Character.

“Let me tell you about my character” has become a bit of a meme among LARPers, and is often enough to send even the most interested and sympathetic listener running for the bushes. This poem was my first attempt to have a somewhat palatable “in-character” version of my horrible Saxon boy’s backstory, and leans rather heavily on kennings to get its point across. I’m quite proud to say that it’s been heard more than it’s been read, but here it is in full!

Baegstan.

Once young and heartfelt I walked / in the heather-trod forests.
Filled song’s cup with words hoarded / like the serpent-lair piled.
At ring-breaker’s seat schooled / the scop’s harp still sounding.
To hear Wotan’s lip streams flowing / while wound-thorns lay upon the bench there.

Then, mother’s heart breaking in her mind-fort / sought uncut-threads, testing the whale road.
Battle-sweat shed for children of war/ billow-horse cutting through Wotan’s clouds.
That wealth-warding sea-beast shrub / sought the worst sword-point reddener.
Sent to the Wealas, mouth-rudder moving // for wrist-frost at news of a gold-giver’s death.

Bandied with that ring-rich Svanni / a brooch-bearing shield-ruler.
Talked across the mead-benches / while bright-sweetness spilled out.
With sole-palms made heavy / amidst new counsel-sharers,
Stood strong with those bench-mates / scattering eagle’s food.

That gold-leafed attention-seeker / Brising-haired headache of my childhood,
Sought the hanged-one’s knotwork / seeking the Fire-Elves’ knowings.
Coerced a girl of the houses / charmed her childhood’s climbing-tree,
Then fell to the shield’s storm / Taken by the blood-gull’s mistress.

That wielder of the giants’ back scratcher / willing drinker of the dwarf-mead,
Travelled through the sky-cloaked mere / distance tempering falling eye-rain.
Gifting a rune-string to the fairest frowner / that brooch-bed of the fearsome brow-beam,
Stealing her joy-thunder / slighting her forever.