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Lines from this volume
Spoiler — from the ending. Tap to reveal.
“Cowards are shunned, outcast from society. That's why Norsemen have an obligation.”
Read alone, this sounds like Thorfinn endorsing the code that made him: cowards punished, vengeance owed. It is closer to the opposite. He is explaining the code to people who would like a simple way around it, and the point of explaining it accurately is to show that there is none. The child in question is Karli, a baby caught up in a feud between the Arngrim and Gisli clans that a crewmate traces to years of rivalry and the repetition of vengeance. When Karli grows up and learns the truth, he will likely seek vengeance against Gisli's clan; if he does not, it is Karli who will be punished. The obligation is enforced by everyone around the boy, not chosen by him. From a man who spent his youth in Askeladd's band for a chance to avenge his father, this is testimony rather than theory. The remedy was already on the table three pages earlier, a foster family somewhere unrelated to Karli's blood and the feud, and three pages later the woman carrying him asks whether that is the only way. The line's real claim is that revenge is a social institution before it is a feeling, which makes it harder to fix than anger.
Read alone, this sounds like Thorfinn endorsing the code that made him: cowards punished, vengeance owed. It is closer to the opposite. He is explaining the code to people who would like a simple way around it, and the point of explaining it accurately is to show that there is none. The child in question is Karli, a baby caught up in a feud between the Arngrim and Gisli clans that a crewmate traces to years of rivalry and the repetition of vengeance. When Karli grows up and learns the truth, he will likely seek vengeance against Gisli's clan; if he does not, it is Karli who will be punished. The obligation is enforced by everyone around the boy, not chosen by him. From a man who spent his youth in Askeladd's band for a chance to avenge his father, this is testimony rather than theory. The remedy was already on the table three pages earlier, a foster family somewhere unrelated to Karli's blood and the feud, and three pages later the woman carrying him asks whether that is the only way. The line's real claim is that revenge is a social institution before it is a feeling, which makes it harder to fix than anger.