Vinland Saga

Description

From Kodansha:
As a child, Thorfinn sat at the feet of the great Leif Ericson and thrilled to wild tales of a land far to the west. But his youthful fantasies were shattered by a mercenary raid. Raised by the Vikings who murdered his family, Thorfinn became a terrifying warrior, forever seeking to kill the band’s leader, Askeladd, and avenge his father. Sustaining Thorfinn through his ordeal are his pride in his family and his dreams of a fertile westward land, a land without war or slavery. The land Leif called Vinland.

Official English

Note: Was nominated for the 2008 Manga Taisho award. Won the Grand Prize in the manga division of the Japan Media Arts awards in 2009. Won the 36th Kodansha Manga Award for Best General Manga in 2012.

Type

Manga

Related Series

Ganso Ylva-chan (Spin-Off)

Animal Land Saga (Spin-Off)

Associated Names

Saga Winlandzka

Vinland Destanı

Vinrando Saga

Сага про Вінланд

ヴィンランドサガ

ヴィンランド・サガ

海盜戰記

Groups Scanlating

4chan

Anonymous Spore

Binktopia

Black Cat Scanlations

More...

Latest Release(s)

c.218 by Project Vinland 1 month ago

c.217 by Project Vinland 3 months ago

c.216 by Project Vinland 5 months ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

28 Volumes (Ongoing)

Completely Scanlated?

Anime Start/End Chapter

Starts at Vol 1, Chap 1 (S1) Chap 1-2 adapted in EP 7-8 / Vol 8, Chap 55 (S2)

Ends at Vol 8, Chap 54 (S1) / Vol 14, Chap 100 (S2)

User Reviews

Vinland Saga by canucks

Forum

9 topics, 77 posts

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User Rating

Average: 8.8 / 10.0 (1981 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.76 / 10.0

40%

30%

17%

Last Updated

April 22nd, 2025 5:48am PDT - 3 days ago

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Genre

Action Adventure Drama Historical Mature Psychological Seinen Tragedy
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Categories

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Recommendations

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Kodansha

Serialized In (magazine)

Afternoon (Kodansha)

Shuukan Shounen Magazine (Kodansha)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

INKR

Kodansha Comics (13 Omnibuses - Ongoing | Premium Collector Hardcover 3-in-1 - 2 Vols - Ongoing)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #241

(-28)

Monthly Pos #289

(+27)

3 Month Pos #259

(-20)

6 Month Pos #242

(-35)

Year Pos #300

(-56)

List Stats

On 7718 reading lists

On 2430 wish lists

On 175 completed lists

On 183 unfinished lists

On 842 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

Vinland Saga Anime Gets 2nd Season

4 years ago

Makoto Yukimura Starts Drawing Final Arc of Vinland Saga

5 years ago

Vinland Saga gets TV Anime by Wit Studio

7 years ago

Where is this going?

8 years ago

Discussion up to ch.56

13 years ago

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

Like at First, and then...

by pinUp
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

huh?

i've never remembered there's a scene where woman get raped, but i dont know, its been a long time since i read this manga.

but of course i like it at first, but then thing seems kinda boring recently, slow-paced, boring farmland saga, ugh can't stand it, get a move on please

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Would love it, except...

by TheShawn
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

Well, I was enjoying it at first, with interesting characters, story, and good art. I'm usually okay with unsympathetic characters too, but I kind of started to detest Thorfinn after

he just stands by and lets an innocent woman get raped. That pretty much blew past my tolerance line.

So, if you don't have any problem with that kind of character, then I would definitely recommend the manga, but for anyone else... maybe you're better off reading something else.

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Awesome.

by spikoy
15 years ago

Rating: N/A

There are already many well-written reviews here which explain in detail why Vinland is so darn awesome so I won't go into that....

I love Vinland Saga: the art, the plot, the characters...everything! Even though Vinland is at a slow point right now, Thorfinn is finally starting to develop into a coherent character and that is interesting enough! Plus there are implications of politics and plot development in the background, with the other characters from the previous arc exerting a subtle influence on the plot.

I can't wait for the next chapter!

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Breathtaking and accurate. Holy crap.

by Shardae
15 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

Being a total history dork, when I saw 'Vinland Saga' in my RSS feed, I kinda flipped. Started reading out of sheer curiosity, and totally fell in love.

First, it is incredibly historically accurate, even down to the helmets! No horned helmets here! The references to Norse folklore are fantabulous. The characters are wonderful and 3-D, and Thorfinn is a refreshing change from the usual shounen hero. Canute as well - his character has been fleshed out nicely. The gore is mostly kept to a tasteful level.

All in all? I'm addicted. Very few manga can keep me bouncing in my chair, eager for more, but this one does it. It's a shame this series is so underrated - won't stop me from cosplaying Thorfinn, though. =]

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Wowzer

by TimeManInJail
15 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

hmmm the story take a little slow.. i actually didn't wanted to read this manga at first and found out through desperation(couldn't find anything else to read) but after the boring intro..Everything change plot,emotion and epic scene finally brought me to like it. Like the way it represent the cruelty of humans

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Surprisingly good.

by vkoi
15 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

I anticipate upping my ranking to a ten by the finish of this one. Yet another manga for which I breathlessly await the next release.

I'm going through a Viking phase right now. So my preference for this manga is probably a little biased. I don't know much about the actual history of the Viking invasions of England, but the clothing, ships, housing, weapons, and details of day to day life have been rendered with fair accuracy in Vinland Saga.

The fighting, maybe a little over the top, yeah, especially the horse punching episode. Still, I didn't find the gore to be excessive. When I picked this book up my biggest worry was that it would be one long slaughterfest full of lovingly drawn images of blood pumping from cloven torsos. When it comes to Vikings, it's especially easy to glorify the violent aspects and gloss over the reality of such acts with a load of heroic pap. Vinland Saga doesn't do that. Many battles are portrayed as are heroic intentions. I think what balances it out is that all the battles arise out of strategic context, and motives from greed to stupidity to nation building, to ideology, to revenge are portrayed. The characters fight for good and bad reasons, and the characters are rounded enough so that you can really sympathize with their choices.

I've read a lot of shounen/seinen where the young warrior character gets idealized as some pinnacle of manhood and the reader gets a load of poorly supported philosophizing that comes across as justification for being a thoughtless brat who "solves" complex problems with violence. I also worried that Vinland Saga would follow this formula. Fortunately, this story is nothing like that. Yukimura Makoto philosophizes about war in a mature and complex way. He does not beat his reader with a moral hammer or dissolve into sentimentality. He is building a construct of a "true warrior," but he's been adding layers for 58 chapters now, I don't quite know where he's going with it, and I remain immensely engaged with his ideas.

There's also plenty of between battle content that fleshes out the political situation of the time as well as the various cultures of Iceland, Denmark, England, and Wales. Yukimura handles pacing fairly well, interspersing these scenes with the battles in a way that keeps the story flowing evenly. The plot moves along nicely but never feels so rushed that you can't take in the scenery.

I picked up Vinland Saga with a lot of reservations, all of which have proven baseless. This is a really engaging story, and I think it will appeal to more than just history nerds. Read it through that first long flashback and see if you can resist getting hooked.

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I'm quite surprised

by intemango
16 years ago

Rating: 9.3 / 10.0

This is probably the only series about Norsemen I could think of, and actually does them justice. And the war was depicted in full color, with no atrocities being spared, exaggerated just for the hell of it, or turned into a long moral lesson/tearjerker .
Those proud warriors, who almost live exclusively for battle, valor and honor, and dream of being allowed by Odin into Valhalla after dying on the battlefield, so that they can continue to fight and party for eternity. It is a mindset that is almost incomprehensible to any of us today. It was a time full of endless battles, political scheming, genocides and terror, pure heroism, and stark beauty. This epic tale of a young fighter is but a single piece dedicated to those people.
The artwork is excellent, the fighting scenes are fluid, distinguishable, detailed and original. This is more than anything I could ask for. This is something that I would really like to be turned into a movie. But alas, some manga series can never be showed on TV, 'won't someone please think of the children', Askeladd has without a doubt become my favorite character. Crowning moment of awesome.

... Last updated 16 years ago

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Startlingly Engaging

by Crenshinibon
16 years ago

Rating: 7.2 / 10.0

Vinland Saga is a violent, meticulously orchestrated tapestry of characters that, it seems, is truly only beginning to flourish. At the time I began the manga, I could scarcely believe that someone who created Planetes could possibly produce something like this as well, but I'm quite glad I was proven wrong. Vinland Saga, although I truthfully can give no credence as to its historical accuracy, is one of the best-told period pieces out there, settling among the ranks of titles like History and Cesare. I feel confidant that my opinion will only improve in the future.

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Very good and engaging story!

by umami
16 years ago

Rating: N/A

I am a fan of history and historical stories and Vinland Saga is very very good. For a manga, which by nature has usually limited ability to round out characters, this one breaks that trope. I found the characters to be very 3-D in personality and the story flowed well.
Of course some of the action scenes were a bit over the top, but not by too much, based on how battle was fought back then.
For the people complaining about all the gore and blood, well what do you think a broad sword was for?
It wasn't designed for fencing, it was to inflict the most damage in the quickest manner. Beheading, limbs and torsos hacked off and through really did happen. War and battle back then was a nasty brutish thing and a lot of blood was spilled.

Now I do doubt one man back then killed quite as many other men in one battle as some of the protagonists do in this story, but it's just a small exaggeration. Half the number was probably pretty accurate. So IMO, the battle scenes are relatively realistic.

Except for maybe, that horse getting punched out.
Yeah... that was pretty funny!

Over all I would highly recommend this manga.

... Last updated 16 years ago

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Vinland Saga

by GodOfMadness
16 years ago

Rating: N/A

Man, I thought Prince Canute was a girl!!, Really he hoped he was a girl oh well lol, and yeah his change was amazing in mere few chapters from a whimp to Aji Tae(ruthless killer from shin angyo onshi). Thorfinn reminds me of Kenji from Eden manga, I bet he will grow even stronger, can't wait for next chapters!!

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