Barbarian Manners
or How to deal with the Norse
by Ilja Steffelbauer

I inherited the following manuscript from my father, Willem Pretorius, who had dealings with the Norse for almost 40 years. He made a decent profit by buying iron, furs, wax and train oil and selling vine, spices, cloth and trinkets to them. By all records and the honest appreciation of all his peers, he was one of Marienburg's most successful Northland Traders and in his long career he lost neither ship nor cargo nor men to pirates or raiders. I owe everything to him and the good people of Marienburg will remember him as a man of great integrity and resolve. The return of our two hulks the "Guildene Willem" and the "Drolle Mopsen" for decades marked the end of the shipping-season. My father used to be the last one to sail from the fjords before the ice closed and he made the best deals this way, the Norse eager to sell their wares cheaply before they had to store them for another winter and risk wasting them. He handed me these writings on his deathbed, when he passed away the age of 72 in our house on Alte Speicherzeile. Now the Guild of Northland Traders has established itself and won a charter form the council of our good town and I think that I honour my father's name if I make his notes and writings accessible to the members of this noble fraternity. May each and everyone profit from the experience of a lifetime.

Gustav Pretorius,
Marienburg

The Norse are an uncaught race. To many they impersonate the quintessential "Barbarian", the uncivilized man of the wilds, living in the most desolate place in the world, clinging to a few square-feet of meagre soil amidst snow-capped mountains and forbidding woods inhabited by the foul creatures of Chaos, blown by icy winds, half of the years isolated by floats of ice and always threatened by the great evil that lurks in the uttermost north.
No wonder prudent souls have remarked, that these people have no other means of survival than raiding and plundering more prosperous regions and killing and enslaving their fellow humans. Thus for centuries, especially in the Dark Age when no unified Empire was there to confront the enemy, the Norse were usually seen across the tip of a blade as enemies, not as partners. Some even denied them the right to claim a common human descent with more civilized people and declared their whole race spawns of chaos. Their wild magic and love for bloodshed and plunder lend credibility to this claim. This has changed in our days. Trade flourishes between the southern ports of the Norse lands and the Empire. Still, one who embarks on this venture is regarded a hothead or adventuring soul. But if one only follows a few simple rules, he may deal with the Norse peacefully and gain great profit. Just keep in mind that what sets them apart from civilized people is not their nature, which is more honourable and reliable than that of many a "civilized" Tilean or Brettonian I have met, but their culture. Read on and learn.

1. Make yourself seen

In a place where no prince, no emperor guaranties the peace of the roads and ports, every approaching stranger may be a potential enemy, a raider or spy. Every strange ship may carry a band of warrior ready to sack your village. Thus whenever you approach a Norse settlement or encampment, halt in shouting range and wait. It is important that you do so in plain sight. If you come by ship, anchor off shore and stand at the prow of your vessel. If you come over land, stay where the first inhabitant of the settlement notices your presence. He will usually hurry back to warn his people. Wear good but not too expensive clothing and always carry a weapon. Many people from the south think, if they carry no weapon or - even worse - if they put them away amongst their belongings or wares, the Norse will interpret this as a sign of peaceful intentions. Quite to the contrary. Only children, slaves and imbeciles carry no weapons in this land and an obviously able man who goes without one has to be one of these or even worse a sorcerer, madman or sissy. A weapon stored in the luggage is simply interpreted as hidden badly and a sign of a stupid as well as treacherous character.
After a while one of the inhabitants will approach you. He will act as a messenger and ask your intentions. If you come as a trader or traveller, you can be sure that you will receive a warm welcome. Few people travel in this barren land and the Norse are always eager to get to know new people from abroad. Their isolation makes them more hospitable than most people who are accustomed to strangers. Being the host of a traveller is by far the only means to get to know people from anywhere outside ones village. Most Norse do not leave the vicinity of their dwellings for a long time. There are few towns and regular markets are almost unheard of. Many Norse meet people from other settlements only once a year, when their earls and kings hold court and justice is dispensed. Then they gather at special places and hold something like a fair. But till the next year, the only connections to the outside world will be rare travellers and wandering traders. Because Norse settlements are usually small - less than 20 hearths - every stranger is a welcome diversion from the bunch of face you know all too well.

2. Receiving a guest

After your intentions have been declared, the Norse will ask you to enter the settlement and usually one of them will step forward to invite you into his house. There are no inns or other public houses in Norse lands, for they do not have any use for them, regarding the small number of travellers on the roads. The very idea is strange to them. "What profit," one of my Norse friend once asked me, "do you have from a stranger you lock away with other strangers?" Indeed the Norse regard hosting a stranger a very profitable opportunity.
When you are at last invited by one of the villagers, a silent contest has already taken place. It is regulated by ancient custom, like everything else in Norse society. One of my friends explained to me, that the one who first met the stranger earns the right to be his host. If the stranger seems important, rich or especially interesting, the most influential member of the community may demand the privilege to host him. If the traveller reveals that he knows some important craft he may be hosted by one who has mastered the same skill. Thus a smith may be invited to the smith's house, a bard to the local bard's dwelling. This has two purposes: First the two will be able to exchange expert knowledge more easily. Every Norse craftsman is always interested to learn new aspects of his trade from others because, keeping in mind that the common Norse seldom meets somebody from another village, a craftsman is even less likely to meet a fellow tradesman. There are no guilds or journeyman-years in Norse lands and therefore the single craftsman learns from his master and from every colleague he meets later in life. You will recognize this feature even in Norse abroad. Many an Empire craftsman was quite astonished by a blond, bearded giant who stepped into his shop, took a piece of merchandise form a shelf, pointed at a detail and asked in broken Reikspiel "How to hju to dat?"

The second important aspect is that Norse courtesy strictly forbids you to act against your host's interests. Thus a travelling craftsman will not become a competitor to the local. On the other hand, if you know a craft and no local practitioner of this skill is present, the villagers will ask you to practice it for them. This is actually the best way to compensate your host for room and board. They may even offer you to stay for a while. This happened to one of my mates once. He was a skilled cobbler before he took to the seas for reasons I will not disclose here. He made a pair of rather fine shoes for the wife of a Norse chieftain with whom I had some business. The other women of the village were so eager to get some too, we had to leave him behind for the winter.

A warning before we proceed: Hosting a stranger increases the prestige of the host in his community. Unwittingly you may contribute to a shift of power between the local families in this way. I once sparked a small revolution, when I stayed with a friend in his home-village. The local chieftain had died a few weeks before and the families were competing for his succession. When I and my retinue came to stay with my friend's clan, we kind of shifted the balance to the advantage of his lineage. Consequently his uncle was made chieftain a few days after our arrival.

But let us return to the actual procedure. After your host steps forth, it is important to know the local customs. There is a time honoured and distinctive manner in which these things are done and these have to be followed at all cost. Never talk business before these procedure has been concluded and - most important - do not introduce yourself! This may seem strange but it is important. Hospitality has to be dispensed to every stranger, regardless of descent or reputation. Therefore the prescribed rituals have to be performed before the host asks the stranger who he is. The Norse explain this tradition by an old myth. Once two of their gods were wandering Earth and tried to find a place to stay over night. They first approached the house of a rich earl and ask for shelter. When he heard that two gods were at his threshold, he refused to let them in, because he feared that he could not satisfy their needs and thus would anger them. This happened at every house, till they reached the hut of a poor fisherman and his wife. Those did not ask any questions but bid them come in and offered them the little they had. The two were subsequently richly rewarded by he gods and all Norse honour this tradition since then.

The usual procedures will be something like this: At the doorstep the wife of your host will offer you a cup of water and a piece of bread. This will be shared between you and your companions and your host's family. Then you will be invited to enter the house. This is the moment when you have to take off your weapon. Usually one of the children of the household will step forth and take it. He will then hang it on the wall in the main hall of the house besides the arms of the host and all other guests. You may keep a dagger or knife. Every Norse carries one almost all the time. Never enter a Norse home with your sword. This means you intend to fight him for it!

Afterwards the women of the household will offer you a bath and fresh clothes. Accept these. It is a vile prejudice that the Norse do not bath and are filthy and malodorous. Indeed they bath more often than many a noble in our homeland. The impression may stem from the fact that when abroad, the have little chance to wash on their small ships. One of my Norse friends once told me, that there is a superstition among some Norse tribes that you may not wash until you return home, because in this way you wash your native soil off your skin and you become a foreigner and will die in foreign parts.

After bathing and donning new clothes, you will be shown to the hall, the central room of every Norse home. There your host, his family and all other inhabitants of the settlement, who fit in, will have gathered and your host will offer you a mug of mead or even vine, if he has some. You drink, he drinks and all others drink. Then he will ask your name.