Will Thorfinn and Einar Become Friends in Vinland Saga?

One of the things that we learned in season 2 of Vinland Saga was that Thorfinn was now a slave and was working on Ketil’s farm. While working on the farm, he met a new slave in the form of Einar, whose past is also just as sad as Thorfinn’s own experiences. They both end up working for Ketil to clear trees so that they can make room for more farmland. But will Thorfinn and Einar become friends in Vinland Saga?

Thorfinn and Einar will become the best of friends as the story progresses. While they initially weren’t friends, they ended up becoming close friends and brothers because of their similarly sad pasts and shared experiences. In fact, they both share the dream of establishing a country free of oppression and slavery.

While we do know that Thorfinn’s ultimate goal is to reach Vinland, which is the land that he only heard from Leif’s tales when he was still just a boy, we also know that he has to have people around him that share the same dream. Einar is one of those people because he also wants to live in a land where he can start over and live a life of peace. That said, let’s look at what becomes of Thorfinn’s relationship with Einar.

How Did Thorfinn And Einar Meet?

Season 2 of Vinland Saga has just started, and it already gives us a good look at the first part of the Slavery arc. Of course, episode 1 was told from the perspective of Einar, who is one of the new characters that was introduced in season 2. And it was during the final portion of episode 1 of season 2 that Einar met Thorfinn for the first time, even though he had heard his name from Leif Erikson previously.

Of course, Thorfinn and Einar didn’t meet under the best of circumstances because they were both slaves at that time. And their different storylines will allow us to understand how they got to this point in their lives.

Back in season 1 of Vinland Saga, Thorfinn snuck onboard his father Thors’ ship so that he could join him in what he thought was a return to the battlefield in the war against England. However, it was merely a way for Floki to assassinate Thors as he contracted the help of Askeladd, the leader of a band of Viking mercenaries. Askeladd’s men were successful in killing Thors when they murdered him in a dishonorable way.

As such, Thorfinn vowed to get revenge for his father as he joined Askeladd’s band of mercenaries so that he could train hard enough to earn a proper duel with him. Throughout season 1, Thorfinn was a member of Askeladd’s band but was always trying to earn a duel with the mercenary leader to avenge his father honorably.

But at the end of season 1, Askeladd killed King Sweyn of Denmark to prevent him from invading his home country of Wales. Prince Canute, the son of Sweyn, killed Askeladd to stop his rampage in the dining hall. When Canute killed Askeladd, Thorfinn snapped because he no longer had any reason to live. Killing Askeladd was the only thing he had hoped to accomplish in his life, but that was taken away from him.

Thorfinn attacked Canute and left a scar on his face before the prince’s soldiers were able to take custody of him. Instead of executing Thorfinn, Canute ordered him to be sold into slavery. And that was how he ended up working for Ketil’s farm.

Meanwhile, Einar had a different story as he lived in Northern England, where he worked as a diligent young farmer that did everything he could for his mother and his sister. However, Danish soldiers attacked their farm and killed a lot of people. Einar’s mother was shot with an arrow while they were making their escape. And his sister was hacked by an axe when she tried to retaliate.

Einar may have survived the attack, but he ended up getting taken by the Danish soldiers together with the other survivors of the onslaught. They were all taken back to Denmark so that they could be sold off as slaves to rich buyers. As such, Ketil saw promise in Einar because of his muscular build and experience as a farmer.

The fact that they both had sad lives was what eventually led Thorfinn and Einar to a life of slavery. Of course, their past experiences are different, but the fact is that they both ended up where they are today due to the ugliness of the world.

Will Thorfinn And Einar Become Friends In Vinland Saga?

When Thorfinn and Einar met for the first time in the anime, we didn’t see the initial interaction between them. Of course, Einar recognized Thorfinn’s name and physical appearance from the description that Leif Erikson had said earlier when the explorer was shopping around for slaves in the hopes of finding Thorfinn.

In the manga, however, they didn’t start out as friends due to the somewhat cold and unemotional nature of Thorfinn, who had already lost all hope and reason for living at that time. However, due to the years they spent as slaves and the things that they shared about each other’s experiences in life, they ended up becoming good friends. In fact, Einar was one of the few people that could understand what Thorfinn had gone through because they both experienced major losses in their lives.

Because Einar understood what Thorfinn had been through and was aware of his mental state, he began treating him as a good friend and even as a brother. They both shared similar ideals that were brought about by their hatred for the harsh and oppressive world they lived in. And that was when they eventually decided to share the same goal of getting to Vinland.

The resolve of the duo strengthened when Arnheid, one of the slaves that they befriended while working on Ketil’s farm, was killed by the brutal beatings of Ketil himself. As such, when they eventually left Ketil’s farm as free men, Thorfinn and Einar decided to go looking for Vinland. And they had to return to Greenland, where they decided to start an expedition east to obtain enough resources that would allow them to make a long journey to the west, which was the rumored location of Vinland.