A Norse funeral song is sung at the beginning on Vikings: Valhalla season 3 episode 4, as the Jomsvikings prepare the dead for funerary rites. They make small shrines decorated with candles, carved runes and flowers. With reverence they burn the bodies of the dead and stack the charred piles of bones are rafts near the dock, getting ready to release them to the sea. One of Magnus' scouts observes the funerals from a distance, reporting back to Magnus (Set Sjöstrand) the village is weak and unprotected.
Another fight is brewing in Constantinople, as Maniakes (Florian Munteanu) is staying in shape by fighting his generals. Harald (Leo Suter) walks by and Maniakes challenges him to fight, but Harald refuses. Maniakes' growing hatred of Harald is quickly reaching a boiling point.
What else happens in Vikings: Valhalla season 3 episode 4? Read on to find out.
Harald's dangerous liaison
While Harald is talking to Kaysan (Kayode Akinyemi) and Dorn (Eleanor McLynn) inside the palace, Empress Zoe (Sofia Lebedeva) appears and tells Harald to escort her to her chambers. She pulls him into a small antechamber and they have sex.
Harald stops when he hears the emperor’s voice. Kaysan distracts the emperor to give Zoe time to get away. Harald steps back into the hallway before the emperor notices anything. Kaysan warns Harald he’s playing with fire having an affair with Zoe, but Harald won't listen to him. Harald isn't listening to anyone these days.
Goodbye Jomsborg
Magnus and his priests sail into Jomsborg. On the docks they see the dead and rock shrines to them. One of the shrines is dedicated to the "Keeper of the Faith," which Magnus assumes is Freydis.
Magnus' men tear through the buildings, knock down the shrines and destroy whatever they can find. They look for people, but they don't find any villagers. Magnus finds his father's ax in a weapon barrel, but there's no sign of Freydis or any one else.
Eventually they find one survivor, a woman who is deathly ill and lying on a thin mattress. Her head is covered. Her eyes and lips are black and she is coughing, shivering and sweating.
Magnus asks her where Freydis is. She tells him Freydis died of the sickness. Then he asks where Olaf's body is. She tells him it's outside the gates in the Valley of the Dead. The men carry her with them on a thin litter to make sure she’s telling the truth.
When Magnus and men are gone the village fighters start to appear from under the shrouds and piles of burned bodies. They'd been hiding among the dead. Stigr (Leander Vyvey) and the others kill the guards left behind in Jomsborg while Magnus searches for Olaf's body. Quietly, the Jomsborg fighters go around the village and get the rest of the villagers, who were hiding. Together they pile into Magnus' boats so they can flee Jomsborg.
The woman on the litter is Freydis (Frida Gustavsson), who isn't sick. She waits for an opportunity to escape. Magnus finds a skeleton with a cross amulet and a piece of wood under it with a carving in Latin. The Latin says, "The foolishness of the father lives on in the son."
Magnus realizes it's a trap. He orders his men back to Jomsborg as Freydis flees into the woods. The Jomsvikings row as hard as they can to get away. Magnus' men rush back to the dock and jump into the remaining boat to chase the fleeing villagers. With all their strength the Jomsvikings row for an outlet near a rocky outcropping with Magnus' men behind them quickly gaining ground.
Just as Magnus' ship gets within reaching distance of the villagers’ ship, Freydis, on the outcropping above, releases a cart of huge rocks. They fall off the cliff and smash onto the ship of Magnus' men, breaking it apart. The Jomsvikings set sail for a new home. Magnus and his remaining men are trapped in Jomsborg with no boats to get back to Kattegat.
Freydis, rows out to sea where the longboats and her people are waiting for her.
Matters of faith
Elsewhere, Leif (Sam Corlett) made it to Greece. On his way to find the mapmaker he comes upon a group of thugs attacking a half-built church and the nun building it. Leif jumps into the fight, saving the nun, Tamar (Sónia Balacó). He stays to help her work on the church because she was wounded in the fight.
Tamar asks Leif about his religious beliefs over dinner, but he brings the conversation to why he is looking for the mapmaker. Tamar tells Leif her husband left her because she mistakenly killed their infant child trying to keep him quiet when their village was attacked by raiders. Her story seems to help Leif forgive himself for what happened in Syracuse.
Leif later continues his journey to find the mapmaker, leaving Tamar to continue building her church.
Key information
In Denmark, Gytha (Henessi Schmidt) resumes the Midsomar festival and gives a speech glorifying the Norse gods. As she speaks her grandfather and Canute’s father, Forkbeard (Søren Pilmark), rides into the settlement with his men. Godwin (David Oakes) fills Forkbeard in on Canute’s meeting with the Pope and matters of state.
In Constantinople, Harald's uncle Yaroslav (Marcin Dorocinski) petitions the emperor for troops. Maniakes says the Imperial force can spare only 2,000 men. Harald offers another 2,000 from his Varangians.
While they are catching up in private, Yaroslav chides Harald for staying in Constantinople when he has more than enough money now to buy an army and take the throne in Norway. Yaroslav also tells Harald that Freydis killed Olaf and all his men and took over Jomsborg. Harald isn't surprised she became a leader. But, he is surprised to hear she has a seven-year-old child. Harald considers carefully what Yaroslav said, and wonders if it's time to go.
All episodes of Vikings: Valhalla season 3 are now streaming exclusively on Netflix.
