Audun and the polar bear : luck, law, and largesse in a medieval tale of risky business / by William I. Miller.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Miller, William Ian, 1946-

Series:

Medieval law and its practice ; v. 1.

Medieval law and its practice, 1873-8176 ; v. 1

Standardized Title:

Auunar áttr vestfirzka. English.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Law, Scandinavian--Sources.

Law, Scandinavian.

Sagas.

Auunar áttr vestfirzka.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (167 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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 should have much to engage legal and cultural historians, anthropologists, economists, philosophers, and students of literature. The story’s treatment of gift-exchange is worthy of the fine anthropological and historical writing on gift-exchange; its treatment of face-to-face interaction a match for Erving Goffman.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [147]-152) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-39926-8

9786612399268

90-474-4344-6

OCLC:

593231970

Publisher Number:

10.1163/ej.9789004168114.i-155 DOI