Beowulf Shaeffer

Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer is a fictional character from Larry Niven’s Known Space series. Shaeffer is a crashlander, a descendent of Earth explorers who colonized the planet We Made It, which orbits the star Procyon. He is the central figure of several stories which revolve around his dealings with Pierson's Puppeteers and human characters in unusual and potentially dangerous activities, which often test his wits and courage to see them through to completion.

Shaeffer’s first appearance is in the short story "Neutron Star" in 1966. Niven wrote six short stories between 1966 and 1993 and added a framing story ("Ghost") which ties them all together in the fix-up collection Crashlander. Shaeffer also appears in the story "Fly-by-Night" and in "Juggler Of Worlds", second book in the "fleet of worlds" series. His known activities span the Timeline of Known Space from 2622, when he became chief pilot of Nakamura Lines, to 2655 when he emigrated to the planet Home with his wife Sharrol and their children.

In the first several Known Space stories featuring him, Shaeffer is described as very tall and thin, and an albino. His height is given in the story "Procrustes" as 6 feet, 11 inches. In the story "Grendel" Jinxian Emil Horne estimated his weight at 160 pounds (about 73 kilograms). Like most albinos Shaeffer’s skin is pale, his hair white and his eyes pink. He uses tannin-secretion pills to protect himself against UV radiation under normal (Earthly or Jinxian) sunlight. Shaeffer's long, thin body is extremely flexible; he has startled both Sigmund Ausfaller and Sharrol Janss at different times with his habit of smoking tabac sticks using his toes.

Nakamura Lines ran its ships at one standard Earth gravity, so Shaeffer had to train hard just to walk around comfortably on his own ship during flights. He also spent four years on Earth after meeting Sharrol Janss, adding muscle along his long bones that isn’t readily apparent from his thin appearance. As a spaceship pilot he considers himself to have a fairly fast reaction time.

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