Eric Northman

Eric Northman is a fictional character in "The Southern Vampire Mysteries", a series of thirteen books written by New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris. Eric Northman is a vampire introduced in the first novel of the series, Dead Until Dark, and appears in all subsequent novels. The HBO television series True Blood is based on this book series, although the character of Eric Northman is portrayed somewhat differently.  
== First appearances ==
*Novel: Dead Until Dark
*Television: portrayed by Alexander Skarsgård
== Physical description ==
In the first novel, Dead Until Dark, Sookie Stackhouse thinks Eric is a "hunk". Sookie describes him as “handsome, in fact, radiant; blond and blue-eyed, tall and broad shouldered. He was wearing boots, jeans, and a vest. Period. Kind of like the guys on the cover of romance books.” He’s approximately six-foot-five. When Sookie sees him naked for the first time in the fourth novel, Dead to the World, she thinks that “if there were an international butt competition, Eric would win, hands down – or cheeks up.”[4] Eric is depicted as over a thousand years old in both the novels and television show (due to his Viking roots). This makes Eric immensely powerful, much more so than Bill, Pam Ravenscroft, Chow, and especially werewolves and shapeshifters.
== Story==
The author introduces Sookie to Eric in her first novel, Dead Until Dark. Eric then appears in all the subsequent novels and has either saved or attempted to save Sookie's life in every book. In the later books, she has also saved his life several times. After appearing to develop an affection for Sookie in the third book in the series, Club Dead, Eric has a brief romance with her in Dead to the World, the fourth book, though, due to a curse, he lost all his memories of their time together until book eight, From Dead to Worse. It is revealed much later by Eric that the exact curse was to be closest to that which is his greatest desire but not know it. Sookie, however, does tell him what happened between them in the fifth book, Dead as a Doornail, when she asked Eric for a favor to help Tara. Eric asked Sookie to tell him the truth in exchange for the favor, so she did. In the eighth book, after sitting in Sookie's room and being around the familiar scents, Eric finally reveals that he does remember the days he spent with her when the memory curse was put on him. He asks her to discuss it, and she refused.
In the seventh book, All Together Dead, when Sookie is accosted into forming a blood bond with Andre, another powerful vampire, Eric steps in opportunistically as the lesser of two evils and bonds with her himself. A blood bond is formed when a human and vampire exchange blood within a short period of time and it allows both to feel what the other is feeling.
In the ninth book, Dead and Gone, Eric sends Sookie a velvet parcel that he instructs her to give to him in front of King Felipe de Castro's representative, Victor Madden. Without looking inside the parcel first, Sookie presents Eric the bag which contains a ceremonial knife that is used in marriage ceremonies. The king's representative reveals that the act of giving and receiving the knife means that Eric and Sookie are pledged to one another. Eric claims that he deceived Sookie because the King of Nevada had the power and desire to take her away from her home. Because they are wed, Eric is the only vampire that can have access to Sookie on pain of final death. The two, not mentioned above, have had a sexual relationship with each other, to which Sookie states and evidence is provided that Eric is a lot better in the sack than Bill, e.g.: "A part of Eric's lower anatomy pressed against me and he wasn't standing close. Not even in the sense. Yikes. Yahoo. Yum."
They continue their relationship in Dead in the Family, where they are considered an item and frequently declare their feelings and love for one another. And of course the sex continues! Sookie, however, is a bit apprehensive about her true feelings in relation to the blood bond she has with Eric. She doesn't trust her own feelings to be real or not. Eric frequently refers to her as his wife and is very protective over her. They talk, they laugh and they carry on a pretty normal relationship, apart from all the blood, death and other catastrophes.
In Deadlocked, Eric hosts a party when Felipe de Castro is in town, but the body of a woman shows up in his front yard.
== Work and position within the vampire hierarchy ==
In the book series, Eric is the most powerful vampire in Area 5, a territory that includes the small fictional town of Bon Temps in Northern Louisiana. Eric serves as Sheriff of that area and owns a vampire bar in Shreveport called Fangtasia, which serves as his headquarters as well. He runs the bar with the help of his vampire offspring Pam and a few others. Eric takes his responsibilities and role within the vampire hierarchy very seriously. In the sixth novel, Definitely Dead, Eric mentions that he has paid a significant fine to the arbitrator for killing a former Fangtasia bartender, Long Shadow. This demonstrates that he did not hide his crime as killing another vampire is a "serious thing."[5]
When the state of Louisiana was in disarray after the results of Hurricane Katrina - and after the queen of Louisiana, Eric's hierarch, was crippled in an explosion and eventually killed by the vampires of Nevada under Felipe de Castro's order - Eric quickly pledges his allegiance to the new regime. He is not a traitor, but a practical and clever vampire. He is then allowed to maintain control of his area when the other sheriffs of Louisiana were all killed. Under the new regime, Eric has spent a significant amount of time acclimatizing himself to his new overlords.
==Abilities and Powers==
Eric has all the trimmings one can get whilst being a vampire: super strength, heightened senses, super speed, immortality, regeneration, and uncanny abilities in bed. It was previously mentioned in Dead Until Dark that vampires can also develop unique abilities, and Eric's is flight. Due to being 1,000 years old Eric is immensely powerful and possesses strength beyond any vampires younger than himself. Although immortal, being staked, decapitated, bled dry, or experiencing the bleeds for too long will result in his true death. 
== Relationships ==
===Sookie Stackhouse===
Sookie intrigues Eric from his first sight of her in Fangtasia, when she appears on Bill's arm. Eric is quite jealous that Bill has Sookie, he is always on the lookout for a chance to 'be with' her. He has given her his blood several times, once tricking her into sucking a bullet out of his shoulder so that she would ingest some of his blood. Eric loses his memory while he is under a witch's curse, leaving him suffering from amnesia and with an altered personality. Much to Eric's chagrin, he is unable to remember the experience. It is several months before his memories return and he and Sookie begin dating.
===Pam===
Pam is one of Eric's children. Pam speculates that Eric gave her a new life as a vampire because he was lonely, since his last companion had left. Though Pam says she doesn't love Eric, she is intensely loyal to him. The two have never had a sexual relationship due to his love for her leading him to do the right thing. 
Though Eric doesn't show any signs of romantic interest in Pam, it's obvious he cares for her. When he made her a vampire, he dug her out of the ground before she arose the first time, so that she wouldn't have to dig her own way out, then patiently explained vampire life to her. More importantly, when the Pyramid of Giza was exploding and Eric and Sookie couldn't wake Pam, Eric went to great lengths to save his child. He suffered greatly, both from burns and the effort to stay awake, to keep her and Sookie safe.
===Bill Compton===
As investigator for Area 5, Bill reports to Eric. Bill is also weaker and younger. The two feud a lot, mostly over Sookie. The competition for Sookie's attention is less of an issue once Bill's relationship with her is definitively ended, but neither ever forgets that the other has also been her lover. Even though Eric holds a grudge against Bill because of his place in Sookie's life, he takes his responsibility to Bill as one of his subjects seriously. Though Eric rarely takes advantage of his position as Bill's boss, he forces Bill to admit to Sookie that the queen of Louisiana ordered him to start a relationship with her so that they would be able to use Sookie's telepathy. As Eric had planned, the revelation leaves Sookie devastated and determined to have nothing to do with Bill.
==History==
Eric Northman was once a Viking, as Sookie believed. We learn a little more about Eric's past in book nine of the series, Dead and Gone. He married at age 16 to his brother's widow, a woman named Aude. The couple had six children, but three died young. Aude and their sixth child died of an infectious fever shortly after the birth. While returning home from visiting with a prospective spouse, Eric was attacked by a Roman vampire named Appius Livius Ocella. The two vampires spent an unspecified amount of time together. During their time together, Appius taught Eric about the vampire world, taught him to hunt/feed, and had a sexual relationship. Some time before 1860, Eric met Pam and turned her into a vampire out of loneliness.
==Television Portrayal==
In the TV series, Eric was created by a vampire called Godric, to whom Eric was very devoted  and deeply loyal. Godric commits suicide in Season 2, by exposing himself to the sun, and Eric, devastated by this, sheds crimson vampire tears.
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