SC - sulte

[Stefan li Rous]

On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, william wheeler wrote:

> *you are kidding Right?*

Not really.

> the duchy of Normandy was not "period to Western culture?"
> If Vikings weren't "period to Western culture?" then the Duchy of
> Normandy was not also
> ( why do you think it was call the Duchy of *Normandy* ( in 900 Vikings
> took it over))

Yes, the vikings took over Normandy, but the society was rather quickly
tranformed from the scandinavian one to a different one. Remember that
what happened in Normandy was that a new ruling class was created, one
of scandinavian decent, on top of an original population. By 1066 (and
all that) the Norman society was pretty much your normal continental
feudal one. This was both

> lets see most of EAST Engish lands ( you know YORK)

Yes I know of York (I've even been there). What happened in the Danelaw
was two things. First of all you had a much more significant population
influx from scandinavia, thus tranforming society to some extent.
Secondly, this happened on top of a local population that was much more
like them than it was to the "typical feudal SCA culture".

You may also want to remember that there were significant atempts at the
time to match the two rather different legal frameworks to each other.
Where on a feudal scale did a freeborn farmer with his own land end up?
How did you meld a society where the free men were directly involved in
jurisprudence (by way of the Thing) to one where the local lord held
that power more or less absolute?

The difference between the freeborn farmer (or even the minor Jarl) in
10th century Scandinavia and your continental feudal lord of the 14th
century is fairly great. Compare Njal (or worse Grettir the Strong[1])
to one of Mallorys knights.

/UlfR
 sorry Papa, I'll try to stay on topic better in the future

[1] Whom Hollywierd today would have made movies about the basically
decent outlaw underdog out of[2]. Njal was at least of the upper class,
while you would not want your daughter to date Grettir.

[2] Imagine Sylvester Stallone, on the run from the law, with a sawn off
shotgun.

- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                                      parlei at algonet.se
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie 
		--Rudyard Kipling