Inside the Characters: Alva

These series of posts will provide a sneak peak into some of the characters in this novel. Character development was a large portion of my research phase, in part because I already know a great deal about the period in history due to my archaeological research. Alva was the first character that showed herself to me. I knew I wanted the lead character to be female, not in the 'strong female lead' sense as I dislike that term, but well written female character who leads and lives her life as she wants to. It immediately came to me that I wanted a character that was fighting internally to belong in a world where she feels different. Her father is Irish and her mother is of Norse descent and she is the oldest of three children. Already neither Irish or Norse, her life is complicated again when the Normans arrive creating more turmoil in her efforts to feel as though she belongs. Her fiery temper and hatred of the Normans who are responsible for her Father's death serve to fuel her introverted nature instead of allowing her to break down barriers. So from this point I knew I had a character in mind, which of course led to four other characters via her family: Father, Mother, sister, brother. Her brother, I decided needed to die alongside her Father. I wanted her to have a brother, but felt no need for him in my story, therefore he became deceased. I developed these characters as far as I could and then came time for names. Being of Irish and Norse descent, I started researching appropriate names from those cultures and settled on Norse names for both girls. I find that the mother has the strongest influence on names for baby girls and Alva and Ase's Father did not seem to mind much what their names were, as long as they were healthy. Naming my characters and the research involved in finding those names, led to more development and more angles to my story. Alva was around 14 summers when Strongbow and his knights took Dublin. Her mother named her 'elf' as her narrow face and dark eyes and hair reminded her of the stories her father told her when she was younger. She likes simple; wears a simple light linen or wool underdress with a blue wool overdress and leather shoes, braids her hair into a single plait that falls past her hips and ties a single linen kerchief to keep it clean. She's outgoing because she has to be; she's responsible for the farm and her sister's well-being. If she fails, her sister fails. She's a natural leader, even though she'd prefer to be left alone. Her father was a healer and son of a healer, MacAonghusa, while she had learned much from him, she no longer practices any healing arts, leaving that task to her sister. I look forward to getting to know her better as my book progresses!