Group: Saxons
Name: Deor
Age: around 60
Occupation: Bard (sceop in Anglo-Saxon)
Sexuality: male hetereosexual: largely inactive due to age but still admires women.

Physical Description: tall, gaunt, long grey hair and beard, deep-set dark eyes under bushy brows, scarred on arms. Usually dresses in plain woolen tunic, but still retains a scarlet silk cloak he earned by performing for a Frankish king, which he wears on feast-days. Often leans on a staff when walking.

Personality: eccentric; usually kind and loyal to the people of his own village, but inclined to be difficult dealing with strangers, unless they treat him with the respect he feels he deserves.

Biography: born in this village long ago, left in his twenties after learning all that the local sceop and the local priest could teach him, studied at Jarrow and other places of learning, and also with the master-poets of royal courts in England, Scotland, Ireland, and France. Returned home whenever he felt lonely and married during one of these visits, but still drifted away again every so often. Eventually fathered one son, who later fell in war as a young man (to his great grief) and one daughter, who stayed in the village, married a steady village man and born him two daughters. Her husband has since died, but she manages her household well and has raised her daughters --by now she is approaching forty and they are approaching twenty.

Family: (if any) As of now, one adult daughter (Mathilda)and two near-adult grand-daughters (Beadohild and Swanhild). He makes his home with them (when not on the road --and now he is spending less and less time away). His daughter (who had to largely raise herself while he was away) regards him with a certain sardonic tolerance; his granddaughters adored him when younger and are just beginning to realize he is fading away now.

On appearance, his height would be about 5'10" --several inches above average for his time.
His weight, however would be about 140 pounds, as he is thin for his height. His arms and legs have lost flesh and appear to be ropes of hard muscle. His beard is thick and bushy and falls halfway down his chest. He eyes are a very deep blue. His complexion was originally fair but is now very weathered.

He usually wears a worn leather belt and sheath with a large knife, chiefly for eating but if necessary for fighting, though he rarely fights now. He actually owns a sword, worn but once of good quality, but he seldom wears it except for ceremonies or when he expects actual danger, either because he is traveling outside the village or he has reason to think the village may be attacked. Somewhere in his daughter's house he has stored a mail short, a conical helm and a round wooden shield, but these he has not used in decades, and would only bring out if dire danger threatened.
He has a finely carved, though worn, harp, which he still plays regularly in the evenings, either in his daughter's house or at village gatherings.

On personality, he is apt to wander round the village murmuring snatches of old verses; most villagers are used to this and ignore it, but if someone wants to listen respectfully, he may stop and perform an entire poem. He is still proud of his skills as a bard and likes to display them at village gatherings. Nowadays, he is rarely invited to the nearest king's court, as the king has a younger bard named Horant, whom Deor resents. If challenged, poetically or, improbably, in actual combat, he still has a temper and may attack fiercely with words or even blows.
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