 Her family is from Baghdad, Iraq, but has been raised by her grandparents in Dorchester since the death of her mother.Sam's family already had a long history with the Vikings, even before her mother met Loki; Ahmad ibn Fadlan, an envoy of the Abbasid Caliph to the Kievan Rus', is one of Sam's ancestors, and the Varangians have since intermarried with Sam's family.Her specific parentage is a shame to her mother's family as an out-of-wedlock child; the Norse also distrust her for being Loki's daughter.