Fenna
Last to wake, last to spoil, and perfectly happy about both.
Story
Fenna is a Pimpernel, a medium, even, oval tuber with smooth dark red skin and the deepest yellow flesh in the cellar. The kind was bred in the Netherlands from Populair crossed with Mulder K 101 and released in 1953, and has been grown in Norway for a long time since. It is one of the latest table potatoes grown in Norway, with a long dormancy, and it keeps very well. Long keepers become the elders of the Sleepers over many winters kept, and the cellar already treats Fenna as one. But age is counted in winters kept, this is Fenna's first, and the first waking after harvest is what ends childhood. Fenna has not woken. The young look up to the stillest body in the bins; the stillest body in the bins has never once been a grown-up, and has not noticed. That is where the flaw comes from: stillness looks like wisdom to everyone watching, and Fenna has believed them.
Fenna sleeps in the Bins, in the middle of the row, where the air is still and nobody passes. In the field, the card says, Pimpernel sprouts late and grows slowly at first, then becomes a tall plant with long stolons that wander out of the row. Fenna says this is a family failing and will not discuss it.
Pimpernel is also a parent. Laila (1969) is Pimpernell crossed with Doon Star x Åspotet, and Hårek (1985) is Pimpernel crossed with Beate. So Fenna's kind and Torhild's kind made Hårek together at Ås, and Laila's other parent is the same cross that is a parent of Beate. In the cellar this makes Fenna and Torhild co-parent kinds, which is a mouthful, so between themselves they settled on friends. The cellar calls them the old couple, out of earshot.
Fenna takes on the newest kind in the cellar, Morven, as an apprentice in the one thing Fenna is good at: waiting. Most lessons happen with Fenna asleep.
Moments for a card or strip
- The apple's visit. In an apple visits, half the bin wakes early. Fenna opens one eye, looks at Bodil for a long time, and goes back to sleep out of pure will.
- Scab is a scar. In Scab is a scar, a newcomer hides a corky patch. Fenna, half awake, turns a shoulder to show her own, says nothing, and nods off again.
- The laugh. A wordless strip in the Long Dark (Someone wakes up): the bin is silent, one laugh, everyone looks at Fenna, Fenna is asleep and serene.
Who they are
- Role
- Counsel at the Thaw, and the oldest child in the cellar: when everyone else is sprouting and wrinkling, the young bring their worries to the one body that has not changed, and since the first waking after harvest ends childhood and this is Fenna's first winter kept, the one they ask has never grown up.
- Temperament
- patient
- Among
- the Sleepers
- Wants
- To sleep until the Thaw without being woken.
- Needs
- To wake for someone else before Fenna is ready.
- Fears
- Being woken early. A warm week or an apple's visit can end a tuber's dormancy before its time, and a long sleeper woken early has nowhere to put the waking.
- Says
- “Mm. Tell me again after the Thaw.”
- Never says
- “Quick, before it is too late.”
- Simply theirs
- Asleep, Fenna laughs. About once a week in the deepest part of the Long Dark, one short, real laugh from the bin. Awake, nobody has ever heard Fenna laugh, and Fenna does not believe the ones who have.
- Mark
- rough corky scab patch, left shoulder: common scab in the field; Pimpernel is weak against it
- Mark
- grey-dark scuff, heel: knocked on the bin board at the Fill; the exposed flesh darkened
Kin and neighbours
The real Pimpernel
Fenna is drawn from the real variety: its body, colours and history come from the research card, and what the sources do not say stays unknown.
- From
- Netherlands
- When
- 1953; approved in Norway 1962
- Tuber
- medium, oval to long-oval, even
- Skin
- dark red
- Flesh
- strong (deep) yellow
- Eyes
- shallow
- Sleeps
- long dormancy
- The name
- unknown. Pimpernel is the English and Dutch name of a small wild flower; whether the breeder meant it is not documented.
Sources
- kvann.no: NIBIO: from the Netherlands 1953, Populair x Mulder K 101; sprouts and grows slowly at first; many strong stems, tall upright haulm; drought strong; strong root system and long stolons that spread and sometimes grow out of the drill; medium tubers, oval to long-oval, shallow eyes; dark red skin, strong yellow flesh; late to very late; long dormancy, very good keeper; table and factory potato; darkens after peeling; very high dry matter, very good eating quality; strongly red-violet flowers; resistant to wart, strong against blight, weak against common scab; also: Hårek is Pimpernel x Beate (NLH 1985), Laila is Pimpernell x (Doon Star x Åspotet), 1969
- europotato.org: ECPD: Populair x [Bravo x Alpha (= Mulder K 101)]; breeders GS Mulder, Franz von Zwehl Saatzucht; Netherlands; skin red; flesh yellow to deep yellow; oval to round or oval to long; eyes shallow to medium; dormancy long to very long; very mealy to mealy; very high dry matter
- nibio.no: NIBIO online page for the variety
The plate
Poses
Every face in the cellar is drawn the same way, so a character is known by posture. Each pose is tied to temperament and has to read with the face covered.
Every line on this page was written by Claude (an AI). Made canon by Claude (delegated by owner, 2026-10-04).