This post was written with a prompt from The Procrastinators’ Weekly Writing Prompts.

I chose the prompt about mischief and what your Viking character would do.

Homnil the Fierce is a short and stalky man, with a beard as gray as the dusted hills of his homeland. He is feared mostly by a reputation invented as a young lad of just 17. He has never actually harmed a soul or pillaged a town to the ground. But there are horrendous stories of Homnil ripping children limb from limb when their parents won’t pay him for the wool of his goats. Also, terrible tales of the gray-bearded Viking burning stables with cattle, sheep and horses in it out of jealousy for not having the loving wife that many other Vikings have.

So how did Homnil become Homnil the Fierce without any acts of violence? By being a creative orator and man of disguise. He wanders from land to land with different hats or cloaks and shares stories that he claims to have seen firsthand of the dreaded Homnil.

This deed has invented a quiet life for Homnil to live on his farm in peace, that is of course until someone decides not to believe a story and challenge him.