Æthelred
Sobriquet: The Hammer
Appearance: Æthelred is tall for an 11th century man, nearly six feet tall. He is young, but still a man at the age of 17 years. His bronze skin comes from his mother's people who hailed from the lands of the great Eastern forests. And his lean muscular form was borne of countless hours toiling at his father's forge. Like a Greek Adonis, a mop of dark curls surrounds a tan chiseled face with just a fringe of manly hair to adorn it.
Behavior: "The Hammer" is a quiet, thoughtful man, who watches and weights those around him, testing them as he would a piece of iron for the forge. He has learned patience in the blacksmith's art, beating red-hot iron into useful and beautiful shapes, and while he is slow to anger, when provoked his wrath is terrible to behold. The Hammer has recently earned his sobriquet in battle, tested not just by mortal men, but by a wild white dire wolf. Inwardly, he fears that each time he takes up the hammer of war, he strays just a little farther from life of a blacksmith and towards a dark and bloody future. Despite his misgivings, he trails in the wake of the only woman he has ever loved, the shrewish wise-woman Godiva of his home village, Wifilisburg.
History: On a hot summer day, in 1076, a Slav woman was found nearly dead just outside the village of Wifilisburg. The first to find her, was the village blacksmith who took her to be his wife when she was once again vigorous. They wed in the autumn and Æthelred was born the following summer. Blessed by summer solstice birth, the boy grew quickly and without flaw, from the moment he could stand, he wished to work with his father at the forge and took to the work as if born to do it. In Æthelred's ninth year, his mother disappeared back into the forest from which she had appeared a decade before. While both Æthelred and his father grieved, each moved on in his own way and it was not long before the blacksmith remarried. The blacksmith's new wife was not cruel to young Æthelred, rather she treated him as her own and his pain diminished.
The smith's son poured all his sadness and self-loathing into the pounding of iron into nails, hinges, rakes, shovels and spades. But for years thereafter, he was partially empty, that is until he met the young, angry and insolent Godiva. Young love is perhaps the strongest of all, for from the moment he laid eyes on the cooper's daughter, he could think of nothing else and he found reasons to be near her. Sadly, Godiva never took much notice, too busy was she in fighting for her right to be heard and in needling those around her who tried to make a proper woman of her. This state of affairs lasted only a handful of years, but during that Æthelred feared that he would neither capture Godiva's interest, nor achieve skill enough to afford a good life for them both, far from the small village of Wifilisburg, in a place where a blacksmith's son and a witch could live together without questions and whispers.
Recent Events: Then came St.Calenda's Wandering Pageant, Odeum & Lunar Fair and everything changed. The pageant arrived in late autumn, on the wings of winter and darkness came with it. But among the strange pageant-folk, was another smith, Argont, an elderly foreigner whose knowledge of working metal far surpassed that of Æthelred's father. During that final winter, in the evening, as shadows would grow long, Argont would work at his forge forming copper into coins and cups, silver into mirrors and gold into fine jewelry. As the smoke wreathed the old smith's face and the fire lit his eyes, Æthelred wanted nothing more than to join the pageant and learn all Argont knew of Vulcan's art. Only one thing stopped him, the love he secretly bore Godiva weighed him down, kept him from making dangerous promises and pursuing the secret of forging steel. Then late one cold night, returning from the pageant he overheard Sunniva, the young wife of Eadwulf in angry whispers with a circle of other village girls. Uncertain of what to make of the village girl's argument, Æthelred returned to the pageant's smithy seeking Argont's counsel. As Argont worked his forge, he listened to Æthelred's confused recitation.
When the boy was done, the old smith took a shining bar of silver from a black iron chest and handed it to Æthelred. According to Argont, there was a way for Æthelred to have both Godiva and the knowledge of steel, first he would have to cast a wolf's head medallion in beeswax, once cooled he must take it to Nabil ibn Saqr to be blessed and lastly, he must seek out Sunniva, confide in her his desire and return with her before the fullmoon's rising the following night. All these things Æthelred did, but at no time did he imagine what terrors he would find in the Shanty of Fools or what Sunniva would become once she wore the medallion he created. In the bloodshed that followed, he wanted to confess his involvement, but then, just as Argont had promised, Godiva sought him out and noticed him for the first time. Yet, since the pageant's departure from Wifilisburg, Godiva has only grown farther from him, almost ignoring him altogether for that stunted half-man Bes. While Æthelred no longer trusts Argont's advice, he seethes with jealousy as he learns the lessons of steel and ponders how to reacquire Godiva's attention.
