30 October 2006

Medieval ethnic stereotypes

In describing the great variety of Europeans who left to go to Jerusalem during the First Crusade, an English writer, William of Malmesbury, wrote:

Then the Welshman abandoned his forests and neglected his hunting; the Scotchman deserted the fleas with which he is so familiar; the Dane ceased to swallow his intoxicating draughts; and the Norwegian turned is back upon his raw fish.
Garrison Keillor would understand.

3 Comments:

At 31 October, 2006 12:55, Blogger Elliot said...

Mmm, lutefisk!

 
At 31 October, 2006 16:54, Blogger Clemens said...

Actually Lutefisk is not raw - it seems to be preserved in lye!

In Minnesota even my friends who has Swedish grandparents said they left the house when they started preparing lutefisk.

 
At 01 November, 2006 00:02, Blogger Joey said...

As one of the Norwegians I used to correspond with on TheForce.net, told me "Lutefisk is for people that looked at fish and wished it had the consistency of jello"

--Joey

 

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