Mikaelson Family

The **Mikaelson Family** *(**Elder Futhark:** ᛗᛁᚲᚨᛖᛚᛋᛟᚾ)* is a powerful family whose line dates back at least to the then Kingdom of Norway in the late 10th century with Mikael and Esther, a wealthy landowner and a Viking warrior, and a housewife and a witch, respectively. At the beginning of the 11th century, the family was mortal until the loss of Esther and Mikael's youngest child, Henrik to a werewolf attack spurred them to use Esther's magic to turn Mikael and the rest of their living children into the world's first vampires, from whom all Vampires are descended. The Original vampires are known as the most powerful supernatural beings in the world, but the Mikaelson family is also known for having members who are witches and Hybrids as well.

## Family Members

* **Mikael -**Mikael was an Original vampire who was once a Viking and a wealthy landowner in Norway. He is the patriarch of the Mikaelson family and is the father of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik and the step-father of Niklaus. He was in his early 50's when he was turned into a vampire and was seen to be strong, controlling, domineering, strict, and authoritarian in nature, qualities that were only magnified upon his transition. After moving to the New World, his wife bore more children, and his family was quite close, though he and Klaus didn't get along well at all, due to the fact that Klaus was the product of an affair with the Alpha of the werewolf clan in their village. His wife had been unfaithful many years before and when he found out about her affair, he hunted down and killed Klaus' father and his entire family, not realizing that he was igniting a war between species that rages to this day between the vampires and the werewolves. Mikael was the one who asked his wife Esther, a powerful witch, to turn the family into vampires.
* **Esther Mikaelson -** Esther was the Original Witch (or, rather, the witch of the Original family), who was married to a wealthy landowner from Norway, Mikael. She is the mother of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik. She was in her mid to late 40's when she was killed, and was beautiful, strong, powerful and fierce, like a lioness protecting her cubs. Esther was the one who turned her family into vampires by using a modified version of the immortality spell that involved drawing on the sun and the White Oak Tree. She was also the witch who placed The Hybrid Curse on Klaus.
* **Freya Mikaelson -** Freya was Mikael and Esther's first born child, and the oldest sister of Finn, Elijah, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik, and the half-sister of Niklaus. It was said that the oldest Original sibling had died in the Old World (specifically Norway) because of the plague. However, it was later revealed in Wheel Inside the Wheel that Esther made a deal with her sister, a witch named Dahlia, in order to magically give her the ability to have children. However, Dahlia required that Esther gives her a payment for this magic - Esther must give Dahlia her first-born child Freya, as well as each of her children's first-borns and every subsequent first-born as long as her line shall live. In order to cover up what had really happened, Dahlia demanded that Esther lie to Mikael when he returned from battle and say that Freya perished from the plague. The death of their firstborn caused Esther and Mikael, along with Freya's brother Finn and their newest baby Elijah to move themselves to a "mystical land" where a witch told them the inhabitants had the gift of perfect health, increased strength and speed.
* **Finn Mikaelson -** Finn was the second child born to Mikael and Esther, the younger brother of Freya, and the oldest brother of Elijah, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik, and the half-brother of Niklaus. Finn was in his late 20s when he was turned and was handsome, tall and physically imposing. Quiet, calm, even tempered and introverted, but ashamed of what he and his siblings became, he was one of the most moral of the Originals, along with Elijah, and was prone to self-hatred of his vampire existence. Before Finn was undaggered, Elijah stated that Finn had been neutralized for nine hundred years.
* **Elijah Mikaelson -** Elijah was the third-born child of Mikael and Esther, the younger brother of Freya and Finn, the elder brother of Kol, Rebekah and Henrik, and the elder half-brother of Niklaus. Elijah was described to be noble, honorable, moral and compassionate, qualities that were only amplified when he was turned into a vampire. Although he loved his younger brother, Niklaus dearly, he became vengeful when he was led to believe that Klaus had hunted down and daggered his siblings before tossing them into the ocean to never be found again.
* **Niklaus Mikaelson -** Niklaus (known to most as Klaus, and to his maternal half-siblings as Nik) was the fourth child born to Esther and a werewolf named Ansel, the step-son of Mikael, the maternal younger half-brother of Freya Mikaelson, Finn and Elijah, and the maternal older half-brother of Kol, Rebekah and Henrik. He is the original vampire-werewolf hybrid, the first and only werewolf to be turned into a hybrid by magic rather than the blood of a hybrid, who is said to be the most hated and feared of all the Original vampires, as well as arguably the most powerful creature on earth. During his mortal life, Klaus was described as impulsive, reckless, careless, adventurous, and a risk-taker, a daredevil at heart, which was magnified upon being turned into a hybrid.
* **Kol Mikaelson -** Kol is the fifth child born to Esther and the fourth child born to Mikael, the younger brother of Freya, Finn and Elijah, the younger half-brother of Niklaus, and the elder brother of Rebekah and Henrik. Kol was described as cocky, extroverted, charming, daring and outspoken. Very little is known about Kol's early history, but it has been revealed throughout The Originals that Kol was the only Mikaelson child to have tapped into his witch heritage prior to being turned into a vampire, and once he lost his powers, he traveled the world and studied as many forms of witchcraft as he could with various witch communities over his thousand years of life. He has also demonstrated what is often referred to as "middle-child-syndrome," where he seeks the attention of his family due to feeling as though he doesn't fit into the close relationship shared between Elijah, Klaus and Rebekah.
* **Rebekah Mikaelson -** Rebekah is the sixth child born to Esther and the fifth child born to Mikael, the younger sister of Freya, Finn, Elijah and Kol, the younger half-sister of Niklaus, and the older sister of Henrik. Rebekah is the only female Original vampire and is described as being beautiful, carefree, adventurous, and free-spirited, though not without a temper. Rebekah is seen to have a very close, yet complicated relationship with her elder half-brother, Niklaus, and has a close, loving relationship with Elijah. Over the course of her life, she was daggered multiple times by Klaus, though only a few dates are known; the first time she was seen to be daggered was in 1835 when she was revealed to be in a relationship with Marcel despite Klaus' orders not to do so.
* **Henrik Mikaelson -** Henrik was the last and seventh born child of Mikael and Esther, the younger brother of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Kol and Rebekah and the younger half-brother of Niklaus. Henrik was the youngest sibling and child of the Original family. Henrik was killed after he and Klaus went to watch the men in the village transition from humans to werewolves. Because of this, Klaus during that time had felt an extreme amount of guilt and responsibility for Henrik's death. Henrik's unexpected death caused Mikael to have the family turned into vampires, to prevent any more of his children from dying.
* **Hannah Mikaelson -**Hannah is the daughter of Freya, who secretly had her in one of the years she was awake. She had put a spell on her to make her immortal when she was almost an adult to be able to meet her when she's awake again. Hannah grew up with a different family, but was told about her family and past.
* **Hope Mikaelson -**This child was conceived by Klaus and Hayley during a one-night stand. Hope is said to be a happy and calm baby, but resilient. Most describe her as perfect and one of nature's loopholes. Later they found out that the baby is indeed a hybrid and the first of her kind It was also revealed that the baby is a girl. After Hope was born she was sent off to live with her aunt Rebekah so she would be safe after her parents faked her death. Hope is believed to be a werewolf-witch-vampire tribrid, and the first truly alive vampire/hybrid to exist.
* **Lucia Mikaelson -** Lucia is the daughter of Kol and Davina. She was created through a spell, that made her father able to have at least one child, breaking the rules of nature.

## Relatives

### Through Esther

* **Dahalia -**Esther's older sister who made it possible for her to have children after Esther realized she was barren. She claimed Freya and every subsequent first-born Mikaelson born from Esther's bloodline as long as it shall live as her payment for this complex magic, and promised to return and take all of Esther's children if Esther did not adhere to her arrangement. Because of that, she was after Hope Mikaelson and Hannah Mikaelson.

### Through Freya and Hannah

* **Keelin -** Freya's wife
* **Daniel Dresden**- Hannah's fiance and the father of her children

### Through Niklaus and Hope

* **Ansel**-  Esther's lover, who was the biological father of Klaus. He was a Werewolf with whom Esther had an affair, and Klaus was the product of their love together. Ansel is also Hope's biological grandfather.
* **Cary -**Cary is a werewolf relative of Klaus and Hope through Ansel.
* **Marcel Gerard -**Marcellus (commonly known as Marcel) is a child that Klaus adopted as his son in 1821. Marcel was a formerly unnamed slave and the secret illegitimate child of his master, the Governor of Louisiana, who was abused by the slavemasters until Klaus saved him and named him Marcellus, which means "little warrior". Klaus loved Marcel like a son because Marcel reminded him of himself - they were both unloved and abused by their fathers. Though his relationships with the members of the Mikaelson family have been strained over the years, he has begun to reconnect with them following the vampires' loss of control over the Quarter in 2012.
* **Marcia Gerard**- Marcia is the daughter of Marcel he had with an unknown woman after Klaus compelled him to forget about Rebekah. She united with her father sometime around
* **Hayley Marshall-Kenner**- Hayley (born Andrea Labonair) was the mother to Niklaus Mikaelson's daughter, Hope Mikaelson. Though she had a strained relationship with the Mikaelsons at first, the birth of her daughter and facing numerous threats together has brought her closer to them. They considered each other family.

### Through Kol

* **Davina Claire**- Kol's wife and the mother of Lucia.

## Surname

* **Mikaelson** *(**Elder Futhark:** ᛗᛁᚲᚨᛖᛚᛋᛟᚾ)* is of Scandinavian origin and means "Son of Mikael".
* Other spellings of the name Mikaelson include *Michaelson, Michelson, Mikelson, Michaelsen*.
* The name Mikael comes from the Hebrew מִיכָאֵל (Mikha'el), which translates as the question "Who is like God"?
* The name **Mikaelson** is a patronymic surname, or a name constructed using the father's given name and a suffix indicating either "son" or "daughter". Strictly speaking, Rebekah would have taken the patronym Mikaelsdotter, or "Daughter of Mikael", in earlier times, but during the 19th century, Scandinavian naming conventions began to evolve, such that families preferred to take a family name rather than a patronymic surname. Mikaelson is an example of a patronymic surname that was "frozen" to become an inherited family name. Iceland is one country where the practice of using patronymic surnames still exists, whereas inherited family names are now mandatory in other Scandinavian countries.

## Trivia

* Rebekah says "No one in my family is to be trusted". These words are confirmed by the actions of Mikael, Esther, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol and Rebekah, all of whom have been seen to go back on their word or have used clever wordplay to create loopholes in their promises.
* The Mikaelson siblings share many similarities to the Salvatore brothers, Stefan Salvatore, and Damon Salvatore: Both family's siblings share a strong bond and do anything for each other, both families siblings were killed by their fathers, both families siblings have negative relationships with their parents, some members of each families siblings have died and been resurrected, and both families siblings have in some way been responsible for the death of a family member, such as Damon killing some of his distant nephews, and Finn killing Kol as well as Klaus daggering his siblings repeatedly over the centuries. Also, Stefan and Klaus have both killed their fathers; Stefan killed his father with Klaus killing his stepfather Mikael and birth father Ansel; also, the siblings of both families were raised by abusive fathers that were hard to please.