Thorfinn

"I have no enemies, none at all."

- Thorfinn

Thorfinn (トルフィン) Thorsson, also nicknamed Karlsefni, is a former warrior of Askeladd's band as well as a former slave on Ketil’s farm, who is currently a trader and adventurer attempting to settle in Vinland. He is the main protagonist of Vinland Saga.

He was born in Iceland as the son of Helga and Thors, the most famous Jomsviking warrior until his defection. He is also the brother to Ylva, and is related to the leadership of the Jomsvikings through his mother, who is daughter of the third Cheif, Sigvaldi.

He spent more than a decade attempting to take revenge on Askeladd, the man who killed his father, even following him into battle to stay close to him, and grew cold and merciless, killing countless people. After he attacked Canute in a moment of shock and rage for killing Askeladd, the death of whom was Thorfinn's goal for most of his life, Thorfinn was enslaved as a punishment. Four years later he gained his freedom and changed his life.

He vowed to make good of his life and create peace and a land free of slavery in Vinland, which he heard from Leif Ericson’s tales as a child. After leaving Ketil’s farm with a new friend, Einar, he then journeyed to Greece in order to get money to be able to make the trip to Vinland, and after three years he had enough money and people to finally make his journey to Vinland. He created Arnheid Village on Vinland.

Appearance
Thorfinn's appearance is pretty consistent throughout the story. He has bushy hair, old clothes, two knives, and a rebellious, angry face. He is also relatively short.

When Thorfinn was a child, he had a happier face, round with bright, curious eyes, and well-kept hair.

He has a somewhat slight build that belies his strength.

Thorfinn's entire body is littered with scars, most of which were caused by blades. His face remains unmarred until he gains several obvious scars on his face in adulthood, mostly because he refuses to fight with weapons and tries his best to defend himself and neutralize his opponents without causing any lasting harm.

In 1015, an apathetic Thorfinn does not budge when one of Ketil's guests, Fox, goes at him with a sword to try to make him fear for his life, slicing off the tip of his left ear. In 1018, when him and Snake are fighting over Arnheid’s husband, Gardar, he slashes Thorfinn's face with his blade, resulting in a long scar starting at his right temple, extending across his right cheek and ending at his jaw, next to his chin.

In May 1019, Thorfinn gets another piece of his left ear cut off when Garm slashes him with his spear. In June 1021, Thorfinn returns to Iceland from Greece with a scar across the bridge of his nose and above his cheek.

Before setting off to Vinland, he started slicking his hair back, which he still does while in Vinland at 27 years old.

Personality
When the series begins, Thorfinn is shown as an innocent and friendly boy who is searching for adventure. He shared a very good relationship with his family and enjoyed stories told by Leif about his adventures. He has a good relationship with his father and looked up to him immensely, shown when he decides to follow Thors by sneaking on his boat to follow him. This would become the foundation of Thorfinn's drive to avenge his father.

However, by the time he joins Askeladd's band, he is a cold-blooded individual, hellbent on his goal to avenge his father. He becomes aloof toward others, unmoved by and uninterested in what they do or thinks of him, choosing instead to keep to himself. This is seen when Thorfinn ignores the invitations from his fellow Vikings to join in on the fun and his refusing to eat dinner with the rest of them.

His flaws lie in his temper and impulsive nature. This is seen when he ignores Askeladd's input despite the benefits it may be able to bring him, which leads to him losing fights against Askeladd. Frequently throughout the series, Thorfinn's reckless nature leads to his own suffering and failure. Even if he does possess talent far beyond the norm for his age, his hot-headedness is easily his biggest weakness. This weakness also unfolds with an inability to learn from mistakes, and several times, Thorfinn has hallucinations with his late father, asking him if this is really the right way to go, and he just ignores it all. This is probably a metaphor to show that the difference between the old Thorfinn and the current one is not much big, and inside his iron fortress, he is just a wrong-headed boy.

He also showed a great lack of empathy, as he did not seem to care when Askeladd's gang murdered civilians and raped women, he just walked away with disgust. Although he sometimes told his possible victims to run when he was not in the mood to kill them, but he didn't really care anyway.

However, Askeladd's death caused him to lose his purpose and become an empty shell after being sold as a slave. During that time, Thorfinn became totally depressed, melancholy, stoic and unwilling to live, living a deplorable life being mistreated by his merchants, with none of the exuberance of his childhood, the pride and belligerence of his adolescence, or even the will to stand up for himself. Fortunately, he began to regain his will and courage with the help of Einar, Snake and Sverkel, who helped him to realize that he is still capable of a meaningful life.

Thorfinn slowly begins to recover and then takes on a more kind and pacifist attitude. He seems to have become more like Thors and seeks to become a merchant to become a better person and forget his dark past as a murderer. His time as a slave also appears to have affected his behaviour. For a while, he refrained from fighting and always tried to resolve the situations in the conversation, but even then this attitude backfired several times, and so he saw that sometimes it was necessary to use force to resolve conflicts. He also seems to have few social skills and doesn't seem to know much about the female body, as seen when after adopting Karli, he tells Gudrid to breastfeed Karli, not knowing that she would need to be pregnant for this to be possible.

Thorfinn has also become more empathic with people who have suffered the consecuences of war suffering multiple attacks to their villages, he felt horrible when he found out that he alongside Askeladd's crew attacked and murdered Hild's family, giving her all the right to kill him to avenge her family, even being prerpared to be killed by her. He is very protective with those he cares about. When he involuntarily gets involved in the baltic war due to his lineage and thus becoming the target of many claimants to become the leader of the jomsvikings, Thorfinn forces his friends, with the exception of Hild, to leave and stay away.

Background
Thorfinn was born in Iceland in the winter of 996, where his family had fled after Thors decided to abandon his warrior lifestyle, and by virtue the Jomsvikings as well. He grew up not knowing about his father's past as a warrior, or his connection to the Jomsvikings.

Flashback
He lived with his family and was a happy, lively boy. He played with the children in the village especially in mock combat with a wooden sword and shield, even though he was always one of the first to lose. One day Floki, and his Jomsviking crew, come to Iceland to get aid from his father, Thors. When his father was going out to a battle, Thorfinn hid in a barrel on his father's ship. A mercenary called Askeladd, who was hired by Floki to take down Thors, came and dueled Thorfinn's father. Thors took down half of Askeladd's men, including his second in command, and then the two faced off. Thors won the battle, but in exchange for Thorfinn's life, he was killed by many arrows from Askeladd's men. After his father died, Thorfinn vowed to seek vengeance for his father, by becoming one of Askeladd's men in order to kill him in a duel, so he can avenge his father's death in a fair battle.

Present
Thorfinn then spent the next 11 years going to war with Askeladd’s band in England. He became a very strong warrior, killing a great deal of men in order to get a duel from Askeladd, in order to kill him. He became numb to these horrible acts that he witnessed daily, and became cold and distant of others, never so much as smiling. He still said that warriors are all madmen to himself after he fights Thorkell. He helps escort Prince Canute to Askeladd, after the prince had been taken prisoner by Thorkell, and left in a burning forest with his retainer, Ragnar. This was part of Askeladd’s plan to take Canute back to the king and get favor, and Thorfinn went along with his plan as usual.

Canute would then accompany Askeladd’s band until his own band decided to revolt against Askeladd, and kill him, after thinking that they were too weak to defeat Thorkell, who was chasing them down across all of England the whole time. Thorkell was right on their heels, and immediately caught up to them when they stopped in order to kill Askeladd. The entire band was slaughtered by Askeladd, or Thorkell, who killed anyone who left Askeladd’s band in order to join himself, as he saw them as weak and didn’t want weak men in his group. Askeladd then became a retainer to Canute, and so Thorfinn joined The Princes personal Guard in order to stay close to Askeladd. After King Sweyn announces an invasion of Wales, Askeladd murders the king, deciding to save both Canute and Wales. Canute then stabs Askeladd as part of Askeladd’s plan after he slaughters dozens in the banquet hall. Askeladd then dies in Thorfinn’s hands, who rushed in after hearing noise from outside, where he was waiting. Canute then offers Thorfinn the chance to go wherever he wanted, even back home to Iceland, but Thorfinn was shocked and dumbfounded by this revelation, and instead he slashed Canute in retaliation on instinct, only managing to cut his cheek. As punishment for attacking the Prince, he is sold as a slave, as Canute didn’t want to have anyone else killed.

Slave Arc
Thorfinn has now mellowed out and become empty and emotionless after being sold as a slave to Ketil, a landowner in Denmark, as he now has no purpose in life after Askeladd died. He is constantly haunted by nightmares of the many people he has killed, but never remembers what happens at the end of the nightmares, and he always wakes up screaming in agony, sweating profusely. After being on Ketil’s Farm for over a year, he finds a friend in Einar, another slave Ketil buys to help on his farm. Einar doesn’t like Thorfinn’s lack of enthusiasm or energy initially, and calls him lazy. After an incident with Olmar and Fox, where fox tries to get Olmar to kill Thorfinn and Einar, the two started to get closer. One day after Thorfinn wakes up screaming, Einar says he was screaming about “Askeladd” and “father”. Later that day, Thorfinn told Einar about Askeladd, and Einar then realizes that this was the reason Thorfinn had no energy, he had no ambition after his only goal in life, to kill Askeladd, was taken from him. He was completely empty. The next day, when Thorfinn and Einar are going back to their wheat farm, they discover some workers have destroyed all their crops. Einar becomes enraged. They approach the workers, but once they say that slaves couldn’t grow good wheat anyway, and Thorfinn gets furious and punches one of the men, knocking him out. Einar then starts to fight them, and Thorfinn tries to stop him but as he does, he gets distracted and gets hit on the head with some wood by one of the other men, and loses consciousness. He sees images of a woman who cared for him when he was younger-when he invaded East Anglia, and his father Thors. This is where he remembers the nightmares where he is haunted by all the people he has killed. After awakening from the nightmare, he starts crying asking for forgiveness from Einar and the people he has killed, and so claims he will never hurt another person again. Over the next couple of years, Thorfinn continues to grow as a person, becoming kind and empathetic towards others, and finding meaning in life for himself and the others around him. He attempts to find the “first resort” in every situation, but sometimes this is greatly difficult.

Thorfinn makes friends with other people around the farm, such as Snake, one of Ketil’s guests and guards along with Sverkel, Ketil’s elderly father and Arnheid, Ketil’s personal maid and concubine. Snake lounges around in Sverkel’s house a lot of the time, and the two seem close but pretend they don’t like each other. Sverkel lends Thorfinn and Einar a horse in exchange for helping around his house, as he seems to have taken a liking to the two. After years helping each other, they have gotten very close. One day, Snake notices that Sverkel has still not come home even though it’s dinner time, and Snake along with Thorfinn and Einar find him collapsed in his field. He is forced to stop farming, as he can no longer walk, and Ketil sends Arnheid to help Sverkel now. Snake keeps on staying around Sverkel’s house as well. Soon after, Arnheid’s husband, Gardar escapes from another farm close by and tries finding Arnheid in Ketil’s farm, Thorfinn tries to help Arnheid and Gardar by letting them both escape, but Snake doesn’t want that to happen. Thorfinn fights with the decision of having to fight Snake with a vision of Askeladd, and ultimately starts a fight with Snake. During their fight, Thorfinn trips over a rock and leaves Snake next to Gardar, and Snake then stabs him through the chest. Gardar choked out Snaked, but stopped from killing him due to Arnheid, who told him they should leave, which they did, and Gardar died in the carriage they sat in. Arnheid was tied up and left in a barn as punishment, and when a disgraced Ketil returned from his meeting with Canute in Denmark and he found out that Arnheid tried to escape, he beat her with a stick. She tried to say she was pregnant with his child but he didn’t listen and continued. He beat Arnheid so badly that she ultimately succumbed to her injuries, to the horror of Thorfinn and especially Einar. Thorfinn and Einar both agree over Arnheid’s grave to journey to Vinland together and create a life of peace, away from violence and slavery, for people like Arnheid. They also call each other brothers.

Meanwhile, Canute makes preparations to attack Ketil’s Farm to take his land, and Thorfinn initially is going to escape with Einar, Leif and Bug-Eyes, but decides that he can’t just abandon Snake and Sverkel and let them die after they took care of them and helped them out. Thorfinn goes to Canute in order to try and negotiate, but Drott refuses to let him see the King. Thorfinn gets them to agree that he can see the king if he withstands 100 hits from Drott, which he ultimately does, despite being incredibly beaten and bruised. Once he gets to speak to Canute he simply asks him to leave the Farm alone, but Canute refuses. Thorfinn says he has no other than to run away then, to which Canute bursts out in laughter. He says that it was the funniest negotiation he had ever been apart of, and decides to leave soon after, because as he says later on to himself on his ship, they have the same goals. After saying farewell to Snake, Sverkel, Olmar and the rest of Ketil’s farm, other than Ketil himself, Thorfinn leaves with Einar, Leif and Bug-Eyes. Leif suggest they should make a stop in Iceland to see Thorfinn’s mother, Helga, and sister, Ylva, after all this time away from them. Thorfinn and friends arrive in Iceland, and Thorfinn struggled to remember how many years he’s been gone. He’s worried about seeing his mother and sister after so many years. They meet his sister, Ylva, first, but she doesn’t even recognize Thorfinn anymore. They go to meet his mother, Helga, next and when she opens the door and sees Thorfinn, she immediately recognizes him and says he has eyes just like his father, and starts crying. Thorfinn then takes her hand and says he’s so sorry for everything and for being a terrible son. They then go inside and spend the evening and night there. Helga welcomes Einar as a son, as he is Thorfinn’s brother now. Ari, who is now Ylva’s husband, comes back and remembers Thorfinn from back when he lived there, and welcomed him. Then Ylva came back home, but yet again doesn’t recognize him or believe he is her brother. Then Helga tells her that is really is their Thorfinn, and then starts to beat Thorfinn in comical anger, before being held back by Ari.

Thors

 * Thors is Thorfinn's father. Thorfinn looks up to him and respects him, but knows nothing of his past as a warrior.

Helga

 * Helga is Thorfinn's mother.

Ylva

 * Ylva is Thorfinn's sister, 9 years his elder.

Gudrid

 * Gudrid becomes Thorfinn's travelling companion when he sets off for Greece to secure funding for his expedition to Vinland. They later marry at some point during their travels to or back from Greece. Gudrid travels with Thorfinn to found Vinland, along with their friends and their adopted son, Karli.

Karli

 * Thorfinn finds Karli and his mother in the wreckage of a massacred village shortly after setting leaving Iceland. He and his crew take on Karli with the intent of finding him a family, but grow to care for him so much that they are later unable to part from him. Sometime during the crew's expedition to Greece, Thorfinn and Gudrid marry and officially adopt Karli, who henceforth refers to them as his mother and father. Thorfinn and Gudrid do not specify that Karli is adopted when they introduce him to others.

Einar

 * Einar is Thorfinn's best friend and steadfast companion. They are so close that they refer to each other as "brother", both privately and in public. Meeting and befriending Einar was a significant catalyst for positive change in Thorfinn's life. It is Einar's optimism, hope, positivity, compassion and unwavering support and assurances that slowly coax Thorfinn out of the apathetic state he had been in in the years following Askeladd's death. This leads to Thorfinn thinking about how to make amends, move on from his past and find alternatives to violence, as well as his life's purpose. Einar unwaveringly believes in Thorfinn, supporting him even when he does not completely understand what Thorfinn is thinking or striving for. He shows great concern for Thorfinn's life even when Thorfinn does not value his own survival, risking his life for him multiple times with no hesitation. He embraces Thorfinn's goal of creating a peaceful colony in Vinland as his own - he travels to Iceland with him, travels with him to Greece to secure funding for the project, assists him in getting candidates, and finally travels to Vinland with him to found the colony. They essentially do not leave each other's side after first meeting on Ketil's Farm in June 1015.


 * Einar is the first friend Thorfinn makes since he was a child in Iceland. They meet in June 1015, when the newly enslaved Einar is bought for Ketil's farm and assigned to the same field as Thorfinn, leading them to spending all of their time together (working all day, sharing meals and sleeping in the same barn). Thorfinn is at first surprised Einar tries to protect him when the guests threaten them, and does not hesitate to offer himself to the guests in return for Einar's safety, as he holds no value for his own life at the time. At Einar's prompting after he gets a glimpse of his fighting abilities, Thorfinn admits that he was at war from age 5-6 onward, participated in the Danish invasion of England, and killed more people than he can remember, clearly distressing Einar, who was himself a victim of the Danish raids and dislikes warriors. Thorfinn later shows confusion when Einar keeps waking him from his nightmares (which lead him to thrash, moan and often even scream in his sleep) — Einar says he does so because they're friends. Thorfinn is confused by his answer, flustering Einar. He however thanks him.


 * The hopeful and enthusiastic Einar lightly chides Thorfinn for being unambitious and lethargic. Thorfinn starts to liven up when they gain use of a horse and start making quick progress on the land they'd been assigned on Ketil's farm. He asks a lot of questions about farming, which Einar is knowledgeable about and happy to discuss, jokingly calling Thorfinn a "great big baby" since everything is fresh and new to him. Thorfinn, becoming a little more himself, starts acting more outwardly friendly, for example being considerate and making himself scarce to leave Einar to talk to the object of his affections (Arnheid) alone. In October 1015, Thorfinn and Einar are able to plant their first wheat crops. Thorfinn is amazed by the growth of the plants and Einar convinces him to loudly pray with him for a good crop. Thorfinn starts opening up to Einar more, telling him of Askeladd and his quest for vengeance, as well as as how he feels empty, has no desires now that his hatred is gone, and feels like "a man without substance" since he knows nothing but how to wage war. Einar comforts him, telling him no one who looks at him now would believe him to a warrior, and assuring him people can indeed can change and that Thorfinn has in fact already begun to change for the better.


 * After the farmhands destroy their crops, Einar is incensed and does not understand why Thorfinn is so calm. Thorfinn urges him not to seek revenge. He explains that he was always on the side of the plunderers and destroyers before, has no right to be angry himself, and that if Einar is going to "kill the farmhands", he ought to also kill Thorfinn 100 times over. Einar calms down long enough to tell Pater about the incident, but Thorfinn and Einar unfortunately run into the farmhands on the road. Thorfinn once again tries to hold Einar back, but when the farmhands insult them and Einar goes in for the punch, Thorfinn steps in and punches their tormentor first, breaking his jaw in one blow before he even realizes what he's doing. Thorfinn keeps trying to calm Einar down, but is knocked unconscious after a blow to the head. Upon waking, having had another bad dream (which he remembers this time), Thorfinn tearfully tells Einar that he has led a life of violence and swears he will never be violent or harm another person again; that he will be "reborn", make amends, and "lead the true battle". Einar admits he doesn't quite know what Thorfinn means, but is nevertheless on board and says they will be reborn together.

Other
Askeladd

Canute

Thorkell

Sigurd

Garm

Hild

Abilities
"No he is the real thing, for sure. A fighter that agile is rare to come across...."

- --Garm

Overall Abilities: Thorfinn grew up on the battlefield, having experienced it following his father's death and, as such, has a wealth of battle experience. He quickly grew into a highly skilled warrior capable of swiftly killing warriors at least twice his age. As Thorfinn's fight style plays focus on striking vital points instead of clashing with blades directly, he developed a nimble style that emphasizes speed. Thorfinn's strength is recognized by fighters such as Thorkell the Tall, stating he was capable of becoming the next head of the Jomsvikings.

Expert Close Quarters Combatant: Thorfinn is a highly skilled melee and hand-to-hand combatant. He can wield daggers and swords with great lethality and is shown to be incredibly skilled in martial arts and unarmed combat. His combat skills has been acknowledged by other powerful fighters like Snake, Garm, and even Thorkell, the strongest Viking.

Dual Wield: Thorfinn's fighting style emphasizes speed combined with the dual-wielding of two knives, one of which was formerly owned by Thors. By targeting his opponents' weak points and taking advantage of his speed, he could typically finish off an opponent swiftly while avoiding their attacks.

Knife Throwing: Thorfinn is also able to effectively use throwing knives, although they are not his primary weapons.

Enhanced Durability: Although he doesn't usually engage in unarmed combat, Thorfinn knows how to take solid hits if given the chance to prepare for them. This ability appears when he withstands 100 blows from Drott to earn the right to speak to Canute. However, when set upon by Ylva in a rage, he was completely unprepared and was knocked out.

Enhanced Agility: Thorfinn's agility is amongst the fastest in the series, he is capable of evading a platoon of soldiers within seconds on a battlefield, as well as scale a wall of a fortress, including jumping over a moat. In combat, he can use his agility to strike from an angle where he may finish his opponent and to find his balance quickly after taking a hit or dodging.

Enhanced Speed and Reflexes: Thorfinn's speed is regarded as his primary asset in combat. During the invasion of London, he earned Thorkell's praise despite losing to him in combat. His reflexes have enabled him to dodge and react to surprises attacks such as Snake's drawing attack. Although, he was not able to dodge Garm's spear. Despite Garm proving faster than Thorfinn as well as wounding him, Thorfinn was nonetheless able to dodge his movements with his eyes. At Jomsburg, he was able to cover a distance of several meters before his pursuers could notice he had run away from them. A testament to Thorfinn's reflexes is shown when he was acknowledged by Garm as being the only fighter he has met to dodge his spear so quickly.

Enhanced Strength: Thanks to years of manual labor as a slave on a farm, Thorfinn achieved an explosive increase in strength when he reached adulthood. With this new skill acquired, he was able to throw a man away with just one punch and break the bones of a Jomsviking even though he was wearing armor and Thorfinn was a little weaker. Other feats include breaking a sword with his knee.

Battles

 * Many unnamed Viking raids while in Askeladd’s band.
 * The invasion of East Anglia, England, in 1008.
 * Frankish fortress battle in 1012.
 * The battle at London Bridge in 1013.
 * The battle at Jomsborg in 1019.

Thorfinn versus Askeladd
Thorfinn and Askeladd dueled on multiple occasions.

Thorfinn versus Thorkell
Thorfinn and Thorkell dueled two separate times.

Trivia

 * As a character, Thorfinn is loosely based on the real life Icelandic explorer, Thorfinn "Karlsefni" Thórdarson. An explorer associated with Leif Erickson, he was the first European to attempt to establish a colony in North America, unlike Leif who simply discovered/explored it. Like this story's Thorfinn, he also got the nickname "Karlsefni".
 * According to Yukimura, Thorfinn is also inspired by the King of Norway Olaf Tryggvason, who lost his position as a king and became a slave, but managed to reacquire kingship. This ambitious leader who first had to experience hardship to understand kindness thus parallels Thorfinn's own journey.
 * After multiple fans asked about Thorfinn's birthday on Twitter in 2021, Yukimura replied that he did not give characters such as Thorfinn and Canute canonical birthdays, as they are based on historical people whose exact birth dates are not known. On 03 February 2021, he shared that his Thorfinn's birthday is now February 3rd.
 * He's been the first and only one who was capable of hurting Thorkell, cutting two fingers of his right hand and his left eye.
 * In the storyboard for Chapter 1 (July 03, 2004), Yukimura initially had Thorfinn sporting a falcon feather behind his right ear. The feather would have been from Leif's headdress, as he had mentioned only real warriors wore them. Ultimately, Yukimura decided the symbolism would have been redundant with Thorfinn's dagger, a memento of Thors and of his status as a warrior. Furthermore, a feather would not have been of any use to Thorfinn in combat and he soon would've lost it. As having him wear Leif's whole headdress to prevent that issue would've resulted in a rather silly character design, Yukimura shelved the idea — a decision he doesn't regret.