- cross-posted to:
- chat
Both Harald and William were Norse, or descended from norse. Both were imperialist, in a loose sense of the term. I suppose we are godwinson gang, although I wonder how different history and the english language would be if he won
The previous Duke of Westminster - the richest man in England - was asked what advice he had for young entrepreneurs. He said:
"Make sure they have an ancestor who was a very close friend of William the Conqueror."
Wasn't this one of Tolkien's weird things? Like he thought that the Norman invasion of England had destroyed the authentic culture of the English and he set out to create Middle Earth as an effort to recreate a shared folklore.
It's not just that they destroyed the culture. To this day a lot of the land in England controled by the descendants of William's army; to some extent today's inequality goes back directly to the Norman Conquest.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/high-house-prices-inequality-normans