• fossilesque@mander.xyzOPM
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    2 days ago

    I took a class on Medieval Law and it was an amazing insight on how crafty and smart the pesantry was, especially as they fought for their rights. The professor was awesome and kept emphasising how smart they were.

    • wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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      16 hours ago

      Ooh, did you read Grágás? It’s a shockingly entertaining read for a legal code. The section on Wergild is great, and you can learn a lot about the attitudes the Icelanders held toward different behaviours. Also, it strongly implies that there were at least a few people in Iceland who were training polar bears (which they must have either imported from Greenland, or found stranded on passing ice floes), and those trainers must have lobbied pretty hard, because it was specifically illegal to import trained brown bears from Norway.

      There are a lot of gems in there. Simultaneously insightful and very metal.