Tostig Bearkiller
Jarl of Heortland
Tostig, son of Erlend, son of Golfung, son of Thurl, was born in Axefield in 629 4A. As the eldest surviving son of his father, the Jarl of Heortland, he assumed the role when Jarl Erlend died battling the rogue Beor marauders in 640, just before the boy’s eleventh birthday.
Tostig was known for his prodigious strength and even more prodigious appetite, giving him a barrel-chested physique tending toward fat later in life; nevertheless, he was an active, potent force of nature throughout. Pressured by his uncles (who were acting as advisors to the young Jarl), he refused numerous proposed marriages. He would, he declared, only be content with a great beauty to bear his sons. When King Haemund offered the hand of his daughter Aelfwyn, Tostig agreed at once.
Despite his deep attraction and later love, their marriage was a maddening exercise in flirting, postponement, distraction, misdirection and murky half-truths. He was 29, she only 17; and yet, it was she who set up and controlled the game. Torn between love and duty, Jarl Tostig spent more time hunting, fighting and seeing to his work than being humiliated by playing at Aelfwyn’s games.
Rumors of infidelity began to circulate, and even questions regarding the children’s legitimacy. Tostig seemed to lose all will, succumbing to spending more time with his beautiful but venomous wife. In time, the Beor marauders returned, raiding vital farmlands outside of Trollfen. Tostig raised his huscarles to repulse the raiders, but during the battle he fell, killed by an axe-blow. Some claim it was from one of his own men.
Relationships
Legal Status
Widowed
