Ragnar the Younger

Ragnar is Uhtred's sworn brother, raised alongside him after tragedy bound their families together as boys. Grown into a Danish lord, he is boisterous, generous, and fiercely loyal, more interested in feasting, fighting, and the freedom of his people than in the scheming of kings. He wants his father's lands restored and his friend at his side.

Tobias Santelmann plays him as warmth made physical — a big, laughing presence whose affection for Uhtred feels entirely unguarded in a show full of careful men. Against so much Saxon calculation, Ragnar's straightforwardness is its own kind of relief, and it makes the bond between the two men the emotional spine of the whole series.