The Hall of Jarl Anud Cursespear
The hall is grand and well-placed. It sits in the Storstrøm Vale on the Ume River, a lesser tributary of the great Storm River. The hall also lies near the sea, and Jarl Anud’s land reaches inland from the coast for a fair distance. It is a rich land, with many well-tended farms, expanses of wooded land, and prosperous fishing villages. The people are generally happy and content, and Jarl Anud is strict but fair and rules his people well.
The hall itself is a large and ornate affair, with the main hall and several outbuildings encompassed by a wooden stockade and surrounded by a shallow trench. The stockade is made from well-dressed timber brought from Estenfird at great expense, stands 30 feet high, and has a covered walkway around the outside. The stockade sits on a low earthen mound eight feet in height fronted by a shallow trench six feet deep with a bottom of mud and water. The water level is only filled by periodic rains or snow melts, and thus the trench is dry in the summer, contains approximately 15 inches of water most of the year, and becomes topped off by snow in the winter.
The main hall towers over the stockade, its central support a single ancient tree cut in Estenfird 20 years ago. The beam is nearly eight feet thick and runs from the front of the hall to the back, nearly a hundred feet in length. The hall rises 50 feet above the ground, a remarkable height for a building in the Northlands. The roof is of thatch, but the best thatch available, and is replaced twice annually. Every exposed surface is adorned with carvings of the gods, animals, the jarl’s more honorable exploits, fantastical beasts (many of which the jarl has slain), and famous scenes from the sagas. The best of these carvings are accented in gold and silver, obvious displays of the jarl’s wealth and power.
The hall is divided into four main sections, a main hall that reaches up through two stories and is surmounted by a balcony that runs the entire interior of the hall, several rooms off the main hall that are used to host important guests, rooms for servants to prepare food and drink, and finally the second floor, where the jarl, his family, and his closest retainers have their rooms. Such luxuries as private rooms are almost unheard of in the Northlands, and a sign of the jarl’s wealth.
Beyond the Great Hall, the settlement consists of several outbuildings, barracks, workshops, and other assorted structures. Although only a jarl’s hall, the population and industry rival that of small towns and forms not just the political center of the jarl’s domain, but the economic as well.
Settlement
The Hall of Jarl Anud Cursespear
Type
Great hall
Owning Organization
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