Otzi the Iceman and Cold Iron swords

He's doing pretty well! Hostility to bafflement is an improvement, yes?

The Georgian-era half of this story is more-or-less easy to research, as there is a goodly amount of documentation. (Though certain questions are hard to answer- for example I can find diagrams of the dinner table, but how is it set at breakfast?)

But I had an imaginary half to create, and I didn't want to go with yet-another-Native-American-imitation. While there are inevitable similarities between non-metal-working, forest-dwelling peoples, I have drawn as much as possible from medieval and primitive European sources for clothing, weaponry, customs, etc. There's a lot more to living primitively than you'd think- here is a video of someone recreating Otzi the Iceman's gear. All that for an arrow??

For culture, I incorporated a good amount of Irish fairy lore, with a bit of Greek and Scandinavian influence. Plus a goodly amount of totally-made-up-shit. It's fantasy, after all.

One more problem I have with modern fantasy is that Elves are exactly like humans, but prettier, and live forever. I can deal with that now and again, but it's almost universal. So I threw in some serious physical differences. The color change from child (green) to adolescent (brown) to adult (fair) is really just the tip of the iceberg. I won't go into more detail at this point, but keep your eyes peeled.

 

One more question I'm pondering: Is Cold Iron being deadly to fairies a modern concept, or not? In Irish lore, fairies are thwarted by iron, but I don't know if it was just any iron. While there is such a thing as cold iron, it can't be used for swords or daggers; those items must be forged.

I attended a fantastic Viking festival yesterday, but that will have to be a future post. I'm out of time.