'Vikings: Valhalla': Meet The Cast and Real-Life Characters

The highly-anticipated spin-off to Amazon Prime's Vikings, titled Vikings: Valhalla will be streaming on Netflix from Friday, February 25. The series is set to tell the story of some of the most famous Vikings that ever lived including Leif Erikson, Freydís Eiríksdóttir and Harald Sigurdsson. Created by Die Hard's Jeb Stuart, the series blends historical fact with fiction to tell the gripping story of power, community, family, love, lust, and war.

The main cast spoke to Newsweek all about their characters, the history behind them, and their journeys on the show.

Meet The Cast and Real Life Characters of Vikings: Valhalla

Leif Erikson — Sam Corlett

Up-and-coming actor Sam Corlett stars as Leif Erikson in Vikings: Valhalla.

Corlett is best known for playing Caliban, the self-proclaimed Prince of Hell who challenged Kiernan Shipka's Sabrina in Part 3 of the hit Netflix series, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

In Vikings: Valhalla, Corlett looks unrecognizable as Erikson, the famous Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot in continental North America. He is believed to have established the first Norse settlement in Vinland, the area known today as coastal North America.

Erikson was also the son of Erik the Red (Erik-son), the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland.

Speaking to Newsweek, Corlett touched on his character Leif Erikson's journey in Season 1.

He said: "I play Leif Erikson and we see him coming from Greenland into Kattegat, through the greater Viking world which he is very new to with the Greenlanders and his sister Freydis. He is over there for a particular purpose in regards to his sister [but] he gets dragged along into this greater Viking purpose, which is to revenge the massacre of St. Brice's day."

Freydís Eiríksdóttir — Frida Gustavsson

Swedish model and actress Frida Gustavsson takes on the role of Freydís Eiríksdóttir, the sister of Leif Erikson and daughter of Erik the Red.

In Vikings: Valhalla, Freydís is out to take revenge against a powerful man who took advantage of her as a young girl but finds herself getting drawn into something much bigger.

The real-life Freydís was a Norse woman and joined her brother Leif in discovering Vinland. In the two historical accounts of Freydis —The Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Erik the Red — she is portrayed as a strong woman who held a prominent place in Viking society.

Gustavsson, who has had small roles in The Witcher and The Inspector and the Sea, talked to Newsweek about playing a historical figure.

She shared: "The little things you can learn about Freydis in history are that she seems to be a very brutal woman and we have, of course, leaned on to what you can find about Freydis in the history books but we've also taken the liberty on basing this off, you know, women from the Sagas. These incredible, powerful women who were fighting side by side with men and who were exploring side by side with men.

"So, she is like an homage to, I feel like, the Viking culture and the Viking history that's been passed down generation after generation in Scandinavia.

"Perhaps because she is a woman, there's not as much about her in history books as her famous brother or other men. So, with that being said, it's always a bit easier somehow when you get to craft your character in your own right, and not so much to lean on, you know, actual historical facts."

Harald Sigurdsson — Leo Suter

Clique and Sanditon star Leo Suter portrays Harald Sigurdsson, also known as Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway from 1046 to 1066 in Vikings:Valhalla.

The real Harald Hardrada claimed the Danish throne in 1064 and the English throne in 1066. In 1066, he was defeated at the famous Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25, 1066, which is often seen as the end of the Viking age.

Speaking to Newsweek, Suter teased what fans can expect to see in Vikings: Valhalla.

He shared: "Harald Sigurdsson is a young Norwegian prince, who wants to become the King of Norway and I think he thinks that that's going to be straightforward. Then life complicates things, and he suddenly has revenge to seek in England, and then he finds himself with a Greenlander as a best friend and a Greenlander as a lover and suddenly, his path to becoming king is way more complicated and so life gets in the way and he's got to figure out how he's going to get to where he wants to go, and what friendships he's going to lean on [and] which he's going to leave behind."

King Canute 'The Great' — Bradley Freegard

Keeping Faith's Bradley Freegard portrays King Canute "The Great" (also known as Cnut) in Vikings: Valhalla.

King Canute was one of the most powerful rulers of the 11th century, serving as King of England from 1016 until 1035, King of Denmark from 1018 until 1035, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035.

With his three kingdoms known as the North Sea Empire, Canute sought to keep the peace by uniting English and Danes through wealth and custom, but not without violence.

Freegard told Newsweek: "I play Canute and what we discovered about him is that he's trying to bring the Viking people together. There's, there's friction and there are factions developing in the Viking kingdoms, between the old pagan religion, and the new Christian religion and he needs to find a way to bring those two tribes back together as a single army to go and seek revenge for the massacre of Vikings in Saxon England. He has a larger intent than that but we will have to wait and see if he can manage to get what he wants."

Olaf 'The Holy' Haraldsson — Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson

The Innocents star Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson portrays Olaf 'The Holy' Haraldsson in Vikings: Valhalla.

Also known as Olaf II Haraldsson and Saint Olaf, the real Olaf 'The Holy' Haraldsson was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. A religious man, Olaf is credited with leading the adoption of Christianity by Vikings in Scandinavia, but this is often disputed by historians.

The real Olaf was also made a saint by Pope Alexander III and today, he is symbolized by the axe in Norway's coat of arms.

Jóhannesson teased: "He's a Norwegian. He wants to be king desperately and when we kick off, he's on a path, he is on a journey, he's willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals and I think we're going to be in for some treats along the way. There are going to be twists and turns. Canute is going to get in the way, of course, I'll have to deal with that."

Jarl Haakon — Caroline Henderson

Danish-Swedish singer Caroline Henderson takes on the role of Jarl Haakon.
If you thought Henderson was based on the real Haakon, also known as Haakon Sigurdsson and Haakon the Powerful, you may be interested to know that Haakon in Vikings: Valhalla is entirely fictional.

The real Haakon Sigurdsson was the de facto ruler of Norway from 975 to 995.
Her character was created by show writer Jeb Stuart, as a female, powerful mentor to Freydis while Harald and her brother Leif, were in London. She is the ruler of Kattegat (a real sea area but not an area of land) and is a pagan.

Speaking to Newsweek, Henderson discussed the struggles her character faces and how it is not too far away from facts and reality.

Henderson said: "She's very headstrong in her beliefs. And she rules through a very difficult time in history because in Viking time paganism is going down, Christianity is coming up. People want to conquer more land, so it's a difficult time for her but she's trying to rule with tolerance and openness, which is quite difficult, and is historically correct in that sense because that was a very challenging time in history. A little bit maybe relatable to what's happening in 2022.

"She's inspired and based on some, you know, both male and female characters, and I think the writers did a wonderful job of sort of putting something together that could have been a historical character."

Earl Godwin — David Oakes

David Oakes, best known for his role as Juan Borgia in The Borgias and Prince Ernst in Victoria, takes on the role of Earl Godwin in Vikings: Valhalla.

The real Earl Godwin was once one of the most powerful earls in England under the Danish King Cnut the Great. He was appointed the first Earl of Wessex in 1020 by King Cnut himself. Godwin married Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, a Danish noblewoman.
Speaking to Newsweek, Oakes described Godwin as "the ultimate survivor."

He explained: "There is little he seemingly isn't prepared to cope with, which in a show about Vikings is a particularly exciting thing to be."

Oakes continued: "There's a lot to say. He's a guy who grew up under the shadow of a disgraced father, and if history is to be trusted, grows up to become one of the most powerful men in England and married to some of the most powerful people in the Viking empire.

"He's an outsider, I think that's what's particularly fun. I mean, in the world of Vikings, he's a Saxon. So from the get-go, he can look at things from a different perspective, it also means that the audience will be looking at him from a completely different perspective, they will look at him as a moody bad guy one would imagine."

Also starring in Vikings: Valhalla is:

• Laura Berlin as Emma of Normandy
• Asbjørn Krogh as Jarl Kåre
• Julian Seager as Jarl Gorm
• Pollyanna McIntosh as Queen Ælfgifu of Denmark
• John Kavanagh as The Seer
• Pääru Oja as Arne Gormsson
• Louis Davison as Prince Edmund
• Bosco Hogan as Aethelred II
• Gavin Drea as Eadric Streona
• Yvonne Mai as Merin
• Joakim Nätterqvist as Birkir

Vikings: Valhalla premiers Friday, February 25 on Netflix