Thorfinn Gunnarsson was born in 912 C.E. near Reykjavik in Iceland. He is the son of Gunnar Thorvaldsson, a prosperous farmer who had sold his farm to buy the knarr (trading ship) Thorr's Lady and left Norway in 911 C.E. to settle in Iceland. Thorfinn's mother Ragnheið died giving him birth, and so Thorfinn became very close to his father over the coming years.

Thorfinn never really wanted to be a farmer, feeling the call of the sea from an early age, but to honour his father's wishes, he worked hard on the family farm for a number of years, marrying in 932 C.E. Taught the skills of navigation and seamanship by old family friend Ragnar Eiriksson (also known as Ragnar Raveneye), the retired Sturaesman of the Norwegian pirate longship Fafnirsbane, Thorfinn repaired Thorr's Lady, and he and Ragnar sailed her regularly with a crew of seamen who had settled on Iceland but become bored with grubbing in the dirt.  Thus Thorfinn developed all the skills necessary for the life he had wanted all along - merchant seaman and trader.

Within six months of his marriage, disaster struck the family. Thorfinn's father Gunnar died suddenly, and a long-standing feud flared up again between the family and their jealous neighbour Sigvat Eistridsson, a man of powerful family with much influence in Iceland, who took the opportunity of Gunnar's death to attack and burn down Thorfinn's farmhouse, with his pregnant wife in it, while he was away arranging for his father's funeral.

When Thorfinn returned and discovered what had happened, he took men and straightway rode to Sigvat's stead, slaying him and his entire family with his father's sword, now his sword, 'Stormbringer'. Knowing that the Althing would outlaw him anyway for this, Thorfinn took his men and, loading up Thorr's Lady for a long journey, sailed south to Scotland, then down the coast, eventually landing at the city of Jorvik, where he was to base himself as shipmaster and trader for the next few years, building up a sound trade route and many useful contacts at all the major Scandinavian and English trading centres. During this time, he developed a long-standing trading relationship with Jarl Olaf Haroldsson of Dahrg de Belne from Tamworth in Mercia, who was (and is!) famed for his cloth and clothing - especially his shaggy cloaks, which he was keen to export to Scandinavia.

In 935 C.E. Thorfinn met and became friends with fellow heathen Hrolf Arnisson, a skilled leatherworker. Their friendship was to shape the future of both men and all whom they would meet in the years to come. As result of the Danish invasion of 937 C.E. things became a little hot in Jorvik and so Thorfinn (and Hrolf, who was looking to escape Jorvik for his own reasons!) set off with his crew in Thorr's Lady for a trade run around all Scandinavia, finishing at Birka, where Thorfinn picked up a few bedraggled Christian Monks for trade, and eventually ended up trading around the coast of England. This turned out to be a most eventful and profitable trip, encounters with pirates being the least of their troubles! As with most things Thorfinn is involved in, the Gods played their part (or Thorfinn played their part, as he often thinks...), but eventually he and his crew came to deliver a cargo of furs to a riverside warehouse at Bewdley in Mercia.

At this point, Thorfinn Gunnarsson and his crew met up with his old friend Jarl Olaf Haroldson, who had shifted his trading south after the trouble at Jorvik.

Business had not been good lately, so Olaf was holding a sale on the wharfside. As he was being introduced to Hrolf, he and his workers were attacked by a rowdy crowd, determined to run off with his goods. Thorfinn, Hrolf and their crew of sailor/mercenaries waded in on the side of Olaf and reduced the opposition to a red smear on the wharfside. Hrolf was wounded in the belly by a cowardly blow, but survives...read on!

Olaf invited Thorfinn to join him and handle the overseas trade of Dahrg de Belne on a permanent basis. Thorfinn accepted, and Hrolf decided to return to his skilled leatherwork on dry land when outside the trading season. No small factor in this was his new-found love of Rowena, the local wise-woman and apothecary, who treated him and nursed him back to health with herbs and other skills after he was wounded in the fight. They married not long after Hrolf's recovery at Bewdley.

Jarl Olaf offered the services of his personal guard and the skilled fighters of Thorfinn's crew to King Edmund to help in his retaking of the Five Boroughs. As a reward, Olaf was appointed Royal Clothier to King Edmund and his successors. Thorfinn and his seasoned men were now making regular trading runs each summer, taking Jarl Olaf's goods and anything else they can lay hands on via Scandinavia to Iceland and back down to England again

In 948 Jarl Olaf Haroldson's crew were called upon once more to take the field by a King - this time Eadred. In the fray, Dahrg de Belne's skilled hunter and warrior Ulf Johansson was killed, and his wife Ali and son Leif leave to live with her parents. Thorfinn and Hrolf set up a rune stone to Ulf in honour of a brave comrade in arms.

Thorfinn is a staunch traditional Norse heathen standing proudly in the face of the gradual increase of Christianity - even though his friend Jarl Olaf is a Christian (and more tolerant than most!). Thorfinn's patron is Thor, but he honours all the old gods, especially Odin.

Thorfinn Gunnarsson does not, however, get on too well with the local Christian priest, Brother Stefan, who caught him carving Odin's valknut on the back of a pew with his scramasax...

Like many seamen and warriors, Thorfinn is fond of storytelling, especially tales of the old Gods and his trading adventures - earning him the nickname of 'Thorfinn the Boastful' (but not to his face, as he keeps his trusty sword, 'Stormbringer', named in honour of Thor, to hand!). If you meet him, ask him the best use for Christian monks... There is no truth in the rumour that he's already writing his own Rune-Stone to make sure they spell his name right!

It is now 950 C.E. and things have settled down a little at Dahrg de Belne, but Thorfinn and his crew always look forward to another season's travels in Thorr's Lady, and the Gods know they have many more adventures in store!