Group: Vikings

Name: Lynet Weaver



Age: 20

Occupation: Weaver- (Freedman- allegiance still owed to Yrsa Agnarsdotter)

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Physical Description:
A woman soft and lithe- Lynet could be called delicate or a wisp.  With the fairness of the north country in England, her skin is so pale it almost looks translucent.  Her ivory tone shows the barest traces of pink against the long tendrils of flowing golden hair that curl downward to her knees.  Those tresses are plaited in a long braid that is usually a tangle from being in the wind- working laundry, dye vats, or working flax.

Contrary to her outward appearance, she is not fragile.  Her body is full in the bust and hips and narrow in the waist- though that is usually hidden through layers of woven hand-spun cloth girded with a leather belt.   She is a hard worker and her long very dexterous fingers are calloused and usually colored with what ever wool or cloth she has been dying recently.  Lynet's eyes are grey blue- the color of a angry sea, and she is good at watching.  It is something she picked up as a child.

Personality:

She moves quietly because most of her life she was a Thrall or a Saxon female child.  She has learned being invisible is preferable to being visible, but she is very aware.  With the combined instruction of her mother when she was growing up- and the wisdom she has learned from Yrsa, Lynet tends to see the world plainly.

Lynet is very creative and she is a quick visual study.  She is patient and a perfectionist by nature, so her weaving is well done and tight.  Becoming a Freedman, has given her more rights, but Lynet is very loyal to Yrsa.

Returning home is a strange experience.  While she has memories of the fields of Brittany she does not think of them as home, and more to the point she is not sure that she would want to return.  Yrsa is far stronger than her mother and the woman's independent spirit speaks to Lynet and she feels value in the Viking ways.

Lynet's eyes often turn to the men in the village, but she stays apart.  She has not pursued many because one- Yrsa is terrifying to most men, and second- she cannot bear leaving Yrsa alone.  The woman has become a mother to her.  While she longs for a mate, Lynet has remained invisible.

Biography:
Lynet's mother was a minor Lady from Northumbria who was wedded to a Lord in Norwich- Lynet was their oldest daughter who was taken in a raid when she was six.  Lynet presumes that her parents are dead, since all she remembers from that night was blood, fire, and fear. She was taken as a Thrall and sold to Yrsa Agnarsdotter.  The weaver had publicly divorced her husband and walked away from their marriage.  With little money, Yrsa was left to choose the thin little wisp of a girl who didn't look as though she might survive the night.

Unable to understand those around her, and getting far too many scoldings, for many months she simply watched Yrsa weave as she went about the chores Yrsa gave her.  The loom was not so different from the one her mother used- though the yarn was thicker and coarser.  Between buckets of water she would watch Yrsa and how the loom was worked.

While she could not understand the language, she understood the thread.  Still wordless, Yrsa, perhaps in a moment of needing humor, allowed the girl the shuttle and the comb- and Lynet did it flawlessly.  Her thin fingers were able to tighten the weft and the weave in the way she used to do with the silks for her mother.

Buckets of water soon became looms and combs and dye vats.  Lynet worked tirelessly the creativity of the experience making her brave- though she cowered in the outer village.  Yrsa taught her the language and the ways of the Vikings.  At that time, Yrsa was a strong woman, built like a tall mast.  Suitors came to woo the Viking Weaver, but she shooed them away unwilling to bind herself to 'a man who would keep concubines and spend her earnings on meed.' Lynet learned one night when Yrsa had taken a little more Meed than she should have that there was another reason- Yrsa could not bare children.  Rather than dishonor a husband, she had chosen to live a life of divorce.   Lynet has never told anyone this secret.

When she turned twenty- Yrsa bestowed upon her freedom.  The old weaver's fingers, were heavy with arthritis, and Lynet had been working the loom for many months as the sole operator.  In a kind gesture, Yrsa gave her her freedom- bestowing it on her much the same way she had declared her freedom from marriage.  Because of her trade, she was given the surname "Weaver" as is the tradition for Freedmen.  Lynet has gladly stayed true to Yrsa, acting as a proxy daughter as her Elder and mentor as watched the means of her living creep away.

It was Yrsa's decision to leave and travel.  Lynet never wavered and followed her, though returning to her homeland has made her wary.

Family:
To Lynet's knowledge both her Mother and Father were killed in the raid.

Family History:
Her Father: Eadwald of Norfolk
Her Mother: Quendred of Northumbria

Eadwald of East Anglia was an obscure king of the small Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia, from around 796 to 798. He lived at a time when East Anglia was eclipsed by its more powerful neighbour, Mercia.  East Angles seemed to have maintained their independence for a short period, with Eadwald as their king, but the East Angles were then reconquered after Coenwulf became king of Mercia in 798.  Coenwulf permitted Eadwald to rule East Anglia as a Lord of the province and cemented his loyalty by the marriage of his bastard daughter Quendreda [the troublesome one] to him.  Eadwald was given to drink especially when his only living child was a girl.  When the Vikings attacked, his first thought was to escape- he had a long history of surviving raids after all- Assuming that the Vikings would not slay a child he had Lynet swallow his signet ring, with the intention of dragging the child with him under the guise of a farmer.  Alas he did not survive the raid and was killed.  Lynet was taken captive and sold as a Thrall.

Quendreda was the bastard daughter of Coenwulf- the King of Mercia.  Unlike her pious Christian half-sister, Cwenthryth; Quendreda chose to follow the lead of her pagan mother and follow the "Old Ones." Her half-sister, who would become the Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet, hid her exploits.

Coenwulf forced her to marry Eadwald of Norfolk when she was 15.  She was given one daughter- Lynet and a string of miscarriages and children who only lived to be less than a year.  Believing this was because she had turned her back on the "Old Ones," she renewed her dedication to pagan ritual- instructing Lynet in her attempts to restore favor.  It seemingly worked and she became pregnant with what she believed to be a son.  Her final pregnancy was terminated early when she died during the Viking raid. Quendreda chose to throw herself from a tower rather than be at the mercy of the raiders.  - (the unborn child was indeed a boy.)

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