lloerwyn:I’m glad that Tumblr as a whole recognises that the Norse people weren’t just drunk, smelly…

lloerwyn:

I’m glad that Tumblr as a whole recognises that the Norse people weren’t just drunk, smelly barbarians, but I think we might be swinging too far in the other direction and romanticising them. Especially when it comes to women’s rights. Norse women had it comparatively better than many of their contemporaries, but their society didn’t have perfect gender equality. It’s also important to remember that they kept slaves, and the legal protections and status of free women did not apply to enslaved women.

lloerwyn: The thing about saying that the Middle Ages were either ‘bad’ or ‘good’…

lloerwyn:

The thing about saying that the Middle Ages were either ‘bad’ or 'good’ is that you’re talking about a roughly thousand-year period encompassing Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and varying amounts of Asia and Africa depending on the scholar you ask. So much happened in that timeframe. Some people suffered terribly and some people lived full, happy lives. It’s impossible to generalise.