In the final episode of Vikings: Valhalla, the age of seafaring and ax-waving ends in a blaze of glory. 

Flames begin to erupt around Scandinavian spiritual warrior Freydís Eiríksdóttir (Frida Gustavsson) as she delivers an impassioned speech while tied to a stake. “Hear me now, rise up and protect us from this heresy. Strike down your anger and redden these walls with blood!”

The pagan leader escapes death once again with the help of her cunning brother Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett), the legendary explorer whose exploits alongside Norwegian prince Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter) propelled the three globetrotting seasons of Vikings: Valhalla.

The main trio’s return to Kattegat, the fictional Viking village where the series began, was all part of creator Jeb Stuart’s plan. “[Leif] sets off to be an explorer when he brings his sister to Kattegat in the very opening episode,” Stuart tells Tudum. “And then he realizes that there’s so much more of this world that he has to learn.” After the embers cool from their dramatic escape, the trio meets outside the village one last time before they go their separate ways. “While they come together, there’s a realization that they experienced something very special when they were together at the time that they had.”

Looking back at the four years of production, Stuart remembers the victories and challenges that brought the historical fiction drama to life. “We came together during COVID-19 to make a show and didn’t really stop, which was a testament to all of our medical staff and our cast. It’s no small feat to put 200 Vikings out in a field in the middle of COVID-19 and not have an outbreak. But I do feel it, though, the end of a wonderful era.”

Pulled from historical sources and semi-mythic tomes, including the Saga of the Greenlanders, Stuart presents the Viking era in a new light. But to him, underneath the fierce battles, torrid romances, and lavish locales, Vikings: Valhalla is an elegy for a time of freedom. “Obviously there was slaving and conquering and axes and stuff like that,” he says, “but if you look at the broader scope very shortly afterward, once Harald is killed at the [Battle of Stamford Bridge] and William the Conqueror comes over, the Viking era ends. You don’t have any more of these great, big Vikings like Harald Hardrada. The exploration of the New World has taken place. When William took over, women lost all their rights. So you wouldn’t have had a Freydís [or] Emma of Normandy. This magical period that was part of Valhalla comes to an end very shortly afterward.”

But the bond among our three heroes doesn’t end with the final episode of Vikings: Valhalla. In the series’ last moments, we see them on the precipice of a new adventure. Freydís and Leif are setting off for the golden land of North America via Greenland, and Harald’s reign as Norway’s king is about to begin. Let’s take a closer look at the concluding chapter of the epic series.

How did Harald Sigurdsson become Harald Hadrada?

Throughout the season, Suter says he honed in on the journey of the freewheeling Harald as he becomes battle-weary and hardened, especially after he was wrongly imprisoned for the murder of the Emperor (Nikolai Kinski). “There’s lots of touchstones to the sagas that were written about Harald, apocryphal things like using birds as homing incendiary devices to help capture a castle, and tunneling under a fort,” Suter says. “Harald was like a trickster, and that really comes through in the original text.”

By the final episode, Harald had become so hardened that his order to burn Freydís at the stake was no surprise to those who had faced his wrath.

What happens to Leif Eriksson in Vikings: Valhalla Season 3?

Leif returns to Norway, where it all began, to find a boat that could take him to the “golden land” he saw as a child. Once there, he runs into Harald, who has brought his army back to Norway. The old friends have become worn by the world and melancholy over the news that Freydís was killed by the poison Magnus (Set Sjöstrand) unleashed on Jomsborg. “There’s this sense of Icarus flying too close to the sun and someone forgetting their roots,” says Suter. “Harald gets sucked into all the wealth and riches of Constantinople and I think begins to forget why he’s there and that he really wanted to be king.”

Corlett says Leif’s evolution across the seasons was like a bow and arrow. “[Season 1 was] the sharpening of the arrow, Season 2 was the arrow being pulled back. He’s finding his purpose, he’s deepening his potential, he’s seeing where he wants to go. Then, [in] Season 3, slowly, the archer’s hands are releasing. At the end, we see a more whole understanding of a more whole life, a person who has a deep sense of understanding of who he is in the world that he lives in. He’s pumped to discover the New World.”

What does Hardrada mean? 

To become truly Hardrada, which means hard ruler, Suter needed to channel the ferocity of the real Harald from the Viking era. For him to be believable, Suter says, “Harald has to be changed and go to a dark place for that sort of rebirth into someone who’s more ruthless, more cutthroat. And that comes by the fact that Harald messed up in Constantinople.”

Stuart and Suter even wanted the audience to be “let down” by some of Harald’s actions in Constantinople. “[After] the affair with Empress Zoe, [audiences] should be like, ‘What are you doing you fool?’ ” says Suter. “He’s a big enough man to know he messed up, and that just charges him up for that final showdown with Maniakes (Florian Munteanu). That’s the moment that Hardrada is born.”

Did Emma really love Canute?

Stuart says that their marriage was a perfect setup for conflict: Emma was the widow of his conquered foe, and Canute was the Viking taking over. But the series reveals a different side to them, which comes to an emotional end in the final episode when Canute dies. “It looked like, ‘Well, this is a marriage that ought to happen simply because both of them need each other,’ ” says Stuart. “It turned out that historically Canute and Emma was a love-marriage. I think this is part of the Viking in him and the Viking in her because she came from Normandy, and he treated her as an equal. He gave her the strength to rule, he gave her the power to help make decisions. Both our two wonderful actors, Laura Berlin and Bradley Freegard, got that from the very beginning.” 

But in her last scene after Canute’s death, Emma gets a little too friendly, it seems, with her stepson, Harold Harefoot. 

What happens to Emma’s sons?

Canute gives the English Empire’s reins to Emma, passing over his sons and her offspring in Normandy. “He knew that Godwin would be working in the background somewhere,” says Stuart. “I think one of the brilliant pieces of the puzzle that Canute left is: By allowing him to marry Gytha (Henessi Schmidt), his niece, he brought Godwin (David Oakes) into a larger family, which was important for his relationship with Emma.” In real life, Stuart says, Godwin and Emma sparred for decades. “In our show, we tease the audience with the future, which is about to become incredibly complicated for both of these characters. Eventually [in real life] Godwin’s son will take the throne and his other son will go get Harald and bring him to England to fight. And Emma’s son, of course, becomes Edward the Confessor. And there’s such a wonderful, rich part of English history that comes out of this period.”

Where do Leif and Freydís find each other? 

Soon after Freydís faked her death in Jomsborg, she arrives in Kattegat, where she reunites with Queen Ælfgifu (Pollyanna McIntosh) and meets Katla (Kateryna Bratchyna), the wife of Svein (Jakob Femerling Andersen). “She runs into Ælfgifu, who she made this deal with seven years ago that these two female leaders would reign in peace,” says Gustavsson. “It’s been going great until Magnus shows up.” Later when Magnus kills Svein and Ælfgifu, Katla pleads for her and her unborn child’s life and gives up Freydís, who’s then imprisoned. “Magnus’ big deal is that by killing her, he would cleanse these lands of the last pagans because Freydís represents the symbol of the Last Daughter of Uppsala, the believer in the old ways,” says Gustavsson.  

When Leif finally finds her in prison, their journey once again has gone full circle. “They share this beautiful scene, the reunion of these siblings who are so different yet so similar at the same time,” says Gustavsson. “I think it’s a very beautiful parallel to the prison scene that opens Episode 2 in Season 1. Freydís has yet again been captured by a Christian — this time it’s Magnus, not Olaf. She’s been imprisoned in Kattegat and she’s waiting to be killed, and in comes Leif, who tells Freydís about this plan: ‘You have to play along, but we’ll get you out.’ ”

Does Harald Sigurdsson become King of Norway?

The Jarls decree that Magnus and Harald should rule together, but there’s a catch: Magnus says the Pope won’t allow a leader with pagan sympathies, and then Magnus brings in Freydís as the reason Harald shouldn’t be king. 

Why did Harald want to burn Freydís at the stake?

When Harald and Freydís meet again in Kattegat after seven years apart, the scene hearkens back to their encounter in the Great Hall in the first episode of the series. At the time, Freydís was tracking down the man who sexually assaulted her in Greenland, but when she faced him down she wasn’t believed — except by Harald. “You’ll remember Freydís says, ‘Hold on, this man raped me.’ And Harald is the one who stands up and says, ‘I believe you,’ ” Suter says. 

But in the final episode, things have changed drastically. “Freydís is brought in chains into the Great Hall, and rather than saying, ‘Hold on, save this woman, she’s a good person,’ Harald says, ‘Burn her.’ And that was an intense line.” 

Freydís was frustrated and angry to see how Harald has changed, says Gustavsson, but she also sees a sadness in him. “He doesn’t have that little sparkle,” she says. “He doesn’t have that joy that was so characteristic of Harald, who would always find a solution to everything.”

What was the plan to save Freydís?

Leif and Freydís hatch a plan to create havoc using the fiery weapon that Maniakes used to massacre prisoners earlier in the season. Leif vowed to never use his scientific knowledge for evil, but this time it was their only choice. “We shot this probably while they were shooting Oppenheimer,” says Corlett. “Me and Jeb were speaking about the making of the weapon. He’s absolutely weighed down by guilt, the fact that something he discovered was then turned against what he believed in. To save his sister, [Leif] has to use everything he knows. There’s nothing he’s not willing to do, including burning down the city he once fought for, Kattegat.”

Do Freydís and Harald end up together?

When the three heroes meet on a cliffside after Freydís’ dramatic escape, Harald says he’ll provide ships to make sure she gets out of Kattegat safely. Freydís and Harald met as two young people hungry for adventure, lust, and glory, says Gustavsson. “They meet again years later and really look at each other and go, ‘I hope it was worth it. I hope you found what you were looking for, because if not, we threw this away.’ ”

That emotional moment where Harald learns about his son “was a beautiful scene for the three of us to finish on,” says Suter. “For Frida and I in particular, our journeys on the show, we went on separate paths and we did different things, and to come back together in Kattegat was a great way to finish it all.”

Does Freydís travel to the “golden land” in North America after she leaves Norway?

While the series ends on an emotional moment, it’s really just the beginning for the adventurers. 

“Even though we finished [when] Harald has just become king, and Freydis and Leif are just breaking the horizon to go find America, there's so much still to explore,” says Suter.

While the audience may have been familiar with Leif before the series, Freydís was a new historical character to bring to the screen, says Stuart. “We do know from the sagas — the saga of Erik the Red and also the saga of the Greenlanders — that she was a big participant with Leif in terms of the founding [New World settlements],” he adds. “We allowed the audience to get a sense of who this fabulous woman was.” 

Yet the sagas were most likely written long after the Viking Age, mostly by Christians who were victims of raids. Those imaginative histories helped Stuart have the freedom to craft Freydís. “In one of the sagas, she’s a bloodthirsty murderess, and in the other, she’s Leif’s half sister instead of full sister, and she has a different arc altogether. But in both of them, she’s a strong woman. That gave me the license to create the Freydís that we’ve got on-screen.”

How could the story have continued?

According to Suter, in the sagas there’s mention of Harald exploring far into the north, but there’s little historical record about where he went. Suter says, “In my head, and in Jeb’s head, and Frida’s as well, we had liked the idea that Harald, maybe on one of his solo trips, was going to find Freydís and find his son, to actually see what he looked like. And I would’ve loved for Harald to be visited by the seer and for the seer to be Freydís.”

Corlett says Leif’s death was never recorded, so he imagines a dramatic end for Eriksson. “Whilst setting sail back from the New World, they enter a storm and a massive wave comes,” Corlett says. “He could hold the cross around his neck because he’s now Christian, but rather than that, he finds a Viking armband and he surrenders to nature.”

From left: Leo Suter as Harald Sigurdsson, Sam Corlett as Leif Eriksson, and Frida Gustavsson as Freydís Eiríksdóttir behind-the-scenes of Vikings: Valhalla Season 3.

How does the series end?

The trio’s emotional scene was the last one they shot together. Overlooking the same Irish lake where Kattegat was set, Corlett, Gustavsson, and Suter felt the weight of the series’ conclusion.   

“It was in the script, but I think it was a moment that they all felt on location, which is suddenly: ‘This really is the end,’ ” Stuart says. “We thought that the end was going to be coming together and that the band was back together. They’re going to go off and conquer something new.” 

Gustavsson continues: “You knew it was going to be a special day when everybody shows up there in the morning, [and] everyone’s crying. We’re filming the last scene with Freydís and Harald, and me and Leo are both crying, and we can hear Emer Conroy, our director who directed episodes all the way from the beginning, just crying in the monitor.”

While fans probably aren’t embarking on Viking-sized adventures and conflicts in their real lives, Corlett says there’s a lot to take away from the series. “I hope that people attach themselves to those circumstances and project their own experiences in these characters. And though they’re not fighting wars, battling with axes, they’re fighting their own wars, and I hope that people can come to a sense of self and a sense of understanding.”