Tales of Ragnar Ulfgarsson

by Hallgeirr Olafsson, February 2018

At the first Siege of the Abbey, Seawinds had an idea to make Shire coinage and give each person in attendance a bag of varying denominations. Attendees were encouraged to acquire more through various endeavors like service work, wagers, bardic performances, etc. The winning side in the melees would receive a chest full to be distributed by the winning commander, and the coinage was to be used during a live auction held Sunday. Friday night, I was near the bridge waiting for late arrivals needing help to get unloaded when an older man came by and asked if my compatriots and I would like to hear a story... for a nominal fee. As we were charging the same nominal fee to help folk unload, we thought "Why not?". I had been in the SCA a year or so, and had no idea who this man was, or how AWESOME his stories were! We may, or may not have been, fully in our cups when he came by, but by the time he finished, we definitely were. After the first few stories, whenever he would finish one, we would plaintively cry, like a group of hungry children, "Tell us another one, Uncle Ragnar!" After an hour or so, and however many stories he told, we were tapped out. He had gotten from us every single coin we had earned that night.

As he stood to go, a young lady came by and asked us the same question Ragnar had asked: "Would you like hear a story? I'm just learning this and will need to read parts of it, but I need to try in front of an audience."

"Certainly!" we replied.

She told a tale about a selkie that I am not ashamed to say reduced me to tears. When she finished, Ragnar took the pouch from his belt that held his coin and emptied it onto the table. I had never seen an act such as this in my life. His generosity touched my young soul and helped shape the man I have become, both in the SCA, and in the Mundane world.