[BRIEF NOTE] Is there a Vikingsphere?
Oct. 7th, 2005 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldOne thing that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
landsmann and I chatted about on his June visit was the idea of the "Vikingsphere." It began jocularly enough ("Those monks knew that they were being wildly provocative by refusing to trade with honest Scandinavian merchants.") but recently I've begun to wonder. The Nordic social democracies which ended up evolving from the early pagan Viking states do seem to have happened upon a viable socioeconomic model, enabling these relatively small countries to be global powers in their own right. Too, many of the countries once fearing Viking influence are interested in adapting the Viking model to local circumstances--the Baltic States, say, or perhaps Scotland if you're a nationalist. Is Norden set to expand? Has, in fact, the Vikingsphere survived the arrival of Christendom?
landsmann and I chatted about on his June visit was the idea of the "Vikingsphere." It began jocularly enough ("Those monks knew that they were being wildly provocative by refusing to trade with honest Scandinavian merchants.") but recently I've begun to wonder. The Nordic social democracies which ended up evolving from the early pagan Viking states do seem to have happened upon a viable socioeconomic model, enabling these relatively small countries to be global powers in their own right. Too, many of the countries once fearing Viking influence are interested in adapting the Viking model to local circumstances--the Baltic States, say, or perhaps Scotland if you're a nationalist. Is Norden set to expand? Has, in fact, the Vikingsphere survived the arrival of Christendom?
