Vikings Behaving Reasonably: Nordic "Hóf" in Civic and Legal Rhetoric

Rather than being the lawless barbarian society that history and popular culture have painted it, medieval Scandinavian culture was complex and nuanced. This book fundamentally challenges our stereotypes of the Vikings, and interrogates the use of a “rhetoric of reasonableness” (hóf) in medieval Nordic society to give voice to this hitherto silenced tradition.

Civic rhetoric relied heavily on hóf to keep community customs manageable. In small towns and villages without central bureaucracies...