Ari

Ari gathers his black hair into a ponytail above hazel eyes. In his younger years he dressed plainly, a brown tunic with ash-gray sleeves, a black belt, matching gray trousers, and brown shoes. Taking up soldiering later put him in a red scarf, chainmail, and a helmet. By 1018 he has filled out and carries a growth of facial hair.

Ari nurses a bitter grudge toward the man who crippled his brother by taking his left leg. Beyond that wound he is a driven, ambitious warrior, plainly smitten with Ylva. He knows Thorfinn the moment his old friend comes home and is glad of it, though the account of everything Thorfinn suffered after leaving as a child leaves him visibly shaken.

Ari's life is rooted in the Icelandic village where Thorfinn grew up. He weds Ylva, Thorfinn's sister, and together they raise four children, tying him into the wider family of Thors and Helga. In the long years after Thorfinn is carried off from the village as a boy, Ari takes up arms and becomes a soldier.

When Thorfinn at last returns home around 1018, Ari is among those who greet him, listening in astonishment as the young man recounts the road he traveled. He later joins the company that sets out west across the sea in search of new land.