Ragnar Magnusson

Ragnar Magnusson, born February 4th 1926, was a humble Icelandic fisherman.

Birth and childhood
Born in a small Icelandic fishing community on the west coast of Iceland, Ragnar was the son of Magnus Olafsson, a fisherman, and Anita Jonsdottir, a local midwife and housewife. From an early age, Ragnar was a creative, adventurous boy, often worrying his parents as he tried mounting "exploring expeditions" into the wilderness around the village, and a couple of times into the sea. He was a friendly, outgoing boy with ambitions to be an adventurer and traveller. However, as he got older, he began to realise that was unlikely, he would probably spend his life becoming a fisherman, marrying a local girl and never leaving the rural, backwards local area. However, instead of spending his time getting depressed over this situation, he instead got on with his life, finding out he actually enjoyed boating and fishing.

As a whole, Ragnar's childhood was uneventful. His local community, a small close-knit group of Icelanders with a fishing-based economy, while backwards and xenophobic, were friendly and helpful, and the most interaction he had with the outside world were frequent visitors from nearby villages, and very little visitors from beyond that aside from an occasional trader. He developed passing interests in natural phenomena, nature and technology (despite the distinct lack of technology the villagers possessed, he was frequently bewitched by some of the technology brought in and used by traders and travellers, like cars.)

Youth
The war had mostly not affected Ragnar's isolated village, with only the radio broadcasts, occasional army visitor or an explosion in the distance to show for it, though Ragnar still maintained an interest in it, paying keen interest to radio broadcasts and newspapers chronicling the ongoing war. Life continued as normal, with Ragnar maturing, getting a reputation as one of the most intelligent and most athletic kids of his generation, and also getting a girlfriend named Katrin Helgusdottir. However, in 1945, at the age of 19, tragedy struck Ragnar's village.

A massive storm out at sea ruined half the fishing boats as they had the daily fish. While most of the fishermen survived, with Ragnar being in the fish gutting shed at the time with his mates, Ragnar's father and uncle were both killed as they were both far out at sea where the seas were rocky and the storm was at its worst. Their boat was later found smashed onto a rocky formation, the planks eroded and covered in moss and barnacles, and a large number of fish they'd caught and junk and stuff they'd salvaged scattered around the rock. Their bodies were mostly gone due to the elements or wildlife. Overall, fourteen men from his village and twenty-seven from other villages were killed or became missing following the disastrous storm. Following this disaster, Ragnar was left to feed and provide for his mother and younger sister alone. It took some months for Ragnar to adjust to this new-found responsibility, but eventually he settled into the role of fisherman easily, and married his childhood sweetheart Katrin, a friendly local girl and daughter of a neighbourhood blacksmith.

Fish population dries up
Ragnar's life continued as normal for the next year or two. He carried on working as a fisherman, slowly gaining a reputation as one of the best fishermen in the village. He became notorious for going dangerously far out to sea whenever it took his fancy to observe natural phenomena or catch the more exotic fish out there. He found the sea relaxing, interesting and welcoming, and in another life would have made a great marine biologist or deep-sea diver. Around this time, Katrin gave birth to two children; one was a girl who tragically passed away very shortly after her birth, the other was an optimistic, playful boy named Olaf (in honour of Ragnar's deceased father.)

For a while, Ragnar had been noticing slightly increased levels of pollution and litter in his beloved sea, and despite his suspicions and concern, had decided it was nothing to make much of a fuss about. The other fishermen had not been having problems because of it, and neither was he, so he just shrugged and mostly threw the litter he accidentally caught aside.