How to creat a persona

Hello readers,
I'm thrilled that all of you are enjoying the the new blog series. I'd still love more feedback on what you guys would like to see next. Till then, I'll continue to expound about living history. In this article I'll be going into more detail on how to go about creating a persona for a living history group.

The steps I'll be writing about are very basic and from a base for starting out. Once these are done, you'll need to flesh things out more as you go but hopefully this will help get you started.

The first step to creating a persona is choosing a name. for many people who are not familiar with Norse names here's a link for Norse baby names and their meanings. Norse baby names.

Once you've chosen a name, you'll want to decide what you personas lot in life is. Are you a noble? A shield-maiden? Perhaps a Merchant or Farmer? There were three primary class tiers for Norsemen. At the base were slaves and Bondsmen. These were both referred to as þræll. This is an older Icelandic word for slave. The next tier were the Karls. Karls were the land owners, soldiers, raiders, farmers and traders. The third class is considered the ruling class known as Jarls. A Jarl was the head man of the local community or of several communities. Ranging in power from an Earl to a King. A Jarl often made rulings on disputes, funded raiding parties and was often viewed as the strongest in battle.

Once you've completed these steps, your well on your way. Once you've fleshed who you will be, you'll want to begin to figure out what you should wear and determine what type of weapons. tools and accessories would be appropriate for your personas life. You can acquire all these things either purchasing them online are by making them with the help of other members of your Living History Group.

The final steps are learning and practicing the skills that your persona would possess. Whether that be basket weaving, swordplay, cooking etc. That way once you go to your first Living History event your able to not only participate but educate others and perhaps even generate an income if you become skilled enough to make products that others will want.

As far as education goes you should study. Learn more about vikings and how they lived. You'll know more about how your persona lived and you'll be able to educate others about a very important time in history. The Viking Age ranges between about the years 700-1100 AD. The best way to learn more is to talk to your other group members. They'll be able to point to the best resources for expanding your knowledge.

I hope all of this has helped you get started and if you'd like to learn more feel free to leave a comment about what you would like to learn about next.

Phil
Viking Living History, Viking Clan Drengskapr