#gardar

In the opening scene where we are introduced to Gardar for the first time, there are things to note and highlight who Gardar is even if he doesn't say all that much:

In the house, Gardar did not lay a single hand on the woman or her babe, only killing the male members of the household

It is heavily implied that he was grossly abused and mistreated by his slave master to the point where he was driven to do this in the first place

This shows that in his heart of hearts, it is implied that Gardar was not a man naturally inclined towards violence, only getting to that point due to what he already went through.

Now, I'll touch on Snake who, whether we like it or not, is upholding the status quo. He is a hired mercenary of sorts who is responsible for the safety of the farm and the goods within it. Gardar to him was considered a 'good' and was to be treated as such, but to be frank, so are all of the other slaves. So why do people think that Snake's hand was 'forced' in comparison?

I will admit that at first glance, I did wonder out loud why they were all helping out Gardar when he had cut down so many men, but then I realized something. Something that a lot of people conveniently forgot.

Most people were probably more focused on Thorfinn, Einar, and Arnheid as well as Sverkel and their entire dynamic with Snake, which lulled them into the sense that Gardar was kind of 'interrupting' that. What they (and myself at first) all failed to recognize was that it wasn't as much of an interruption as it was waking up from a nice dream: the reality of the world they are in is much more grim than that.

And most importantly, they forget one specific facet on which all of this hinged: Arnheid.

Now, I'm about to bring up some stuff that will make people uncomfortable, but I believe that it is important that I say these things with the gravity and significance they deserve. Any attempt to censor the words themselves would defeat the purpose of it, so I will be putting this under the cut.

For those of you who have watched it, you know what to expect, but for those who don't, this discussion will include slavery, physical abuse, rape, child murder, extreme violence, and death.

Treat this as a barrier. This is where I go into the meat of the matter in full.

Arnheid's story is one of a person who was genuinely trying to make the best of things that had happened to her, and even with that, it was not going to be enough for her to live. It never could be.

The author wrote out one of the most devastatingly bleak and emotional depictions of why 'Vinland' exists as a concept of 'paradise' and the symbol of freedom... by making Arnheid's experience the reason why people have it in the first place.

The Beginning

Let us go to the beginning of where she was in her village:

Arnheid married Gardar in an arranged marriage set up by their parents, but in a stroke of luck, they genuinely seemed to love each other and were happily raising their son Hjalti together.

The men of the village (including Gardar) decide to go to war over some resources and iron.

Arnheid and the other women in the village were not enthusiastic about this decision, as the village had more than enough iron already.

While the men were away, raiders came to the village and looted them as well as took the younger women as slaves.

Arnheid also has her son Hjalti taken from her and killed as unmarried women fetch a higher price.

This section serves as the cornerstone of everything that happens later in her story and already establishes more than a couple of key points for the entirety of Vinland Saga:

People will go to war for resources that they don't need.

People will raid villages for things that they don't need.

People will be enslaved because they are not seen as people.

People will be killed because they are not seen as people.

Arnheid at this point is viewed through the lenses of the lamenting wife, the grieving mother, and 'refurbished property'.

I use the last term because a mother with a baby likely would not have been 'sold' in the sense that their 'value' would have been perceived, so the raiders took care of that 'problem'.

So with that being said, this is the defining instance of Arnheid's identity of being a wife, a mother, and a person promptly stripped away. She, quite literally, was left with nothing.

The Enslavement

Now with that being said, let us explore what she experienced on Ketil's farm. I will preface this by saying that people really like to gloss over the severity of what her enslavement entailed. I will not be one of those today, so this is not for the faint of heart.

In her enslavement, Arnheid was bought for one specific purpose. Yes, she can be a maidservant to the master and his wife, she can help out with domestic duties, and she can be a caretaker for those who need it. But throughout the entirety of the anime, it is glaringly obvious for anyone with eyes:

She was bought for the purpose of the master's sexual gratification and satisfaction.

It is also worth pointing out one major difference between her and the rest of the slaves we focus on:

Pater was able to work to attain his freedom and did so. Einar and Thorfinn are granted the same opportunity to do the same.

Arnheid is not able to work her way out of bondage and was never offered the opportunity to do that.

My reasonings for this are quite simple, actually, and given the setting, it should come simple for you too: she is, for all intents and purposes, a woman. If Arnheid was a man, I guarantee you that she would have been able to work for her freedom because men are supposed to work.

She says it herself in multiple instances while she laments how she got here in the first place. Men decided to go to war, men enslaved her and killed her child, and a man bought her to use for his own wishes.

For people who want to debate this, there are multiple instances that we see, such as Ketil and her in his chambers, how Ketil talks about her, and how his wife treats her. It can be said that Ketil treats her relatively well compared to the others, but it doesn't change the fact that she's an unwilling participant.

Even if she abhors this treatment, how on earth is she going to call them out on it? Can she say no to Ketil? No. So she doesn't have a choice in the matter, and that alone constitutes rape.

Let me say this again. Arnheid was consistently raped.

With that being said, this also points out another batch of realities in her world:

People will be used for their master's own satisfaction and benefits because they are property.

People will be made to do things that they would not do themselves because they are property.

People will be abused, hurt, and violated because they are property.

Even in this bleak reality, it is to Arnheid's credit that she is taking it all quite well despite everything she has gone through up to this point. She could have broken down and she would be completely justified in doing so, but the strength of her spirit, character, and compassion have carried her through even to the uttermost.

This, however, would not be enough for what was to come.

The Reuniting

At this point, despite her endurance, Arnheid has been worn down to almost the barebones. Her husband is gone, her child is dead, and she is simply trying to make it work. Hell, she even finds some companionship with Thorfinn, Einar, and Sverkal. This moment of brief bliss of happiness and (dare I say) contentment is brought to an end by Gardar riding in with only one goal in mind: to find her and go home.

Here is why I think she reacted the way she did initially:

She was living with the mindset of making do with what she had.

She did not believe that a piece of her past, which she considers beyond her, was alive.

She was absolutely terrified of the man that she saw in the state that he was in.

Not only is her son with Gardar dead, she is pregnant with another man's child.

For the last point, the reason I single this one out is in those days, if a woman was thought to have committed such a thing (no matter the circumstance, really), Gardar would have been fully justified in cutting her down. This is just the state of the world she is living in.

She has already gone through so much, and now this instance presents itself and she has to deal with it. This moment was a turning point because it gave her something that she hadn't had for a while: a single kernel of hope. She acts on this, going to help him clean his wounds and perhaps escape.

However, I will also make the point that was touched on in the midst of the original post: Gardar's extreme violence was a product of his treatment. You cannot expect someone who had gone through what he had to be in a normal state of mind. In fact, I would be more surprised if he was intact.

This leads into the scene where Arnheid is tending to Gardar's wounds:

Gardar begs Arnheid to forgive her for leaving with the men in the village all those years ago

Arnheid begs Gardar to forgive her through tears, presumably for the pregnancy and Hjalti, but he's just confused

In the midst of this, Gardar is trying to reassure her that once they both escape, they can go back to how things were

True to this, Gardar kills a man with his teeth in his throat and Arnheid uses the knife from the dead man to cut his ropes

These are two very traumatized and very broken people. I can say this because their mutual experiences have turned them into people that have become so violent and so numb to their own selves. But the hope that they could leave... that is now what will fuel them both, Arnheid especially.

Now, Thorfinn, Einar, and Sverkal participate in her bid to run away with her husband as they too recognize the sorry state of the lot she's been dealt and are loathe to participate in it any longer despite their personal issues. There is also a worldliness about them that offers up how they know that the world they live in is truly wicked, which is why they help in the first place.

But it is in the instance where they are on the cart that there is a glimpse of the man Gardar really is: a man who loves his wife, his son, and the life he had made for himself. He even acknowledges that he won't let his son grow up into a warrior, noting precisely how terrible it —and the world— really is.

As he passes on from the wounds he sustained, she is caught, and this is where another thing should be noted about this:

Arnheid is a person.

Why do I say this? Because a person can hope. Property cannot. She, through this, had reclaimed her identity as a person and as someone who can hope. In the bleak darkness of circumstance, this is her brightest moment because it confirms her humanity.

But even then, it would be, like many others, snuffed out.

The Punishment

This part depressed me, fully and completely. It was unfair, it was unnecessary, and it was undeserved. You could use those words to describe everything that's happened to Arnheid thus far, and you would be correct to do so! Because it is! And that's the point.

So, here is the punishment in full:

She is tied up in a barn.

The guard that is watching her intends to rape her and says as much, making to do it then and there.

He also describes in excruciating detail how he and his comrades would have taken turns raping her for every life lost, highlighting the strangling and torture with sick glee while stating that he can't since she's the master's favorite.

This first section highlights and covers a few things, respective of the points in order:

An animal wouldn't have been treated like that.

Arnheid is not a person to this guard, she is an object.

The guard sees her as property, the master's property.

This brief exchange is unapologetic in how the world at large sees Arnheid outside of the meaningful interactions she has with others. She is not a person to them, but a means of feeling power and gaining their own satisfaction.

Before anything can happen, Ketil arrives with a stick and the guard scrambles away, but not before he poses a question: "Do you know who you belong to?"

He says that he won't forgive anyone who tries to steal his property, even if it's her.

This highlights how she is seen by the person who 'owns' her, stated within these specific points. He sees her as his property and he does not see her as a person. The latter point not only denies her as a person but layers it in the sense that her own personhood could put his property at risk.

She is then beaten with the stick, but in the midst of it, she begs for him to be gentle as she is pregnant with his child.

He beats her and kicks her regardless of this, calling her a liar and a thief.

Snake even stops Ketil from beating her anymore, saying that the crime befits the punishment of a beating, but to do more would kill her.

He also states that it is his right to kill her as she is his, but he ought to intend to do it.

One could attribute this to what Ketil is dealing with at the moment, but that is not the point here. The point is that Snake recognized that Ketil was beating her so much that she could die. While Snake is upholding the statement of her being property, he also takes into account the way that this ought to be handled and the intent of his master. There are no saints here, but I believe that even he knew that this was too much.

When Leif asks to purchase her, Ketil states that she is his and will not sell her.

I don't think I can make it any clearer, but this only goes to show that to the master, who bought her, she is nothing more than property.

Arnheid has been beaten so badly, she is unconscious and cannot be moved.

Pater states that he does not know if she will live as she is extremely injured.

Leif states that this would have eventually happened to her if she had stayed on the farm with Ketil.

This set of points is here to simply illustrate the inevitability of her end. Leif is right. Ketil could have been set off in any way if it was to do with the perceived ownership he had over her. Imagine if he had seen Einar getting too close to her. What then? Do you think he wouldn't have beaten her over that too?

As Arnheid is passing on, we see her with Gardar, Hjalti, and another baby in her arms on the cart.

This implies that even if she was able to make a full recovery from her injuries, either the miscarriage of the dead baby or the dead baby breaking down in her body would have killed her anyway. Just think about that for a minute as Ketil was so ticked off that his 'property' would lie.

The cart stops and Gardar says that she can take a moment to thank Thorfinn and Einar for their help.

She does, and while it is lamentable, her family is waiting for her... so she joins them.

This scene is sad, but it offers me a little happiness. It seems that Gardar wouldn't have killed Arnheid over the other baby. It seems that he would have taken them in as his own. You can say he forgave her, but I would say that I don't think he would have thought there was anything to forgive. They had both been through hell, after all.

Conclusion

Vinland, as a promised land, a slice of heaven, a refuge for those who seek shelter was a dream, an idea, a hope that people had. But for Arnheid, it would have been her salvation. With her death, this Vinland was crystalized and given form.

Would the promise of Vinland have saved Arnheid? We don't know. But we do know that her experience, her life after the fact, and her death would have been more than enough of a reason to wish Vinland into reality.

However, this does one more thing for her. It confirms that despite it all, she was, is, and always will be, a person.

And that people should never be treated like this.

She lived a life that was hard and quite bleak but even through it, she did her best and she was a person who deserved a world where:

You would not have to fight for resources, for there would be enough for all.

You would not have to worry about raids, because they could not reach you.

You would not have your child killed, because your child would grow up safe, happy, and taken care of.

You would not have your personhood stripped away, because no one would take it from you.

You would not be brutally raped and seen as an object of satisfaction, because no one would have that power over you.

You would not be beaten for acting out of line for property, because you would not be property.

You would be a person, a human being, because you would be free.

In a way, you could make the argument that through her story and her life, she is one of the most consequential and important characters in the entirety of this series.