, also known as "Thorkell the Tall" and "Thorkell the Invincible", is a fictional character from Makoto Yukimura's manga Vinland Saga. Thorkell is introduced Jomsviking commander who later commanded his own band during the invasion of England. He switches sides to fight for the English before choosing to ally himself with prince Canute. He opposes the Vikings who the lead character, Thorfinn, works with, but instead becomes interested in the young Viking for being the son of the warrior Thors.
Thorkell was created as a contrast to the other fighters appearing in the manga who were too serious personalitywise. As a result, Yukimura enjoyed writing Thorkell for making his acts of violence easier to draw. He is meant to represent the Vikings in general due to his love for violence and childhish personality which Yukimura carefully wrote to appeal to the young readers. He is voiced by Akio Otsuka in Japanese, Joe Daniels in the English dub by Sentai Filmworks dub and Patrick Seitz in the Netflix dub.
Critical response to his character was positive for how comical he was, and his fights in the anime were also praised.
Creation
Thorkell is modeled after a person called Thorkell the Tall, a man known for his bravery and built. Manga author Makoto Yukimura imagines that there were men like these "monsters" everywhere during the Viking era, not only famous and unknown. His design also evokes the feeling of a villain who rely on a single type of skill and can be easily be defeated. However, Yukimura wanted Thorkell to be more unique and give Thorkell the feeling of having a lot of strength. Yukimura specifically created Thorkell as a representation of what Vikings stood for. Despite being introduced as a grandfather, he acts like a child in all of his appearances. Nevertheless, Yukimura avoids making him look uncool or stupid as he believes the younger demographic would enjoy Thorkell as the manga author notes that the young readers are also pron to violence like the character. In retrospect, Yukimura finds Thorkell refreshing because he never hides his true emotions. Whenever he is drawn, the character is shown enjoying his actions.
An addition to the anime adaptation of Vinland Saga is the first scene where Thors fights alongside Thorkell before his retiring from the forces. The team was also careful with how adapting the first fight between Thorfinn and Thorkell. Nevertheless, Seko believes Yukimura's version of the narrative is stronger. Once the series' fourth story arc started, Yukimura reflected on Thorfinn, telling a friend that the protagonist highlights how people can change in contrast to others like Thorkell who do not want such effect.
As the series is notorious for its violent first story arc, Yukimura noted that all the characters including the protagonist Thorfinn had no room for jokes. However, Thorkell is an exception and helpful to write comedy as his characterization is that of a cheerful man who can change the violence into comedy. While Yukimura dislikes violence, he feels that he can handle the cruelty characterization Thorkell has.
Since Thorkell is the in charge of comedy and there is a cute side, Akio Otsuka was especially careful not to stick to low notes. He wanted to express the image of an inhuman person who kills a bear by folding it in a way that does not ruin with the dialogue. Furthermore, it has to be a different existence, and the most important point in making a role is to have different thoughts from everyone else. Where most people feel frustrated and scared, Thorkell does not feel the same way. Otsuka thinks that searching for the criteria for where Thorkell feels frustration and fear is the boundary between whether or not the image of Thorkell can be clarified. Otsuka noted that Throkell was popular for not only for his superhuman strength, but also for his sense of honor. Due the multiple moods Thorkell displays in few moments, Otsuka believes the handling of the character can be taken differently if it were an anime or a live-action.