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Sharing a Drink with Marcel Mauss: The Uses and Abuses of Alcohol in Early Medieval Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
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Skallagrim and his wife [Bera] had another son whom they sprinkled with water and called Egil. As he grew up it soon became obvious that he was going to be just as black-haired and ugly as his father. By the time he was three years old he was as big and strong as a boy of six or seven years. He soon grew to be a great talker, never at a loss for words, but when it came to playing with the other lads he was a hard one to handle.
That spring, Yngvar came over to Borg with an invitation for Skallagrim to visit him. Yngvar also invited his daughter Bera, her son Thorolf, and anyone else she and Skallagrim cared to bring with them. Skallagrim said he would go, so Yngvar went back home to get everything ready for the feast and brew the ale for it.
When the time came for the visit, Skallagrim, Bera and Thorolf prepared themselves for the journey, taking a number of servants so that there were fifteen of them altogether. Egil went to his father and said he wanted to go too. ‘The people there are as much my relations as they are Thorolf's,” he said.
‘You're not going,’ said Skallagrim. ‘You don't know how to behave yourself when there's company gathered and a lot of drinking going on. You're difficult enough to cope with when you're sober.’
— Egilssaga c. 31 (trans. Pálsson and Edwards)
We always knew we would use this anecdote, but never thought it would actually be relevant to what we were writing. Vencl's paper in this volume, ‘The archaeology of thirst’, has given it real scholastic meaning.
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