Askeladd

Askeladd is the leader of a small but feared band of Viking fighters for hire. His men follow him because he is smart and always seems to be one step ahead. Years before the main story, he took a job to kill the retired warrior Thors. After Thors dies, his young son Thorfinn joins Askeladd's crew, hoping to kill him one day. Askeladd lets him stay and uses the boy's hatred to turn him into a very useful fighter.

Askeladd is clever, calm, and often joking, but he can also be cold and cruel when it serves his plans. He is one of the best fighters in the series and is very good at guessing an opponent's next move. His father was a Danish Viking, and his mother was a Welsh princess who had been taken captive. He holds dear an old British legend about Avalon, a hidden land of peace, and this belief shapes his choices.

During the Viking war in England, Askeladd comes to guard the young Prince Canute and starts to back him, hoping Canute can become a king worth serving. In the end he gives up his own life to open Canute's way to the throne and to keep Wales, his mother's land, safe from the Danes. His name comes from a clever hero of Norwegian folk tales, and he is partly based on a real Icelandic chief, Olaf the Peacock.