Sverkel

The family resemblance runs strong in Sverkel, who echoes the features of both his son and his grandson Thorgil. Age has thinned the hair from the top of his head and left him stooped and fragile in build, yet he still bends to harvest his crops unaided. A goatee frames his mouth, and his brow carries no eyebrows.

A first meeting paints Sverkel as a sour old grouch, but beneath the prickly exterior sits a man of real warmth, one who trades guidance and assistance to his son's laborers in return for their work. His softness surfaces most clearly in his close ties with Snake, a friend he bickers with constantly while plainly caring for him. Stubborn, tireless, and firm of will, Sverkel is also a devout Christian who asks Snake to read scripture aloud to him.

Sverkel takes a liking to Thorfinn and Einar, offering them the use of a horse and his farming implements in exchange for tidying his home and tending his fields. The arrangement draws the three men close over time. His body eventually betrays him when his back gives out, robbing him of the strength to farm and leaving him bedridden and unable to walk. His creed, that emptying oneself makes room for anything new and offers the surest path to being reborn, becomes one of the ideas that helps Thorfinn rebuild his sense of purpose.