I really did like your piece a lot — and appreciate your very thoughtful response! I've leaned heavily on the anthropological turn in West Norse studies in the past (partly because my own teachers were often so negative about the use of these sources), but have grown more suspicious of the position in my jaded and tetchy old age. It's not every day one encounters a comment on current affairs steeped in Old Norse learning, and I hope there'll be more from you. We'll have to agree to disagree about the probable uniformity and continuity of social conventions, expectations and terminology over wide spaces, stretched chronologies, and contrasting spheres of activity — and about the amiability of Cnut the Gt. — but I look forward to encountering your further ruminations.
I really did like your piece a lot — and appreciate your very thoughtful response! I've leaned heavily on the anthropological turn in West Norse studies in the past (partly because my own teachers were often so negative about the use of these sources), but have grown more suspicious of the position in my jaded and tetchy old age. It's not every day one encounters a comment on current affairs steeped in Old Norse learning, and I hope there'll be more from you. We'll have to agree to disagree about the probable uniformity and continuity of social conventions, expectations and terminology over wide spaces, stretched chronologies, and contrasting spheres of activity — and about the amiability of Cnut the Gt. — but I look forward to encountering your further ruminations.