Ylva

Ylva is headstrong, practical, hard-working, and quick-tempered. While Thorfinn spends his childhood imagining warriors and distant lands, Ylva understands that somebody must milk livestock, prepare food, repair things, and keep the household operating.

She can be materialistic by her father's standards. As a teenager, Ylva openly suggests buying a slave to reduce the family's workload, failing to understand why Thors is so uncomfortable with owning another human being.

Her bluntness coexists with strong family loyalty. She carries a tremendous share of responsibility after the family's circumstances change and develops into one of the most capable adults in the Icelandic household.

Ylva has no formal warrior training, but years of physical farm labor make her exceptionally sturdy and strong.

She manages animals, carries heavy loads, prepares food, works around the farm, and handles the demanding routine of an Icelandic household.

Her physical toughness is often used humorously, especially when her anger is directed at members of her own family, but it also reflects years of doing work that the absent men of the household cannot contribute.

Ylva appears throughout Thorfinn's childhood as his older sister, regularly teasing him and dismissing his fascination with warfare as childish.

When Thors sails after receiving Floki's summons, Ylva remains in Iceland with Helga.

After Thors is killed and Thorfinn disappears, Ylva takes on even more responsibility around the family farm. She eventually builds an adult life in Iceland rather than following the martial and exploratory paths taken by her father and brother.

When Thorfinn returns sixteen years later, Ylva initially does not recognize him and refuses to believe the quiet, scarred adult is really her missing little brother. Once Helga confirms his identity, Ylva responds with furious physical affection for the years of worry he caused the family.

Thorfinn is Ylva's younger brother. Their childhood dynamic is teasing and argumentative, while his disappearance leaves Ylva and Helga believing for years that he may never return.

Thors is Ylva's father and the person whose unusual rejection of slavery and warfare sometimes confuses her as a teenager.

Helga is Ylva's mother, with whom she remains in Iceland.

Ari is Ylva's husband and the father of their children.

Sigvaldi is Ylva's maternal grandfather and former chief of the Jomsvikings.

Thorkell is her maternal great-uncle.

Gudrid becomes Ylva's sister-in-law through her marriage to Thorfinn.