VAPNATAK
A comment left by a friend last night reminisced on the Legend of King Arthur. The legend suggests that merry ole England was ruled by a chivalrous king and nobles. This could not have been further from the truth. We love our myths: American exceptionalism, manifest destiny and everyone’s favorite “the American dream.” The latter is the assumption that if one work’s hard and is law abiding, one can reasonably expect to purchase a home in the suburbs and live comfortably. My friends comment contained a sardonic reference to the lately elected president and his manner of governing.
Kingdom of Trump, a hellish monolithic remnant of the dark ages come back to haunt us.
Anglo-Saxon England of 1000 AD was a country made prosperous by trade, it’s farmers producing enough food to support an expanding population. Every boy at the age of twelve swore a fealty oath to the king. Society was organized for war. The shires in 10th century England were subdivided into groupings of one hundred households, “hundreds”. In northeastern England these were known as “wapentakes” from the old Norse Vapnatak. It means just as it sounds, “weapon-taking.” Loyalty and government in the year 1000 amounted to rounding up men and weapons for war. The unmentionable reality of civilizations past, they depended upon fighting. The Anglo-Saxon king was the leader of the war band. To be a noble was to wear a sword and throw your weight around.
Does this sound too familiar? Welcome to the Dark Ages.
