I just reblogged 2 posts made in memory of Duke Thorbrandr Olaffsson.
To most people, he was a giant of a man (literally), but he was so much more: A fierce warrior. A kind father. A loving husband. An honorable king. A devoted friend. A heart-brother.
This morning, as I finished my personal travel coronet, I stopped to admire the work on it. Some of the skills that I used to craft it were taught to me in the last year by Thorbrandr, better known to those in his circle as T-Bone, and I shed tears, knowing that I would never be able to show him the work I'd done on it.
Over the last 4ish years of knowing T-Bone, I grew as both a person and as an artisan. My life is richer for having known him. Not because of the skills and wisdom he helped me cultivate, but because he was just a Good Person and he genuinely wanted the best for people.
I don't entirely know where this post was going. What I do know is that I'm going to try and stretch my artistic wings further and work towards becoming a more refined artisan. I was going to do that, anyways, but there's probably going to be an echo of "What would T-Bone tell me?" now.
I'm going to miss his wry smile as he looked over my pieces and would tell me they were good enough to cut up. It was his way of telling me that they looked like artifacts -- that I'd done well in my attempts to recreate Viking age jewelry -- and if he didn't say that? He'd give me advice on how to work them further to get to that point.
I'm also going to continue making coronets. I have much to learn still, but it's a worthy endeavor to become one of a few people in my Kingdom who can do them. And it would do honor to T-Bone's memory.
