So very wrong.
Aug. 23rd, 2005 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrissaToday I read Queen Emma and the Vikings, which had some interesting bits, but oh, Harriet O'Brien's strong suit is not Viking culture. (To be frank if snarky, I'm not sure what Harriet O'Brien's strong suit is. But definitely not Viking culture.) But this line was the one where I knew I was just going to have to take some of this book with a grain of salt:
Their wergild, literally meaning 'man-price,' was an early form of life insurance.
Umm...no. It wasn't. At all. Unless you pay your insurance agent nothing, and then your agent pays up iff he/she kills you. I don't think that's what![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
markgritter's company offers, though. And talk about missing a fundamental aspect of the culture! She goes on to earnestly not understand the cultural concepts surrounding it. Of course.
Why is this one so hard? WHY??? Why do so many freakin' idiots go on about other cultures' focus on revenge when our punishment for murder doesn't do a single concrete thing for the victim's family? YARRRRG!
Their wergild, literally meaning 'man-price,' was an early form of life insurance.
Umm...no. It wasn't. At all. Unless you pay your insurance agent nothing, and then your agent pays up iff he/she kills you. I don't think that's what
markgritter's company offers, though. And talk about missing a fundamental aspect of the culture! She goes on to earnestly not understand the cultural concepts surrounding it. Of course.Why is this one so hard? WHY??? Why do so many freakin' idiots go on about other cultures' focus on revenge when our punishment for murder doesn't do a single concrete thing for the victim's family? YARRRRG!
