The Broken Sword (HBO Series)

The Broken Sword is an American/British historical fantasy miniseries created by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It is an adaptation of the 1954 fantasy novel of the same name by Poul Anderson. The series was filmed on location in Ireland, Scotland and Iceland. It premiered on HBO in the United States on March 18, 2016 and concluded on May 30 2016.

The Broken Sword has also being called Game of Thrones Junior by fans of both series, this is mainly due to a large number of Game of Thrones crew and cast members being involved on the series and that it was created by Game of Thrones creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

Premise
The series takes place in Danelaw England during the Viking Age. It begins with Northman Orm the Strong slaying the family of an English witch who swears revenge. Later after his son is born, the witch enlists the help of Imric, Duke of the Elves to steal Orm's son and takes him to to the Elf realm of Alfheim. In the child's place, Imric leaves a Changeling named Valgard. The child who is named Skafloc grows up among the Elves of Alfheim and is beloved by them.

When Skafloc grows to manhood, he is presented with the sword Tyrfing broken by Thor eons ago to keep it from splintering Yggdrasil. At the same time the brutal war between the Elves and Trolls reignites, Skafloc then seeks out the blind giant Bolverk to re-forge it, whom warns Skafloc of the swords cursed nature. Meanwhile Valgard grows up resentful and bitter at being in a society where he feels he doesn't belong, he later meets the witch, whose family was killed by Orm and informs him of his true heritage.

After killing his family, Valgard spares his sisters and gives them to the Troll King Illrede as sex slaves. One of them, Freda is rescued by Skafloc and the two fall in love, unaware that their love is tragically doomed due to them being brother and sister. Eventually the war between Elves and Trolls reaches a boiling point, when King Alfred the Great becomes involved during his ruthless quest to bring Christianity to the whole of England.

Heroes

 * Tom Rhys Harries as Skafloc and Valgard
 * Skafloc Half Elf - The main protagonist who was stolen from his parents as a baby by Imric and raised among the Elves. Due to being human, he was able to touch iron, which the Elves and other Faerie races could not. When he grew into a man, he was given the sword, Tyrfing by Skirnir. He then set out to find the Ice Giant, Bolverk to help him reforge it in an attempt to help the Elves win their war against the Trolls. However Skafloc soon becomes consumed by bloodlust the more he uses Tyrfing,
 * Valgard - A Elf and Troll Changeling who is one of the main antagonists of the series along with Illrede and Alfred the Great. He was conceived through Imric's rape of the Troll princess Gora, he was left with Skafloc's birth family. He grew resentful and bitter at the world, although he didn't know why. He later learned of his origins after accidently killing his brother Ketil

Men

 * Ivana Baquero as Freda Ormsdaughter - A beautiful young shield maiden who is the daughter of Orm the Strong and the lover of Skafloc. She was sold to the Trolls as a sex slave along with her sister Asgerd, however she was rescued by Skafloc and Imric. She and Skafloc soon fell in love and then became lovers, whilst raging a guerilla warfare against the trolls. Tragically however, their love becomes doomed when they learn that they are in fact brother and sister.
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Orm the Strong - A Viking warrior and the father of Skafloc, Freda, Asgerd and Ketil.
 * Tommy Knight as Audun - The son of Thorkel. When Freda left Skafloc due to learning they were brother and sister, he and his family took her in. Whilst spending time together, he and Freda both fell in love with each other.
 * Colm Meaney as Father Harold - A Christian priest who was the family priest for Aelfrida until he was sent away by Orm following an argument about Orm still worshipping the Aseir. He was later brought back years later at Alefrida's request,
 * Sean Bean as Alfred the Great - The king of the Angolo-Saxons of England and one of three main antagonists of the miniseries along with Valgard and Illrede. He is shown to be a religious fundamentalist who despises Vikings, Elves, Trolls and anything he deems as not belonging to God's world. He
 * TBA as Aelfrida - The Christian wife of Orm and the mother of Stafloc, Freda, Ketil and Asgerd.
 * TBA as Asgerd - The daughter of Orm and Aelfrida and the sister of Freda, Ketil and Skafloc.
 * TBA as Ketil - The son of Orm and Aelfrida who became the first victim of Valgard.
 * Carice van Houten as Morgana - A Saxon witch whose family was killed by Orm when he razed their home. Desiring revenge she when to Imric and convinced him to steal Orm's son and raise him among the Elves, years later she disguised herself as a beautiful young woman and told Valgard about his true origins and convinced him to align with the Trolls.
 * TBA as Thorkel - The father of Thorkel.

Elves

 * Harry Lloyd as Imric - The Earl of the Elves and the foster father of Skafloc. Years ago he was convinced to steal Skafloc from his family by a witch whose family had been killed by Orm.
 * Emilia Clarke as Leena - The sister of Imric and the foster mother of Skafloc. When he grew to adulthood, she found herself having affections for him. However Skafloc was in love with Freda, Leena then became the lover of Valgard.

Trolls

 * Andy Serkis as King Illrede - The king of the Trolls and one of the main antagonists of the show along with Valgard and Alfred the Great. 900 years ago his beloved daughter Gora was kidnapped by Imric who raped her and forced her to give birth to a number of Elf-Troll Changelings, when she was returned to him she was so traumatized that he was forced to mercy kill her to end her suffering. This lead to Illrede to developing a deep hatred of Imric and swear eternal vengeance against him and the Elves. Soon afterwards he met her son, Valgard and the two forged an alliance.
 * TBA as Princess Gora - The beloved daughter of Illrede and the princess of the Trolls. Over 900 years earlier she was taken by Imric who kept her captive and raped her, forcing her to give birth to a member of Elf-Troll Changelings, one of whom was Valgard. When she was returned to Illrede, she was so mentally damaged that a devastated Illrede was forced to mercy kill her in order to end her suffering. It was her death that lead to Illrede developing a powerful hatred of Imric and the Elves, thus swearing eternal vengeance.
 * Callum Turner as Prince Ulfhild - The son of King Illrede and brother to Gora. Like his father, he desires revenge on Imric and the Elves for what Imric had done to his beloved sister, Gora. When Valgard aligns himself with the Trolls, he is extremely reluctant to trust him due to his origin.

Demigods

 * Brad Kavangah as Erik - A young warrior who is half Vanir, half Jötunn and the best friend of Skafloc. He was revealed to the son of the Norse Goddess, Freya and the Jötunn, Hamrungir. He was given up by his mother when he was only a few months old, although Freya promised that she would come back for him soon, she never did. This led Erik to have a deep resentment towards his mother,
 * Nathalia Ramos as Astrid - A beautiful Valkyrie who is the beloved of Erik. She and Erik meet one day whilst she was escorting some Norse warriors to Valhalla



Norse Gods

 * Richard Schiff as Odin - The Allfather of the Aesir Norse Gods who is the ruler of Asgard and the father of Thor. He appears briefly in the first episode where he is shown leading the Wild Hunt, he then appeared in the second episode, where he appeared disguised as Satan to Morgana. He appears several times during the series watching the events through a viewing fountain. He later shows up in the 9th episode, along with Thor and takes Skafloc and Freda's baby from her, due to her promising to give him whatever was behind her girdle.
 * Iwan Rheon as Thor - The Norse God of Thunder and the son of Odin. Eons ago he broke the sword Tyrfing to prevent it from shattering Yggdrasil, the world tree, he then hidden the two halves of the sword
 * TBA as Loki - The Norse God of tricks and the father to many Norse monsters, including the giant wolf Fenrir and Odin's eight legged horse, Sleipnir.
 * Kit Harrington as Tyr -
 * TBA as Freyr -
 * TBA as Skirnir - The messenger of the Vanir Norse God Freyr. He arrives in Elfhiem to deliver the sword Tyrfing for Skafloc's coming of age ceremony, he then warns of the swords dark fate
 * Katia Winter as Freya - The Vanir Goddess of love and beauty who is revealed to be the mother of Erik and former lover to Hamrungir. She reluctantly gave Erik up when he was only a few months at her husbands request, although she always promised that she would come for him someday.

Jötunn

 * Kristofer Hivju as Bolverk - A blind Ice-Giant blacksmith who forged the sword Tyrfing. He was later sought out by Skafloc to re-forge the sword, he at first refused due to the dark nature of Tyrfing, but after much convincing by Skafloc. After re-forging Tyrfing, he warned Skafloc that the sword would ultimately bring him death and despair.
 * TBA as Surtr - The Fire-Giant who is destined to burn Asgard to ash during Ragnarok. He appeared as a companion of Bolverk

Others

 * Temuera Morrison as General Gormog - An Orc who is the leading general in Illrede's army and his right hand man. Like Illrede, he strongly despises Imric and the Elves. Many years ago Irmic offered a peace agreement with his tribe, to which Gormog accepted. However not long after, Imric and the Elves attacked his village and killed his family.
 * TBA as The Erlking -
 * TBA as King Mótsognir - The King of the Dwarves who had dealings with Imric. When Imric arrived with Skafloc, Mótsognir was reluctant to trust him due to Imric been a master manipulator and for getting the Dwarves caught up in the war between the Elves and the Trolls.
 * TBA & TBA as Ratso and Skullface - Two Goblin brothers who are good friends and brothers in arms with Skafloc. They were once highly skilled mercenaries until Imric offered them
 * Doug Jones as Lonely Satyr - A elderly Satyr from the Mediterranean who was exiled by Christianity. He met Skafloc when he was young, he told him of his youth, the fall of the gods of Olympus and the arrival of the Christians who drove him out.
 * Michael Gambon as God (Voice) -
 * John Simm as Satan -
 * Domhnall Gleeson as Mananaan Mac Lir - A mighty warrior and king of the Tuatha Dé Danann who becomes an ally to Skafloc.

Episode 1

 * An old woman's breasts are seen as she nurses a rat.
 * A Troll woman is seen naked, he breasts and buttocks are seen. She is then raped by an Elf, his buttocks is seen.

Episode 2

 * Leena's breasts are seen as she nurses a baby Skafloc.
 * Skafloc is seen standing naked, his buttocks is seen.

Episode 3

 * Valgard sells his sisters to the Troll King as sex slaves.

Episode 6

 * Skafloc and Freda are both seen naked inside of a cave. Both of their buttocks are seen along with Freda's breasts and a brief shot of Skafloc's penis, Freda then gets on her hands and knees as Skalfoc then mounts hers from behind and they have sex. This results in her getting pregnant.

Episode 7

 * Valgard is shown kissing Leena before laying her down on a bed, sex occurs off screen. Later when Leena gets out of bed, full frontal nudity is seen.

Episode 8

 * Freda is seen giving birth naked, her breasts are seen.

Episode 1

 * A group of Vikings are seen killing a few men either by stabbing them with swords or hacking at them with axes.
 * An Elf rapes a Troll woman.

Episode 2

 * King Illrede performs a mercy kill on his daughter Groa, he is shown plunging a dagger into her heart.

Episode 4

 * A witch is torn apart by a pack of hounds.

Episode 6

 * Skafloc kills a Dragon that attacks him and Freda by stabbing it in the head.

Episode 9

 * Odin strikes Freda as he takes her child from her.

Episode 10

 * There is a big battle between Elves, Trolls and humans. Soldiers are either stabbed or have limbs cut off, there is lots of blood.
 * Ilrede and Alfred both kill each other in a mutual kill. Alfred stabs Illrede in the stomach, whilst Ilrede kills Alfred by cleaving in his head before dying of his injures.
 * Valgard is stabbed in the neck, blood is seen gushing from his neck.
 * Skafloc is slashed several times, he later dies from blood loss.

Episode 1

 * A group of Vikings kill a man and his brothers by burning down a house with them in it, their screams are quite intense.
 * Imric's rape of Groa is portrayed as been quite disturbing.

Episode 4

 * A witch is brutally torn apart by a pack of hounds, the scene and her screams are quite intense.

Differences from the novel
Whilst being faithful to the novel, the series has several differences:


 * The Witch is named Morgana. In the original novel she didn't not have a name.
 * The scene where Odin is disguised as Satan was taken from the novel's 1971 revision.
 * The Faun who Skalfoc encounters has been changed into a Satyr.
 * Alfred the Great was only mentioned once in the original novel and never appeared. In the miniseries he is portrayed as a Christian fundamentalist, who is one of the three main antagonists.
 * In the novel Valgard betrays and kills Illrede. In the miniseries Illrede dies during the final battle between Elves, Trolls and Men, in a mutual kill with Alfred the Great.
 * Valgard never betrays Illrede in the miniseries.
 * Whilst in Alfheim, Freda is given a Unicorn whom she names Joseph. This never happened in the novel.
 * Skafloc and Freda are both attacked by a dragon whilst they are taking refuge in a cave, this scene never happens in the novel.
 * Thor is with Odin when he steals Skafloc and Freda's child, in the novel only Odin was present.
 * The characters of Erik, Astrid, Prince Ulfhild, General Stonebiter
 * Freya does not appear in the original novel, nor is she mentioned.
 * The priest is named Father Harold and is a main character. In the original novel, he was unnamed and rarely appeared.
 * Skafloc is baptized by Father Harold shortly before dying, this never happens in the novel.

Trivia

 * Nikolaju Coster-Waldau, Carice van Houten, Emilia Clarke, Harry Lloyd, Liam Cunnginham, Kit Harrington, Sean Bean and Iwan Rhoen have all previously starred together in Game of Thrones, which was also created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
 * Ivana Baquero had to dye her hair red for the part of Freida.
 * Richard Schiff would later play Odin again in the 2022 video game, God of War: Ragnarök.