Athelstan

Athelstan was a young Anglo-Saxon man who lived in England during the year 860 after Christ. Once a Christian monk taken as a slave by Ragnar Lothbrok and his fellow Vikings of Lindisfarne Monastery . Athelstan is brought to live in Viking society and struggles to maintain his beliefs in an environment very different from his home across the sea. Torn between maintaining his beliefs and surviving in his cruel new world, Athelstan began to doubt his faith in the Christian God.

Despite Athelstan's worldliness (extensive language skills, logical mind, knowledge of the Bible, etc.), he was hopelessly innocent when dealing with other people, especially ambitious ones. Despite his intelligence, or perhaps because of it, he found himself torn between his old religious beliefs and cultural traditions and those to which he was exposed during his time with the Vikings.

Athelstan was born to a Northumbrian family who could not afford another child. At a very young age, he was placed in a monastery at Lindesfarne. Eventually, Athelstan found happiness, great freedom, and joy in serving his church father, Saint Cuthbert. He had learned to forget himself and dedicated his life to Christianity. Living in the monastery also saved him from the possibility of dying of fever like the rest of his family.

Upon arriving in Kattegat he began to deal with a great conflict due to his old Catholic beliefs and the paganism of the Vikings and especially his great friend Ragnar . However, he is extremely intelligent and has great knowledge about Europe. Thanks to that information, he made the second invasion of England possible and successful, in addition to providing the Viking hordes with topographical, monarchical data and the location of temples to loot.

At the beginning of the saga, his religious conflict is marked, which is mitigated as the years go by in Viking land, but which ends up diminishing in the third season just before his death, where he returns to Christianity definitively, pulling his Viking bracelet to the coast, as a sign of freedom and total dedication to his ancient faith.

Athelstan is present at the monastery raid and is taken prisoner by the Vikings. He begs the Vikings to spare his life and begins to speak in his native language, much to Ragnar's surprise. Questioned by Ragnar about how he learned the Viking language, Athelstan tells him that in the monastery the monks are encouraged to travel to "Spread the Word of God." Ragnar becomes interested in Athelstan and thinks that he may be able to give information that could be valuable for his next raid. Ragnar later gets him drunk and tricks him into divulging information and the locations of the cities. Ragnar chooses Athelstan and takes him to his house as a slave, where his children mock his hair. That night Athelstan tries to sleep while Ragnar and his wife Lagertha have sex. They come to Athelstan and ask him if he would like to join them, but Athelstan rejects his offer and explains that he has taken an oath of celibacy and that God would know of his sin. Ragnar and Lagertha seem unaffected by this and carry on without him.

Athelstan is a young British ex-monk, he has fair skin, blue eyes and curly brown hair, he's considerably shorter and thinner than the other vikings in Kattegat but makes up for it with his cleverness and kind heart. He's usually quite shy and reserved, he doesn't like hanging out with the other vikings of the village without Ragnar but over the years he managed to open up and adapt to his new home

Despite their rough first encounter, Athelstan and Ragnar Lothbrok became close friends over the years they spent together, finding warmth in each other's company and their common interests in religion. Ragnar Lothbrok, despite being a powerful and fierce warrior has a soft spot for the young ex-monk, defending him of the other vikings and making sure he's already when things go south.