Reynir Árnason -- Character Development

[FinnishViking]

Hmm true that, i guess i just expected to see all of the forms of magic in the comic and with no additional charicters joining in i find it "odd" to have a second branch of magic unexplored.

Not complaining since i prefer seeing the Finnish magic, but i just find it odd.

[Vafhudr]

Same. But that was kind of dashed when it turns out Reynir is just a shepherd and not someone from the Academy.

[BrainBlow]

That jut makes it more interesting in the long run to have Reynir discover his affinity while on the journey.
That allows for some intimate exploration of magic, and would allow us to see and experience the magic like Reynir does. Far better with "show, don't tell" by having him discover it, rather than him being an accomplished mage who only has exposition on the matter to offer us.

[KMK]

Soooo... I stumble upon a rather interesting piece of information while doing research today.

From this wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukko

Perhaps a coincidence, or perhaps foreshadowing that Reynir's will be getting thunderbolts later on.

The same article has this: Tuuri, a Germanic loan and cognate of Thor, was possibly an alternate name for Ukko.[6] Tuuri is rarely encountered in Finnish mythology, and had been relegated to the mere role of deity of harvest and success.[citation needed]

[Vafhudr]

Eh. That's an interesting coincidence. I had not noticed that.

Going to have to weight that against the whole luck theme-naming.

[FinnishViking]

Hmm seems a bit odd to call the entity surrounding harvest a "mere" one. Seems like it was something that was just assimilated to normal everyday life and lost its religious meaning.

[Vafhudr]

Or the ruling class was a warrior one and so didn't care much for agricultural deities. Peasants probably liked him a lot and so relegated to folk-stuff.

[Laufey]

Or the ruling class was a warrior one and so didn't care much for agricultural deities. Peasants probably liked him a lot and so relegated to folk-stuff.

The Finns of old weren't actually on the level of culture where you'd be able to have a separate ruling class of warriors: instead the farmers doubled as warriors, the same as in the Scandinavian area and Iceland*, the thing that set the important ones apart was simply how wealthy they were.

The name change is likelier to be due to the name of the god being taboo, traditionally Finns had a boatload of words you were never supposed to say and five boatloads of words you were to use instead. The word for bear is a good example, it was avoided so thoroughly that even though we assume Ohto is the real name of bear we cannot be entirely certain of it, but hey at least we can call bears Mesikämmen, Källeröinen, Otso, Otava, Metsän kuningas, Metsänomena, Karhu and so forth.

Ukko as a word means "old man" and that's why it sounds like an obvious candidate for being a "safe" name to be used instead of the real one. Another point is that the Finns of old happily mixed their gods with the gods of nearby pantheons, which may mean that Tuuri could even have been occasionally seen as Perkunas/Perkele as well, seeing how both gods pretty much did the same jobs (thunder, crops, luck). Having said that Tuuri seems to have always been linked to luck and nowadays luck all that the word implies, although it does have a nuance of surprise in it - you mention you had tuuri with you only after the pieces rain down and you dust yourself and wonder how on earth no one was even hurt. Tuuri is luck that beats all odds.

*Icelandic sagas can pretty much be shortened to "farmers fighting". That's literally what's going on in every one of them.

[Vafhudr]

Aaah. That's a mechanic I was not aware of - the whole avoiding name thing.

As for the Icelanders - mind you my knowledge on the subject is limited - I thought that stemmed more from a conscious decision to avoid the nonsense they had to endure with Norwegians. Was that phenomenon of armed farmers more widespread or did it vary depending on regions. I mean, I am aware that a lot of warriors were also farmers, but I was under the impression that in places like old Norway, Sweden and Danemark they had warrior aristocrats of some description (Jarls?). 

[Laufey]

Icelanders had no such noble ideas behind everyone working, it was simply a matter of necessity. Either you worked, nobleman or not, or you starved the next winter. Also I'd like to point out that at the time of settlement Icelanders were in effect Norwegians on a new rock so drawing a clear line between them is a bit difficult... it's true though that at first Iceland opted for being a commonwealth rather than a kingdom, but after this eventually resulted in a near civil war they returned under Norwegian crown.

Kings and jarls were usually found in the Scandinavian area just like you said: there were very few of them in Finland and none in Iceland, and although these aristocrats naturally needed noblemen at their service being a warrior was often just an occasional profession and the line between being a warrior or a farmer blurry at best. A man in charge of a house usually kept his concentration on the house itself, running it, hiring the people of the region to work for him and making sure he had enough ties with the important families around the area. His sons would be the ones to offer themselves at kings' service to gain titles, wealth and fame, usually as warriors but occasionally also as a court poet - a skáld.

Once done with your service (that could last for a few years to decades, depending) you'd just go back home, marry a suitable lady and settle down at your own farm, hiring people to work for you, making friendly ties with your neighbours and so forth. Ta-dah, you're a farmer again! And... you just might need the help of those crop-giving gods. Now when you consider that the majority of the people would be like this it's unlikely that Finns would simply have let go of an agricultural god in favour of a more battle-happy one.

Btw even after Finns converted to Christianity they often kept their old gods and served them just like they had always done, so that says something about how stubborn Finns were around this topic.

[Fimbulvarg]

*Icelandic sagas can pretty much be shortened to "farmers fighting". That's literally what's going on in every one of them.

Though in the case of Eigil Skallagrimssons saga it's more about child farmers viciously murdering people over a football game then rapping about it.

As for the Icelanders - mind you my knowledge on the subject is limited - I thought that stemmed more from a conscious decision to avoid the nonsense they had to endure with Norwegians. Was that phenomenon of armed farmers more widespread or did it vary depending on regions. I mean, I am aware that a lot of warriors were also farmers, but I was under the impression that in places like old Norway, Sweden and Danemark they had warrior aristocrats of some description (Jarls?). 

Depends on which time period you look at. The biggest formation resembling a warrior "aristocracy" was the Royal Hird, which started out as a very modest bodyguard (or housecarls) and evolved gradually to become a large professional army (with its own military intelligence no less) almost resembling continental knights.

[Laufey]

Though in the case of Eigil Skallagrimssons saga it's more about child farmers viciously murdering people over a football game then rapping about it.

Bet you his neighbours rued the day when his grandpa's corpse washed up on the shore and his father decided it was a perfect place to build the family farm.

[FinnishViking]

Though in the case of Eigil Skallagrimssons saga it's more about child farmers viciously murdering people over a football game then rapping about it.

Depends on which time period you look at. The biggest formation resembling a warrior "aristocracy" was the Royal Hird, which started out as a very modest bodyguard (or housecarls) and evolved gradually to become a large professional army (with it's own military intelligence no less) almost resembling continental knights.

Indeed and since the local clercy seemingly didn't mind the peasants worshipping other gods if they said their prayers to the christian one aswell since there is at least one suriving prayer that combined bouth Jesus and Ukko. Also in church books there are evidence in Savo of Ukkos vakkas ( party for Ukko ) being held as late as 1670 with them stating that most of the population didn't think these things as pagan or sinful.

[Vafhudr]

Though in the case of Eigil Skallagrimssons saga it's more about child farmers viciously murdering people over a football game then rapping about it.

Depends on which time period you look at. The biggest formation resembling a warrior "aristocracy" was the Royal Hird, which started out as a very modest bodyguard (or housecarls) and evolved gradually to become a large professional army (with its own military intelligence no less) almost resembling continental knights.

There is nothing that is not hideous and hilarious about that sentence.

[RandomTexanReader]

I am so upset right now. (Putting my incoherent rant in the spoilers but really I don't know if anyone will be spoilered? New page is up.)

Spoiler: show

Reynir is the youngest child. He's a cheerful, ebullient, excitable personality, who feels like he constantly has to be useful. Which means that growing up (if his family is typical according to the families I'm used to) this happened a lot:
"Reynir, you're not helping."
"Go and bug somebody else."
"Ugh, you're so annoying."
"Reynir. Stop."
"Calm down already!"
Baby Reynir would be subdued for a few moments, then probably try to 'help' some more, leading to more explicit rebuffs. He would probably feel like a burden when he was permitted to help with 'grown-up' tasks, being significantly less able than his older siblings---probably his only peers. And he would definitely have the youngest child complex of needing almost constant attention.
Okay, back to why I'm upset: panel five, page 308.
".....Oooh. I got it. I'm sorry."
HE KNOWS THAT TUURI'S LYING TO HIM. HE KNOWS SHE LOCKED HIM OUT. HE KNOWS THAT HE WAS ANNOYING HER. This is just further validation of the "Reynir's annoying" he would have heard from his (still loving) older siblings. REYNIR IS APOLOGIZING FOR HIMSELF.
And then Mikkel shows up. "And I'm sorry to see you wandering around without supervision." *reinforces dependence* "You'll stay where I don't have to keep an eye on you." *reinforces that Reynir's a burden* Look at Reynir's face. He's chewing on his cheek again---which is what he does when he's confused/unsure/conflicted, etc. The next panel? He's trying to make himself less of a burden. "I didn't have nightmares." He's touching his neck---that's a clear body-language indicator of discomfort. Also an indicator of lying.
So there we have it. In just one page, Reynir is psychologically squashed back into place, is made, once again, to feel that he is nothing but a burden, a hindrance, and an annoyance to others. Probably the same way he was made to feel when he was a young child. Am I reading too much into this? PROBABLY. *retires sobbing into the night*