Audun and the Polar Bear

Audun and the Polar Bear Luck, Law, and Largesse in a Medieval Tale of Risky Business

Auduna (TM)s Story tells of an Icelandic farmhand who buys a polar bear in Greenland and gives it to the Danish king. It is a subtle tale of complex social action worthy of the fine anthropological writing on gift-exchange; its treatment of face-to-face interaction a match for Erving Goffman.
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