friendship family (it gave me the same warm feelings I got from the ACOTAR “inner circle”, while also being totally unique!) What did you think of "Warrior's Fate"? Will you miss Torstein? Is Floki getting on your nerves? Does Harbard posses special powers? How do you feel about Lagertha and King Ecbert? Your turn friends, please hit the comments and share your thoughts with me. This was one of the most intriguing episodes of the show that I have seen so far. It perfectly mastered the balance between what seemed to me like a fairly realistic portrayal of political drama anno circa 828 and then a very convincing attempt at making sense of "paganism" as well as the clash of cultures. The dialog between Lagertha and king Ecbert of Wessex as well as Ragnar's dispute with Floki were essential for the story's progression - and also a welcome step away from "soap". I'll admit, when I saw all of Prince Burgred troops I was caught off guard. I didn't realize Prince Aethelwulf's men would rain arrows down on them from above. They set the prince up nicely, an he surrendered. I loved when Ragnar slammed his head into Burgred's face. Fimmel's expression was fantastic! In Kattegat, a fisherman catches two young boys in his nets who have drowned. Siggy is confused about what's going on, since the arrival of the wanderer, and visits the ancient one to discuss Harbard and the dream in which the ancient one was in.

Poor Athelstan—when Ecbert and Lagertha start unashamedly coupling in the bath, he’s simply ignored, left to look awkward and towel off. While Christianity embraces the idea that God already knows the day on which we will die as well as that about humans enjoying free will even to the point of rejecting God, few adherents live as the Vikings do. They instead believe the gods more actively select a day on which they will die, and since that day is set, they are free to act as they wish because nothing they do or fail to do will alter the time of their death–this is what Ragnar reminds Floki of after the battle when he points out that their mutual friend’s death was on his own terms, not those of his king. And if you were looking for a formula more likely to produce brave warriors, it’s hard to imagine one that would so thoroughly remove fear from the equation: if it’s not your day to die, nothing can kill you. Combined with the promise of Valhalla, it’s hardly surprising that the battlefield ferocity of the Vikings still fascinates us a thousand years after the last one died. The amount of detail, the quality of the world building, and the depths and scope of the relationships remind me a lot of the Age of the Andinna series. It’s really rare to come across anything written so well in the romance genre. This is like a diamond in the rough.I admittedly was nervous to start this book. I am a person who likes to invest in the main protagonists relationship and to hear they are rejecting it made me pause. Thankfully I saw someone talk a little bit about it on Tiktok and decided to buy the e-book copy. Let me start off and say I am buying the physical copy to add to my shelf.

Athelstan was putting the moves on Judith, wasn't he? I can't imagine him kneeling in front of her in nothing but a towel helped matters much. Is it wrong I want to see those two give in to their desires? I know, I know... but she's married and he's an ex-Monk. Whatever, you only live once and when you find that kind of connection, I say go for it. I loved the way mental health struggles around trauma were presented. It was so visceral and deep. Chaotic and yet, so easy to follow. It felt like my own brain quite frankly. The FMC was so badass. Fully grumpy but deep down stressed and anxious and trying to be strong and unbothered. When she said “down boy” I SCREAMED. She’s one of my all time favorites. Helga, Siggy, and Aslaug help Harbard with his injured hand and lodging while he tells them stories about his travels and the gods.Beliefs which are alien to us tend to be seen with a clarity which is not applied to our own. At the end of the episode, there’s a bold spectacle in which Lagertha and the other farming Vikings perform a blood sacrifice using a bull. The sheer amount of that blood is highlighted against the white gown the Viking Jarl wears, as well as in juxtaposition to her pale skin. As television viewers, we are not as disturbed by the images as the Saxon nobles who look on. They insist to the king that “unless they renounce their false gods and heathen ways, we should no allow them to stay any longer.” But our reaction is more muted: after all, we are separated by over a millennium from the reality this is supposed to represent and thus can safely see such a gory sacrifice as quaint and uncivilized, knowing that we have come far since those days. As someone who dislikes the omegaverse ranking system that is prevalent in werewolf / wolf shifter romances, I actually didn't mind the system in AWF. It might've been because the Greek letters were used interchangeably with other terms, such as alpha and king, beta and second-in-command. Floki: This is your fault Ragnar. Torstein died fighting for a hill he did not want to own. Something which meant nothing to him. He has died a pointless death. How many more of us must die for your Christians? Or have you, in your heart, already renounced our gods and turned to the Christ god. Is that what your friend Athelstan has persuaded you to do? But look, here we are under a English sky burying our dead. Look at those we have sacrificed for Jesus Christ. It’s in the aftermath that the episode’s theme of belief comes in again. Floki’s visceral hatred of all things Christian outlined above, was established from the series’ start, his position as mystic/madman making his aversion seem to come from somewhere deep and primal. (The look on Gustaf Skarsgård’s face when he spits out the name “Jesus Christ” is as Floki as Floki gets.) The book has swept me away to a powerful world of political intrigue and intense romance, the story is filled with tension, adventure, hot and swoon worthy scenes! The main character is a female inspirational heroine Isla that is fated to a rival King, their deal to not touch each other is so intriguing so they don't have to accept their mate bond.

Permalink: This is not about you Floki. It's about our children and their children. It is about our... Personally, I enjoyed the mystery/plot more than the romantic push and pull in this case, but I feel a little cheated with the way everything ended. I know there’s a second book in the making, but c’mon. We got the big bombs and then they just got brushed aside in the last few chapters. Through the book I hoped to at least see Isla become the actual Luna and not just.. “oh it’s all mine now, I guess”.. The whole end arc was a little anticlimactic for me. The goddess, Fate, must enjoy playing with the mortals. For why else would she choose the most important night of Isla’s life to place her soulmate on her path? It reminds me of the lord of the rings but not quite .... a bit like game of thrones but again it's more like it's own category with a LOT of potential and I can't wait to read the second book ! I'm sure the Wolves of Morai will be an absolute sucess and I hope to see the author gain the recognition she deserves!Simplistic military post-apocalyptic series continues with solid military lingo and action that would be better on screen as a visual spectacle, instead of book format. Even with the points listed above, I rated the book 4.5 stars and rounded up to 5 stars because I just couldn’t rate it 4 stars, it was too good for that. But do not think I offer nothing in return; I tell stories. Stories about my own travels. Stories about the Gods or both. As they say, I sing for my supper. Harbard The overall storyline of the show is a cleverly condensed dramatisation of events that actually took place in the period between circa 800 and 880 and led to the birth of the first English kingdom. The fictional Ragnar Lodbrog (Lothbrook) character as well as Ladgerda (Lagertha), Aslaug (aka. Kraka) are described by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus who lived in the 1200s. Most likely, Saxo deliberately used the actual viking king Godfred as his inspiration. Which we see when Floki, without Ragnar soliciting his opinion on the subject, expresses his own misgivings in a far more passionate manner, calling Ragnar deluded. Why, he asks, are they fighting for the Christians? But what Ecbert’s men only imply—that the difference in religions makes the two cultures incompatible – Floki calls out directly: “There can be no reconciliation between our gods—the true gods—and the god that they worship.” Thus, he suggests, there is no way to reconcile the followers of those gods. His next statement seems almost ripped from the mouths of modern-day zealots. Religious tolerance is unacceptable. “One or the other must prevail.” And his prophecy that “the triumph of the Christ-God will mean the death and destruction of all of ours” was both historically true and echoes the contemporary fear that underlies intolerance: if a belief system is not fiercely defended, it will be annihilated.