Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands - Episodes 4 and 5

"There. Sure glad I don't look stupid in this."

Reva gets herself made Jarl, but on two conditions: That Beowulf be her Reeve, and that Slean marry a princess of the Mire, a 'lost tribe' who pop up out of nowhere to split the tie.

While Rheda and Slean deal with stuff at home, Beowulf is dispatched to take a dowry of iron swords to the Mire and bring back the bride, accompanied by the Mire rep, Healer Girl and Sleazy Sidekick. Spunky Blacksmith Girl follows and accidentally invades a Mudborn burial ground, kicking off some shit, and the rep is killed in the resulting stand off. Fortunately, Beowulf is able to distract them from the small desecration of their burial ground by setting fire to it and the problem is solved. They make their way across a strip of sand to the Isle of Dunes, unaware of the pursuing sandworms.

I was joking about the sandworm!

Uh, yeah; it turns out that it is totally a sandworm, a small one, but definitely shai-hulud. They flee, but the dowry is eaten.

Back in Heorot, Rheda's brother is trying to subborn Slean into an alliance: Back him as Jarl and Slean can be Thane of Heorot, but Slean isn't biting, even though Rheda's idea of common laws for all tribes is proving divisive and no-one seems to know they difference between a statute and a contract.

Beowulf and party receive a very cool reception, given the lack of rep and dowry, but at least the bride's father is a reasonable man, right?

"I've been thinking about colour schemes for the wedding..."

They bluff about the dowry and meet the bride, who almost immediately falls ill. She's in love with their Reeve and, overhearing that the dowry is absent, spills the beans and sets Beowulf up for a fall when he volunteers to hunt shai-hulud and claim the waters of life. With sidekick and the Reeve to help, and Beowulf tapping the sand to attract the worm, they kill one and harvest its vital glands. Reeve leaves them stranded in the middle of sandworm territory, but they find the dowry in the worm's gullet and make their way back with no trouble at all.

"How do you call among your the mouse that jumps?"

The dowry is delivered, but the bride dies, despite her treatment. Fortunately, her younger sister leaps in to volunteer, and leaves her shitty sand dune home with the kind of smile that suggests her sister didn't recover from the fever on account of all that poison Little Sister slipped her.

So, yeah; Beowulf fights sandworms to earn an marriage alliance with Walder Fremen, and David Bradley once more gets to seethe about how no-one betrays him over a nuptial deal. This show really does want to be anything but Beowulf.