'Vikings' Season 3 Spoilers, Plot Recap News: Floki Decides to Kill Athelstan, Ragnar Seeks Forgiveness

A major character died when "Vikings" returned at 10/9c on Thursday, March 26, on the History Channel. The death of Athelstan (George Blagden) deeply affected Ragnar (Travis Fimmel).

The event that precipitated the death was the arrival of an old man from the destroyed Viking colony in Wessex who informed Ragnar and Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) that Aethelwulf (Moe Dunford) was responsible for the slaughter in Wessex.

The old man described how he survived the attack and how his son died. After Ragnar confirmed from him that he had not told anyone about the colony's destruction, Ragnar killed the old man.

Floki felt vindicated by the betrayal by Aethelwulf and blamed it all on the Christians. He then implied that Athelstan was also to blame.

Ragnar was upset by this, saying he blamed himself for what happened and vowed revenge on Aethelwulf and Ecbert (Linus Roache).

In Wessex, as soon as Judith (Jennie Jacques) gave birth to her, the soldiers took her away and cut off her ears and nose as a punishment for adultery. However, as one of her ears was about to be cut, she revealed that Athelstan was the father of her child. Ecbert then announced that the child was special, having been conceived with God's help, and he would be named Alfred.

As for Athelstan, he had a vision of being reborn. This prompted him to tell Ragnar that he wanted to leave, but Ragnar would have none of it as he did not want to lose his friend.

Athelstan then threw the arm band that Ragnar had given him into the water and Floki saw it.

Meanwhile, Kattegat played host to a number of Ragnar's enemies and they started to talk about attacking Paris.

During the celebration, Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) slept with another woman as per his wife's recommendation. He was earlier spurned by his wife after she gave birth to their daughter.

As for Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) she was approached by Kalf (Ben Robson) who told her that she had usurped his power as Earl.

Finally, Floki when carving the head of a ship saw blood coming from it. This vision made him believe that Athelstan had to die, and he killed him. Ragnar buried Athelstan under a makeshift cross he constructed and shaved off his hair. He then asked Athelstan's forgiveness for what he was about to do next.