Salmon.

[Mark Odegard <Odegard@means.net>]

Mallory (In Search of the IEs) has, on p. 160 of my paperback
edition, a map that shows the distribution of salmon as a line. This
line runs from the mouth of the Garonne in France north, to include
Britain and Ireland, and east to the include all of Scandinavia and
the lands touched by the Baltic, and thence into Russia.

Now. I think we all know how fabulously *rich* salmon runs are. If a
people do not overexploit it, or ruin it with pollution, the catch
from spawning salmon will keep you nicely fed for the rest of the
year so long as you have the appropriate drying, smoking or salting
techniques at hand. It makes for a relatively *easy* life (consider the
Pacific NW tribes in the US).

Now. If I remember my recent reading right, the culture that
occupied the fringe of Northern Germany, Jutland and S. Scandinavia
was very very slow to adopt new technology. This is also the area
reputed to be the homeland of proto-Germanic. Could it be they were
so well fed on Atlantic salmon (yumm!) that they didn't really need
to innovate? The point here is that a well-fed society has no need to
be open to outside influences; this is not to say they are not open,
just that the normal human tendency towards laziness can be allowed
full rein.

The salmon runs of Northern Europe suggest an item of trade. Is a
load of preserved salmon in a small boat worth the long round trip up
north from someone living well to the south?

As I write this, another observation about Germanic comes to mind. If
I remember right, Scandinavia has *never* *EVER* been subjected to
conquest by anyone except by other Scandinavians. Does Scandinavia
count as an island, or a mountain fastness a la the Caucusus or
Pyrenees (Basque) as a refuge of linguistic conservativism/innovation?
--
Mark Odegard   mailto:odegard at means.net