Þórarinn (Bardi's fosterer)

Thorarin is Bardi's wise old fosterer at Lechmote — the cold strategist who plans the great vengeance of Heiðarvíga saga. Aged, lamed, and bedridden, but with an undimmed mind, it is Thorarin who, when Bardi's brother is killed by the Southern men, spends years patiently grooming the reluctant young man toward the reprisal — schooling him in timing, in restraint, in the exact moment to strike, holding him back until the conditions are perfect. The vengeance, when it comes, is as much the old man's design as the young man's deed. Thorarin is the saga's image of the strategist behind the avenger — the crippled elder whose body is useless but whose patient, calculating will drives the whole feud, the planner who cannot lift a weapon but who arranges, year by year, exactly how and when the blood will be repaid. The mind that makes the reluctant hero act.