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Record Nr. |
UNINA9910455330103321 |
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Titolo |
Audun and the polar bear [[electronic resource] ] : luck, law, and largesse in a medieval tale of risky business / / by William I. Miller |
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Pubbl/distr/stampa |
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Leiden ; ; Boston, : Brill, 2008 |
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ISBN |
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1-282-39926-8 |
9786612399268 |
90-474-4344-6 |
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Descrizione fisica |
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1 online resource (167 p.) |
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Collana |
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Medieval law and its practice, , 1873-8176 ; ; v. 1 |
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Altri autori (Persone) |
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MillerWilliam Ian <1946-> |
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Disciplina |
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Soggetti |
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Law, Scandinavian |
Sagas |
Electronic books. |
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Lingua di pubblicazione |
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Formato |
Materiale a stampa |
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Livello bibliografico |
Monografia |
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Note generali |
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Description based upon print version of record. |
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Nota di bibliografia |
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Includes bibliographical references (p. [147]-152) and index. |
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Nota di contenuto |
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Some technical matters : dates, origin, versions -- The story of Audun from the Westfjords (Audun's story) -- The commitment to plausibility -- Helping Thorir and buying the bear -- Dealing with King Harald -- Giving the bear to Svein : the interests in the bear -- Saying no to kings -- Eggs in one basket and market value -- Rome : self-impoverishment and self-confidence -- Repaying the bear -- Back to Harald : the yielding of accounts -- Audun's luck -- Richness and risk -- -- Motives -- Gaming the system : gift-ref -- Regiving and reclaiming gifts -- Relevant law -- Serious scarcity, self-interest and Audun's mother -- In the gift vs. in on the gift -- Gifts upward : repaying by receiving and funny money -- The obligation to accept -- Giving up and down hierarchies : of god(s), beggars, and equals -- Nadad and Abihu : sacrifice, caprice, and binding god and kings -- Funny money that is not so funny -- Of free and closing gifts -- Coda : the whiteness of the bear. |
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Sommario/riassunto |
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Audun’s Story is the tale of an Icelandic farmhand who buys a polar bear in Greenland for no other reason than to give it to the Danish king, half a world away. It can justly be listed among the finest pieces of short fiction in world literature. Terse in the best saga style, it spins |
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a story of complex competitive social action, revealing the cool wit and finely-calibrated reticence of its three main characters: Audun, Harald Hardradi, and King Svein. The tale should have much to engage legal and cultural historians, anthropologists, economists, philosophers, and students of literature. The story’s treatment of gift-exchange is worthy of the fine anthropological and historical writing on gift-exchange; its treatment of face-to-face interaction a match for Erving Goffman. |
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