Sten (Oxenefordscire)
Sten was a 9th century Norse Viking from Oxenefordscire, England.
Biography[edit | edit source]
Born and raised in Norway, Sten married a local woman and fathered a number of sons and daughters. Some time later, he set sail with a band of raiders for England, hoping to earn a living there for himself and his family by pillaging the countryside. After many years, however, a string of misfortunes befell Sten in the 870s, starting with every raider gradually dying in combat until he was the crew's sole survivor.[1]
The same week the last raider was killed, Sten received two letters of ill-tidings from a neighbor in Norway. The first said that only Sten's youngest daughter Hilga lived after the whole family contracted the plague and perished from it, only for its follow-up to regretfully report Hilga had also succumbed despite the community's prayers for aid to the Valkyrie Eir.[1]
With his friends and family all dead in both countries he called home, Sten's grief overwhelmed him, yet he knew no way to express it; he had spent years hardening himself against emotions in a misguided attempt at an impossible, hypermasculine ideal, believing that feelings would distract him in battle. His own lack of reaction to this news troubled him up until the day he built a funeral pyre in Oxenefordscire for his last crewmate.[1]
While lamenting his situation, his cries caught the attention of the Raven Clan Viking Eivor Varinsdottir who was passing through the region. When she inquired why he shouted so, he explained his sorry circumstances and suggested that she could command him to cry. Eivor considered his request and her own idea of distracting him with a holmgang to first blood, then decided a course of action to help Sten in mourning his loved ones.[1]