His pronunciation was suddenly unmistakable; his mumble a growl. I hadn’t known he could move so fast, but in a blink he was towering over me. He seemed all teeth, his mouth wide open as he bellowed in my face. I didn’t understand the rest of his words; only saw his teeth–crowded together and slightly askew; short and square, their corners jaggedly worn.

Excerpt from Tangled

Most of my characters are complex. Whether you love them or hate them, you’re likely to find something in them that makes you question their motives–perhaps making you examine your own moral ambiguity. Brogan is not one of those characters. Perhaps it’s because he’s not provided with a lot of backstory? This is done purposefully, so as to not disrupt the flow of the story.

If you’re going to be “all teeth,” you should at least make sure you have good oral hygiene

Either way, he’s a spiteful man who’s easy to dislike.

Besides his fleshy mole, there is one characteristic that really resonates in my imagination when I visualize Quin interacting with Brogan–that being his teeth. I think most people know that many, if not most, medieval men and women had pretty poor hygiene. Although not directly described, this is how I imagine Brogan.

If you’re going to be “all teeth,” you should at least make sure you have good oral hygiene. Someone should give Brogan a pointer or two, if they dare risk a beating!

If you’d like to know a little more about how medieval people were supposed to care for their teeth, check out Daily Life in the Middle Ages.