Reynir Þór Árnason (/ˈreiːnɪr̥ · ˈaurtn̥asːɔn/) (born year 70 in Iceland) is a sheep herder, Mage and one of the main characters of Stand Still, Stay Silent
Appearance[]
Reynir has long wavy red hair worn in a braid, green eyes, and freckles. He is about the same height as Sigrun. Most often - but not consistently - his hair is shown to have a parting on his left, while the braid peeks over his right shoulder. The exact length of the braid seems to vary as well.
He wears a blue embroidered tunic with short sleeves and a hood, light pants, and brown boots and gloves.
Personality[]
Reynir grew up listening to his four immune siblings telling tales of adventures and excitement they had abroad, instilling in him the desire to see the world, while being sheltered in a home in rural Iceland kept him from learning the full extent of the dangers there.
He tries to be helpful to the point of annoyance, even saying he can fix something before realising he can't, and is happy when helping, or learning he has helped someone. He fell in despair very quickly upon learning he was stuck in the Silent Lands, and feels homesick. He also is very apologetic, and nervous.
Reynir harbours ambitions to become a mage.
History[]
Reynir is the youngest of five siblings, and the only non-immune child, thus having been sheltered and forbidden to visit other places by his parents. He worked as a shepherd on his parents' farm, apparently together with the typical Icelandic Sheepdogs that he later meets in his dreamscape as well.
He first appeared to Lalli in a dream while the crew was travelling through the Öresund tunnel. Lalli called out to him, but before Reynir could answer, Lalli was attacked by a monster.
At that time, he was likely already aboard the Túnfiskurinn, the first opportunity he got to get off Iceland after running away from his parents' home. The Túnfiskurinn's destination of Bornholm was known to him as "the most southern place in the whole world", which he understood as indicating a warm paradise overgrown with flowers and palm trees. In addition to this mistake, he had himself hired as an unpaid kitchen aide, not knowing that the crew would not be allowed to leave ship in Bornholm in the first place.
After learning of this complication from the ship's cook, Ólafur, he overheard when two other crew members selected two crates to be "unloaded now", and decided to hide in one of them. Of course, these two crates were going to be handed to the expedition on Kastrup, rather than ever arriving on Bornholm. It is unclear whether Reynir ever would've stood a chance to survive the decontamination/quarantine measures a crate would have been subjected to before being allowed onto Bornholm proper.
After the crate was opened by Emil, Reynir was taken "prisoner." After learning he would not be able to escape the Silent Lands for a long time, Reynir fell into despair and told Mikkel his life story. He quickly became a annoyance to Tuuri and Mikkel, who responded by trapping him in blankets so he would go to sleep. Reynir dreamed into the "mage chatroom," and after being attacked by a half skeletal dog, fled into what was probably his safe zone. Seeing Lalli in his safe zone, he entered it and tried to talk to him, but Lalli used the dream to attack him, so Reynir left.
He then stumbled into Onni's zone, and quickly realised he was related to Tuuri through a picture of them he had seen earlier. After Lalli, who had followed him, entered the zone, Reynir started to fade, probably due to him waking up, but expressed his happiness at helping before he did so
. After waking up, Reynir told a dis-believing Tuuri about his dream. The next morning he told Tuuri that he believed himself to be a a mage.
Abilities[]
Magic[]
Reynir is shown to be seemingly adequate as a mage, as he was able to perform feats common to Icelandic mages, such as passing through the dream barrier other mages such as Lalli, and even that of an advanced mage such as Onni, recieving prophetic
visions warning of the ghost attacks in his dreams and being able to cast runes (galdrastafur). He has achieved these feats without any previous teaching or guidance. This is shown later on when Reynir gives the crew paper drawn protective runes before they enter the hospital. He explains that the rune is a modified version of another rune he had seen being used to keep sheep from wandering, and has flipped it's function to keep ghosts away. Though the runes appeared to have worked for its intended function, the effects did not do more than briefly deter the ghosts. This is proof that Reynir's has a certain level of understanding that is enough as a mage to recreate runes but lacks the teaching and experience to properly utilize his abilities.
Left: Original paper rune startles ghosts Right: Modified rune severely damages ghost
Later on another modified version of his of this rune is later used to help fend off the hordes of ghosts in the the stand off between humans, trolls and ghosts. This time the effects are much stronger, enough to nearly exterminate or at least severly injure a ghost, with non-mage members of the crew being able to see the effects.
The adequacy of his abilities however are questionable, as Onni once stated that he had never seen such a weak spirit as Reynir attempt to 'ambush' him.
At the beginning of the second expedition, he is seen taking basic mage training meant for farming and other mundane tasks, any interest he shows in more combative training requires him to be immune.
Fylgia[]
Minna has stated that the expedition will have two mages, one of whom is Reynir.
He appears in the "mage chatroom" where Onni confirms that he is indeed a mage.
Reynir's "haven" in the mageverse, unlike Lalli's and Onni's, is populated with animals - namely, a flock of sheep and his Fylgja, in the shape of an Icelandic Sheepdog. As we learn on arc 1 page 435
, it can actually talk to Reynir, though it merely barked in
Reynirs Flygia fades away as Onni wakes up
previous encounters. Later on when prompted to talk and guide him, his Fylgia simply walked off much to the chagrine of Reynir.
Another ability of Reynirs has manifested in the form of being able to control his Fylgia whilst fully awake. He was able to send his Fylgia across the mageverse in order to contact Onni for help against the trolls/ghost herd about to overrun the crew. This feat however, was achieved with much concentration and only lasted for a few minutes at most.
Trivia[]
- Reynir is the last character to be introduced and the last to have his name revealed. He was widely referred to as "Braidy" by the fandom and the author before.
- His name means "rowan tree" in Old Norse. Both "Reynir" and "Árni" (his father's given name, leading to his patronymic) are established Icelandic male given names.
- He is the great-grandson of Árni Reynisson. Given that all four of his siblings were born through the Dagrenning Program, he may be his only direct descendant. Árni's wish that his children knew as little as possible about the outside world may be part of the reason Reynir knows so little about the Silent Lands.
- Unlike Lalli, Reynir seems to wear the same clothes in reality and the dream world - but only in the latter, there are discs (coins?) attached, both to his jacket and to the ribbon on his braid.
Family Tree[]
Portraits of the non-appearing members of Reynirs family (plus Árni) from arc 1 page 629
| Árni Þór Reynisson |
| Guðrún Einarsdóttir | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Ragnar Árnason |
| Hildur Bjarnadóttir | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Árni Ragnarsson |
| Sigríður Jónsdóttir | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Ólafur Árnason | Guðrún Árnadóttir | Bjarni Árnason | Hildur Árnadóttir | Reynir Árnason |
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