Audun and the Polar Bear : Luck, Law, and Largesse in a Medieval Tale of Risky Business

Audun's Story tells of an Icelandic farmhand who buys a polar bear in Greenland and gives it to the Danish king. It is a subtle tale of complex social action worthy of the fine anthropological writing on gift-exchange; its treatment of face-to-face interaction a match for Erving Goffman.