[dramatic opening theme music plays]
[music ends]
[Leif grunting]
Sigrid!
[tense music plays]
[groans] Sigrid.
[groans]
- [blade clanks] - [Leif pants]
Sigrid!
[eerie whooshing]
- Sigrid the Unwed. - [tense music continues]
The willful and wounded.
What do you want from me?
A long time have I lived with gods,
but I am giant-folk first.
Giants just died.
I don't care what's in your blood.
I care that you hid while theirs was spilt.
And what of me?
Did I die for you as well?
It's Hel you visit,
but you'll survive.
You are a guest in my graying queendom.
Hel is a place
and also a person,
my ever-dying daughter.
The dead-of-war go to Valhalla,
carried on by Valkyries.
Hel, she takes the thieves and traitors...
The liars and cowards and cunts.
I'm only one of those.
And you called me a guest. Is your guest free to leave?
Yes, Blood-Bride.
But you want revenge, not release.
You said you'd give me Thor.
- Do you have a weapon that can kill him? - God-killing iron is easy enough.
The dwarf, Andvari, can arm you,
but Asgard will withstand you well.
Its bulwarks have buckled but once.
The bramble gods besieged and breached it
when of old they warred with Odin.
- [weapons clanking] - [animals shrieking]
The Vanir?
You want me to make a deal with the old gods,
to rekindle the first war?
What you want is impossible.
It's madness.
Our madness would remake the world.
The age of petty gods must end.
Riven and rent, at Ragnarök.
You help me kill Thor,
and you can do what you like with the world.
Gather fighters and fare to Vanaheim. Your passage I pledge to abet.
Choose well your soldiers.
Seek those in pain.
Men with Hel in their heart.
But go you quick and quiet now.
Ere Odin makes his own plans.
[Leif groans]
[panting]
[gasps]
[coughing]
Sigrid!
[Sigrid gasps]
[coughing]
Sigrid!
What happened? Where were you?
[breathing deeply]
Hel.
I was in Hel.
He offered me aid.
He? Who is he?
[ominous music plays]
[sighs] Loki of Asgard.
[gasps]
You need to grieve.
Sigrid, Loki is no friend of yours.
He's...
Let me take you home.
You want tears from me?
I have none to give.
- It's revenge I need. - Sigrid...
I am the last of my family.
Honor demands it.
I must kill Thor.
He is not bound by our codes or by honor.
He is Thor.
We fear no gods.
I do not trust Loki.
He wants a war?
I will give it to him.
So long as it serves me.
[dramatic music plays]
We'll take five warriors for the journey.
One for each finger of the Open Hand,
closed around us in a fist.
We'll need others who are lost.
Others with nothing to lose.
And who's the first you'd send to their death?
A shield-biter who'd like nothing more.
I don't remember that much blood when I was first split.
My family is dead, murdered by Thor Odinson.
I will see him dead.
If I'm to succeed, I need you with me.
No law, no names,
we ride beneath no banner, and will like as not die in the effort.
[sighs]
[music stops]
I'll piss and we can go, yeah?
[woman moaning] Oh, Egill...
My name is wonderful in your mouth, Marja.
Do you know why my mother named me Egill?
Why?
[moans] It's after Egill "One-Hand."
My namesake lost his hand and gained a sword.
Perhaps my mother knew much would be taken from me in this life.
But I like to think she knew what I'd be able to give one-handed.
[moans]
But you... have two hands.
That he does.
[Egill and man grunting]
Such a generous thrall.
[moans] It is my destiny to serve and be served.
- Stop talking! - [grunts]
But don't stop that!
- [wood clatters] - Father!
Motherfucker!
The poet tricked us.
He bound us tight with his filthy words, and we were helpless.
[Egill] Mm.
[exciting music playing]
Kill that poet!
[man] Get him!
There he goes!
Where'd he go?
Where is he?
- [blows] - [magic jingles]
- Don't stand here and-- - [male voice whispers] That way.
[gasps]
Who'd you fuck?
Who'd you kill?
No one yet.
[music fades]
[birds chirping]
This is not how I want to die.
You do not need me.
What are we doing?
[Hervor clears throat]
If you must talk so much, poet, spin us a tale.
Yes, why not?
Perhaps a story that suits our destination.
If only I knew where we were going.
We require more magic than is in your sticks.
I want the Seid-Kona.
Then I will tell the tale of why this is an awful idea.
Now hear of the Seid-Kona,
who knows I speak of her,
as she knows all things,
even the thoughts in our heads as we broach her lands.
[gloomy, mysterious music playing]
The Seid-Kona began as you and I.
But in exchange for power, she gave up her most human offering.
Her son.
She ate him raw, screaming,
for Freya to grant her what she wished,
the all-seeing eye.
Such a one that would rip her baby apart with her teeth for power,
such a one will do much worse to us for knocking on her door unbidden.
Why do we call on this person?
Because even gods fear the future.
[mysterious music plays]
- [flies buzzing] - [eerie music plays]
She's made a world tree.
[exhales]
Gods, the stink!
[leaves rustle]
[Leif gasps]
- [ominous music plays] - [leaves rustling]
We are not alone.
[low growl echoes]
- [Leif grunts] - [blade clangs]
[Hervor] Wolf!
[growling]
No, it's just a cunt in wolf's clothing.
[exciting music playing]
[grunts]
[yells]
Come on then, pup.
[grunts]
- [grunting] - [dramatic string music playing]
[Sigrid grunts]
[Hervor grunts]
- [groans] - [Hervor grunts]
[Egill screams]
[music fading]
[Egill groans]
[Egill groans loudly]
[mysterious music plays]
[whooshes, crackles]
Come to heel, Ulfr.
- [exhales] - [ghostly whooshing]
[eerie music playing]
[exhales loudly]
[somber music plays]
A demonstration.
I think his teeth deserve a god's throat.
Don't you?
She knows! She knows already.
She looked into her baby's guts, and they told her our plans!
[chuckling] Oh...
The son I ate for Freya's good favor? They still tell that?
- [groans] - [Seid-Kona] I can help your thrall.
Come in.
[groans] Come in where?
[mysterious music plays]
[cawing]
Who is he?
Ulfr was born a bastard and has behaved in kind ever since.
I found him in the midst of a black deed and bound him.
Now I am his confessor, and his wrongs are my power.
[groans softly]
[growls]
I'll save his hand if you allow it.
Why should we trust you, witch?
Because you will, so you do.
- That's no kind of-- - Do it! Whatever it be, do it.
[Ulfr grunts]
- Do not touch him. - Wait.
You'd have us all die, so long as we halt at your word!
[Egill groans]
[whooshes]
[magic humming]
[Egill sighing in relief]
You were half right.
There was a Seid-Kona who bore a son.
But she could look at me and know that my future was a woman's life.
And she loved me and made me the Seid-Kona that followed.
Now, I take up my mother's clothes and keep her work alive.
The truth took a turn when the poets got involved.
I'll work on it.
You offer your wolf to me.
I came for a witch.
You have one.
Those reindeer outside already told me.
We're bound.
Whether I like it or not.
[Leif] That monster almost killed us,
and you didn't care.
We need madness for a mad quest.
Do you disagree?
My path is the same as yours,
but you are meddling with things that you cannot control.
What course do we set?
Do you not know already?
All of us together would make only a straw target for Thor,
but there is a dwarf, I'm told, who can give us an edge.
We go to Nidavellir.
[adventurous music plays, fades]
[melancholy music plays]
- Careful. - [gasps]
That sheen on the lake skin is metal.
The dwarves make their forges here.
The bog gives them their iron.
It had another purpose too.
Kings and priests, they drowned their women here.
Women?
Women who loved and were branded "whore."
- Women who spoke sharp and were cut. - [spirits moaning]
They were tossed in,
turned to stone in liquid fire.
Their agony lives in the dwarves' weapons.
I will make their rage my own.
[sizzles]
[mysterious music plays]
[ominous music plays]
[crackling]
[groaning, cracking]
[Ulfr growls excitedly]
[speaking Dead-Speak in raspy voice]
[continues speaking]
Dead-Speak.
And she would be answered before we're granted leave to enter.
[monster continues speaking]
Then I will negotiate.
[grunts]
- [clanks] - [roars]
[grunts angrily]
[monster continues speaking]
- [Hervor gasps] - [monsters snarling]
- [Leif grunts] - [grunts]
Loki, you spider, make good on your oaths.
[monster snarls]
[monster speaking Dead-Speak]
[spiders chittering]
[roars]
[whooshes]
[monster hisses]
Hail, Sigrid.
So, this is your man.
Brave boy to join this battle.
[ominous music plays]
[monster snarls]
[spits]
I am called Eager-to-Shine, the lone one.
No father or mother have I.
I stem from stone and live in the hearth.
And there I will spend my life.
A riddle guards the gate.
[Ulfr] Flint.
Flint is the answer.
The divine spark of the dwarves.
[dramatic music plays]
[magic hums, whooshes]
[chains clinking]
[door thuds]
[whooshes]
[dark music playing]
[clanking]
[music fades]
Where is this Andvari?
He'll come.
Unless your "friend" led us here for his own private fun.
He's probably hiding somewhere.
[squelching]
[magic whooshes]
Andvari, master of his forge.
I am Leif, son of Gorm and King of the Völsung.
- We've come a long way for-- - I know what you're here for.
[ominous music plays]
I know that blood.
You've been to Hel and back.
You've come for god-killing metal.
Follow.
[mysterious music plays]
Long time since I've had a customer brave enough.
Name your price.
You have been misled.
I'm not paid in gold.
What price then?
Souls.
"You may take many lives with me, but in turn,
I will take yours."
My metal cuts the threads of fate and brings misfortune.
But how and when, no way to tell.
This is my ward against the thieves.
One in particular,
perhaps you know him,
Loki.
- Never met him. It's Thor I want. - [eerie music plays]
And I'm no thief. I'll pay whatever the weapon requires.
Wait. You don't know what you're doing.
Sigrid.
[clinks, rings]
[magic hums]
[Andvari] It's called Antler,
and it's yours... now.
And you profit by her curse?
I am older than I look, and not by accident.
When she meets her fate, I'll be spared mine.
[clangs]
We are done here. No one else need--
I take the knives.
- Lost my axe in the fucking bog. - [magic hums]
I am weapon enough
and cursed enough.
[exhales softly]
[groans uncertainly]
[Andvari] I really should mention...
I tried to tell the woman,
my weapons can only be used by those of true intent.
If the weapon senses hesitation in the warrior, the warrior burns alive.
- I saw her conviction... - [melancholy string music playing]
...but you, my friend,
I see doubt in you.
Stop. You have nothing to prove.
It seems I do.
- If you can't believe me-- - I don't want to lose you.
[magic hums]
I am yours.
Come Ragnarök or ruin.
[ethereal music playing]
[intriguing string music plays]
You have not finished yet.
Five warriors you sought, and it's only four I count.
[Andvari] Hold!
I'm coming with you.
To what end?
My business is my own.
Do you refuse me?
[mysterious music plays]
I can make that blood your power
if you're open to pain.
How?
The iron will harden the blood.
Nothing can hurt more than burning my kin.
Remember you said that.
[Leif] Sigrid!
[frenetic music plays]
[Andvari] The women will clad her in iron.
[crackling]
[women in unison] Our reach is yours.
Our grief is yours.
Our iron is yours.
- Sigrid! - [music fades]
Sigrid.
[gasps]
[coughs]
[gasps for breath]
It's all right. It's all right.
[Sigrid exhales, shudders]
[melancholy music plays]
I cannot cry for them, Leif.
[shudders]
I cannot even cry.
I know.
[sizzles]
[gasps in discomfort]
[sizzles]
There are your tears.
If you wish,
you will shatter the sky.
[crows cawing]
- [ominous music plays] - [Odin] My old friends,
Thought and Memory,
send Sigrid's plans to my sight.
[crows chirping, cawing]
[Odin] Sigrid.
[flies buzzing]
Beauty.
Blood-Bride.
Waging war against my son.
Odin opens his eye upon you.
[eerie sting]
[haunting choral music plays]
[music fades to silence]