I Have No Enemies
What the Vinland Saga tells us about the strength and legitimacy of faith
This article is part of the Claritas spring 2024 issue, Home.
By: alex gallagher-alava
I am a strong believer in kindness, cooperation, and compassion. I believe that we are inherently social beings, who, through the ability to work together and care for one another, have been able to construct communities of increasing interconnectedness. Now I am not blind to destructive traits, and do not claim that I myself am infallibly virtuous; and it would certainly be ridiculous for me, as someone rather privileged, to denounce others less fortunate for being less inclined to give what little they may own. But I prefer to attribute such tendencies of greed and evil to our material reality rather than our physiological one, and trace selfishness to the world around us rather than the souls within. It is precisely this world around us that can be changed, has been changed, and has to be changed. Human society must advance as it already has, in the process yielding not only an increasing abundance of resources but also of love, or at the very least the opportunity for it. We now live in a richer world than that of our forefathers just as they lived in one richer than that of theirs, a feat accomplished through human cooperation at a scale never before seen or even imagined; yet it was imagined, and it was subsequently built. To progress, one first requires a destination, and to hope, one first requires a dream.
So when I hear dismissive remarks appealing to some notion of inescapable suffering, I laugh. ‘It is hopeless to improve things beyond what they are now, our own humanity will not allow it, we are forever doomed to live lives dominated by anguish and hatred!’ I can imagine such statements of protest have been uttered at every stage of human development. Yet to many, such remarks may hold an increasingly large weight; they may come from peers and friends, mentors or parents, from sources of guidance and shelters of refuge. They may sway one’s resolve and undermine one’s faith, perhaps inflicting internal questions such as: ‘what if it really is hopeless?’ and ‘what if things truly cannot be changed?’ At Cornell, such tensions become further exacerbated. We are plunged headfirst into a faithless world of money and status where individuals, through embracement of greed and wealth, are able to transcend their economic roots and find financial success in line with the American dream; a nice house, a nice car, some nice clothes. Notions of virtue are eroded by the temptations of material pleasure, and it becomes easier than ever to abandon faith. Through this essay, I hope to do two things: to provide both empathy and strength to those who may find themselves fighting similar battles, and to offer perspective to those who themselves are critical of such optimistic beliefs.
This is where a certain historical manga series enters the picture.
Vinland Saga, written and illustrated by Makoto Yukimura, is set in Europe around 1000 AD. [1] I had originally only tuned in due to the high praise surrounding it, but it quickly dawned on me how fantastic the series really was. While it is yet to be finished by the author, I have become enthralled with the story of Vinland Saga and see many of my own beliefs within it, enough to inspire this essay.
It is a dramatization of the life of real viking Thorfinn Karlsefni and his expedition to ‘Vinland,’ known in the current day and age as the Americas. Yet what is truly at the heart of the story is not Thorfinn’s literal search of Vinland. Instead, it is his personal transformation from a murderous warrior obsessed with revenge into a devout believer of peace seeking forgiveness for his past, with his pursuit of Vinland truly being his pursuit of his faith.
As a young kid, Thorfinn dreams of ‘proving’ himself as a warrior through violence and battle, something typical of all Nordic youth at the time and expected of Nordic men. Children engage in mock battles with wooden weapons, young men boast about the success they will surely encounter on the battlefield, and warriors live by the belief that they must die in battle to gain entrance to ‘Valhalla,’ essentially Viking heaven. Violence and conflict are thoroughly ingrained in Nordic society, and Yukimura emphasizes this throughout the story. Thorfinn’s father, Thors, is different. Having in his past been an invincible warrior poised to inherit the throne to a legendary Viking order, he faked his own death and left it all behind after being changed by the birth of his first child, choosing to raise a family in Iceland, as far away as possible from the violence of Europe. He tries to instill in Thorfinn values of nonviolence and compassion, telling him, “You have no enemies. No one has any enemies. There is no one that you should hurt.” [2] While having been a warrior of unrivaled strength, Thors affirms that “a true warrior needs no sword.” [3] Thorfinn, being six years old, does not understand.
Before Thors has the chance to enlighten his son with the knowledge that had taken him a lifetime to learn, he is killed, dying for both friend and foe in a Christ-like act of selfless sacrifice, truly embodying the command to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” [4] Thorfinn, witnessing his death and having failed to grasp what his father died for, is plunged into a vicious life of revenge. Thorfinn, still six years old, proceeds to follow his father’s killer for a decade, making it his life's mission to obtain revenge by honorable duel. Askeladd, the man who had slain Thors, manipulates Thorfinn’s pursuit of revenge while simultaneously serving as a father-like figure in Thors’ absence. He promises Thorfinn duels upon the completion of tasks, a cycle that Thorfinn becomes stuck in as he is never able to best Askeladd due to being emotionally blinded by revenge. Being raised on the battlefield Thorfinn becomes a murderous and violent warrior, thoughtlessly killing hundreds in his pursuit of Askeladd’s death by his blade. Yet before Thorfinn is able to exact his revenge, Askeladd is killed, struck down amidst an act of sacrifice of his own; Thorfinn, having his life’s purpose dissolved in front of him, is plunged into depression and, as a result of his initial outburst of violence resulting from Askeladd’s death, slavehood.
Throughout his enslavement, he is transformed by those around him; while he is at first a servant of men, he leaves a servant of faith. In between long days without any purpose to guide him and long nights of recurring nightmares from his past, Thorfinn discovers that something inside him does want to live; and even if he cannot change his past, he can amend it through his future. Yet this is no light-hearted task, and Thorfinn is aware: “You cannot simply give up the sword, there’s more than that, of course. Simply swearing not to kill or destroy any more than you already have does not atone for all the harm done in the past. A man must raise more grain than he has trampled in his life. His hands must build more homes than they have burned. I must make up for the death and destruction that I caused, with at least a little life and creation.” [5] To avenge the souls of those he had killed and seek true forgiveness, Thorfinn commits his life to raising a nation founded on peace rather than war and a true embracement of nonviolence, believing that he has lost the right to take another’s life and, as his father had told him a decade prior, he has no enemies.
“I want to be a kinder, gentler person. I want to be a stronger person." [6]
Coming from within a society that holds violence as a universal truth, a state of human being which is simply natural and unchanging, Thorfinn grapples with his dedication to nonviolence and pursuit of forgiveness for his past. This newfound ‘faith’ of his is constantly not only tested but assaulted, and yet he manages to push onward towards his utopian objective, regardless of detractors and in spite of the societal realities that surround him, seeking to become a true warrior and build a world where nobody has enemies.
"I want something I can offer proudly. A salvation and peace greater than death- here, in the land of the living. And if it does not exist, I'll make it.” [7]
It is never easy for Thorfinn to make progress towards the ‘Vinland’ he envisions, and in fact it is a very real truth that he may never reach it; yet what is important is that he works towards it, guided by his belief in it. Through this belief he is able to sow seeds around him that echo the world he strives to create, fostering relationships with others joined together by faith.
In many ways, we find ourselves similar to Thorfinn.
Certainly, none of us have grown up on the battlefield engulfed by revenge before seeking a lifetime of atonement; at least I hope. Yet all of us come to Cornell for a purpose, and all of us live for a reason. Many of us come to this school with virtuous ideals and the hope to play a part in building a better world, before entering a world fundamentally different from the one we had envisioned. “Cornell is a place of almost limitless potential,” said Martha Pollack at this year’s New Student Convocation Address. [8] Yet slowly we risk succumbing to ‘networking’ and ‘professional development,’ measuring our worth in internships and our relationships by the doors they open; our potential quickly becomes seemingly limited. Not even within our campus are we able to escape this world of material wealth and employment, as we begin competing against our peers for spots in exclusive organizations and are exposed to luxury automobiles and vacations with valuations several magnitudes greater than our own humble net worth. While we may have entered the school seeking to change the world, at the end we find ourselves fighting to claim our own spot within it.
But this doesn’t mean we should simply surrender to our environment. It doesn’t mean that, simply because that which we seek is difficult to imagine as definitively ‘feasible’ in our current material context, we should yield to mediocrity and release our faith in virtue. In fact it means the opposite; that we should be aware that remaining faithful is not a simple task yet to do so is to remain true to oneself and to remain true to God. It is my strong belief that it is absolutely necessary that we resist surrendering to complacency, and that to do so is what it means to be Christian. James writes, “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance,” and “blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.” [9, 10] To be Christian is to pursue virtuous ideals amidst a world that is in many ways fundamentally opposed to them, motivated by faith which demands us to do better. When I say this I mean it in the ideological sense. We are, of course, a Christian majority nation in a Christian oriented Western hemisphere, but though we may be such in name we are far from it in practice. Ideologically as a society we not only accept but promote notions of selfishness, violence, greed, opulence, corruption, and all in between, regularly acting in opposition to kindness and compassion, choosing to instead worship all matters of material things. We live amidst a societal cocktail of hyperindividualism which works to push us apart. The justification is always the same: ‘this is simply the way things are, and to think otherwise is to be naive.’ I reject this. We as Christians are not faithful out of fear or greed but rather love, acting out of deep commitment to ideals which we hold as self-evident, working towards a salvation which is beyond the scope of our material world and guaranteed by nothing but our own belief in its existence. In fact, through our faith we work towards a future which we will not even experience in the current iteration of our physical manifestation! Yet, in our faith, we are undeterred.
“Such a future is impossible! Out of reach! Why should you work towards something which does not seem feasible, much less guaranteed!”
Such doubts invoke two points. The first being that, if these comments do not shake your faith in God, then do not let them shake your faith in You. “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” [11] The second rejects the comments entirely.
Our foundational aspirations do not require economic calculation to remain true in our hearts. In fact, through working towards a seemingly unreachable objective we not only build ourselves in the image of our utopia, but additionally see our own grounded reality increasingly reflect it through our efforts. It does not matter that you may never see the full realization of your faith in this life, but what matters is that you recognize your faith as true and pure and take on the responsibility of working towards it. This not only gives your life value and purpose but also serves to better the world around you, as your devoutness to your faith seeps into that which surrounds you.
Christians work towards an ‘impossible’ goal–heaven–which they are never outwardly guaranteed to experience. Yet it is completely irrelevant how practical the concept is. What is truly important is the belief in it, and through this belief the series of actions which work towards it, in the process causing the surrounding world to become more closely aligned to the belief itself. This is what makes it real. You are not a dedicated Christian because of some reward that will be reaped in your current material reality, you are a dedicated Christian because you believe in something greater than your individual existence and dedicate yourself to working towards this pure concept which gives your life value and meaning. Pure, as our virtue should not compromise with our doubt. We do not fight for material gratification, but rather, deeper, spiritual victory.
And so we should all work towards our image of heaven, as through collective effort we build a world which increasingly reflects it. If you are discouraged by doubt, refuse to allow it to falter you. Do not be afraid to build a better world simply because it is difficult.
[1] Yukimura, Makoto. Vinland Saga. Kodansha Publishing.
[3] Yukimura, Makoto. “Chapter 15.” In Vinland Saga 2, Vol. 2. Carlsen Verlag, 2005.
[4] Matthew 5:44 (NRSV-CE)
[5] Yukimura, Makoto. “Chapter 83.” In Vinland Saga 2, Vol. 12. Carlsen Verlag, 2012.
[6] Yukimura, Makoto. “Chapter 131.” In Vinland Saga, Vol. 19. Carlsen Verlag, 2017.
[7] Yukimura, Makoto. “Chapter 93.” In Vinland Saga, Vol. 13. Carlsen Verlag, 2013.
[8] University, Office of Web Communications, Cornell. 2023. “2023 New Student Convocation Address.” Office of the President. Cornell University. August 20, 2023. https://president.cornell.edu/speeches-writings/2023-new-student-convocation-address/.
[9] James 1:2-4 (NRSV-CE)
[10] James 1:12 (ESV)
[11] Joshua 1:9 (NRSV-CE)