ABSTRACT
This postscript reflects on the collection of essays from the perspective of Continental European polities and considers how Scandinavian elites, in the face of severe limitations of material resources, weak institutional structures, and discontinuous social networking resources, nevertheless sought glory, which might consolidate and justify their legitimacy. It concludes that the response varies diachronically and geographically. Pre-Christian traditions continued to resonate with elites and masses in Scandinavia, and Christianization differed from the South. Only gradually did kings and nobles adopt the matrices of legitimization including trans-regional processes of hierarchy, pilgrimage, education, crusade, and marriage alliances common in on the Continent.
