Drott

Drott is a huge, menacing man topped with dark red hair. Over his frame he layers chainmail beneath a knee-length blue garment, with grey trousers, a black undershirt worn atop the mail, and a string of beads at his neck. Three deep gashes rake the right side of his face, almost certainly a bear's work given his nickname, and an eyepatch hides the socket, hinting that he lost the eye in that same mauling.

Brutish and built to intimidate, Drott holds open contempt for anyone he reads as weak while reserving respect for those who earn it. He behaves like a bully, needling Thorfinn over both his slave status and his small stature, and he carries himself with heavy pride and a keen regard for his own dignity. That pride comes bound to a real code of honor: once Thorfinn beats him, Drott owns the loss, salutes him as a warrior, and keeps his word by clearing the way to Canute.

The Bear-Killer name is taken to be literal, backed by his size, his reputation, and the claw-like scars down his face. He turns up in the Jomsviking camp on Ketil's farm, where he blocks Thorfinn from reaching Canute and mocks him as a dwarf. When the small man will not back off, Drott delivers a warning blow across the face, but Thorfinn slips every strike that follows. Noticing the onlookers laying bets on how long he can last, Thorfinn asks to join the wager himself, staking not money but an audience with the king; the soldiers set the bar at a hundred punches, with his life forfeit should he fall short. Furious at being made a fool of, Drott swings again and again, landing a clean hit only at the forty-second blow when Thorfinn is distracted. By sundown he has thrown all hundred and stands spent, awed by the endurance in front of him. He drops to his knees, apologizes for doubting the man, names him a true warrior, and tells the arriving Wulf that Thorfinn is surely a former royal guard whose request should be honored.