Leofric dying was probably done to show the realism of battle back then. In the books Uhtred is constantly losing friends and companions in battle because that's just what happened, we can't have the hero and all of his friends escaping death all the time otherwise it gets boring. And Ragnar is a hostage because he's…

Berserker's weren't actually all that common and they wouldn't have used spears that often in the front ranks more likely the Seax (that little dagger everyone in the show has) since it's too close quarters for something long like a sword or spear

During the time where Alfred is stuck in the swamp the two of them do become closer/more on the same level with each other. However as more followers slowly start appearing at the swamp (and of course this includes the priests) Alfred isn't as approachable and Uhtred can't just walk up and speak to him any more and he…

Ivar wasn't in the later books he dies 'off screen'. His son however does appear and he'll most likely be the one you're referring to, then there's his son also called ivar who for some reason fucks off to never be seen again

Finan has to be in it, i was a little irked that Steapa and Ivar the Boneless were left out so far and i'm not too sure why Sven of the White horse was renamed Skorpa and why he's now off his rail but that wasn't such a bad change

I re-read them all again just before the newest one came out as a sort of update so it's all fresh right now. Even so there's still characters popping up in the show from the books who i can't even remember

Well, seeing the latest episode they haven't completely forgotten about him but they just had him mentioned as being killed in Ireland. What a shame. Asser will be in the show though so if they don't do the Cornwall plot line then he might just hate Uhtred for some other thing he does

Unfortunately it looks like they will leave him out considering how in terms of the story he'd have already left for Ireland and Halfdan would have arrived. It's a shame though. Also i've heard multiple times that the first season is made up of the first 2 books so they'll have too much to geth through as it is, i can…

The interpretation of Ivar is also what i was kind of looking forward too, just to give it a different look to 'Vikings'. I'm assuming they'll also leave out Halfdan and i'm not sure how they'll do Ivar Ivarson later on, they might just have him as a random warlord. Speaking of which in the books you never come across…

Am i the only one who's curious where Ivar is? he was such a menacing character in the books even thought he didn't speak much, i was really looking forward to seeing him portrayed on the show but it looks like he's been somewhat replaced with Guthrum. I can somewhat understand why they left him out though as he does…