Zzaarr

Gunther Rosenthal Biography

Gunther grew up on his family’s farm in the hamlet of Langhof in Minitz. His father is Hans and his mother is Clara. He is the eldest of three children and he has a younger brother and sister. However, Hans and Clara are not his biological parents. His real parents were relatives of Hans and they died from a plague when Gunther was three years old. Gunther can barely remember his real parents now that he is nineteen.

Hans and Clara raised Gunther like their own. They never once showed any special favour to their blood children and loved the three of them equally. The Rosenthals were greenthumbs and made their living as farmers. Clara was a talented baker and cook and Gunther picked up some of his mother’s good sense in the culinary arts through years of being her kitchen hand. Hans was a hard worker and he made sure to drill into his son a strong work ethic.

He often said to his son, “Unlike people, the earth will never betray you. Give it all you have and it will give you all it has.”

Gunther never needed much convincing to work hard anyway. He always had a strong sense of duty and was a diligent worker. He is also as straight as an arrow. He doesn’t have a great sense of humour but his friends know that they can count on him when help is needed. Gunther is unable to stand laziness and tends to treat skivers with disdain and a sense of moral superiority. 

Gunther is slight of build and tanned from his years of working on the farm and he is not particularly tall or strong. He is quick on his feet and is able to handle a sword with some finesse but he prefers a one-handed axe, probably because of the time he'd spend chopping wood. His father had taught him how to fight, much to his mother's disapproval. Like most Reinmaric men, Hans had experienced combat from years of fighting with the Franks and defending the hamlet from bandit attacks and wild animals. Clara on the other hand hated the idea of her son being on a battlefield somewhere fighting with other boys like hers, as she had lost her brother to a vicious battle with the Franks. She dreaded the day that Gunther would want to leave home to join up with Theoderic’s Warband. 

So it happened one autumn evening, on the last day of the wheat harvest, the whole family gathered for their Erntemehl, a special family dinner to mark the end of harvest.

Everyone was in good spirits, especially Hans, because the year had been a good one and there was going to be a surplus of produce. Clara had prepared a sumptuous meal consisting of her special rye-wheat loaf, newly churned butter, barley and carrot stew, which the children loved and a freshly baked sweet cherry pumpkin pie for dessert. Hans had even slaughtered two chickens, which Clara stuffed with potatoes and rubbed down with her secret herbal salt marinade roasted them in the woodfire oven. Clara spared no effort in cooking this meal and the air in the kitchen sang with a wonderful mix of sweet, savoury and herbal aromas.

“Oh the smell of mutti’s cooking is killing me! I’m so hungry I think I could eat a whole goat!” Ernust, Gunther's younger brother exclaimed. 

Clara did not have to herd her flock to the table that night. The children were already seated at the table with their eyes trained on their father, waiting for him to give thanks to Der Schöpfer, The Creator, for the bountiful harvest and the delicious food.

“Amen!” the children shouted in unison as soon as Hans finished his prayers. 

Their hands were all over the food within a split second of them finishing the prayer and they chowed down on their food like they had been starved for days. After they had finished their food and it was time for dessert, Gunther went to the cellar and brought out a small wooden keg of Glühwein. He filled his parents’ horns before turning to Ernust and said, “I think you’re ready for your first drink, brother. Do you think you’re ready?”

Ernust stood right up and held an empty horn out, almost shouting, “Of course I’m ready! I turned sixteen two moons ago!”

“I’m ready too brother! Can I have some? Please?” Anna, Gunther’s youngest sister, pleaded in a whiny tone.

“You are going to have to wait for two more harvests, little one.” Gunther smiled, looking lovingly at his sister.

“Big brother will pour you your first horn of Glühwein,” he finished.

Holding up his own horn of Glühwein which he poured for himself, he started, “Mutti, Papi, I have decided that three days from now I will go to the city and join the Warband.”

Clara made no attempts to hide her shock as she gazed at Gunther, wide-eyed as if she was going to cry at any moment. She looked like she wanted to say something but words did not come out of her mouth. 

“Ha! My son is going to become a real man now is he?” Hans interjected to break the lingering silence.

“I think that you’ll be a good warrior if you..” Hans continued with a satisfied look on his face.

“No! You cannot go now son, you’re still too young! Go next year!” Clara tried to plead with her son.

Gunther threw his hands up in the air with a look of frustration on his face and trying to regain his composure, he said in a firm voice, “That’s what you said to me last year mother, and the year before!”

“I have made up my mind and I will be going. I have spoken to the local recruiter and put my name down. You can’t stop me mother, not this time,” he finished. 

Hans wanting to soothe the tension, spoke up saying, “He’ll be fine darling. We’ve mostly subdued the Franks, and there aren’t any major wars going on at the moment! Besides, Gunther is going to become a real man!”

Clara then took a deep breath, stood up slowly and walked into her chambers without saying another word. Gunther too, visibly upset, stood up and went out of the house with his horn of Glühwein in his hand. Hans and his two children at the table finished their pie gingerly wondering to themselves how this year's Erntemehl became such a miserable affair.