Adelstan
Adelstan ("Adelstan Wolfsbane", "Adelstan of the North") was a man of Genlith during the Howling Times when Genlith was notorious as the land of raiders and reavers who plagued the lands southward of their borders. He was born as the youngest son of a large family, whose father was a feared battle-leader named Agilblad. Having many older brothers (and fierce sisters) it would normally be hard for Adelstan to have stood out, but this he decided to do.
On his twelfth birthday a wandering seeress came to Agilblad's hall and Adelstan contrived to meet with her at the feast and asked if she would give him the blessing of a great destiny. She took his hand and cut three deep wounds in his palm which he bore with silence. As she cut the fourth he cried out in pain.
"Three wounds you suffered in strength and silence, three slaughters shall shun your soul,
The fourth bane you bore not, and baleful be the bright blade betokened."
Adelstan took this to mean that he would evade certain death three times, and suitably emboldened he demanded his father include him in the next raiding party into the lands west of the mountains (what is now Tyaldi ). His father laughed at him.
"A beardless boy bears no battlegear, one unblooded ventures not beyond his barn,
Without glory you go not where great spears gather, gain you a finer name then ask again"
Annoyed but undaunted Adelstan took up his father's mocking challenge and set out alone into the nearby marshland. In the sober morning, and urged on by his wife Agilblad looked for the boy who had not returned, and on finding him not, he took a handful of his warriors in search of his son. They met the boy returning, battered and bloody but shining with triumph, bearing on his shoulders the body of a great wolf, it's neck broken.
"This wolf wrought woe when flocks it found, and slew the kine of kerls and kinsmen
Shunning steel I slew him, no sharp sword, or spear-shining, with empty hands I harshly met him"
Suitably impressed Agilblad included Adelstan in the next raiding party. They encountered a group of Greendale warriors who were seeking to protect their borders from attack and Adelstan faced his first real battle, in which he distinguished himself for his great leap toward the enemy and his throwing a spear that pierced two men with one strike. And this was only the beginning of his career.
Earning notoriety and his own fame, Adelstan continued to grow in stature and renown, eventually on the death of Agilblad being offered the position of war-leader of his family. He turned down the honour saying that he wanted no man's life or death to be his charge and ceded the position of leader to his eldest brother Agilforth.
One one extended campaign into the central lands (at the time Caervil's territory) the group he travelled with was ambushed and slaughtered under a hail of arrows. Adelstan was found alive among the carcasses though dreadfully wounded and was taken south as a prisoner to be exhibited and, no doubt, executed.
On the journey however the returning warriors disturbed what the chronicle describes as "a giant" that was almost certainly one of the Trolls that seemed to grow from the earth beneath them, crushing horses and riders in its great hands. As the men of Caervil fell into disarray, the injured Adelstan, still reckoning that he had not yet faced the three deaths he had been prophesied to survive took up two spears from his fallen captors and leapt upon the "giant's" back, slaying it with his two fiercely driven points.
The captain of the Caervil men promised to speak for him when judgement was passed and when the group arrived at a city of Caervil and Adelstan was brought before the ruler there for judgement to be passed, the captain did indeed speak up of the lives that the Genlith man had saved by his bravery and asked for his life to be spared. The ruler was about to dismiss this appeal, when Adelstan spoke up in cheerful mockery of the fine clothes and soft hands of those that sat in judgement and reminded them that with "giants" at their gate they should welcome him and let him earn his life or death in confronting them. This bravado amused the court and this was his sentence - to protect the borderlands of Caervil from the "giants" which he did in company with the captain whose life he had saved (and who became a firm friend).
True to his word, Adelstan accepted the sentence passed upon him and made no effort to escape, remaining in the south as a slayer of Trolls for the rest of his life.
His life came to an end when a warband of Genlith struck at the lands that Adelstan was protecting and he faced his brother in single combat, each slaying the other and dying in each others' arms.
On his twelfth birthday a wandering seeress came to Agilblad's hall and Adelstan contrived to meet with her at the feast and asked if she would give him the blessing of a great destiny. She took his hand and cut three deep wounds in his palm which he bore with silence. As she cut the fourth he cried out in pain.
"Three wounds you suffered in strength and silence, three slaughters shall shun your soul,
The fourth bane you bore not, and baleful be the bright blade betokened."
Adelstan took this to mean that he would evade certain death three times, and suitably emboldened he demanded his father include him in the next raiding party into the lands west of the mountains (what is now Tyaldi ). His father laughed at him.
"A beardless boy bears no battlegear, one unblooded ventures not beyond his barn,
Without glory you go not where great spears gather, gain you a finer name then ask again"
Annoyed but undaunted Adelstan took up his father's mocking challenge and set out alone into the nearby marshland. In the sober morning, and urged on by his wife Agilblad looked for the boy who had not returned, and on finding him not, he took a handful of his warriors in search of his son. They met the boy returning, battered and bloody but shining with triumph, bearing on his shoulders the body of a great wolf, it's neck broken.
"This wolf wrought woe when flocks it found, and slew the kine of kerls and kinsmen
Shunning steel I slew him, no sharp sword, or spear-shining, with empty hands I harshly met him"
Suitably impressed Agilblad included Adelstan in the next raiding party. They encountered a group of Greendale warriors who were seeking to protect their borders from attack and Adelstan faced his first real battle, in which he distinguished himself for his great leap toward the enemy and his throwing a spear that pierced two men with one strike. And this was only the beginning of his career.
Earning notoriety and his own fame, Adelstan continued to grow in stature and renown, eventually on the death of Agilblad being offered the position of war-leader of his family. He turned down the honour saying that he wanted no man's life or death to be his charge and ceded the position of leader to his eldest brother Agilforth.
One one extended campaign into the central lands (at the time Caervil's territory) the group he travelled with was ambushed and slaughtered under a hail of arrows. Adelstan was found alive among the carcasses though dreadfully wounded and was taken south as a prisoner to be exhibited and, no doubt, executed.
On the journey however the returning warriors disturbed what the chronicle describes as "a giant" that was almost certainly one of the Trolls that seemed to grow from the earth beneath them, crushing horses and riders in its great hands. As the men of Caervil fell into disarray, the injured Adelstan, still reckoning that he had not yet faced the three deaths he had been prophesied to survive took up two spears from his fallen captors and leapt upon the "giant's" back, slaying it with his two fiercely driven points.
The captain of the Caervil men promised to speak for him when judgement was passed and when the group arrived at a city of Caervil and Adelstan was brought before the ruler there for judgement to be passed, the captain did indeed speak up of the lives that the Genlith man had saved by his bravery and asked for his life to be spared. The ruler was about to dismiss this appeal, when Adelstan spoke up in cheerful mockery of the fine clothes and soft hands of those that sat in judgement and reminded them that with "giants" at their gate they should welcome him and let him earn his life or death in confronting them. This bravado amused the court and this was his sentence - to protect the borderlands of Caervil from the "giants" which he did in company with the captain whose life he had saved (and who became a firm friend).
True to his word, Adelstan accepted the sentence passed upon him and made no effort to escape, remaining in the south as a slayer of Trolls for the rest of his life.
His life came to an end when a warband of Genlith struck at the lands that Adelstan was protecting and he faced his brother in single combat, each slaying the other and dying in each others' arms.
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