Thora

Thora is a frightened but caring child whose actions are motivated by her family's desperate circumstances.

She is close to Sture and protests when he attempts to take her share of their punishment. Her reaction shows that their protectiveness is mutual rather than simply the older brother acting on behalf of a passive younger sibling.

The children's fear during their interrogation emphasizes how little control either has over the situation. They are dealing with armed adults who can determine not merely whether they are punished but whether their already vulnerable family can continue surviving.

Thora has no combat ability and is an ordinary child.

She has experience with the basic work expected of children in a rural household and helps her family survive while their mother is ill.

No specialized skill or exceptional physical ability is established.

Thora and Sture begin stealing food after their father fails to return from a trading trip and their sick mother becomes unable to support the household.

The Guests eventually catch the siblings. Snake tricks them into admitting to stealing flour and brings them to Ketil for judgment.

Thorgil initially proposes cutting off one arm from each child. Pater argues for a less destructive solution: the family can enter Ketil's service and work to repay what it owes. Ketil accepts the proposal but orders ten strikes for each child.

Sture asks to receive Thora's ten blows as well. She protests, but her brother insists on protecting her. The incident provides one of the Slave Arc's smaller but clearest demonstrations of how poverty, debt, and land ownership can leave nominally free people almost as powerless as slaves.

Sture is Thora's older brother and closest protector. She objects when he volunteers to suffer her punishment.

Snorri is Thora's missing father.

Bo is Thora's grandfather.

Ketil owns the land rented by her family and decides how the theft will be punished.

Snake catches Thora and Sture after investigating the missing food.

Pater advocates allowing the family to work off its debts rather than imposing a permanently disabling punishment.

Thorgil proposes mutilating the children and later delivers the first blow intended for Sture.