The 25 Best Characters on The Last Kingdom
16) GISELA
Gisela (Peri Baumeister) is an intelligent woman more interested in making her own way in the world than suffering her brother Guthred’s ideas about arranging her a marriage. Perhaps influenced by his upbringing as Dane, Guthred says that Gisela has “value,” meaning that her political cache should not be wasted on a union with Uhtred. But the immediate attraction between Uhtred and Gisela cannot be denied.
We first meet Gisela in Cumbraland, where Guthred returns after being freed from slavery in the season 2 premiere. She and Uhtred quickly get together, and Uhtred asks Guthred for Gisela’s hand in marriage. Their bond is strong enough for Gisela to remain in waiting for Uhtred after Guthred sells him into slavery just a couple episodes later. When Guthred tries to arrange for Gisela to wed the despicable Aelfric, she slips away and hides in a nunnery at Chester.
Though Gisela is discovered and forced to marry Aelfric by proxy, Uhtred arrives in the nick of time and puts an end to that. After this, Gisela is firmly in Uhtred’s camp, and she and Uhtred operate as a team. She’s even happy to stand up for Uhtred against the powerful Abbot Eadred. Three years later, we find Uhtred and Gisela married and living happily at his estate at Coccham, along with their two children.
Uhtred is sensitive about Gisela being a Dane among Saxons and stands for no racist slurs, even unhorsing the Mercian lord Aethelred and placing a knife to his throat for insulting her. She’s more practical and less superstitious than Uhtred, not wanting to hear the prophesy of the bizarre resurrecting dead man known as Bjorn, and remains one of Uhtred’s best advisors while raising their son and daughter at Coccham.
In the season 2 finale, Gisela spends her last night with Uhtred before he leaves to try to rescue Erik and Aethelflaed from Beamfleot. She worries for their future, and understands that their escape prevents the Viking invasion because there will be no ransom money to raise a great army. “The men of Wessex will be saved, yes,” she tells Uhtred. “But what becomes of you? Of us?” That’s a question we’ll have to wait for season 3 to answer.