The Last Kingdom: Who Is Sigtryggr & What Happened to Him?

Sigtryggr introduced a new generation of Danes in The Last Kingdom with a mission to settle and live in peace alongside Saxons rather than raiding and plundering. Despite partnering with Brida to launch the most lethal attack on Winchester in the show, victory on the battlefield wasn’t his biggest ambition, unlike other Danes. Sigtryggr came out of nowhere in the fourth season and transformed the entire show, which left many fans wondering who Sigtryggr is in real life and what happened to him.

Sigtryggr was a Dane warlord that came from Ireland to save Brida from imprisonment in Wales. Brida convinces him to attack Wessex while Edward is away in Mercia, leading to the siege of Winchester that dominated most of the show’s fourth season. While the siege ended in a truce with Sigtryggr marrying Uhtred’s daughter, Stiorra, and Sigtryggr becoming king of Eoforwic, Aethelhelm’s tricks led to a conflict in which Edward defeated Sigtryggr. Sentenced to death, Sigtryggr chose Uhtred to be his executioner, setting up one of the saddest deaths in the show.

Uhtred and Stiorra were the biggest victims of Aethelhelm’s scheming in the whole saga around Sigtryggr because young Stiorra became a widow and later killed Brida in her rage. Despite Sigtryggr setting up the beginning of peaceful existence between Saxons and Danes, his mission ended in total disaster. However, his story ended differently in Bernard Cornwell’s books and real life, so let us look at how The Last Kingdom’s Sigtryggr compares to his version in the books and in real life.

Who plays Sigtryggr in The Last Kingdom?

Sigtryggr is played by the Icelandic actor Eysteinn Sigurðarson who also plays Curt in the 2020 film The Courier. Most of Eystein’s performances are in his home country, including playing Hjalmar in the Icelandic TV series Trapped.

Born in Iceland and raised in the US, Eysteinn was naturally suited to the role of Sigtryggr as both of his backgrounds came in handy in portraying the 10th-century warlord perfectly.

He is a fluent English speaker and still captured the Nordic accent that made Sigtryggr look more natural and funny.

Unlike other Dane warlords in the show, who were only interested in silver and wealth, Sigtryggr sought a settlement that would help his people farm and live in peace.

His first act in The Last Kingdom was to save Brida from King Hywel of Wales and his brother, who had imprisoned her in a dungeon after the Danes lost the battle of Tettenhall.

He allied with the heavily pregnant Brida, allowing her to lead her own men despite being a woman, something other Dane warlords wouldn’t have allowed.

Sigtryggr never wanted to risk the lives of his men on pointless battles, which is why he resisted Brida’s pressure to attack Wessex until Eardwulf confirmed that the distracted Edward had abandoned Winchester, making it vulnerable.

During the siege, Sigtryggr found a like-minded woman in Stiorra as she told him that most of the common folk in England were happy to live side by side, Dane of Saxon, and that only Kings had radical views leading to the ethnic conflicts.

Despite partnering with Brida to attack Winchester, it was obvious that Sigtryggr didn’t share her hatred for Saxons, something that Uhtred noticed, leading to his agreement with Sigtryggr and Stiorra’s marriage.

Eysteinn Sigurðarson managed to bring a little swagger to the character, making him look young and confused in appearance but mature and reasonable when discussing important matters.

His futuristic approach to the war between the Danes and Saxons made him an outlier, seeming like a person living way ahead of his time.

Sigtryggr embodied everything Uhtred hoped to see in the leaders of the Danes and Saxons. He could have been the beginning of a peaceful England had Aethelhelm’s sinister motives not succeeded in the fifth season of The Last Kingdom.

Who was the real Sigtryggr?

Sigtryggr is a character based on a 10th-century ruler of Dublin and later Northumbria called Sitric Cáech, believed to have been the grandson of Ivar the Boneless.

He was born in 895, probably into nobility, but got expelled from Ireland in 902 alongside other Danes by the two powerful Dublin chieftains Finnia and Cerball.

Sigtryggr is believed to have raised his army in Scotland and the Isle of Man, from where he returned to Dublin with ships in 917 and probably became the king or ruled alongside his brother.

He returned to Northumbria in 920 and started sacking King Edward’s lands, but there is no record of him leading the siege of Winchester.

Sigtryggr finally made peace with Edward’s son Aethelstan, making him the king of York, and also married him to Edward’s daughter Eadith.

He is believed to have been conflicted between his faith in Dane gods and Christianity and possibly got baptized at some point before denying Christianity and going back to paganism before his death.

Little is known of what happened to him after his return to paganism, but he is recorded to have died at the immature age of 32.

It is not clear whether he died in battle, but it was definitely not by being executed by Uhtred, as the show suggests. There is no record of his marriage to Uhtred’s daughter in historical accounts either.

Why is Stiorra missing in Seven Kings Must Die?

Seven Kings Must Die never revealed what happened to Stiorra after the events in The Last Kingdom, so it is unclear whether she lived or died after helping her father retake Bebbanburg.

However, Stiorra was very much alive and leading Sigtryggr’s men by the end of the fifth season of The Last Kingdom.

She brought her army to help Uhtred and Edward defeat King Constantine of Scotland after Edward underestimated the Scots and nearly faced defeat.

After the war, she agreed to live with her father in Bebbanburgh as Uhtred declared that he had finally secured a home for himself and his family and that Danes and Saxons could live together peacefully in Bebbanburg.

However, in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories, Stiorra dies at the hands of Sigtryggr’s uncle Skoll who attacked Eoforwic, forcing Uhtred and Sigtryggr’s armies to respond.

Unlike the show, Skoll plays the role of Aethelhelm in Bernard Cornwell’s books, and Stiorra pays the price, which makes Sigtryggr the first one to die.

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