A boy is warned the tide is on the turn by a man. He sees ships. Those aren't traders but Vikings! The men on the beach saddle up and gallop. Ships are closing in. The boy wears a pendant with a ball of amber. The ships are still closing in. The man rides inside a fort. He calls for his son, Uhtred, to take 6 men and go across the river to watch the pagans but do nothing else. The son obeys. Osbert, the boy, comes in and says to a lady that Danes are coming on ships. The lady is shocked and says it's a punishment for their sins. The man says to Uhtred to be back by nightfall.
The man calls Aelfric to take in as many women and elders as they can, the men should rally in the fortress and defend to the death. 866. AD. One of the shipmen takes the bucket of water and lets the older man taste it. Land. OK. The land is right there. An even older man, apparently blind, tastes it too and asks the second man what else he sees. He sees a place to grow fat and old. The blind man hears horses. The crew cheers. Uhtred is eager to fight and wants to meet them in fight. He says their god is greater.
The first man is called Kjartan. The blind man drinks. Village people rally to the fort at speed. The boy listens to his dad explain about how the Danes will go elsewhere but will kill whoever they can. The boy goes to the priest. The priest narrates. He is tasked with writing a reply to king Aella, who wants the boy's father's help to capture the city of Eoferwic. The boy is told the importance of knowing how to read and write.
The letters represent history and fact. The boy's dad will be there, and the letter will bear the mark of Bebbanburg. The priest says they don't want to let England become Daneland. Woden and Odin are one and the same, says the boy. They go out. A horseman approaches. It's Uhtred's horse. The guy on it is dead? Osbert is watching the bloodied horse. The figure removes its hood and shows Uhtred's head. Osbert is freaked out.
The father says Osbert is now Uhtred, son of Uhtred. The pendant is his stone. The priest wants to baptize him again. The father says their ancestors took this land and now the boy is the heir of Bebbanburg. The boy says he will take the head of the man who killed Uhtred but the father rages at hearing it. The father says to his officer to stay with 30 men to protect the fort while he goes to Eoferwic. The boy is being baptized. The priest, Beocca, holds his head under the water for way too long. The boy is drowning. The priest is still droning on.
The boy's mom says he'll drown. He gets out and the people cheer. His dad has gone out with the forces. The boy wanted to go with him. A man spies on the boy. He runs away. The man who watched them, Scallion, is told that the boy must die if his dad dies. Vikings discuss the plans. They are against three armies. Their plan is to kill Uhtred, the father, so the armies fall apart. Their priest tells them the signs are favorable for fighting.
The armies have arrived. They see burning ground and torches. They are about to attack. The boy hears the horns and wants to ride into battle. He takes up a wooden shield. The Englishmen slowly move forward and shout. Vikings wait for them and mumble something. Vikings create a shield wall. The first line crouches and they all make a testudo. Englishmen slam into the shield wall. The shield is holding. The boy is there too. The second wave rushes in, not seeing the Viking flanking maneuver.
The priest is praying. Uhtred the boy is there. Vikings have horses? The boy's dad is stabbed through the throat in front of the boy. The Englishmen are losing. The boy attacks a Viking but does nothing. Did they make combat gear in kid size back then? The Viking breaks the boy's sword and knocks him down. The boy strikes back, the Viking knocks him down again and bumps him with an axe handle.
In the Viking hall, the boy is led on a string. He sees his countrymen strung and beaten. Girls and women are otherwise molested. The Viking introduces the boy to his father and leaves them alone. The boy watches from the gallery and sees a little girl clutching her knees. The old man offers the boy a blade and asks for some chicken, telling the blade is sharp and can kill a man. The boy does it and asks if he's always been blind. Below them, a king is being killed.
The old man tells him who is who and gives him advice about not fighting "ubba", who listens to no one but the gods, which means he is unpredictable. There is the gray man, Egbert, a Saxon ealdorman. He has pledged allegiance and calls himself king but that's not true. Northumbria is Viking and soon all English kings will be dead. There is only the last kingdom, Wessex, where anything will grow. The boy says he's the ealdorman of Bebbanburg and the old man mocks him.
The boy says his father was never fond of him and sniffles. The old man seems compassionate, calls him a warrior and offers him ale. Later, people are laying about drunk or dead. The little girl comes to Uhtred and grasps his hand. The next morning, kids are gathering equipment from the battlefield. Corpse of Uhtred's dad is being nailed through the mouth to a post. The two Vikings consider keeping the boy and the girl.
The boy won't let himself cry and tries walking away. He collapses on his knees in the grass and sobs. Leeds, kingdom of Northumbria. Uhtred is doing chores. A girl, Thyra, asks her mom if he will be free to play soon: she is a mistress and he is a warrior. The boy is greeted by Ragnar Ragnarsson. The boy asks for sword lessons but Ragnar says they don't teach slaves how to fight and that tongue of his will be his death.
Brida and Uhtred play in the woods. They built a 'treehouse'. Seriously, it's pathetic even by Viking architectural standards. They roleplay like there's a wolf down there. There's another girl, the one from the Viking hall. Some call is heard in the distance. A man and a boy approach. Music becomes tense. It's Sven. Oh, it's more roleplay. The two run away but hear a scream. Thyra is stripped naked by the man. Uhtred tackles him.
Later that evening, we see Uhtred with a bruised eye and the slave girl in their home. They are questioned about what happened. Uhtred can't eat until he confesses. The Viking owner says he will starve and starts beating him. Thyra confesses. The Vikings ride out and go to his dad, Kjartan, who tries defending him.
Sven is going to take it. His dad's pleas are worthless. Sven comes out and apologizes. Sven will lose one eye. The Viking takes out his sword and hits Sven with the pommel. Uhtred is speechless. Kjartan is banished from the land. Wow. Doesn't seem right, as the women then were much more independent, I think.
Uhtred gets a Thor's amulet, though he's a Christian. He can't take it from the man's fist but then the man lets go. The boy asks about Denmark. The man says he made him proud. Uhtred compares the amulet he had with the one he got. Kjartan approaches Aelfric and tells him Uhtred is still alive. At the exchange, the priest whispers to Uhtred his uncle will kill him and try to become a puppet king for the Danes, like Egbert.
The man asks Uhtred what that was about and Uhtred lies. Aelfric approaches and the older man asks for 300 silver pieces. Aelfric protests and can only must 120 with his loyalty. Earl Ragnar offers 200 and Aelfric is fuming. Ragnar says he liked him and he's his son now, pushing him off the horse and into water.
Years later, I guess. A young man with long hair and the same amulet emerges from the water. A girl is talking about marriage. A hag tries to keep her home and tells her to come back if something goes wrong. Thyra shows Uhtred her wedding necklace. Ragnar talks to him about marrying Brida, his daughter. She will be watching the charcoal in the forest tonight, so he offers his horse to get him laid. Wow.
Uhtred goes to visit Brida, as instructed by Ragnar. Oh, I see, that's why he told Uhtred to take his horse, so Brida knows he has his blessing. Clever. He immediately leans in and they smooch. All right, take a room.
Their village gets torched by Kjartan and the English, I guess. Uhtred pledges allegiance to Alfred, an English king, giving him invaluable advice. His girl, Brida, has an abortion in the woods because someone mixed in something in her drink, I think. I was playing Skyrim while watching this show with one eye.
After three episodes, the show didn't manage to hook me in or keep me entertained. The entire focus of the show is on a kid, we skip his awkward teenage years and then we immediately move on to war, war, war. The show blows its load way too quickly, I mean, the kid's dad dies in the first episode.
Some buildup would be appreciated, for example, by showing how the people talk about the Danes, look for signs of them, prepare for the siege and so on. Then, after the buildup, you show the Danes appear like howling monsters from the pits of hell, which would be a shocking reveal for the characters, who would see them as demons, and for us, the viewers, while being historically fairly correct.
My guess is that shows can no longer afford to have this mystery element to them and stretch out the buildup to 10–15 episodes in but have to justify their budget straight away. So, we get flashy battles, shocking murders and so on, just so the viewers stay glued to their screens, but that overstays its welcome very quickly. Oh, another murder, another maiming, another abortion?
I find it symbolic that Uhtred loses his identity and is torn between the English and the Danes, similar to how the show has no identity and doesn't know which direction to take. The actor playing him didn't appear to be capable of conveying this. He's an expressionless face throughout. Other sides were similarly bland.
The Danes fought dirty. I mean, real dirty. They used psychological warfare and all kinds of dirty tricks to get money and women, avoid casualties and demoralize their opponents. Almost none of that is shown in the show, or rather, doesn't have a chance to shine. I have never heard about them using a shieldwall but it makes sense in context of what I know about them.
This could have been a wonderful horror/mystery show, with the English people in some small village slowly losing their wits as the Danes scout them and then massacre them or leave foreboding messages, signs and so on. The history/drama angle didn't work for the show, as none of the actors were of the caliber necessary to deliver either the facts or the drama. Shame.