HARALD JAEKELSSON

First Appearance:  Thor:Vikings #1

Real Name:  Harald Jaekelsson
Aliases:  The Jackal's Son

Identity:  No dual identity
Occupation:  Warlord
Citizenship:  Norway
Place of Birth:  Unrevealed
Known Relatives:  None
Group Affiliation:  Led Dragon Ship crew
Education:  Probably nor formal education

Height:  7'7"
Weight:  365 lbs
Eyes:  Brown
Hair:  Black

Abilities/Accessories:  A savage and accomplished warrior, Harald Jaekelsson is superhumanly strong and impervious not only to most forms of physical force, but to most forms of magic as well, even that of the Sorcerer Supreme; his weaponry, including a longsword, a dagger, and the armor of his era, has been similarly enhanced.  He commanded a crew of similarly powered warriors board a flying longship whose draconian prow breathed fire.

Intelligence:  2
Strength:  6
Speed:  3
Durability:  7
Energy Projection:  1
Fighting Skills:  4

History:  At the dawn of the 11^th century, Harald Jaekelsson was one of the most feared Viking depredators active in the North and Norwegian Seas.  When the villagers of Lakstad complained to Norway’s King Sven Forkbeard of Jaekelsson’s raids, Jaekelsson retaliated by leading his men in a massacre of Lakstad, murdering all but a handful of escaping children, some of them grandchildren of the local sage.  Disdaining Norway’s laws as too restrictive on his cruelties, Jaekelsson set his Dragon Ship’s course for the little-known Western Hemisphere, but Lakstad’s sage, clinging to survival, cursed him and his crew, using the power of runestone blood magic, to sail for a thousand years without finding the land they sought; in a parting shot, Jaekelsson slew the sage, whose blood and soul magnified the spell a thousandfold, imbuing its targets with awesome mystic power.

In recent years, Jaekelsson’s ship emerged from its timeless voyage though a millennium of limbo to dock at New York.  Little understanding or caring how the world had changed, the Vikings slew all that approached them before being challenged by Thor.  Empowered by the runestone spell, Jaekelsson brutally beat the thunder god, and then resolved to conquer Manhattan.  Thousands were slaughtered over a three-day period, one of New York’s most devastating extra-normal incursions.  The police, the US Marines, and even the Avengers were helpless before Jaekelsson’s forces.

Meanwhile, the recovering Thor had been joined by Dr Strange, who gazed back in time to learn of the sage’s curse and the bloodshed that had magnified it.  Recognizing that warriors of the same bloodline would be best qualified to oppose the curse’s power, Strange searched history for suitable descendants of the sage.  From the early twelfth century, he drew the reckless Viking battle maiden Sigrid; from the mid-thirteenth, the fanatical Sir Magnus of the Danes; and from 1945, Oberstleutnant Erik Lonnroth, reluctant fighter for Nazi Germany and the pilot of a Messerschmitt 109.  Strange empowered the three, as well as Thor himself, with the bloodline’s magic, amplifying their strength and weapons beyond the power of gods.  Brought to the present, Sigrid, Magnus, and Lonnroth wiped out the Viking crew, leaving Thor to confront Jaekelsson, whom Thor literally tore limb from limb and hurled into space, leaving the Viking warlord to orbit Earth, as helpless as he was heartless.  The sage’s three descendants were returned to their places in the past, where their valiant and violent deaths guaranteed them entrance into Asgard’s honored Hall of the Dead, Valhalla.