It is my opinion that by having a good idea of the history and context of one's persona, that a richer experience can be gained from the SCA. We can use this knowledge to focus our interests, our research, and our activities.

Iain was born to Bediah ingean Bhaird and Erc Ulfson, not an unusual combination in the Hebrides during the 11th century. Bediah was a craftswoman, a skilled weaver as well as illuminator. Erc was the son of a minor Norse landholder on the Isle of Skye.

When Iain was but three summers old, his father was killed on a 'trading expedition' with his brother, Thorgrim. Though in proper custom, Thorgrim offered to take Bediah and Iain into his own household, Bediah was an independent Celtic woman and preferred to make her own way in the world. She joined a group of travelling merchants and made a living selling her wares throughout the isles and the mainland. Still deemed too young by the caravan guards to train in sword, Iain learned the way of the bow and the knife. Much of his mother's talents also rubbed off on him during these early years, including a knack for diplomacy. Winters were spent with his Celtic relatives.

When he was 9, Iain was sent to foster with his uncle Thorgrim. Among his Norse relatives he learned many new skills and improved existing ones. While weaving was not generally considered a man's task, being from a land dominated by sheep he is familiar with the tasks. Instead he directed the same attention for detail to work with a variety of other materials including wood, metal, leather, bone and horn. He learned to fight with axe, sword, sheild and spear. He learned to brew. And he learned the arts of sailing and navigation.

When he came of age, Thorgrim gifted Iain with his father's own longship and provided for a suitable crew. Iain spent several years seeing where the winds would take him, ending up more than once in Novograd and the curious lands of the Rus. He was intrigued by the ways of the so-called "east", but when he met Gytha Oggsdottir he put his travelling aside to settle and build a family with her on his father's land in Skye.