What happens in New Beginnings?
Spoilers for this episode and earlier events.
Lagertha’s withdrawal leaves Bjorn to handle kingship without her constant public presence. Ubbe and Torvi help her establish a home. Far away, Ivar is captured and brought before Oleg, who knows his reputation but refuses to treat his claimed divinity with reverence. The prince’s treatment of Ivar’s companion establishes the danger of his court. Their extraordinary flight above Kiev changes the immediate balance between captor and captive without making the relationship safe.
- Season & episode
- Season 6, episode 1 of 20
- Series order
- 70 of 89
Story connections: Bjorn Ironside, Lagertha, Ivar the Boneless and Ubbe.
Identify a face in this episode.
Episode references: Episode guide.
Key events and consequences
Bjorn begins by distinguishing banishment from execution, but removing dangerous people does not settle how they will live outside his rule. Lagertha attempts a more complete withdrawal by burying her sword. Ivar finds himself exposed to a ruler whose unpredictable cruelty makes his own position one of dependence.
- Bjorn banishes Ivar’s collaborators rather than executing them.
- Lagertha buries her sword and begins a farmstead.
- Oleg tests Ivar during a balloon ride.
Key characters
Locations and story geography
Kattegat
Bjorn must turn the defeat of Ivar into workable rule over a divided community.
Rus
Oleg's test makes Ivar a vulnerable guest rather than the ruler deciding everyone else's fate.
These are places in the story. For the real landscapes used on screen, explore the filming-location guide.
The episode breakdown
The cost of beginning again
Lagertha’s withdrawal leaves Bjorn to handle kingship without her constant public presence. Ubbe and Torvi help her establish a home. Far away, Ivar is captured and brought before Oleg, who knows his reputation but refuses to treat his claimed divinity with reverence. The prince’s treatment of Ivar’s companion establishes the danger of his court. Their extraordinary flight above Kiev changes the immediate balance between captor and captive without making the relationship safe.
Mercy and spectacle
the two brothers begin with different kinds of audiences. Bjorn has to justify a judgement to people he hopes to govern; Ivar has to survive another man’s performance of authority. A useful rewatch question is whether a leader can choose his own public identity when the people around him have already learned to expect violence. Lagertha’s buried weapon makes the private version of that question visible. Pay particular attention to who is allowed to refuse a role: retirement, exile and public service all begin as choices, but only some of these people control the conditions that follow.
Themes to follow
- The cost of beginning again
- Mercy and spectacle
The history behind this episode.
What was life like for women beyond the battlefield?
The most useful history extends beyond a warrior’s career. Household authority, textile production, marriage, assembly politics and enslavement reveal different kinds of power, work and constraint.
Keep the distinctionLagertha’s screen career is a prompt for historical questions, not evidence that every woman had the same rights or opportunities.
What lies behind Ivar and Oleg’s eastern storyline?
Baltic and river networks linked Scandinavians with Slavic, Finnic and other communities, the Islamic world and Byzantium. Silver, furs, slavery and military service made the eastern world larger than any one court.
Keep the distinctionIvar’s encounter with Oleg belongs to the drama. The historical Rus developed through many communities and cannot be reduced to the show’s characters or modern national borders.