Emissary from Hell. Bunnygirl Byzantinist. My evolution is faster than light. Call me Cat.



Something I find interesting (if not necessarily great) is how whatever the pop-historical obsession du jour is absorbs things from less focused-on in the public consciousness regions and periods. e.g. the 2010s-20s really love vikings (or at least a distinctly modern construct that's like a D&D fighter wearing biker gear we have labelled "vikings"), so e.g. a custom only firmly dated to early modern Scandinavia--yelling "Skal!" for a toast--becomes the "viking toast" (the word is found in sagas, but more as a description /of/ a drinking-bowl as a noun); and tattooing, described by one Arabic explorer as practiced by the medieval Rus, a people of mixed Scandinavian and Slavic cultural influence, more than likely a practice from the latter given it never comes up in any other Norse-related source, becomes a Known Viking Thing.


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