Nicklas and Sanne

Nicklas and Sanne Joensen from the Faroes.

These two siblings are among the more anonymous apprentices at the Unicorn Farm. The come from the small township of Leirvík situated on the second greatest of the Faroese isles, Eysturoy.
Nicklas and his 10 months older sister, Sanne, lived ordinary, but relatively tough lives in the small community in Leirvik, every workday morning they trudged hand in hand off to the local school, every afternoon, they walked home again, did their chores, tended the chickens, and started cooking dinner, looking after their smaller siblings, the two year old twins Elias and Simun, and baby Trina, called after grandmother Trina, who lived in the house as well. Grandmother Trina was very old, and could hardly walk, but she was clear of mind, and could always tell Sanne and Nicklas what to do.

They counted themselves lucky that their father was not a fisherman, but worked at one of the fish canning facilities, same as their mother. When the other children from school teased them and said that as their father was not a real man, and doing a woman's job he ought to wear skirts as well, the two siblings just shut up, very happy to have a father at home, and not being scared to death with every stormy day. They had all lost uncles and friends to the sea. Every evening after dinner, their father read to them from one of the many books in the house, ant they spoke of far away countries and strange things happening, their mother always happy to bring out the old, heavy encyclopedia and read aloud from its long sentences in old fashioned, knotty Danish.

And the family had a secret. They were wizards, or at least their grandmother insisted that they were. The only problem was that they were not able to do any magic.

One early spring, when they were both 12, and the town was about to celebrate Sólarkaffi (sun coffee) as every year, Grandma Trina had two guests when they came home from school. Grandma Trina introduced Sanne and Nicklas  for Gylfi and Thora, two old friends of her from long ago. Trina told that thy could do real magic, and were here to teach the children of the family. The grown ups talked long into the night or what you may call it, because Sólarkaffi, the next day was held  to celebrate the return of the Sun after three months of night.

Grandma was carried in a special chair, Sanne and Nicklas held the hand of one twin each and Gylfi carried baby Trina, who slept from most of the festivities in his strong, gentle arms. Everybody gathered in the town hall, where big plates of every conceivable kind of pastries and cakes stood ready at the tables. But first they had to listen to a speech, look at exhibitions of craft and arts and listen to music. Then, a little before noon everybody went outside, saw the sun rise and set again and sung the national anthem accompanied by different musical instruments. Thereafter everybody stuffed themselves with delicacies from the tables, and coffee and tea in large amounts. Next up were chain dances led by the Eysturoyar Dansifelag, but rain showers led to an early stop to the fun.

In the afternoon, Thora and Gilvi told the Joensen family about their plans for a school in magic, and Sanne and Nicklas happily accepted to be the two first students inscribed.

Nicklas has blonde hair, brown eyes and dark skin. His sister has the same dark complexion, but her blue eyes and chestnut brown hair makes her look very much like her father, who to the outraged protests of Granny Trina tells whoever wants to listen that he owes his dark looks to a French pirate back in history.
Their wands are made of Juniper, Sanne's emitting sea blue and Nicklas' sea green sparks. We meet them only fleetingly one of the first days, where the apprentices learn how to count in Icelandic, a language quite close to Faroese.
Nicklas joins the Potions team, while Sanne is better at Nature magic.