Ranking Top 5 Characters of Vinland Saga Season 1 & 2

The series is widely known for its unmatched & remarkable characters. Though in this article we’ll see the most influential and impactful characters of the story. This article may contain spoilers from Vinland Saga Season 1 & 2. Before reading any further I hope you are aware of the story till here (up to chapter 100 in Manga).

So we will rank in descending order and also try to rate them at the end of each explanation.

5. Leif Erikson

Probably the most important person of the series, as he was the one who actually went to the shores of the Vinland.

Leif was natively from Greenland and was a professional Merchant cum sailor. He travels to various lands and buy good and materials from there place and sell it to bigger marketplaces.

He is a friendly guy who loves to tell his sailing stories to the children and the adults of the land he often visits to obtain goods as a merchant.

But after facing an uninvited situation when his life was in danger but saved by Thorfinn’s father Thors, he become a little more serious. He promised to find the lost Thorfinn at any cost and bring him back to Iceland to his family. Which he succeeded also in the 2 season.

Apart from his friendly nature and he is hugely ambitious and full of sympathy. When he found about Thorfinn is in the Keitel farm, he offered Keitel to only buy Thorfinn out but Einar and Arnheid also. He loves to sail and has covered a crazy amount distances and far away lands in his life which definitely shows his ambitious nature. Also at the very late age of his life he was more than excited to accompany Thorfinn and Einar to the Vinland.

With such an experience in sailing and connections throughout the Atlantic Ocean, I think author did downgraded his character as it wouldn’t have taken a full 10 years for him to find Thorfinn.

Our Rating: 7/10

4. Einar

Einar first arrived in the second season of the anime.

Einar is a professional farmer hailing from the Norther parts of England. He became a slave trade entity after he was captured by the Vikings when they raided his village. He ended up in the Keitel’s farm where he met Thorfinn for the first time.

Einar was shown a bit numb in the start, as he was struggling with accepting his lost family and village but soon he get the grip of himself and tried his best to get a master and serve him.

When Einar arrived at Keitel’s farm and getting an buyout offer from Keital, he was more than positive that he will attain his freedom and will not be a lave anymore.

Einar’s positivity and the way of life as a farmer was greatly influences on Thorfinn, who had lost the meaning of his life and was empty inside out. Einar’s character is a perfect portrait of a normal human being who feel joyous in occasions like when they finally started to farm a small land, loved when he was talking with Arnheid and hatred towards the retainers when they destroyed their crops and towards Keitel for becoming the cause of Arnheid’s death.

Einar’s character is one of the most important character because he is responsible for the development of Thorfinn’s character as a complete human being unlike the way of Vikings.

Our Rating: 9/10

3. Thors

The first jomsviking, who eventually gave up on fighting anymore wars and decided to pursue a simple and peaceful life.

The father of Thorfinn, and the most strongest warrior of the series.
Thors earlier life as a commander of the Jomsviking shows his character was full of pride & ethics, rock hearted in nature with little to no feelings of his own.

This can be witnessed when Helga(his wife) gave birth to a girl(Ylva) and he was simply not joyed or anything to show his emotions. He just coldly asked her to try to give him a boy next time as then the Chief (Helga’s brother) wants a successor to the position.

After the birth of Ylva, there was change of hearts of Thors and he decided to fake hi own death and flee to the far away lands.

As the story tells us he became from a cold hearted Viking to almost a saint. We saw that he decided to trade 8 sheeps for an almost dead runaway slave with Halfdaan. This shows how he had developed an endless empathy towards the people around him.

But the past didn’t let him escape from his deeds and he has to sacrifice himself to save young Thorfinn and other members from his village.

Our Rating: 8/10

2A. Canute

Prince Canute is the 2nd son of King Sweyn Forkbeard, the king of Denmark.
Till the age of 16, Canute could only talk to his caretaker Ragnar and was very introverted type of character. He was so frugal that his appearance was almost like a Women. Canute was raised by Ragnar in very formal and simple way, away from the kingdom politics and power battles. He didn’t liked killing and war at all.

After the death of Ragnar a sudden change happens to Canute’s behavior. Since then Canute was no longer an introvert because he has found his ambition in building his own Utopia. Along with Askeladd, he quickly picked up the politics going on within the kingdom and was ready to do whatever is necessary to build his own Utopia. A major character that helped Canute was Askeladd.

By the end of the second season Canute developed strongly as a powerful King of England and now choose to use his power to do everything possible to create his own Utopia on earth someday. He was not afraid of calling for a war on rebellions or play dirty politics. There was some changes on his course of action after he met Thorfinn on the Ketil’s farm, but his ultimate motive remained the same.

Our Rating: 9/10

2B. Thorfinn

Thorfinn Karlsefni our main protagonist, the son of Thors the troll.

Karlsefni was the part of his name that was given by his Viking comrades and meant “a promising boy”.

Thorfinn’s journey started as a 6 year old curious boy, who was thrilled by the stories of Leif Erikson about the Viking warriors and the amazing lands which are more suitable for a healthy habitat.

I couldn’t rank the journey of Canute and Thorfinn, because both has similar character development curve but in opposite directions. One become more tough and purpose driven and another become empty and don’t want to fight anymore. Importantly both were guided by Askeladd in thier important phase of life.

Soon the turning events made Thorfinn an person who is filled with aggression and fueled with hatred towards one single person. He spent almost 13 years of his life as a killing machine with little to no compassion towards anyone.

But after his avenging came to a tragic end, he become an empty vessel who don’t know what to do in his life anymore. This was the 2nd time that his character underwent a major change.

From a “Killing Machine” to an “Empty Saint”.

A third shift or say a change that came to Thorfinn after meeting Einar was that now he has a dream for which he has to live and thrive upon.

Thorfinn will learn the true meaning of being a Warrior but his past will haunt him to the fullest and he has to learn his new way of life to create his own Utopia on earth on Vinland.

Canute choose “Power” to build his Utopia and Thorfinn choose “Peace” to build his own Utopia.

Our Rating: 9/10

1. Askeladd

The most complex character of the series has to be Askeladd.

Askeladd, blood of a Danish Viking Father and an Walish mother. Askeladd was one of the strongest Vikings after Thors and Thorkel but his physical strength was not the only one which is making him the number 1 in this list, it’s his sharpest mind in the Vinland Saga series.

Askeladd was the most clever character of the series, who was fueling his life through his own motives and desires.

He was a Pirate and led a small group of soldiers from his village. He used to take ransom tasks and often provide military support in exchange of monetary gains.

Reading Askeladd’s character was the most difficult because he never shows his true intensions and was a master in despising people and dirty politics. Askeladd selfishly uses every single person for his own motives. Thorfinn and Canute both had a major influence on them because of Askeladd.

As for his cause he did sacrificed himself in order to achieve his motives through Canute & Thorfinn.

Askeladd took the center stage in the Season 1 completely and I guess is worth of a character to get a full score.

Our Rating: 10/10

Tell use your favorite character’s of Vinland Saga in the comment and what interesting scenes do you recall of these characters, mention them also.

Untill next time weebs.

Peace.