Ansgar was a Cherusci German who lived in the 1st century AD. He was the son of the Cherusci aristocrats Segestes and Irmina and the younger brother of Thusnelda. In 9 AD, when he witnessed a Roman soldier pulling his sister's hair to prevent her from stopping her father from kissing a Roman imperial standard, Ansgar ran up to the tribune Metellus and bit his arm, causing Metellus to split open his skull with the handle of his sword. This left Ansgar partially paralyzed, and persuaded Thusnelda and several of her friends to steal the imperial standard in retribution. Ansgar later witnessed the Romans' cruel response to this act of defiance, the crucifixion of Folkwin Wolfspeer's family, and he was disturbed by their cremation. His mother, believing that Ansgar was in misery, attempted to trick him into walking off of a cliff while blindfolded, but his sister Thusnelda arrived just in time to rescue him and confront her mother. Ansgar would later wander into the middle of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, but he was escorted to safety by Folkwin.