Beowulf - Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia

and humans and animals on each side of that room is a balanced dyad and a way of
conserving and stabilising a strict social structure in a more dualistic perspective. The
complementarity, on the other hand, is a way of coping with and benefiting from the
inequalities of the society. It is in essence the expression of a conflict-solving social
philosophy with a dynamic character in an originally egalitarian society.
The complementary concepts of the Late Iron Age, whether illustrated by the marriage
between Sigibert and his complement Brunhild or by the relationship between
Beowulf and Hroðgar, are significant of a society in which social mobility is possible
and essential while at the same time there is a strong will to control it and an equally
strong will to mark its hierarchical structure. In practice the complementarity is the basis
for personal development of individuals—a career for perfect men and women at a
suitable social level. Society is not stratified in sharply defined groups, but each member
is ranked in accordance with his or her ability to honour the complexity of utilitarian
concepts such as the good, or marriage.
Clearly, we can only arrive at a very tenuous understanding of prehistoric or Early
Medieval society on the basis of written or material sources, but at least the prehistoric
setting of the hall fits in with the concept of the good and associated concepts of honour
and friendship. And one aspect of the good, namely goodness with food or gifts, i.e.,
the initial stage of the contract of goodness is performed in the hall. The introduction of
the hall is in other words linked to the concept of complementarity, inasmuch as it is the
room in which an essential part, and the confirmation of the good act, is performed, and
perhaps we may go as far as to say that the hall is the result of the acceptance of
complementarity as a social norm.
160
The Making of an Aristocracy
In two related essays, On Aristocracy and On Fashion, the German sociologist
Georg Simmel (Simmel 1911, pp. 29 ff.) has pointed out some general concepts basic
to these two social phenomena, which in their turn are closely linked to the characteristics
of the good. This follows from the fact that although the concept of the good is
linked to the formation of an aristocracy characterised by individuals, it is also characteristic
of a period during the Viking Age when the word ‘good’ invades the rune-stone
texts, which are, at least in the Mälar Valley, an obvious vogue phenomenon
(Herschend 1994).
It is a major point in Georg Simmel’s sociology that on the basis of a reasonable,
although not very clear, basic perspective upon the tension between individual and
collective, he takes his readers on a tour around a large number of relevant and intriguing
examples. However, in order to benefit from the examples the reader must often
hesitate in front of them and develop them further for his own purposes (cf. Lipman
1959, pp. 135 ff.).