From Revenge to Peace — Thorfinn
“Listen, my son — you have no enemies; no one has them.”
For a long time, I heard about “Vinland Saga” from people. I wondered if it’d be as great as Attack on Titan, Naruto, Berserk, or other animes I have watched. It was everything that I didn’t expect. Finally, after exams, I got the chance to watch Vinland Saga, and I must say, if there’s anyone who watches anime and hasn’t seen this, they should.
Vinland Saga is an anime based on the true life story of Vikings moving to somewhere around North America. I read somewhere that the main character in the anime is a side character in a book, and because he wasn’t spoken about much in that book, this allowed Makoto Yukimura to expand on him.
Thorfinn’s father, Thors, was once the strongest warrior of the Jomsviking. After so much killing for the king of Denmark, he quits by faking his death and then flees to Iceland with his wife to start a family.
Living in Iceland, Thors becomes a new man of peace. However, years later, the Jomsviking warriors discover that Thors is still alive and ask him to fight for the King of Denmark. Thors refused. However, the leader of the warriors threatens him that they will wipe out the whole village. Thors is given no choice but to accept.
Thors gathers a group of men to join in the fight; he will later find out that his six-year-old son — Thorfinn, sneaked into the ship with him. By the time he finds out, they are already deep into the ocean and can’t go back by this time. Going forward and skipping some scenes, Thors and his men will be ambushed by Askeladd and his crew members. Showing just how strong Thors was, he defeated more than 30 men without killing anyone. Thorfinn will later be used as bait, leading to the death of this great warrior.
Seeing his father die in such a cheated way, Thorfinn, from the age of six, is filled with so much hate and vows to kill the man who killed his father — Askeladd. Before Thors surrenders his life, he makes Askeladd promise that his son and crew members will return home. Askeladd keeps his word. However, again, Thorfinn does not return home. He sticks by Askeladd and his men till he is strong enough to kill him. Thorfinn becomes a warrior, too, killing thousands of people who did him no wrong just to gain one-on-one fights with Askelaad.
Every time Thorfinn challenges Askeladd, Askeladd defeats him because he uses the young boy’s emotions to distract his battle strategy. Going forward, skipping some scenes again, Askeladd will die by the sword of another man, a prince. This drives Thorfinn crazy, making him strike the prince. The prince later sells Thorfinn into slavery at age 16, where everything changes in the young man’s life.
Seeing the man he swore to kill by another man, Thorfinn becomes an empty vessel. In slavery, he works as a farmer for a man in England to repurchase his freedom. On the farmland, he meets people who change what life is. He learns to forgive himself for all the sins he has committed and embrace the life his father always taught him — “You have no enemies. No one has enemies.” Thorfinn can laugh and smile more, have friends, and build relationships. Being once a warrior, he promises never to hurt anyone again. He wanted fighting to be a last resort.
There’s this saying by Jordan Peterson: “…be a monster, but you should be able to tame that monster.”
Thorfinn became a monster and abandoned his humanity, but he found it again. However, I have this question: If Thorfinn had later killed Askelaad, would he have been fulfilled? If he did, he would later have no purpose, too. Maybe he will not find the peace he has now; perhaps he will.
