Trigvi Haraldson

Physical Description
A robust norse man of early middle age, with short dirty-blonde hair and matching close cropped beard. A physical specimen in his youth, the good life and middle age have given Trigvi a slight belly. Still he is in good physical condition, and routinely performs hard physical labor on his ship.
Trigvi usually dresses for ship-board life whatever the circumstances, wearing loose linen trousers and a short cotton or linen tunic. In inclement weather, he adds additional layers, usually including a heavy woolen cloak

Personality
Trigvi is a bluff and hardy fellow. Always of good cheer, and friendly to a fault. Trigvi comes off larger than life, the friendly, outgoing norseman, always ready for another drink or tall tale. This persona is not far off from the truth. A man who has faced death many times, Trigvi intends to get the most out of life.
Raise a norse pagan, Trigvi converted to Christianity as a young man. While he tries to follow the teachings of the church, and for the most part succeeds, he is constitutionally incapable of the dour seriousness many priests demand. Still, he takes the sacraments when he’s in port, and he generally tries to lead a life free from sin. He’s certainly given in to lust and gluttony a few times in his life, but he has also sincerely repented his lapses.

Business
Trigvi has entered a long term partnership with Antipka Romanovich and Iosif Vasilkovich, two Kievan fur merchants. The three pool their resources to buy the best furs they can afford, and then Trigvi ships them down to Constantinople for sale. The partnership has been very successful, and they are starting to think about purchasing another vessel. While this partnership is the greatest source of income for all three men, all three do have other interests. They cannot buy enough furs to fill The Valkyrie, and Trigvi fills the rest of the hold with Lumber or Grain for his trips to Constantinople. Both of the other men own land outside of Kiev.

The Valkyrie
Trigvi's ship, The Valkyrie, is a knarr style trading vessel about 15 paces long and 5 wide. The Valkyrie wass purpose built for the Kiev/Constantinople trade route. It’s about as big a vessel as you can comfortably portage past the Dnieper rapids, and sturdy enough to sail the Black Sea without problems.
The Valkyrie is a single masted ship with Lanteen rigged sails (slightly slower downwind, much faster in all other directions). It has a crew of 6 (including Trigvi), and can transport up to 23 tons of cargo. In an emergency, it could be operated with as few as 2 crew (one to steer, one to manage the sails), but that is substantially more dangerous than the usual operation.

The crew of the Valkyrie
Olaf the Limper: A Varangian Guardsman who took a severe wound to his leg that forced his retirement from mercenary life. Trigvi took him in on the recommendation of an old Varangian Guard friend. Olaf is still learning the ropes as a sailor, but he’s reasonably competent in a fight. He has the Lame flaw.

Semyen Antipkovich: One of the younger sons of Trigvi’s merchant partners. Trigvi has been teaching Semyen how to work the Kiev/Constantinople route for a few years now. The partnership is hoping to buy another boat, and Semyen has been earmarked as the captain. He is the second in command of the Valkyrie.

Dimitri Efremovich: a Kievan sailor who has been with Trigvi for 3 years now.

Ioannes of Thebes: The longest serving of the Valkyrie’s crew, Ioannes is a Greek sailor who Trigvi befriended when they were both working in the Agean. Ioannes has managed to pick up a little bit of East Slavonic, but he mostly prefers Greek.

Kirill Matfeyovich: the newest, and youngest, member of the crew, Kirill was just hired last season, when a senior crewman retired. Still learning the ropes, Kirill is only about 16.