Helga

Helga is warm, patient, practical, and emotionally perceptive. She shares Thors's preference for the peaceful life they have built in Iceland and understands why he wants to keep their children away from the warrior culture he abandoned.

She is not passive within the household. Helga can admonish Thors when necessary and participates in family decisions rather than simply accepting whatever he chooses.

Her calmness is particularly important around Thorfinn, whose fascination with weapons and battle troubles both parents.

Helga has no established combat techniques or battlefield role.

Her strengths lie in household management, resilience, and adapting to the demanding conditions of Icelandic village life. She raises her children in an isolated farming community while Thors contributes to the village's heavier labor and maritime responsibilities.

Helga also comes from an important Jomsviking family. Her father is Sigvaldi, the former chief of the Jomsvikings, making her intimately connected to the warrior society that she and Thors leave behind.

Helga appears during Thorfinn's childhood in Iceland and helps establish the peaceful family life that exists before war intrudes.

When Floki arrives with orders recalling Thors to military service, Helga understands more of the danger than the village's excited young men do. She knows that Thors did not simply retire from warfare in the ordinary way.

Thors departs while Helga remains with Ylva in Iceland. His death leaves her to continue raising their family while Thorfinn disappears into Askeladd's world of warfare.

Sixteen years later, Thorfinn finally returns home. Helga recognizes her son despite the enormous changes in his appearance and welcomes him back without resentment for the years he spent away.

Thors is Helga's husband. Their marriage becomes one of the main reasons Thors abandons warfare and seeks a peaceful life.

Thorfinn is Helga's son. She waits years for his return after he disappears following Thors's death.

Ylva is Helga's daughter and remains with her in Iceland.

Sigvaldi is Helga's father and the former chief of the Jomsvikings.

Thorkell is Helga's uncle through Sigvaldi, making the towering warrior part of Thorfinn and Ylva's maternal family.

Ari later becomes Helga's son-in-law through his marriage to Ylva.