Frythild Shairskwynn

Frythild Shairskwynn was an Etrancoasti Bard and novelist. Even though he wrote poems, songs and novels alike, he is most famous for his novels, namely Sodobane - The Tears of Syrúna, Waterburcht Burning and Flowers of Titanius. He is considered one of the pinnacles of Etrancoasti language literature, although the values his novels convey have aroused controversy.

Early Life
Frythild Shairskwynn was born on 772.11625869925, in Deksel, a village in Etrancoast, into a family of rural merchants who frequently commuted between the village and Yrvhaven. His father, Elamerk Shairskwynn was an abusive parent who regularly drank liberal amounts of alcohol, blamed all of the family's financial troubles on his wife Ámótha. Frythild also had a younger sister named Sarna. When he was just eight years old, his father Elamerk got killed during a dragon's attack on Deksel - Ámótha never remarried, but he had relationships with various men over the time, who acted as unofficial faster fathers to the still-child Frythild. One of these men taught Frythild how to play the lute and sing. One of those men made Ámótha pregnant, who would die of childbirth while Frythild was only fourteen years old, and his sister eleven.

Frythild and his sister Sarna became street beggars, living off performances. Luckily for the pair of siblings, just one month after begging and starving, they were discovered by a group of bards, who have decided to take the Shairskwynn siblings in. For the next four years, the two of them travelled with this group of bards, musicians and poets, seeing Etrand, Froturn and Artaburro for themselves.

Four years later, Sarna got married to one of the leading bards of the travelling group, while Frythild quit the group to join Bards Guild in Waterburcht, starting to publicize poems and short novels written by himself.

Breakout
In 774 AEKE, the novel Sodobane - The Tears of Syrúna by Frythild Shairskwynn hit the bookshelves, and it became an instant hit, turning Frythild from a barely recognized bard onto a local legend in Waterburcht. He would translate the novel to Etrandish immediately, but the translation wouldn't be published until 776 - after that, Frythild became a true hit.

To prove that he is not a one-hit wonder, he began writing another novel - Waterburcht Burning, finished under two years. He wanted to release it in both Etrancoast and Etrand, but the due to the infamous Cairbrean Censorship going on, the censors denied his book. Frustrated, the bard migrated to Froturn, where he began working on acquiring the means to publish his book - despite his best efforts, it took years to get everything working. The book's translation was finished under a short period of time, but wouldn't be published until 784 due to complications - he released it together with Sodobane - The Tears of Syrúna.

After the success of Waterburcht Burning in Froturn, he once again tried to release the book in Etrand, but was denied the opportunity to do so. In fact, he learned that he has become quite infamous in his own homeland, accused of being a pagan. In order to prove that he is not a pagan, he began working on another novel - Flowers of Titanius, which got released in Etrand first in 787 together with a censored version of Waterburcht Burning. Neither of those two books would published in Etrancoast until 792, the year Frythild returned to his homeland for good.

Retirement and death
Frythild died on 844.94030200721, in Yrvhaven, Etrancoast.

Controversy
Shairskwynn's book Waterburcht Burning aroused a lot of controversy, due to its negative portrayal of the Etrandish military and the Inquisition, and overwhelmingly positive portrayal of Hulran pagans - as a result, the book got banned in both Etrand and Etrancoast, and only at least a decade after the intended release of the original version, a censored version would be released in Etrand and Etrancoast. The Church of Titanius also criticized the book for having an overly sympathetic portrayal of unorthodox priests, thus encouraging heresy.

This led to many allegations that Shairskwynn was a pagan, which he denied. What he did not deny however, is that he is proud of his homeland Etrancoast, and will never be ashamed of anything his ancestors did, even if they were pagans.

Many claim that his following novel Flowers of Titanius was a blatant "I'm not pagan" novel.