Willibald

Willibald is contemplative, eccentric, blunt, and unusually indifferent to wealth, women, status, and the pleasures valued by the Vikings around him. Alcohol is a major exception. He drinks prodigious amounts and can outlast hardened warriors at the table without losing his fixation on theological questions.

His central obsession is defining love. Willibald argues that the affection parents show children, warriors show comrades, and rulers show favored subjects cannot be perfect love because each preference excludes someone else. To him, the dead body of a person or animal that nourishes everything around it without discrimination comes closer to selfless love than ordinary human attachment.

Despite traveling among men responsible for raids and killings, Willibald rarely reacts with conventional outrage. His distance can resemble apathy, but it reflects a worldview in which nearly all human beings are equally lost.

Willibald is not a warrior and demonstrates no exceptional martial ability. His influence comes through education, theology, argument, observation, and his willingness to challenge assumptions that everyone else accepts.

He possesses substantial knowledge of Christian doctrine and can translate abstract religious concepts into images understandable to soldiers. His conversation about love becomes far more consequential than any physical contribution he makes to the campaign.

He also has an extraordinary tolerance for alcohol, at one point continuing to drink after consuming dozens of servings while Askeladd's hardened mercenaries struggle to keep pace.

Willibald accompanies Canute's party during the English campaign and later travels with Askeladd's band after the prince falls into their custody. He frequently discusses faith with the Vikings, most of whom find his definition of love incomprehensible.

During the band's winter flight, Willibald witnesses the destruction caused by Askeladd's need for food and shelter. His conversations with Canute become especially important after Ragnar's loss.

Canute challenges Willibald to explain why God created a world in which people suffer while demanding that they love one another. Willibald's distinction between human attachment and universal love contributes directly to the prince's ideological awakening: Canute concludes that if divine salvation will not create paradise for living people, he must attempt to build one through worldly power.

Canute is the person most profoundly affected by Willibald's ideas. Their conversation about love becomes one of the intellectual foundations of Canute's transformation.

Ragnar travels alongside Willibald as Canute's protector, though Willibald's definition of love treats Ragnar's intense preference for the prince as attachment rather than universal selflessness.

Askeladd transports Willibald with Canute during the flight from Thorkell and occasionally listens to his theological arguments.

Anne belongs to the Christian village encountered during Askeladd's winter march; Willibald attempts to warn the villagers when danger reaches them.

Bjorn later approaches Willibald and Canute while berserk, creating the confrontation during which Canute begins putting Willibald's ideas into practice.