC declared him the worst Briton of the 11th century.
- Miles Gloriosus: Claims that his family has fought vikings for 200 years, yet decides not to fight Canute despite have a strategical advantage. Made even funnier how off-handed Sweyn Forkbeard mentions how he has defeated Mercia before.
- Off with His Head!: As in real life, through under less epic circumstances.
- Obviously Evil: Aethelred and Emma considers him this.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: For betraying Edmund at a crucial moment and asking for the crown of England as a reward, Canute beheads him when the Viking army celebrates victory.
