[Ravensfort] Re: [Ansteorra] Persona Worksheet for Vikings
L T
ldeerslayer at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 22 18:59:59 PDT 2001
--- Christie Ward <val_org at hotmail.com> wrote:
> To continue the thread on persona development worksheets, here is one I use
> in Viking persona workshops:
>
> The following questions are provided as suggestions for persona development
> and study. It is not necessary for you to have elaborate answers, or even
> rudimentary answers, for any or all of these to have a Viking persona.
> Knowing this information will provide you with background for conversations
> and persona play to help make your persona have depth and interest.
>
>
> (1) Where does your persona originate? Country, district, town, name of
> farm.
>
> (2) What year was your persona born? Figure this to start with using
> current date-keeping terminology. The advanced version is figuring out how
> your persona would reckon the date. Note that the Viking Age dates from
> 793AD to 1066AD also you may wish to research what dates a given location
> were first settled. Another consideration is to figure out the exact date
> when Christianity was introduced, pagan personas will want to be before that
> date, Christians after or just slightly before.
>
> (3) What is your persona's name? To get a good name takes more than just
> going to the sagas and plucking one out of the Glossary of Proper names. We
> have pretty good evidence for a bunch of names as to where they were most
> common and when they were current not all Viking names were in vogue
> throughout Scandinavia. West Scandinavia (Norway, Iceland and points west)
> tended to have a slightly different dialect and name choices, while East
> Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden) in turn had their own practices. You may
> wish to consult with the Academy of St. Gabriel (http://www.s-gabriel.org/)
> to find an accurate name for your place/time.
>
> (4) What are the names of your parents? In part you will probably already
> know some of this in answering #3, since the most common name usage in the
> Viking Age was a personal name plus a patronymic. To learn more about how
> names were selected and how one's name may reflect the names of one's
> parents and grandparents, see: http://www.vikinganswerlady.org/ONNames.htm
>
> (5) What are the names of your grandparents and other near relatives?
> Again, as in #4, the most usual naming pattern in the Viking Age was to name
> children after a recently deceased relative, often grandparents or
> great-grandparents, though aunts and uncles and great-aunts and great-uncles
> on either side of the family were also possible name sources.
>
> (6) What is your occupation? Do you have a trade? What are your every day
> duties? What tools would you use in your daily work? Where would these
> tools come from? What raw materials does your trade require, and where do
> they come from? Do you sell what you produce, and if so to whom and for
> what value? How did you learn to do this work who taught you, what was
> the learning process like, what problems did you have in learning it?
>
> (7) What is your daily life like as an adult? What time do you awaken? What
> do you eat and when? What do you do throughout the typical day? Do these
> activities vary seasonally, and if so, why?
>
> (8) What was your daily life like as a child? What tasks were you set to
> do? What were you expected to learn, and how did you learn it?
>
> (9) Are you married? What is the name of your spouse and your spouse's near
> relatives? Is this your first spouse? If not, did the spouse die, or are
> you divorced, and what were the circumstances? For a lot of general
> information about weddings, courtships, and divorces, see
> http://www.vikinganswerlady.org/wedding.htm
>
> (10) What is your religion? Viking Age peoples might follow the pagan Norse
> gods, they might have a special relationship with one god, they might be
> Christian, or they might choose to follow no gods at all, relying only on
> their own strength. What are your persona's religious beliefs and why does
> your persona believe that way?
>
> (11) What would your persona have worn for clothing? Although the SCA has
> lots of "generic Vikings" there are actually fairly well-defined styles that
> vary by location and by time. This may influence or be influenced by #1 and
> #2 above.
>
> (12) What superstitions and beliefs about the occult or otherworld would
> your persona have had? It's interesting but true that many times a person's
> superstitions and irrational beliefs define them as much as any other
> factor. What frightened your persona and why?
>
> (13) Has your persona ever traveled and if so, where? While a lot of people
> in the Viking Age and early Middle Ages never saw more than the few miles
> surrounding their home village or farm, some were amazingly well-traveled
> even by modern standards. Where did you travel? Why did you go there?
> What did you see? What stories would you tell about your travels when you
> got back home, and how would the folks back home receive these stories?
>
> (14) What foods would your persona have eaten? Which did your persona
> like/dislike and why? Were there special foods at various times of year?
> Why were they special, and why were they served at that time? For some
> basics on this topic, see: http://www.vikinganswerlady.org/food.htm
>
> (15) What celebrations and festivals were observed? When did these occur,
> and what did they celebrate? Where did they occur, and did you have to
> travel to attend or were they held nearby?
>
> These are just suggestions, and there are many, many more details you can
> research.
>
> ::GUNNORA::
>
>
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