Daniele Bolelli recently posted about honor and violence in Renaissance Italy, and it inspired me to think about those things in other contexts. I didn’t have to think hard or long, because the historical ecosystem I live in — the Nordic world of the Viking Age — was another place rife with violence in the name of preserving honor. This predates the Italian Renaissance period by some 700 years if you count from the beginning of what we call the “Viking Age,” so the Italians were far from alone in this seemingly all-too-human trait. As they did in so many other ways, I’d say the Vikings got there first.
I love that! Thank you for this great read