Them's Flyting Words: On Norsemen and Poetry Slams
Say what you want about the ancient Norse- as bad a rap as the media has given them, they have certainly made their marks on western culture, for better or worse. For all the media has done to portray the ancient Norse as uncivilized raiders and looters, they actually had an incredibly complex societal structure and language. Not only were they literate, they were actually quite heavily reliant on the power of the spoken (and later written) word. In fact, much of what we know about the Norse's beliefs come from epic poems, passed down hundreds of years by word of mouth before being committed to writing. Because of this and other beliefs (which I could go on about,) the Norse held regarding the power of words, maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that Norse warriors engaged in battles of poetic wit just as often as they engaged in contests of physical prowess. Yes. Once more for the people in the back: The vikings were, if not the first, then among the first to engage