‘Vinland Saga’: Meet Thorfinn’s Adopted Child, Karli!

The diversity of modern-day manga and anime is something that is a well-known fact, but some titles manage to stand out even among such harsh competition. Vinland Saga is one such title, as it stands out among the lot for its accurate depiction of historical events, the authenticity of the content, as well as the fact that it is focused on European rather than Asian (Japanese or Chinese) history. This has also been transferred to the characters of Vinland Saga, most of which are great and also based on actual historical people. In this article, we are going to talk about Karli from Vinland Saga and reveal who he is and how he is connected to Thorfinn in the story.

Karli is a secondary character in the Vinland Saga series, a red-haired child who is currently four years old. Karli is a male boy who is the son of a friend of Lief named Arngrim. He was born in 1018. He is quite temperamental and always cries, but he does bond with Thorfinn and Gudrid, who adopted him as their child after they found him in the wreckage of his own house.

The rest of this article will focus, as you’ve probably deduced for yourselves, on Karli and his role in the Vinland Saga manga. Karli is a relatively new character introduced in the manga, so not as many fans know about him as they do about the characters that have appeared more in the anime, which is why this article is ideal for true Vinland Saga fans. Spoilers from the manga will be present, so be careful how you approach the article.

Karli is Thorfinn’s adopted son

Vinland Saga is one of the most exciting series of its time and is exceptionally popular worldwide. In that aspect, it is understandable that the characters of Vinland Saga are quite popular as well and that people want to know more about them, especially when they are not as much in the spotlight as the heroes.

The thing with Vinland Saga’s characters is that they’re all interesting in one way or another, and each has a story to tell, whether they’re major or minor players in the overall story created by Yukimura. As we have explained, this article will be dedicated to a secondary character who seems to have an important role in the life of the protagonist, Thorfinn. The character in question is Karli.

As we have said, Karli is a secondary character from the Vinland Saga series. He debuted in the series in Chapter 110 of the manga, titled “Crossing the North Sea.” The chapter was first released on November 25, 2014. In that chapter, Karli, as we’ve said, made his debut and has since been a part of the series as a supporting character with close ties to Thorfinn and Gudrid.

In case you’re not fully up-to-date, Gudrid was a widowed young woman Thorfinn met when she fled from her second husband by arranged marriage. She joined Thorfinn in his journey of creating a new settlement in Vinland. Gudrid also ended up marrying Thorfinn during their expeditions. As you can see, Gudrid has become an important part of Thorfinn’s story, which we had to mention before focusing on Karli.

Karli is a boy who was born in 1018, so when we first saw him in 1021, he was three years old, and in 1022, he was four years old. He is the biological son of a guy named Arngrim and his unnamed wife, both of whom died while the Vikings, allied with Gisli, attacked their home because Gisli had an ongoing feud with Arngrim.

Karli’s home was completely destroyed in the attack, as you’d expect from a Viking attack, and the young red-haired boy was left in the wreckage, being protected by his half-dead mother. Arngrim, who was also a friend of Lief’s, was already dead. Since Karli’s mother could not do anything, the boy and his half-dead parent were protected by a dog better known as Karli’s Mama. The dog watched out for the two and protected them until Thorfinn arrived at the location.

As Thorfinn and his crew were on their way to Miklagard, they came across the wreckage of Arngrim’s home, which they explored. There, they found Karli’s Mama, Karli’s half-dead mother, and the little boy, Karli. Being the good guy he is, Thorfinn took the boy, aware that he couldn’t do anything for the mother at that point, as well as the dog, who quickly became friends with them.

This is how Thorfinn actually found and saved young Karli from the wreckage and took the boy on his journey. At this point, Thorfinn effectively adopted young Karli, who became his and Gudrid’s adopted son. Karli’s Mama also became their family dog. And these are all the basic biographical information we have about Karli. He is definitely in good hands now, seeing how Thorfinn is a good and caring person, and with Gudrid and the dog being there as well, there is no way that Karli will have a bad time with the crew, especially because they endeavor to create a settlement in which they could live in peace and tranquility.

As for Karli himself, he seems to be a pretty normal baby in most aspects. And while he was four years old in 1022, he hasn’t really changed a lot. When we first saw him, he seemed to be a perfectly normal, healthy baby.

The color panels show him having blue eyes and ginger hair but no other special traits. He seems to have a stocky-ish build for a baby, but it is nothing unusual, considering that Nordic people are usually stronger. As we’ve said, other than that, Karli is a perfectly normal baby, and there is really nothing we have to add in this segment aside from what we’ve told you about him so far.

As for his personality, he is also, more or less, a typical baby and child. Such characters don’t have developed personalities, so there isn’t much we can state here. We know that he had a very difficult personality as a child.

He seemed to be quite vain and was crying a lot, although this was never explained in detail. His pet dog, Mama, managed to calm him down; in that aspect, he had someone who was there for him and could calm him down when he was excited or sad. After a while, though, he also got used to Thorfinn and Gudrid as well, so his adoptive parents were happy to see the baby getting used to them as his new parents. In some scenes, it could also be seen that he was a bossy baby, which is normal and is a source of humor for many.

And this is Karli’s story from the series. We know everything about the little boy and his role in the story. He is, as we have said, an interesting addition to the lore, and it will be interesting to see him grow later on as Thorfinn’s and Gudrid’s adoptive son. He seems to be loved, and with his Mama being there as well, he has the potential to have a very lovely future if all the other things play out as expected. Let us now see if Karli is a historical person or not.

Unlike some Vinland Saga characters, Karli doesn’t seem to be based on a real person

As fans of the series will know, many Vinland Saga characters are actually based on real, historical people. Some of them are direct adaptations, while others are more loosely based, but most characters contain a degree of historicity in them, despite Yukimura giving each of them their own treatment in the context of the original manga. This doesn’t mean that there are no original characters in the series, which is why we are asking ourselves this about Karli. So, is Karli an original person, or is she based on a real person?

As far as we know now, Karli is an original character. As we have said, he was introduced into the world of Vinland Saga relatively recently, so there is a lot to learn about him in the upcoming chapters, but as far as we know now, there is absolutely nothing to indicate that he is based on any real person, which would make him an original character.

Someone might have inspired him, but he is not actually a real person, as far as we know now. Now, Yukimura might surprise us later on in the story as more information is revealed about Karli, but that is something we cannot know now, and we’ll simply have to see how his character is going to be developed in the future.