Thors Snorresson

"A true warrior needs no sword."

- Thors

Thors Snorresson (トールズ・スノーレソン) was a Jomsviking commander whose phenomenal combat skills earned him the moniker "Troll of Jom". He fought for years as a fierce warrior, up until the birth of his daughter. He began to grow tired and decided to surrender his warrior lifestyle, fake his death and settle down in Iceland.

He was the son of Snorre and the father of Thorfinn and Ylva. Through his marriage to Helga, Thors was the son-in-law of Sigvaldi, the Jomsvikings' third Cheif, and was the nephew-in-law of Thorkell.

Appearance
Thors was a man of above-average height with long dark hair kept tied back with two strands of hair always left over his forehead. When he was younger, his beard was styled as a goatee but was later grown out.

Personality
In his days as a warrior, Thors was known to be a remorseless and cold warrior, fighting in Viking campaigns. It was after the birth of his first child with Helga that he started to develop and cast aside his penchant for violence. From then on he was known for his kind yet firm demeanor and humbleness. He was warm and loving toward his second child Thorfinn and made sure to put him on the path to a peaceful life.

Knowing what it was like to go into battle and have to kill, Thors strongly disliked violence and would grow morose when Floki had come to Iceland in hopes of drafting him into war with England (lest the villagers suffer). Despite his aversion to war, he nevertheless decided to join- not wanting the people of the village to face a pillaging showing that he cared for the people around him.

One aspect of Thors was his extreme dislike for killing, in particular, going so far as to spare Askeladds men when faced in battle with them despite threatening harm toward him as well as his group at the time and Thorffin. Thors believes that a true warrior needs no sword. It would appear to mean that violence is always optional and peaceful methods are a must.

Background
Thors was the strongest, bravest, and most well-known warrior throughout the Viking World. He was the only man who could beat Thorkell the Tall in single combat. He used to be a Jomsviking and through only strength of arms and ability in combat he got the rank of captain when he was still 25 years old. Sigvaldi, the commander of the Jomsvikings, Sigvaldi, liked him so much that he agreed for Thors to marry his daughter, Helga.

Abilities
Master hand to hand combatant: Thors possessed a mastery of hand to hand combat practically unparalleled by any other character thus far, and was also capable of fighting against multiple opponents in a melee. In 987, he defeated Thorkell in combat and knocked him out despite being unarmed, whereas Thorkell was armed with one of his double handed axes. Despite settling down to the life of a farmer in Iceland, his combat skills remained sharp, although how he maintained them as a well-kept secret. Thus despite not having fought actively since deserting the Jomsvikings more than a decade before, Thors single-handedly defeated one of Askeladd's crews by incapacitating or disabling his opponents, including Bjorn, and Askeladd himself. Despite this, he inflicted only broken bones, and once they counted the fatalities after the battle, they found that none were killed.

Trivia

 * In real history, Thorfinn Karlsefni's father was named Thord Snorresson. The change from "Thord" to "Thors" in the English-language translation of Vinland Saga is likely merely a difference caused by various transcription systems; the original Norse form of his name is "Þórðr", and "Thord" is the conventional transcription of this name from Old Norse to modern English. The second-to-last letter in the Norse name, "ð", is a voiced dental fricative, pronounced like the "th" in the English word "the". Given that no such sound exists in Japanese, an approximate sound, "zu" (ズ) is used in the character's name Tōruzu (トールズ). This is done as a close transcription for the Norse pronunciation of "Þórðr", but once transcribed back into English, this sounds more like "Thors", which got adopted as the English-transcribed name for this character in the Vinland Saga series. Similar transcriptions can be seen in character names like that of Gudrid, whose name in Old Norse, "Guðríðr", also features the same sound, and this likewise reflects in her name in the original Japanese Guzurīzu (グズリーズ). This, nevertheless, got transcribed into English following the conventions of Old Norse transcription.