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Description
First of i just wanna say sorry for the crappy background, but this picture and i dont get a long at all. It took forever to finish...

As the title says this is Rurik (he is the Gustavus Vasa( upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… ) look alike sitting down) collecting taxes from his newly conquered realm in the east.

The taxation is based on the description from the old Hirdskrå law of Norway that was written down in the late 1200-century. Which is believed to have its roots dating back to the Viking age. And the sharing of the loot goes down a little something like this:

"All the men shall carry their loot to the pole and take an oath that he nor no other man in his knowledge had hidden or left something out."

And that basically mean that all military men should gather before their king(or whom ever it was that led them) before the loot was shared. Then the king's field signs (or if you rather call it banner) were carried forth and placed before the men, there after the Hirdmen and the king came forth with their loot and placed it before the pole(banner).

And after that the king appointed twelve men that were tasked with dividing the loot, first in two piles and then in four piles, this was a sort of assessment of the value fo the loot.

Meanwhile the Hird-leaders or ship's officers, in the same fashion
lined up the men, according to rank(old and experienced first and the newbies in the back),that way the noble and the experienced always got the most and the best part of the loot, for obvious reasons.

After all this was done they put four lotteries in a piece of cloth(most often a warrior's cloak) and this was the ancient way of deciding which quarter of the men whom were to take from the loot first. Obviously the king and the other leaders already had taken their share of the loot before the men. And that's the strict way of dividing the loot in Viking society.

I also want to point out that a King that wasn't fair nor honest was not a man the Scandinavians of this time would have followed. Since the culture was built on gift giving and honor, cheating once men of the loot would have been frowned upon and considered unmanly and dishonored.

Having that said that of course greed existed back then as well. We have a Frankish eyewitness from the 800-century, telling us about the dividing of the loot on the island Noirmountier were the young Vikings went mad of greed and disobeyed the elders and the leaders adn a huge brawl occurred over the loot.

oh and when they became christians ten percent went to the church!

Description
First of i just wanna say sorry for the crappy background, but this picture and i dont get a long at all. It took forever to finish...

As the title says this is Rurik (he is the Gustavus Vasa( upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… ) look alike sitting down) collecting taxes from his newly conquered realm in the east.

The taxation is based on the description from the old Hirdskrå law of Norway that was written down in the late 1200-century. Which is believed to have its roots dating back to the Viking age. And the sharing of the loot goes down a little something like this:

"All the men shall carry their loot to the pole and take an oath that he nor no other man in his knowledge had hidden or left something out."

And that basically mean that all military men should gather before their king(or whom ever it was that led them) before the loot was shared. Then the king's field signs (or if you rather call it banner) were carried forth and placed before the men, there after the Hirdmen and the king came forth with their loot and placed it before the pole(banner).

And after that the king appointed twelve men that were tasked with dividing the loot, first in two piles and then in four piles, this was a sort of assessment of the value fo the loot.

Meanwhile the Hird-leaders or ship's officers, in the same fashion
lined up the men, according to rank(old and experienced first and the newbies in the back),that way the noble and the experienced always got the most and the best part of the loot, for obvious reasons.

After all this was done they put four lotteries in a piece of cloth(most often a warrior's cloak) and this was the ancient way of deciding which quarter of the men whom were to take from the loot first. Obviously the king and the other leaders already had taken their share of the loot before the men. And that's the strict way of dividing the loot in Viking society.

I also want to point out that a King that wasn't fair nor honest was not a man the Scandinavians of this time would have followed. Since the culture was built on gift giving and honor, cheating once men of the loot would have been frowned upon and considered unmanly and dishonored.

Having that said that of course greed existed back then as well. We have a Frankish eyewitness from the 800-century, telling us about the dividing of the loot on the island Noirmountier were the young Vikings went mad of greed and disobeyed the elders and the leaders adn a huge brawl occurred over the loot.

oh and when they became christians ten percent went to the church!