With the mid-season premier of Vikings only two days away we are taking a look back at it’s two leading ladies and what has led them to their impending face-off for Kattegat in the new episodes.
Season 1: Lagertha
In season 1, Lagertha was one of the most bad-ass characters in the show despite being a married to a man who always gets his way. When her husband Ragnar bought their son Bjorn to Kattegat to swear his alliance to Earl Haraldson and to earn his arm ring, two men attempt to rape her and her now deceased daughter Gyda, but she fights them off with an sword proving that she’s far more than just a wife.
A similar situation happens when Ragnar finally lets her go on a voyage to England with his men when Earl Haraldson’s half-brother Knut attempts to rape a Saxon woman. Lagertha saves her and kills Knut causing Ragnar to take the blame for his death almost leading him to the chopping block, if not for his brother Rollo who testified on his behalf.
After Ragnar defeated Haraldson and becomes Earl, Lagertha struggled with fertility resulting in a miscarriage of their third child causing Ragnar to question whether or not Lagertha could provide him with the sons he desires.
Season 1: Aslaug
Ragnar stumbles upon Aslaug while she was washing in a lake during his travels to Gotaland after Lagertha’s miscarriage. More interested in her wit than her beauty, Ragnar tells her that he will meet her if she comes to him,”neither dressed nor undressed, neither hungry nor full, and neither in company nor alone.” So she shows up wearing a fishing net, biting an apple and with a dog.
This is the start of their love affair which upsets Bjorn because of his loyalty to his mother, but when Aslaug becomes pregnant, Ragnar chooses her while Lagertha is left to mourn the death of their daughter by plague.
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Season 2: Lagertha
In season 2, Lagertha tries to be okay with Ragnar’s affair, but once a very pregnant Aslaug arrives in Kattegat, it’s game over. She makes the bold decision to leave Ragnar taking their son with her and years later ends up in Hedeby in an abusive relationship with Earl Sigvard who wants her to be more of a housewife than a shieldmaiden.
When she learns that Ragnar has been usurped by Jarl Borg, Lagertha attempts to convince Sigvard to send an army to help Ragnar reclaim his land. When he refuses, Lagertha and Bjorn bring a small army to aid Ragnar, and when she arrives home, Sigvard has her brutally beaten and later attempts to disrobe her in front of their dinner guests.
It’s the final straw though and Lagthera stabs him in the eye with a knife. Another man ends up chopping off his head, and Lagertha is named Earl of Hedeby.
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Season 2: Aslaug
In season 2, Aslaug is comfortably living in Kattegat giving birth to Ragnar’s sons and trying to manage her husband’s wandering eyes when he becomes interested in a servant girl. She tells Ragnar that she is a shaman and can predict the future. To prove this she predicts that her next child will be born with the image of a snake in his eye.
She turns out to be right when she gives birth to Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye.
While Ragnar is away on one of his raids, Kattegat is raided by Jarl Borg and his men. Aslaug and her children with Siggy and Rollo escape into the countryside where Aslaug has a difficult time adjusting to country life (too dirty apparently) and once they reclaim Kattegat, she becomes pregnant yet again despite her warning after Ragnar forces himself on her.
The child, Ivar, is born deformed without the use of his legs but Aslaug loves him all the same.
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Season 3: Lagertha
In the beginning of season 3, Lagertha is told by a Seer that she will not be able to have anymore children and also learns that her death has already been decided by the gods.
She then travels to Wessex with the intention of creating a thriving settlement. When she is there, King Ecbert shows interest in her and her plans for the settlement. The two then have a love affair, but any hope of Lagertha getting a new love interest is dashed when Ecbert betrays her by sending men out to kill the settlers after she leaves.
And she finds even more problems at home when she finds that her second in command Kalf has taken over her earldom. Surprisingly Lagertha agrees to marry him after he saves her life at the Paris siege, but not without her promising him that she will kill him eventually for usurping her.
Season 3: Aslaug
In season 3, Asluag and Ragnar’s relationship takes an ugly turn. She is unhappy in their marriage and believes that Ragnar does not love her anymore. In fact, she becomes downright villainous this season when it comes to the welfare of her children.
With Ragnar gone in England, a mysterious man named Harbard arrives in Kattegat, who is able to calm Ivar and stop his suffering. Him and Aslaug end up having an affair resulting in her leaving her four young boys in the hands of Siggy, which turns out to be disastrous when two of the boys fall though a frozen lake and Siggy dies in the process of saving them.
Season 4: Lagertha
In the first half of season 4, Lagertha makes good on her promise for revenge on Kalf for stealing her earldom in a shocking twist on their wedding day with Lagertha stabbing Kalf right before their vows.
She then joins Ragnar in his quest to siege Paris and miscarries her and Kalf’s son when she is assisting in moving the viking ships over land during a sneak attack. She is somewhat unfazed by this though because she knew that the child would have never been born after the Seerer’s prediction. By the end of the mid-season, Lagertha is badly injured in battle and leaves us unsure if her fate.
Season 4: Aslaug
In season 4, Aslaug has grown tired of her marriage and is attempting to keep Ragnar under control by purchasing a young Asian woman who has caught Ragnar’s eye and makes her a servant.
When Ragnar leaves to raid Paris, Aslaug rules Kattegat on her own and continues her affair with Harbard when he returns. She has a breakdown though when she learns that he is also sleeping other women, gets drunk, and allows her youngest son to play with her adopted grandchild, resulting in her death when she is found face down in the river.
At the end of the mid-season, it is revealed that Ragnar never returned to Kattegat, his sons have grown into adults without him, and Aslaug has been ruling Kattegat successfully on her own.
Vikings returns on The History Channel Wednesday, November 30 at 9 p.m.
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