SC - food and hospitality

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Christine A Seelye-King <mermayde at juno.com>
To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG <sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG>
Date: 12. janúar 1999 00:05
Subject: Re: SC - food and hospitality


>> Not much bread and porridge, as most grain had to be imported (the
>>only grain grown with any success in Iceland is barley, and that was
>>mostly used for ale).
>
>This is contrary to what I have read.  The reasoning being that much more
>value could be had from cooked barley than from ale.  (It would certainly
>go farther.)  Hmm.

Yes, but this is the Vikings, remember? They probably considered greater
value to be had from ale ... the alternative was to import the ale (which
was also done) and go without it six months of the year (ships only sailed
to Iceland in the summer months; that is why guest were sometimes invited to
spend the whole winter). Anyway, every source I´ve consulted says barley was
cultivated to make ale and bread. In that order.
>
>>The old Norse poem Hávamál, which I was made to learn by heart at a
>>very tender age, largely deals with the theme of hospitality - what
>>hospitality to offer a guest, and how to accept it.
>
>OOh!  Would you be able to re-create it (in English) for us here?  I
>would love to have it!  Many thanks in advance,
>Mistress Christianna MacGrain

A translation by W.H.Auden is to be found at this site (it pretty much gets
the meaning of the original but lacks its haunting beauty):

http://www.itn.is/~mar/havamal.htm

"The herd knows its homing time,
And leaves the grazing ground:
But the glutton never knows how much
His belly is able to hold."
(from Hávamál)

Nanna

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