Not specific to SotI, but I’m finding this a good resource tonight to quickly generate a personality-diverse family…

Not specific to SotI, but I’m finding this a good resource tonight to quickly generate a personality-diverse family…

Not specific to SotI, but I’m finding this a good resource tonight to quickly generate a personality-diverse family tree.

http://rangen.co.uk/chars/pergen.php

I just found this PDF of words and phrases in Old Norse, with a nice selection up front of “social Old Norse,”…

I just found this PDF of words and phrases in Old Norse, with a nice selection up front of “social Old Norse,”…

I just found this PDF of words and phrases in Old Norse, with a nice selection up front of “social Old Norse,” things like greetings, saying thank you, goodbye, etc.

http://www.worldtreepublications.org/pdfs/oldnorse.pdf

This looks like a good training resource for would-be Vikings.

This looks like a good training resource for would-be Vikings.

This looks like a good training resource for would-be Vikings. It appears to be written as a how-to and includes some nice pictures of treasure hordes and other set decorations for your Sagas story.

I got Giulianna Lamanna reading Njáls Saga as we were waiting for the PDF to come out.

I got Giulianna Lamanna reading Njáls Saga as we were waiting for the PDF to come out.

I got Giulianna Lamanna reading Njáls Saga as we were waiting for the PDF to come out. She’s about half-way through it now, and totally wants to play a lawyer like Njáll, and eventually become Lawspeaker. I think she probably wants to play a woman, too. Would that make her quest harder? What sort of opposition do you think she’d realistically face?

The secret to a happy home:

The secret to a happy home:

The secret to a happy home:

“[the latrine room] at Stöng seems to be an enormously large structure for its purpose. It appears large enough to have permitted every member of the Stöng household to have relieved themselves simultaneously.” – William R. Short, Icelanders in the Viking Age

True story:

True story:

True story:

Since the mid-1800s my Icelandic friend’s family has owned Fjaðrárgljúfur (see link for photos), rich farm land and a canyon in southern Iceland (right at the very bottom center of this community’s image, in fact.) Part of Thor II was filmed there. I joked that I hoped his ancestors fought a Norse God for the land, and instead he told me this story about how they actually got it. I retell it with permission.

“There is a dark family secret that was kept so well hidden for so long that it was actually forgotten. My great-grandfather was probably the last one to know all the details. But we know the aftermath involved a ghost. The ghost of my great-great-(great?)-aunt, to be more specific.

“The land was originally owned by a large family that was wiped out in The Mist Hardships in the 1700s. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B3%C3%B0uhar%C3%B0indin) 80% of Iceland’s livestock and about a fifth of its people died in the Mist Hardships, and this farmer and his family was included. After which there were many claims to it, until in the mid-1800s a rich and important man fell in love with it and bought it.

“He intended to retire there in his old age, but since his important rich guy things kept him away until then, he leased it out to a farmer. My great-great-great-aunt went to work at the new farm as a housekeeper. And then some horrible things happened. We don’t know what, but the farmer was kicked out before he drunk himself to death, and the rich guy lost his appetite for the land.

“My great-great-great-aunt did not want to leave, though. At all. She just wanted to sit and look at the view. All day, always. So my young great-great-grandfather bought the land and took over. He became a rich and important man off the land.

“My great-great-great-aunt lived there until her old age. Always sad. Always looking at the view. Her ghost then kept up the practice.

“My family had a long standing feud with one of our neighbors. After my grandfather died, we realized nobody knew exactly why. Tight lipped men, the men in our our family.”

I thought you’d find this interesting.

 – Kevin

https://www.google.com/search?q=fja%C3%B0r%C3%A1rglj%C3%BAfur&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=iWCqUa2EO4b6PLe_gUg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAA&biw=1024&bih=672