Vikings Season 6 Updates: With Hvitserk converting to Christianity and changing his name to Athelstan, the History Channel Series Vikings, finally conclude its sixth and final season.
The shift of focus is observed when the protagonist of Vikings dies midway through season 4 and the spotlight is offered to his five sons- Bjorn Ironside, Ubbe, Hvitserk, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, and Ivar the Boneless.
Ragnar planned his own death and surrendered his life for an ulterior purpose to secure the city. He deliberately arranged for his execution quite sure of the fact that his sons would seek revenge.
In doing so they assembled the Great Heathen Army and launched an invasion that ended with both King Ecbert and King Aelle. Viola! Plan successful.
Each of Ragnar’s Sons Represents a Different Part of Him
All the sons of Ragnar need no DNA testing for identification as each one of them replicate a particular part/trait of his personality. Even the ends of their stories reflect his legacy.
Bjorn Ironside apparently rose from the dead to lead the armies of Scandinavia towards a victory against the invading Rus mirroring how Ragnar did the same leading his warriors in looting and vandalizing Paris.
Ubbe’s life story resonates with Ragnar’s leading a group of Norse settlers on a journey full of perils to the west and discovering new land.
Ivar is endowed with the intrinsic skills of a military strategist and also gets the honor of dying a soldier’s death while monitoring the other Viking soldiers on the battlefield.
Hvitserk’s journey, however, requires a more complex approach for its comprehension for which it is necessary to get into the pedantry of his life experiences and events.
Vikings Season 6: Hvitserk Represents Ragnar’s Religious Curiosity & Uncertainty
Faith, aka the struggle between the Norse gods and the Christian god, remains the pivotal point for the entire conflict in the series. This also marks the beginning of differences between him and Floki.
After Floki kills Athelstan, the idea of never being able to see his friend again, even post-death, haunts Ragnar upon which he requests to get himself baptized.
Appearing repeatedly multiple times in the characters’ dreams and visions after his death, Athelstan’s incorporeal existence remains intact in the show.
Other, the wanderer introduced in the final season of Vikings reveals his originality- an English monk named Athelstan and guides Ubbe to the ‘Golden Land’.
Athelstan also continues to live as a legacy followed by his son, King Alfred, who in an attempt to honor his father, gets Hvitserk baptized and gives him a new Christian name- Athelstan.
This pretty much is a satisfactory ending provided both to wrap up Ragnar’s story and to finally conclude the show.
Hvitserk conversion to Christianity besides being an ending to Vikings broadens the scope of possibilities for some new beginnings.
Baptism, the process of cleansing someone of their sins and giving them a fresh start, itself is a symbolic example of it. Who knows, this might act as the point of beginning for the sequel series “Vikings: Valhalla” that may crush the viewers’ ambiguity pertaining to what became of Hvitserk and his descendants.
