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Earl Bjarni is an earl from Svealand who Earl Haraldson sold his daughter Thyri into marriage to for twenty pounds of silver. He is a cousin of King Horik.

Biography

Season 1

Earl Bjarni arrived in Kattegat and was welcomed with a small feast, offering twenty pounds of silver to the earl for the hand of his daughter, Thyri. Both Thyri and her mother Siggy were evidently displeased with the marriage to the much older and quite repulsive earl.

Thyri's husband-to-be began to tell her about their future together, particularly their wedding and the sons he expected from her, all the while promising her gifts when he returns later that year. He then gave Thyri a ring, but this did not change the way she saw him.

As winter and the wedding approached, Thyri began to wistfully glance at Rollo, whom she had been interested in when the prospect first came up. On the wedding day, Earl Bjarni was enthusiastic about bedding his young bride. Thyri, on the other hand, was repulsed at the thought but was left with no choice. However, Thyri was later left lying in bed, fully clothed, with the earl deep in sleep and snoring beside her. The fat, old earl, more the worse for wear from too much ale, passed out before they could consummate the marriage.

Bjarni witnessed the torture of Rollo at Haraldson's hands. Through disgusted, he did not protest.

Earl Bjarni complains about Thyri's lack of enthusiasm in bed. After they have sex, he demands that she get up and fetch her some pickled herring. When she says that she doesn't want him to eat in their bed, he threatens to beat her. Later, immediately following her father's defeat and death at the hands of Ragnar Lothbrok in single combat, Thyri was saved from her miserable marriage by Siggy, who stabbed Earl Bjarni to death in front of the entire village. As the old earl died, Thyri looked at her mother with gratitude written all over her face.

Trivia

  • The hirdmen of Earl Bjarni were the only Norsemen to carry helmets as part of their uniform until the introduction of Ivar's bodyguards.
  • His teeth are rotten black stumps.

Appearances

Season One Appearances
Rites of Passage Wrath of the Northmen Dispossessed
Trial Raid Burial of the Dead
A King's Ransom Sacrifice All Change
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