Thorkell

"The valkyries, agents of the gods, ever seek the souls of great warriors. Heroes worthy of being called Einherjar. Only those will live true in battle and die true in battle, will be allowed to cross Bifrost and dwell within Valhalla in Asgard. How did you fight and how did you die? That's what matters. The stronger the foe, the better."

- Thorkell

Thorkell (トルケル, Torukeru) also known as Thorkell the Tall, is a Jomsviking commander who later commanded his own band during the invasion of England. He switched sides to fight for the English before choosing to ally himself with Canute. Due to his colossal strength, he's considered as the strongest Viking, noted by Floki and Garm. Thorkell is the brother of the Sigvaldi, the Jomsviking chief, uncle-in-law of Thors and great uncle of Thorfinn.

Appearance
Thorkell is a tall man, highly muscled with spiky blond hair held up by a bandana. He lost the tips of his right ring and pinky fingers in his first duel with Thorfinn and later lost his left eye in the second duel, necessitating the use of an eyepatch.

Personality
Thorkell is a jolly, funloving man, in and out of combat. He's almost always laughing and smiling. When deprived of combat for too long, he becomes far more gloomy and irritable. He isn't necessarily cruel, nor seems to enjoy inflicting pain, especially on weaker opponents or civilians. Whereas Askeladd's followers were fine with raping women and killing civilians, Thorkell's band are never seen doing the same. Instead, just enjoying the various privileges offered for their efforts in the conflict. Although, he has no qualms about ordering his men to kill Askeladd's company, despite them selling him out to Thorkell's band.

Thorkell loves the thrill of combat and greatly enjoys fighting, claiming that he hates to be stopped in the middle of a fight worse than retreating. Thorkell loves battle and war to the point that, when Canute (Now King) united England, brought peace the country and promoted him to the rank of earl, he goes around raiding the homes of the people under his earldom, barging in with his weapons whenever he hears a fight to 'join in' out of extreme boredom. He even passed out after Canute ordered the disbanding of the troops (which implies that Thorkell will not be required to fight under Canute anymore), with his underlings exclaiming that Thorkell 'will die if he gets any more peace'. Thorkell rarely cares about the outcome of a battle, or the decisions his opponents made in battle, as seen when he slaughtered the members of Askeladd's crew even after they surrendered. He also does not care about his affiliations except to those of his own men, and is quick to switch alliances and betray former allies as long as he gets to fight in a battle. He also does not care about his status in society, and only truly cares about fights and battles.

Whenever Thorkell meets a powerful opponent in his battles (most notably Thorfinn), he prefers to fight said opponent alone in a one-on-one death battle rather than ordering his men to surround and attack. He will also acknowledge any warrior that is strong enough to survive an encounter with him, and will not permit his men to insult the challenger in any way. He also does not like his men interfering or helping him in one of his duels, or as he put it, 'sullying his honor'. However, he is willing to admit defeat when having been given a good fight, which hints that he is simply a man who enjoys a good fight rather than just a man with a 'fight-to-win' mindset.

His battle-maniac personality aside, Thorkell is also slightly doubtful of the path he had chosen in life, and constantly wonders the meaning of a 'true warrior'. He claimed to not understand the words uttered by Thors to him, as well as Thors' strange gaze that, as Thorkell described, 'is looking at a place far away'. He often wonders that perhaps he should follow Thors and leave the Jomsvikings that day to find out what a true warrior looks like, and he eagerly waits for Thorfinn, who lived with Thors after he left the Jomsvikings, to tell him the answer. He was disappointed when Thorfinn was unable to answer, and claimed that young Thorfinn 'wasted his time spent with Thors'. After Thorfinn decided to leave violence behind him, however, Thorkell was satisfied upon seeing that he 'had the same eyes as Thors', though he still did not find out the answer to the meaning of a 'true warrior'. Though constantly plagued by this question, Thorkell does not let it get in the way of his battle-hungry attitude towards everything.

Abilities
Thorkell possesses superhuman strength, with the only person ever being able to best his colossal power in the past being Thors. Amongst his many feats include being able to lift a around 5 tons heavy boulder and throw it strong enough to sink longships, throw several logs with ease and use/swing them as quarterstaffs, throwing a spear over a kilometer and killing several men with it in the process, kicking Thorfinn several feet into the air, punching a horse in the abdomen so hard it flies off in the air and most notably, bulldozing a house on his own with his axe.

While skilled in hand to hand, he truly excels when wielding his battleaxes and can slice fully armored warriors and trees into pieces with them. Even though large and powerful, his slashes are accurate and fast, truly testing Thorfinn's dexterity.

On top of his strength, he possesses inhuman resilience, capable of taking heavy damage and laughing it off later. As a leader, he may be calm and on goodwill with his men, who respect him for his strength, despite all being seasoned fighters.

Thorkell's colossal power gave him the epithet Thorkell the Invincible by Askeladd, and he's considered as the strongest Viking due to it.

History
Thorkell is a fellow Jomsviking commander and friend of Thors. He left when the war was over though because he considered the army 'boring' as they were undefeatable. Therefore he joined the English forces as he considered this more interesting because they were 'weak and pathetic'.

His first appearance was at the siege of London where King Sweyns Forces were trying to seize the city. He joined the English forces much to the dismay of Floki who he has known from his Jomsviking days. Thorkell ends the conversation by throwing a giant boulder at Flokis ship, nearly sinking it in the process.

Askeladd and his band, at that time in service of King Sweyn, were trying to take the city as well. Askeladd immediately saw Thorkell as the primary threat and the reason why the city hasn't been captured yet. He ordered Thorfinn to get rid of Thorkell for a duel with him.

None of the ships that were trying to get close to bridge managed to survive long enough as every single one was destroyed by Thorkell. Thorfinn, standing on the mast of one of those ships with a shield in hand charged at Thorkell and took a huge leap towards him. Thorkell tried to swat him out of the air with a log but Thorfinn managed to dodge in time, jump of the log, and land on the bridge. Thorkell, sensing potential in the young fighter, ordered his men to not interfere with his battle with Thorfinn.

Торкелль Thorkell