Who plays Helga in Vikings?
Helga is played by Maude Hirst in the original Vikings series.
Explore family, allies and rivals or follow the story sections below.
Cast references: Maude Hirst.
Explore Helga’s story
A refuge beyond the hall
She helps shelter Ragnar and his family after Haraldson’s attack. Her home with Floki offers practical care during a conflict neither of them can safely ignore.
Marriage, loss and a final journey
Helga and Floki marry and have Angrboda. Their daughter’s death reshapes the household. Helga later takes Tanaruz with her; the child kills her during the English campaign.
Read care as an active role
Helga’s importance is easy to miss when attention stays on battles and visions. Watch what others expect her to absorb, forgive or repair. Her loyalty has consequences for her own life, and her wish to care for a child should be understood alongside the violence that created that child’s vulnerability.
Relationships & loyalties
Memorable scenes
A wedding outside Ragnar’s blessing
Season 2, episode 7
Helga and Floki marry as they prepare to become parents. Their celebration also exposes Floki’s growing desire to define loyalty and spiritual authority independently of Ragnar’s approval.
Why this moment matters
The wedding makes Helga and Floki’s relationship a public commitment just as Floki resists Ragnar’s authority over his private life. A joyful ceremony therefore contains a quiet political separation. Helga wants a blessing that would connect their household to the wider circle; Floki’s refusal reveals how easily his convictions can decide the terms for both of them.
Tanaruz’s final act
Season 4, episode 20
The child Helga has taken from the Mediterranean campaign kills her and then herself. What Helga understands as a chance to care for someone ends in violence rooted in the child’s captivity and loss.
Why this moment matters
The ending forces a distinction between caring for a child and possessing one. Helga’s grief helps explain her desperate attachment, but Tanaruz experiences the arrangement through captivity and loss. The violence does not make the child an ungrateful recipient of kindness; it exposes how profoundly the two people have understood their relationship differently.
Why fans keep talking
Affection for Helga rests on the everyday steadiness she offers in a world organized around ambition and violence. That is precisely why Tanaruz’s story creates such a sharp dispute. One reading follows a bereaved woman grasping for another family; another sees the character’s compassion collapse into a refusal to recognize a frightened child’s wishes. The strongest reading can retain sympathy for Helga while taking the child’s captivity seriously.
What resonates
Warmth, steadiness and Maude Hirst’s performance make Helga a welcome presence amid the cruelty around her.
What divides viewers
The Tanaruz storyline divides sympathetic viewers: some understand the grief behind it, while others find the child’s abduction a damaging turn for the character.
Character gallery
Who plays Helga?
Maude Hirst portrays Helga.
Maude Hirst’s work beyond Vikings includes Kat Ashley in The Tudors (2008); Sophie in Cash and Curry (2008); Ellie in Nuryan (2009).