My goodness! The only thing I could think while I was reading this is "man, it would stink to be a slave girl in this culture!" I think that Ibn was just as horrified as I was, which is why he included a lot of gory details about trading slave girls, and many men taking the same slave girl to have their way with, and the burial rituals where the girls get their lungs cut out while they are still living and being strangled (I saw an explanation of this on History Channel once - it looked quite nasty!)!! Of course, the commentary on the bottom of the page (and really the entire article) discusses whether or not Ibn is actually talking about Vikings this whole time - that debate is noted, but...it makes sense that these would be things the Vikings would do. The idols and gods they worship in Ibn's description seem consistent with what we have read in the Atlas, especially about Frey and Freyja.
I also noted the relationship with these people (who I think we are to assume are the Vikings) and their gods when I was reading. It was interesting to me that the vikings assumed that they could bargain with their gods in order to make the most money in their trades - and then when they didn't make a whole bunch of money, they would pray and sacrifice to the lesser gods too! That was quite contradictory with my own personal belief - so different, at least, that I did make note of it.
Egil's Skull
Here is the photo of what we saw in class on Monday - Egil's skull. I can imagine that if Egil did indeed have the disease which causes this type of disfiguration, it would have hurt constantly. Perhaps this is why Egil felt justified in killing his classmate who was beating him at the ball game. Perhaps too it was a genetic condition, which is why he, Skallagrim and Kveldulf were described as such frightening and ugly people.
Thjodhild's Church
Reconstructed Viking Houses
These are houses similar to the ones that Leif the Lucky would have made when he reached America - the homes he was willing to lend, not give, you know.
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