I dont understand the ending, Please explain.

one eye is real... the indians were standing still because they had surrounded him, then they savagely beat him... then i guess they are standing there partially wondering if there are more people they have to kill... they see its a boy and i guess don't feel the need to kill him... go to wikipedia and look up the movie, lol

I have a different take. If you re-watch the ending it cuts to him disappearing in the water with the boulders he built earlier on the river bank. It's my feeling that when he was building those boulders earlier was when he perhaps sacrificed himself to the water. He had a vision of himself getting beaten by the savages and chose not to face that or put the child through it, so for him, his story ended there. What unfolded after that was a reflection of the clan of men breaking down under their own madness. They had to blame someone for their predicament so they blamed One-eye and we see that manifested in the last few murders/fight scenes. The remaining men are just following the boy. He is the only one communicating with them. Perhaps that's why the clan leader was so angry that he shanked his lifelong friend because the friend chose to follow the boy....

Just my take. It sure was open to interpretation. A BEAUTIFUL film, with a haunting soundtrack and breathtaking cinematography, but not a whole lot got accomplished. But it was a visceral trip for sure.

"Chapter VI The Sacrifice" Clearly One Eye sacrifices himself so that the boy might live. Even One Eye knows the odds are so stacked against him that he has no chance (unlike on the boat).

The ending is strange to me since I think the Indians might kill the boy anyway. If they don't kill the boy then, well, he's a boy in a foreign land with no food, no shelter, and no one to protect him.

The only real chance the kid has is that the Indians adopt him, or that they let him live and the next group of whites that arrive manage to survive Indian attacks long enough to adopt him.

However I don't think we're supposed to think about it this hard.

The Hero (One-eye) begins the story as a slave who struggles for survival even though his existence is one of pain and horror.

I believe the ending (his laying down of weapons and peaceful acceptance of death) is intended as an ultimate release in direct contrast to the state in which we find him at the beginning.

In between slavery and death, he experiences a period where purpose, destiny, and his place among other men are drawn into question. Overall I think the film is a mash-up of minimalism and existentialism.

I took a religious angle from the last sequence. The "New Jerusalem" expounded by the leader of the expedition was a physical manifestation of conquest and conversion. One-eye's sacrifice was clearly, at least in my view, more tied to an existential spirituality that was attuned to, paraphrasing Christ, "a kingdom not of this earth."

It was one of the more moving endings I have seen and while it didn't come out of nowhere given how the plot unfolded, it was surprising at a level.

Here my take:

At the end the boy takes a drink of water and states "it's salt". They both then look over across the water to see a body of land. I believe this land to be the one which they originally sailed from but hadn't know of this because of the fog. This is a explained by the lack of current, they hadn't traveled far. In my opinion the ending isn't great, but it's suitable. He sacrificed himself to save the boy after showing him the way back. Showing a shot of him going into the water was just symbolism for him absolving himself before meeting death, perhaps using the stones as an alter to the gods.

I can't help but see One-eye as Odin, which would then make him a metaphor for heathenry. Upon meeting the Christians, they knew they feared him, but didn't really try to stop him. As the plot progressed they saw him cut down men without mercy and often talked about how they think he was taking them with him to hell. The small band of Christians with One-eye in this way came across to me as a way of briefly describing the conflicts between Christians and Pagans in this time period. The Christians leaned heavily on their God and had the superior numbers, but were still terrified by the resilient brutality of the warriors from the North.

In history, the Pagans were stopped not directly, but just in general by the overwhelming growth of nations that they couldn't just bully. One-eye has visions of the Indians beating him to death throughout the film, and it happens at the end. We all know the Vikings sailed to 'Vinland' before Christopher Columbus, and while there they couldn't brace the conditions, waged war with the natives, and had a generally poor time trading. They never settled because they all died.

I think One-eye represented the might and raw power of the heathens. The Christians represent the feelings Christianity had at a whole in that time period when relating to the heathens. The visions and eventual Indian beatdown was, like One-eye and the Christians, a metaphor for the heathens branching off, biting off more than they can chew, and eventually being stomped by a world that they didn't understand and couldn't push around.

I loved this film. I'm sick of elaborate costumes, hordes of soldiers with elite gear, beautiful women, and everyone speaking in a light British accent as a way of saying "I'm not American, but I'm also not from a real defined country." This film was all about the isolation of a cold and mysterious world, the clashing of cultures that are light years apart, and the power religion and fear can play on a mind that doesn't exist in a society when any and all communication and information is on hand. It was the ancient world done right, in one sentence.

All the takes on the ending are entertaining and (sadly) smarter than
what you can read on many other movie's boards.
Here's my take: Assuming the boy or Oneeye aren't real is someone's
imagination running wild. It's not Fight club. The boy is speaking for
the mute warrior for the whole movie. (We never know if what the boy tells
is truely what Oneeye thinks but he never disagrees.) It seems Oneeye is a prophet/medium
and has visions. The boy talks of the Vikings' and his own futures. He will build a ship and
sail home. That part is not seen in the movie itself but may come true after all. When Mads
and the boy are surrounded Mads seems to think the boy might survive if he surrenders himself.
The Indians are not killing the boy. He's no threat. And might as well die
alone on his own if nature doesn't provide what he needs to survive. The
Indians act like agents of nature and the film becomes full circle as the opening
of the movie tells the audience in the beginning there was only man and nature.
Along the Likes of Thin Red Line and Brave New World, Valhalla
Rising works pretty well. Sorry for eventually bad English, I'm German.