Sigurd Vittfarne
Name: Sigurd Olafsson Vittfarne
Name meaning: Sigurd the traveller
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Current Location: Ylfings clan
Occupation: warrior and skald
Character PB: David Wenham
General appearance: Sigurd is of medium height, strong built, with trained muscles. He has dark-blonde hair, maybe towards slightly reddish, and wavy. Usually it is shoulder long or even longer, worn loose. He doesn’t wear a beard, but he isn’t clean shaven too often either, having some stubble as a result. His eyes are of an icy sea blue, which can glitter with amusement or irony and mischief.
Clothing: He pays attention to his weapons and attire, being considered one of the elegant men. According to his country’s customs, he wears two tunics, one over the other. His knee-length, red wool undertunic is trimmed at neck, wrists, and hem with complex wool tablet-weaving patterned with bear figures in yellow, red, and black. The over tunic is made of worsted wool in twill patterns, carefully woven, supple and dyed in blue, decorated at the neck in the same way. The cuffs are secured with bronze wrist clasps.
His trousers are made of linen, with little metal eyes set into their lower edges. The stockings, made of wool, are hooked to the lower edges of the trousers just below the knees. His ankle-length shoes are made of goatskin, tied with leather lacing.
Sigurd has a lightweight rectangular cloak with fancy embroidery and fringed edges, made of red plaid with blue and yellow stripes and tablet-woven bands at the edges, kept together on the shoulder by a silver
cloak pin (at least theoretically, because he found a more practical way to keep it with a leather string when not needing it to be all enveloping him).
As Vikings use to carry their wealth with them, in the form of jewellery, he wears a medium-wide
arm band made of stamped silver and, at his neck, an
amulet made of silver, depicting a Valkyrie with a horn of mead. He had received rings from his
drottin, but he doesn’t wear them all, he had given some to his men too.
Personality: For his time and country, Sigurd is a reasonably educated man, liked in society. Loyal to his drottin and to his few friends, he is rather stubborn and has his own opinions, including a strange code of honour, beyond the
”Drenskapr” all Northern warriors abide to, taken half from sagas and half from what he had learnt in the Byzantine Empire, but still filtered by his own judgment. He is a brave fighter, challenge-driven.
Easygoing and laid back, he likes partying as often as he can: music, dance, women, liquor. He doesn’t get completely drunk as often as others of his fellows, but it happens, getting him into mischief. However, he can be silent, keeping to himself and efficient when in fight or at sea.
He trusts no woman in order to fear betrayal, but he can be charming when he wants to. He had a romantic disappointment in his youth, that he doesn’t openly talk about, and he has guarded his heart since then, thinking that all women are flimsy. His bed might be warm sometimes, but his heart is still cold, and this can be read in his ice-cold blue eyes and ironical smile.
History: Unlike other noble men, Olaf the Quiet, the jarl of Froj's younger brother, who was already a widower in his mid 30s, married Grainne after she gave him a son, in order to have legitimate heirs. He was a good
drottin (warlord), owning a beautiful long ship which he had armed and led to sea.
Sigurd’s childhood was a quiet one, except the death of his mother, in child bed, when he was 7. His father didn’t marry anymore, as he had already two legitimate sons, but took to his bed a young slave from Gardariki (now Russia), who gave him another son. Sigurd and Halvdan learnt from the elders everything they needed to know, from wielding a sword and a bow to Edda chants and the runes. They proved a good memory in learning the Words of Wisdom in the Edda, and they also showed interest in playing the rotta.
When the boys turned 13, each of them, they were taken to sea by their father too, in order to learn both about sailing and fighting. Only that one of these “summer reapings”, as Vikings called their expeditions, proved to be the last one for that ship, sunk by a storm, and most of its crew.
Sigurd was saved by a ship which headed to Constantinople. He worked for his food aboard that ship until it reached the destination, but then he received five drachmas and he was told that his services weren’t needed anymore. Not knowing what to do in a foreign harbour which language he didn’t speak, he entered the first inn to eat a good meal… and he heard some men at the next table speaking a language which wasn’t his own, but which he could mostly understand. They were mercenaries from Morland, the famous Varangian guard of the Byzantine Emperor, and they listened to the youngster’s story, taking him to their commander, who accepted him as a squire (shield-bearer). He served in the Varangian guard for 5 years, before finding a ship to take him to the Ostersjon (Baltic Sea), wherefrom he might have gotten passage back to his homeland.
Upon his return, he claimed and took his inheritance, took care of his youngest halfbrother, Lars, and he became a valuable warrior and sea dog. He also learnt about his brother Halvdan that somebody had met him in a harbour in the South, he was also serving a foreign king.
He armed a beautiful ship, called him “Svartbak” (the Sea Gull) - a sturdy, double-ended long ship (drakkar), maneuverable and fast, which he put into the present jarl's service. He swore allegiance to his older cousin Olvir Bloodaxe, whom he respects and obeys, and when the three jarls decided to sail away from the worshippers of the man on the cross, "Svartbak" was one of the ships in the convoy.
Now, the ship had been repaired with what was available around and it can be used for fishing around, but Sigurd knows well - and all the others know it - that the damn storm the Old Man in the Sea had started specially to strand them on an unknown land had made it impossible to go any other known place...
Family: Father: Olaf the Quiet, brother of the old jarl (deceased)
Mother: Grainne, a war slave taken from Ireland (deceased)
Brothers:
Halvdan Olafsson, 18 months younger, left behind, in a foreign king’s service for several years;
Lars Olafsson (halfbrother), 13 years old, under Sigurd’s care
CousinOlvir Bloodaxe, 42 - the Jarl of the Ylfings clan, Sigurd's
drottinSkills: He plays the
rotta; being a rather good, even if far from renowned, skald adds to his popularity both with men and women. He is a brave fighter and a good seaman, skilled with bow and sword. His precious sword is called
“Thormod”, which means „The courage given by the god Thor”. He is less skilled with the fighting axe, but he still can wield it when needed.
Member InformationPlayer's name: Elena
Player's age: 44
How did you find us: Through Ivy
