Set in season 3, the attack of the Bridge has stricken me as a metaphor for Rollo from leaving his Pagan Northern family to reaching out for a new family in Frankia. Same Rollo but new allegiance. Glad as I was for our first Duke of Normandy, I could not help worrying for the princess fated by the Gods to become his soulmate.
Paris was akin to Troy threatened by invaders on board of war ships. Paris was too much of a promised land not to know that like Moses who never crossed the Jordan, Ragnar was fated never to really get to see this mystical Paris promised by Athelstan. The monk from Northumbria like the Frank Princess are the Other. They live among us but they belong elsewhere.
While I have no doubt of Rollo Love for his wife, we all know that his Viking soul yearns for another raid. A raid too much. Gods do not approve of seeing their gifts squandered. This is the reality of the Gods. They give; they take. Only our emptied hands give us the full measure of our loss. Orpheus paid the price; Rollo will suffer the same.
What started as a one-off will end as a trilogy. When all is lost while the world is full of the promises of tomorrow is the arc of this a selfish man becomes the great man our history books praise.
How and why Rollo becomes this great man by retrenching on all what made Life vibrant to him is the story I wish to offer you