The Idea of the Good in Late Iron Age Society

The study is a discussion of the Pagan concept of the good with reference to the upper-classes of the Late Iron Age societies in Scandinavia, Northwest Europe and Anglo-Saxon England. It is based on a sample of halls belonging to the first millennium AD and on the analysis of a number of texts. Among these the following are poems: The poem about the Battle of Maldon, the "Beowulf", two poems by Venantius Fortunatus to Sigibert and Brunhild and four by the same author to Duke Lupus. The following prose texts are used: The Martyrdom of Saint Sabas, Danish and Swedish rune-stone texts mentioning the word "good", and the account in "Landnámabók" mentioning Queen Aud. The discussion is summed up in a chapter concerning the characteristics of the good and in a chapter discussing the forms of talk which takes place in the Late Iron Age hall in its most elaborate, i.e., royal form.