Viglundings

[Majestic]

So what stats have any of you used for the Viglundings? (if you have)

For most tough men like this I have typically used the Outlaw Warriors from Tales of Wilderland, though I would take away No Quarter from them. I might tweak them slightly for the Viglundings.

I'm kind of surprised C7 never listed stats for them (I haven't been able to find them, even using the search function on the PDFs), as their conflict with the Beornings is a story thread likely to draw adventurers north to aid the Beornings at some point.

[Majestic]

With a more thorough search (using the Palantir), I see that Mytholder/Gareth gave an excellent explanation here of why he didn't include an adventure featuring that conflict.

And looking through zedturtle's Theft of the Moon (holy cow, does it look professional now!!!), I see he included Viglunding Thieves in that amazing adventure. That gives me a good starting point as well.

[Elmoth]

Zedturtl'e's amazing adventure is about viglunding SLAVES, not warriors, though, so I would not use them for warriors.

I gave them orc warrior stats to make them dangerous to the party.

[Majestic]

I ended up using stats pretty close to what "Theft of the Moon" has, as those were real close to the Outlaw Warriors from Tales as well.

For Viglar (Viglund's son), I beefed him up a bit.

The PCs ended up taking out a bunch of them without too much trouble.

[Cleggster]

I ran the Viglunds as an ongoing story line recently. I came up with stats for 'em, and the players liked it. The whip stats made them dangerous to an otherwise powerful group.

Here is the thread where I posted their stats if you are interested.
viewtopic.php?t=4232

[Majestic]

I'd forgotten all about that thread. Thanks, Cleggster!

[Dedicemancometh]

I have to say that while TOR has generally been excellent with its filler noncanonical additions, the 'Viglund' name is a misstep. Although Tolkien did borrow the dwarf names in the Hobbit directly from the Icelandic sagas, for a human culture, I think this direct lift hurts the ear. The "V" sound leading off... Properly this should be Wiclan, Wiclun, Wicloth (ugh, sounds like washcloth). But I think I'd would have even gone farther afield for a name.

Starting off with concept of a totemic animal counterpart to Beorn, a couple of things come to mind:

Olgir or Oelgir (pl. Elgeryn) - adapted from the Old English for Elk might do.

Might go with Gerwan - adadpted from Jerv, Old Norse for Wolverine

I like the sound of Olgir best, but I like wolverine as antagonistic totem best. Hmmmm.... can't decide.

[Glorelendil]

I have to say that while TOR has generally been excellent with its filler noncanonical additions, the 'Viglund' name is a misstep. Although Tolkien did borrow the dwarf names in the Hobbit directly from the Icelandic sagas, for a human culture, I think this direct lift hurts the ear. The "V" sound leading off... Properly this should be Wiclan, Wiclun, Wicloth (ugh, sounds like washcloth). But I think I'd would have even gone farther afield for a name.

Starting off with concept of a totemic animal counterpart to Beorn, a couple of things come to mind:

Olgir or Oelgir (pl. Elgeryn) - adapted from the Old English for Elk might do.

Might go with Gerwan - adadpted from Jerv, Old Norse for Wolverine

I like the sound of Olgir best, but I like wolverine as antagonistic totem best. Hmmmm.... can't decide.

I sometimes roll my eyes at the overthinking that often appears in RPG forums, but my hat's off to you for these morsels of scholarship.

Too late for official C7 material, but Olgir and Gerwan are both great names for Mannish villains.

[Aeglosdir]

Tolkien did borrow the dwarf names in the Hobbit directly from the Icelandic sagas

Yes, and he did say in LotR Appendix F that Old Norse was used for the language of the human culture of Dale.

I think this direct lift hurts the ear. The "V" sound leading off...

OK, you don't like the sound of Old Norse then?

Properly this should be Wiclan, Wiclun, Wicloth

'Properly' if they'd gone for Old English rather than Old Norse. It appears they didn't.

Olgir or Oelgir (pl. Elgeryn) - adapted from the Old English for Elk might do.

Adapted how? OE elch was itself from Old Norse elgr, I think.

Might go with Gerwan - adadpted from Jerv, Old Norse for Wolverine

Adapted how? Wouldn't Old Norse jarfr (Norwegian jerv) correspond to something like *eorf in Old English (if you prefer OE names)?

[Dedicemancometh]

Tolkien did borrow the dwarf names in the Hobbit directly from the Icelandic sagas

Yes, and he did say in LotR Appendix F that Old Norse was used for the language of the human culture of Dale.

Did I miss something in TOR that says the Viglundings are of Dalish origin? I thought they were of the Anduin Vales.

I think this direct lift hurts the ear. The "V" sound leading off...

OK, you don't like the sound of Old Norse then?

Sometimes. Not always.

Properly this should be Wiclan, Wiclun, Wicloth

'Properly' if they'd gone for Old English rather than Old Norse. It appears they didn't.

The region of the Anduin Vales, currently the home of Beorn [OE derived] and ancestral homeland of the Rohirric peoples [OE, again] inclined me to that bias.

Olgir or Oelgir (pl. Elgeryn) - adapted from the Old English for Elk might do.

Adapted how? OE elch was itself from Old Norse elgr, I think.

Personal choice. Tolkien himself was often influenced by the resonance of certain words to the modern English ear (and not above puns). Elch sounds like belch to me. Unless the character is a bombastic, eructating slob who wears a crown of antlers, I wouldn't go with it -- although Belch is a pretty good Dragon name... (I've always decided that Smaug's sire was Smoác.) but....back to the alternate names for Viglund... Elgir wouldn't be half bad.

Might go with Gerwan - adadpted from Jerv, Old Norse for Wolverine

Adapted how? Wouldn't Old Norse jarfr (Norwegian jerv) correspond to something like *eorf in Old English (if you prefer OE names)?

Eorf, sounds like Oaf. Eh, so-so.

Hmmm... I went with the hard G in Gerwan simply to have a strong sounding name, counterpoint to Beorn. Warg would be a great counterpoint to Beorn (wolf vs. bear, but also because it includes the word "war" within)... but as we all know that was used by Tolkien for the species of dire wolves.

Anyway, I really enjoy trying to parse out these kinds of things. It shows how hard it is sometimes to really hit upon something totally invented that still sounds Tolkienesque. Many different linguistic factors come into play, including how things sound to the modern ear, what connotations they might have, puns, etc. Thanks for your input!