Law of limited good

Scandinavian folklorists have identified something they call the law of limited good, which accounts for the particular type of ethics expressed in Scandinavian folklore dating to the 19th century and earlier. A number of folktales, especially in Norway but also in Sweden and Denmark, explain the root of a problem in the community by virtue of the fact that one farmer has started to get too many cows. The idea was that there are only so many cows, and that if one farmer accumulates a lot of cows, he is in essence stealing that cow from another farmer, even if he did not physically steal anything. The ethic there is to be satisfied with what you have, not try to take to much, and also keep a sharp eye on your neighbor, so they do not take too much either!

The scant folklorist evidence I have gather in Iceland over the last 30 years would suggest there was some remnant of the law of limited good when I was a kid, and then that was blown out of the water in celebratory excess by the bankerboys (everyone is calling them drengir here these days!).

It will be really interesting to see whether or not that ethic reasserts itself. I rather doubt it though, since it was always somewhat arbitrarily applied anyhow. Trees and fish did not fall under it, for instance, those resources could get used ad nauseam. And of course love should never fall under the law of limited good.

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