In the year 1014, on instructions from King Selwyn, Canute takes his followers to York, a Danish occupied town in the Northumbria Region. As their boats row up the Ouse river, Canute is shot in the chest by a crossbow arrow fired by an assassin who is tracked down and killed by Thorfinn. Thorfinn is recognized by Leif from his village in Iceland and they are joyfully reunited. However Thorfinn is not interested in returning home, but intent only to extract his revenge on Askeladd. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Canute was not shot, but instead it was a woman slave dressed as his double...