Will Alexander Ludwig’s Bjorn Ironside die on Vikings?

In 2020, Michael Hirst’s thrilling historical drama “Vikings” came to an end, concluding the era of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) and his kin after six seasons. (Which is all the more impressive considering Hearst didn’t think “Vikings” would get past him.). Few other shows have captured the realism and brutality of this era in history, with northerners invading the lands, quite like this one (Although there are some good alternatives to “Vikings”.).

Of course, Ragnar himself didn’t make it past the fourth season of the show Pulling out “Game of Thrones” (as much as I tried to avoid comparisons to that series) One of its most important characters is killed long before the end of the story. “And how the little pigs would grunt if they knew how the old pig suffered,” because from there, all that was left was for the father’s sons to fight over the remains of his kingdom. Chief among them was Ragnar’s eldest son Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig), who had to endure some intense family feuds to keep the peace and what was rightfully his.

But what happened to Bjorn? How did he carry on his father’s legacy, and how far did Hearst’s beloved show veer away from the history books and the real version of the Viking prince (who spent a lot of time raiding, plundering, and doing all sorts of other Viking, er, things)? Well, it may not be surprising to learn that Hirst’s version of these events had more flair and excitement. In fact, by the end of Vikings, Bjorn had emerged as what learned and respected historians call an “absolute leader.”

While it certainly did a good job of wrapping up the series, the final two seasons of “Vikings,” while watchable, are primarily concerned with wrapping things up in the aftermath of Ragnar’s death, most of which involves his sons fighting for her. Their place in the world their dear father left behind. This leads to Bjorn going to war with his half-brother Ivar the Boneless (Alex Høgh Andersen), who at the end of the show joined forces with Ros to take on Ragnar’s first-born. He almost manages to do so as well, stabbing King Bjorn and giving him a near-fatal wound that forces him to retreat behind the gates of Kattegat where he finds himself about to meet his end.

Valhalla can wait, though, as in a final act of defiance against the enemy, Bjorn dons his armor and goes out alone with his father’s sword to meet the enemy, who has been disoriented by the king’s supposedly dead being. Up and (barely) but ready for another battle. Feared by the Rus, who see him as god-like, and even sending shivers down Ivar’s spine, the whispers of Bjorn’s pious presence are silenced when he receives Boromir’s treatment, taking three arrows to his chest. Bjorn has certainly reached his limit by this point, but not before drawing arrows, raising his sword, and signaling the hidden Viking forces to attack, allowing him to overwhelm his enemies. In the end, he died and was buried as a true hero, praised by his widow Gunhild as “the King of Norway” and “the man who could not die.”

Even after a brutal battle wiped out Ragnar Lothbrok’s last remaining heirs, he wasted no time in filling the throne (which had barely gone cold after Bjorn’s death). By the time “Vikings” comes to an end, the series welcomes a new era, with Ingrid (Lucy Martin), Bjorn’s second wife, taking charge of things after taking the remaining players off the board.

Thanks in part to a popularity contest and a bit of magic (something that has played a prominent role throughout the entire series before this point), Ingrid places herself on the throne of Kattegat, a commendable accomplishment given her origins in the series. Having originally crossed Bjorn’s path while still enslaved, Ingrid ends the show pregnant, seemingly keeping the Lothbrok lineage continuing on its royal path (even if that is never fully confirmed), though we never know How much time.

In “Vikings: Valhalla,” set 150 years after the original show, Kattegat is ruled by Jarl Haakon (Jarl Estrid Haakon). It is revealed that she took the throne after her husband was killed in battle, with there being no confirmation as to whether or not her deceased other half was a descendant of Ragnar and Bjorn. However, just like the original show, “Valhalla” distorts the truth a bit, and that extends to Björn’s birth and death from the history books (or lack thereof).

For all the creative liberties “Vikings” takes, Hirst’s rich tale of war and betrayal remains rooted in real-life Viking history. Ragnar Lothbrok was, in fact, a true Viking lord whose legend spanned centuries, dancing between myth and reality, as did the family he formed during his reign. But in the case of Bjorn Ironside, the facts are perhaps even more skewed, especially when it comes to his death (which was never detailed in any known historical texts).

First, there is his place in the Lothbrok lineage. In the show, he is Ragnar’s firstborn son, giving his character some understandable weight when it comes to the legacy his father left behind and Bjorn’s struggle to keep it alive. Historically, Bjorn was not Ragnar’s eldest son. Furthermore, contrary to how “Vikings” depicts things, his mother was actually Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland), not Lagerta (Katheryn Winnick), which would have radically changed the Lothbrok family dynamic had Hearst stuck to the history books.

Bjorn’s death in the show is not only graphic and brilliant, but also more detailed since, once again, we don’t really know what happened to Ragnar’s son at the end of his life. Historically, the last known reference to Ironside is in “The Tale of Ragnar’s Sons”, which details how his plundering days ended and he appears to have settled in Uppsala and Sweden. He is presumed to have died of old age afterward, which is distinctly less dramatic than the way he appeared in Vikings.

His time with the Vikings may have come to an end, but Alexander Ludwig’s acting career has continued to take some interesting turns in the years since. After casting The Sword of Kings on the History Channel, Ludwig went on to appear in 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life” as AMMO member Dorn, an arrogant young man who served as another reminder that the main characters in the series have grown too old for… . S***. Fortunately, Dorn was worthy enough to stay, and he returned four years later in “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” starring once again opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

As for his TV stint, Ludwig hit the ropes alongside Stephen Amell in “Heels,” the disturbing short-form show that ran from 2021-2023 and follows a pair of wrestling brothers who find themselves on different sides of the ring. Most recently, Ludwig also appeared on MGM+ in the film “Earth Abides,” in which he plays one of the last remaining survivors of a deadly disease that has wiped out most of the world’s population. By doing this alone, his character is trying to reboot civilization, which we can only assume he’s still working on given that Season 2 is scheduled to premiere in 2025. Well, bringing the world back from the brink is a tough task, after all something.

As with most of the Vikings cast, the type, soldiers and armor maids were all saddened when Michael Hirst’s take on the bloodthirsty events in Kattegat came to an end. In the case of Ludwig and his time as King of Norway, although he may not have cried over his character being given an epic Viking funeral, he walked away having learned his fair share of valuable lessons.

talking to It Online After his heroic exit from “Vikings,” Ludwig explained, “I learned a lot on the show. But I will say that we got to a point that for the character that I think I showed and we did everything we could do with that character, anything else would have been overkill.” So yeah, it was really sad, but it felt right.

Fortunately, there’s more than just memories for Ludwig, as he was able to pull off his own historical masterpiece from the show. “Yes, it’s actually a tradition on Vikings — anyone who dies on the show gets a shield signed by the entire crew and cast, which I love, and I think it’s cool that we did that. So, I got this shield,” he explained. “Being ‘the guy’ “Who Shall Not Die” comes with some extra perks too. Ludwig added: “Michael also gifted me the Sword of Kings for the producers. It had the words “Bjorn Ironside” in Scandinavian engraved on the sword. “So I got that, and that was a great gift.”