Vinland Saga: What Did Thorfinn Mean When He Said: “I Have No Enemies”?

One of the things that we saw regarding Thorfinn and his development as a character in Vinland Saga was that he evolved from an innocent young boy to an angry killing machine that was intent on getting revenge for his father’s death. But while he lost the chance to get revenge, Thorfinn still developed into an entirely different character that embraced pacifism and once said that he has no enemies. So, what did Thorfinn mean when he said, “I have no enemies?”

When Thorfinn said that he had no enemies, it meant that he had completely embraced the life of pacifism instead of embracing the Viking way of constant and endless wars and violence. This philosophy was something he learned from his father, who told him that he didn’t need to hurt anyone in the world.

Even though it took countless lives for Thorfinn to finally develop into the man that his father always wanted him to be, the fact is that he still ended up embracing his father’s philosophy of pacifism. It was the fact that he understood the damage he did to the lives of the people he hurt that he truly saw the fault in his ways. And that’s why Thorfinn is now a better version of himself.

Thorfinn No Longer Hates Anyone

When the Vinland Saga storyline started, we noticed Thorfinn’s quick evolution from an innocent young boy to an angry teenager who only wanted to kill. This evolution stemmed from the fact that he wanted to avenge his father’s death at the hands of the mercenary leader named Askeladd. But because he wanted to kill Askeladd in a fair and honorable battle, he had to work for the mercenary and kill whoever he needed to kill to win a duel with him. As such, he was an angry teenager with only one life purpose—revenge.

But when Canute killed Askeladd, Thorfinn seemingly lost all hope because he didn’t have a true reason to live. He spent more than a decade living for only one purpose: to kill Askeladd. But because Askeladd was already dead, he went through the motions of working as a slave that seemed lifeless.

Nevertheless, after suffering from constant nightmares created by his conscience, Thorfinn understood that he hurt many people and destroyed plenty of lives for what seems to be a very shallow and petty reason. He murdered people and killed innocent lives for the sake of revenge. When he met Askeladd in his nightmare, he realized he needed to be a “true warrior” who knew who and what he was fighting for.

So, when he woke up from that nightmare, he finally realized that he needed to keep living for those he killed in the past. That was why he had a more purposeful demeanor while working on Ketil’s farm, as he and Einar had a true goal: to buy their freedom from Ketil and continue with their lives for the sake of those who could no longer do so. This was when Thorfinn developed a more positive outlook on life and even became more pacifistic in the sense that he was always the first one to try to stop a fight from breaking out, as was the case when Einar wanted to fight the farm hands that were responsible for destroying their wheat.

So, when Canute and his armies invaded Ketil’s farm to take it by force, Thorfinn didn’t even try to fight because he “had no enemies.” This means that he no longer hates anyone as he has already purged from his heart all of his hatred for Askeladd and those responsible for taking away his only chance at revenge. 

The fact that he no longer hated anyone means he had no reason to treat a person as his enemy. After all, he was born into this world without enemies, which means it is up to him whether or not he wants to live a life full of enemies.

Thorfinn Chose A Life Of Peace

Of course, peace was always something that his father, Thors, preached when he was young. When Thors was still alive, one of the things that he often told his son was that he didn’t need to hurt anyone at all. Thors often said:

“You have no enemies. No one in the world is your enemy. There is no one you need to hurt.”

In that regard, Thors was telling Thorfinn that he did not need to hate anyone or treat anyone as his enemy because he was born into a world without enemies and that no one was naturally his enemy when he came into the world.

Thors was a pacificist of a man, even though he was the fiercest Viking of his time. No one in the world was as strong as Thors in a fight. But when he realized that he no longer needed to fight anyone, he decided to leave the life of a Viking because no one was truly his enemy. That was why he left the Jomsvikings and lived in Iceland peacefully with his family.

The way that Thors raised Thorfinn is different from how Nordic men are usually raised. As Ketil once said, a Nordic man needed to be strong so that people would learn to respect him because that has always been the way of the Norse people. Vikings were always expected to be strong men because weak men wouldn’t survive in a world that favored the strong. But the way that Thors brought his son up was different because he wanted Thorfinn to be strong but in the right way.

The fact that his father was a pacifist that only fought whenever it meant protecting someone or something is one of the reasons why Thorfinn also became a man that wanted to live a peaceful life. Thors, as strong as he was, only fought to protect Thorfinn from Askeladd. And he even sacrificed his life to keep his son alive.

It took some time for Thorfinn to realize what his father died for. As such, for Thorfinn, no one is his enemy because he truly doesn’t have to have any enemies in life. To have a peaceful life, one has to choose to have no enemies.

As mentioned, people are born without enemies, which means that having enemies is something a person chooses to do throughout their lifetime. So, because Thorfinn said that he has no enemies, he is saying that he would rather live a peaceful life than a life of constant battles due to having many enemies.

This mindset allowed Thorfinn to evolve as a person as he now seeks a different path in life than other Vikings. While King Canute and the other Vikings are looking to expand their territory by increasing the number of their enemies and waging war against other people, Thorfinn would rather establish a community where there is no war and where people have no need for enemies. And that is why Vinland has become Thorfinn’s ultimate destination.