Saviour of Paris

A Place to Ask Frankia's Newest Duke About His Past and Present Life

[askrollo]

Yes. After my fight with my brother I stayed in a house of healing for a little while. The night I returned back to my own bed I woke up to the sound of Gisla screaming. She told me that she had dreamt that I was slain in battle and that my brother had overrun the city. I spent most of the night speaking softly to her and assuring her that I had returned safely, and that as long as I lived I would do my best to protect her from any harm.

[askrollo]

I know the secret of making ruins, though probably not as many as Floki. However, I cannot write in Frankish, the idea is just too strange to me.

[askrollo]

To be honest I prefer hunting over fishing. I find there is more glory in bringing down a stag than dragging a fish from water. Now that I am a duke there is more pageantry in hunting, too. I can gather the important men of the surrounding lands and we may all ride out together. But fishing is how poor men eat in Kattegat, so at one point in my life I had to become very accustom to it.

[askrollo]

I have just recently become a father after a very long wait, and in this moment the idea of losing one of my children in marriage is unsettling. I suppose I must one day, but hopefully they will not have to live very far away, and will still find time to see me even when they are busy with their own lives. 

[askrollo]

[askrollo]

Yes, their current favorite is called ‘Berserker’ where I chase after them and they must run away. Gisla does not like this one very much. She says it makes the children too “wild with excitement” and that it is not fitting for me to be running through the castle snapping, snarling, and knocking over tables.

However, the children and I enjoy this game so much we tend to ignore her displeasure. 

[askrollo]

Divine...

[askrollo]

Gisla does not like it very much when I teach our children about my gods or the life I had before coming to Frankia. She says that the children are Frankish and do not need to concern themselves with such things, but I disagree. I think our children are neither Frankish, nor viking, I think they will prove to be a people unto themselves.

[askrollo]

That is a very hard question to answer. For you see there are not many parts of my homeland that would impress her. The buildings and the structures are much smaller than what she is use to, and the grand events at Uppsala or the celebration of Yol would disgust her as ‘heathen’ practices. I suppose that I might end up taking her to the interior to see some of the landscapes. She has left Paris only a few times in her life and never seen much wilderness. Perhaps she would enjoy that.

[askrollo]

My childhood was not always the easiest and I felt a great deal of unhappiness, though, I did not always know why. It seemed like Ragnar was always happier and more self assured than I could ever be and it troubled me that he could be this way and I could not. Later, when I was grown I realized that my parents favored him more than me. Even though we were their only two children and should have been equals. I have often wondered if this was the reason for some of my unhappiness. Yet, there were some pleasant times too, and I suppose it all worked out in the end.

[askrollo]

I was not so much ‘thinking’ as I was ‘feeling’. For when I first laid eyes on my child it felt as if my chest had been split in two so that only my heart was exposed. 

They do not tell you how small they will be. With their tiny fingers and toes. It was almost hard for me to believe I took part in bringing something so fragile into this world. And I silently swore to protect them from any harm that would ever befall them; for they were mine to protect.

There is no going back after that moment, my life has never been the same since. 

[askrollo]

No. Is it not the way of the world for fathers to give their daughters in marriage to capable men? Why would they trust their child to some unproven youth who may not be able to provide for them?

[askrollo]

Summer use to be a time of pleasant weather when one could spend the days fishing, hunting, and enjoying the bounty of nature. In Paris the heat was almost unbearable and the whole city wreaked with the smell of rotting food. In Kattegat keeping our food fresh was not so much of a problem.

The air feels heavier here too during the summer, like being smothered with a damp cloth and all the while my wife tells me, “No, you may not take off your tunic. You are an important man now. You must stay clothed.” Even when you are sweating worse than a horse that has been run hard. 

Whatever!

[askrollo]

That is a very difficult question to answer, for you see I did not pursue Gisla, she was offered to me as part of a treaty. I was only in Frankia because I felt like Kattegat no longer had anything to offer me, and because I wished to see if the words of the Seer would come true. Siggy is tied to both these things. If she had not died I would have never spoken to the Seer as a broken man, and if she was still alive and I still did not wish to return to Kattegat that would mean that the two of us were quarreling again. 

The problem with Siggy and me is that while we did live with each other we never truly belonged to each other. She was always looking back to the family she once had, and I was always looking towards my brother as I tried to achieve everything he had and more. 

[askrollo]

I simply wish to have one place that is still cold, because often times Frankia can feel hotter than the belly of a forges furnace to me.

[askrollo]

If I am slightly angry at her or wish to annoy her I call her “Princess”. But when I am feeling particularly warm towards her I will call her my “auðri” which is a nonsense word that means something close to ‘little treasure’ when said in her language.

[askrollo]

My wife often accuses me of wishing to do pagan things to her in bed, and some of these Christian ways are still strange to me.