‘Vikings’: Fans Weigh in on Why the Wanderer Didn’t ‘Help Siggy’ – ‘I Think Because She Didn’t Trust Him’
In the series Vikings, Siggy (Jessalyn Gilsig) is a minor character that becomes a part of Ragnar Lothbrok’s (Travis Fimmel) family’s close circle over time. Once the local Earl, Haraldson’s (Gabriel Byrne) wife, Siggy loses her place when her husband is killed by Ragnar in one-on-one combat. She forms a relationship with Rollo (Clive Standen), Ragnar’s brother, from there. She adapts to her change in circumstances, but meets an unexpected end in season 3. Fans have weighed in on why a mysterious wanderer didn’t “help Siggy” in the moment.
Siggy’s death in ‘Vikings’
Siggy won’t make it past season 3 of Vikings. A mysterious man named Harbard (Kevin Durand) arrives in Kattegat after Siggy, Queen Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland), and Helga (Maude Hirst) all dream of him before he makes his way to Kattegat. He’s a wanderer, and he takes a liking to Aslaug. He’s able to calm Ivar, Aslaug’s son, taking away his pain and getting him to go to sleep, which relieves Aslaug.
It’s alluded to that Harbard, or the Wanderer, could be a god, although it isn’t exactly spelled out. Siggy is suspicious of Harbard, but her feelings aren’t taken seriously.
Aslaug starts a sexual relationship with Harbard, and when she goes to see him, she leaves her children behind. Siggy tries to convince her to stay as things need to be done and people need to be seen, but Aslaug goes anyways, and Siggy chooses to take Aslaug’s responsibilities on.
Siggy is watching Aslaug’s children when two of them, Ubbe and Hvitserk, just young boys, go off on their own. They find their way to a frozen lake, and Siggy, who follows after them, watches the boys fall into the frozen lake. She races to them, jumping in to save them. She pulls one out with the assistance of what looks like her daughter, Thyri (Elinor Crawley), who died from a plague years before. However, it’s really Harbard, and when Siggy resurfaces with the last child, who Harbard gets out of the water, she looks at him, and he stares back. Suddenly, Siggy takes her hands off the sides of the ice and falls back into the water to her death.
It’s peculiar that the Wanderer didn’t assist Siggy in getting out and just watched her fall back into the water without helping her. It’s a topic fans have thought about before.
Fans weigh on why the Wanderer didn’t “help Siggy”
On Reddit, fans have been known to discuss aspects of the show, including Siggy’s death. A fan asked a question in a post on Reddit six years ago titled, “Why didn’t the Wanderer help Siggy?” They continued, “What the title says, he just stared at her while she went down. :c.”
A fan thinks “it was time” for Siggy to go be with her family in Valhalla. Siggy would never be able to be that “person” again that she used to be, and the fan thinks she ended up getting “the honor of a good death.”
“This way, she got the honor of a good death,” they said. “If the wanderer is a God (if Floki is right, Odin) than he would see that Siggy had reached the end of her purpose, her good deeds done, and wanted to bring her to rest before she was tempted to dishonor (trying to reclaim her previous position) or otherwise living towards a death unworthy of the realms of Odin or Freya.”
1 fan mentions it’s ‘because she didn’t trust him’
While another fan thinks it comes down to Siggy not trusting Harbard, and that’s why he didn’t help her. But they point out that it could be a trade for Ubbe and Hvitserk’s lives for hers as well.
“I think because she didn’t trust him,” they said. “That meant she was a threat to him or his reputation or his relationship with Aslaug. Although he did leave right after that. Could also be because he was trading her life for the boys’ lives. Just like Siggy suspected happened to the other two boys who were found drowned in the previous episode.”
Siggy’s death could have been ‘payment for healing Ivar’
A fan thinks it’s a give and take situation, possibly for Harbard’s healing of Ivar. He was able to take his pain away, so he might have used Siggy as a “payment” for it.
“Seems to be some tit for tat kind of deal going on,” the fan suggests. “Giveth, taketh away. Would seem to be payment for healing Ivar, but that’d be a bit odd since the gods would presumably make a bargain/deal first rather than just initiating it out of the blue.”
Another fan adds the same sentiment of it being “payment for healing Ivar.” If the Wanderer is really supposed to be a god such as Odin in the series, he might have also figured out that Siggy “was corrupting Rollo,” with her own plans for the future against Ragnar’s family.
“If Wanderer is Odin, perhaps he realized that Siggy was corrupting Rollo and preparing to screw over Ragnar’s family,” they said.
Another mentions if Harbard was a god, then it seems like “lives” had “to be sacrificed” for his ability to take pain away. “This has all been said by others before me, but if the Wanderer was a god which it seems like he was, it appears that lives had to be sacrificed for the pain the Wanderer was taking away…” they said.
However, one fan thinks Harbard wasn’t even there, but Siggy was seeing things that weren’t really there in the moment of her death. They also don’t think Harbard was supposed to be a god either.
“I don’t believe he was there, but she imagined he was, she was suspicious of him and thought he was going to put the children in danger, I don’t believe he was a god either,” they said.
Fans have different opinions when it comes to why the Wanderer didn’t “help Siggy” when she died in Vikings.
