Audun and the polar bear : luck, law, and largesse in a medieval tale of risky business
Law, Scandinavian Sagas e-böcker Sources
Brill
2008
EISBN 9789047443445
Some technical matters : dates, origin, versions.
The story of Audun from the Westfjords (Audun's story).
The commitment to plausibility.
Helping Thorir and buying the bear.
Dealing with King Harald.
Giving the bear to Svein : the interests in the bear.
Saying no to kings.
Eggs in one basket and market value.
Rome : self-impoverishment and self-confidence.
Repaying the bear.
Back to Harald : the yielding of accounts.
Audun's luck.
Richness and risk.
-- Motives.
Gaming the system : gift-ref.
Regiving and reclaiming gifts.
Relevant law.
Serious scarcity, self-interest and Audun's mother.
In the gift vs. in on the gift.
Gifts upward : repaying by receiving and funny money.
The obligation to accept.
Giving up and down hierarchies : of god(s), beggars, and equals.
Nadad and Abihu : sacrifice, caprice, and binding god and kings.
Funny money that is not so funny.
Of free and closing gifts.
Coda : the whiteness of the bear.
"Audun's Story is the tale of an Icelandic farmhand who buys a polar bear in Greenland for no other reason than to give it to the Danish king, half a world away. It can justly be listed among the finest pieces of short fiction in world literature. Terse in the best saga style, it spins a story of complex competitive social action, revealing the cool wit and finely - calibrated reticence of its three main characters: Audun, Harald Hardradi, and King Svein. The tale has much to engage legal and cultural historians, anthropologists, economists, philosophers, and students of literature.".
The story of Audun from the Westfjords (Audun's story).
The commitment to plausibility.
Helping Thorir and buying the bear.
Dealing with King Harald.
Giving the bear to Svein : the interests in the bear.
Saying no to kings.
Eggs in one basket and market value.
Rome : self-impoverishment and self-confidence.
Repaying the bear.
Back to Harald : the yielding of accounts.
Audun's luck.
Richness and risk.
-- Motives.
Gaming the system : gift-ref.
Regiving and reclaiming gifts.
Relevant law.
Serious scarcity, self-interest and Audun's mother.
In the gift vs. in on the gift.
Gifts upward : repaying by receiving and funny money.
The obligation to accept.
Giving up and down hierarchies : of god(s), beggars, and equals.
Nadad and Abihu : sacrifice, caprice, and binding god and kings.
Funny money that is not so funny.
Of free and closing gifts.
Coda : the whiteness of the bear.
"Audun's Story is the tale of an Icelandic farmhand who buys a polar bear in Greenland for no other reason than to give it to the Danish king, half a world away. It can justly be listed among the finest pieces of short fiction in world literature. Terse in the best saga style, it spins a story of complex competitive social action, revealing the cool wit and finely - calibrated reticence of its three main characters: Audun, Harald Hardradi, and King Svein. The tale has much to engage legal and cultural historians, anthropologists, economists, philosophers, and students of literature.".
