Vikings: Valhalla has featured notable historical figures from the Viking Age, but there’s one I’ve been waiting to see next to Leif (Sam Corlett) and Freydis (Frida Gustavsson) after confusion created by the first Vikings TV show. With many more stories from the Viking Age to tell, Vikings: Valhalla continues exploring the world of Vikings over 100 years after the events of season 6, and it focuses on the tensions between pagan and Christian Vikings, as well as their relations with the English.

Leading Vikings: Valhalla are Leif Erikson, Harald Sigurdsson, and Freydis Eirkíksdóttir, Leif’s sister. Throughout two seasons, they faced the English and made deals with them, and Freydis traveled to Jomsborg and returned to Kattegat, while Leif and Harald, after many obstacles, finally made it to Constantinople. Vikings: Valhalla season 3 is expected to see them together again, but more exciting than that is the introduction of a character related to Leif and Freydis and who has a key role in Viking history: Erik the Red (Goran Višnjić).

Vikings: Valhalla Season 3 Will Introduce Erik The Red – Why That’s So Exciting

Erik The Red Has Already Been Mentioned In Vikings: Valhalla

Although season 3 will be the official debut of Erik the Red in Vikings: Valhalla, he has been mentioned before, especially in season 1, as Leif and Freydis are his children. When Leif and Freydis arrived in Kattegat, they carried the bad reputation of their father, infamously known for being banished from Iceland along with his family. Leif mentioned to Liv that there was a darkness in his father and he once saw him brutally beat a man in front of his children.

Vikings: Valhalla, then, has already set up Erik the Red as a mysterious and potentially dangerous figure who may or may not arrive to cause more chaos in his children’s lives in season 3. Something that has bothered me a bit about Vikings: Valhalla is how much it has changed history (for instance, Leif and Harald never met each other), though I understand that many events and situations have to be embellished for entertainment reasons – however, when it comes to Erik the Red, Vikings: Valhalla is on its way to being closer to what history says about him.

According to the sagas, Erik the Red was a Norse explorer who had four children, including Leif and Freydis. Erik’s father, Thorvald Asvaldsson, was banished from Norway for committing acts of manslaughter and sailed to Iceland with his family. Years later, Erik was exiled from Iceland when his slaves were killed, and in retaliation, Erik killed the man who murdered them, and he was banished for that. Erik sailed to a little-known land he would go on to name Greenland, founding the first European settlement there.

Vikings: Valhalla season 1 teased that Leif had the same darkness as his father in him and seemed to have seen the beginning of berserker Leif Erikson, but that stopped in season 2. Introducing Erik the Red allows Vikings: Valhalla to go deeper into the backstories of Leif and Freydis, explore more of Leif’s “darkness”, and see how bad Erik’s reputation is and how it can affect what his children have built and planned so far.

Why There Was Confusion Over Erik The Red In Vikings & Valhalla

Vikings Introduced An Erik The Red, But It’s Not The Same

Among the many historical inaccuracies in Vikings is that it featured Erik the Red (Eric Johnson). Vikings season 6 introduced Erik Thorvaldsson, an outlaw and former mercenary. After Bjorn’s death, he made himself King of Kattegat alongside Queen Ingrid, but the latter asked the gods to make him blind. With the help of a slave named Nissa, Ingrid planned Erik’s death, and Nissa stabbed him with a pitchfork, killing him. However, despite having the same name, this wasn’t the real Erik the Red, but Vikings: Valhalla’s Erik is the one.

Ultimately, despite sharing the same name and father (or at least their name, too), Vikings’ Erik and his story have no influence in Vikings: Valhalla, allowing the latter to properly introduce the real Erik the Red. Through Erik the Red, Vikings: Valhalla can make up for its many historical inaccuracies, but the biggest problem I see is that this is the show’s final season, so no matter how good this portrayal of Erik is, it won’t be fully explored.