Wedding: Bondsfire
A great hall is set aside for this ceremony and celebration, and mead is ordered by the barrelful in the weeks prior. The mead flows free, the rowdy dancing and songs flood the hall, and a large meat roast is cooked over a fire at the end of the hall. When the celebration is at its height, another fire is stoke in the middle of the hall—the Bondsfire.
Guests toss all manner of scraps into the Bondsfire—furs from conquered beasts, tokens from old lovers, torn fabric from ancestral banners. As the Bondsfire grows, the couple to be wed faces each other over the fire and throws in something of their old life—something significant and worth sacrificing for the marriage. As the couple is wed, a tankard of mead is hurled into the Bondsfire, bringing it to a blazing height.
In some variations, the couple may choose to seal the marriage with a branding. The couple, who has previously decided on an insignia to share, plunge their iron brands into the Bondsfire, then brand each other in front of the entire hall on the arms or back. They are taken back into the fold, and a night of revelry continues long into the dark hours.
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