The Life of Anskar

Rimbert, Vita Anskarii — the Life of Anskar, Apostle of the North

Rimbert of Hamburg-Bremen

Rimbert records the pagan counter-argument in full, including the offer to make a dead king into a god. He found it alarming. He wrote it down anyway.

Catch rate: 48 / 255
Base research: 146
Stat total: 282

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina76

Contend72

Defend70

Popularity64

Total282

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 76

Thirty-five years of a mission to Denmark and Sweden, written down by the man who inherited it.

Contend 72

Fairly high. It argues from outcomes: the town that sacrificed and was sacked, the crew that prayed and got home.

Defend 70

Fairly high. Rimbert was there for part of the mission and knew the people who were there for the rest.

Popularity 64

Middling. A life, told in order, and it takes its time.

Cited for this book

Anskar reached Birka in Sweden about 829 and again about 852. The second time, the Swedes put the question to their assembly and took a vote on it. The old man who spoke in favour did not argue that Christianity was true; he argued that this God had already helped several people in the room when they were in trouble at sea.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	We Proved It at Sea	Experience	Argument	70	100%	15
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
33	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
37	Why Reject What Serves?	Rationality	Argument	74	100%	15
41	Against the Whole World	History	Argument	74	95%	15
45	The Whole World Was Given Over	History	Argument	88	100%	10
50	Speak Latin	History	Status	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“In regard to the worship of this God it is well known to many of us that He can afford much help to those who place their hope in Him. For many of us have proved this to be the case on several occasions when in peril by sea and in other crises.”
An elder at the Birka assembly (c. 852), in Rimbert, Life of Anskar, trans. Charles H. Robinson (SPCK, 1921), public domain.public domain

We Proved It at Sea

ExperienceArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe speech that carried the vote at Birka, and it makes no claim about truth at all. Several men in this room have already called on this God in a storm and got home. That is the argument, and it worked.

“Why, then, do we reject that which we know to be both needful and serviceable?… inasmuch as we cannot be sure that our gods will be favourably disposed, it is good for us to have the help of this God who is always, and under all circumstances, able and willing to succour those who cry to Him.”
An elder at the Birka assembly (c. 852), in Rimbert, Life of Anskar, trans. Robinson (1921), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

Why Reject What Serves?

RationalityArgument · power 74 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe second half of the same speech, and the sting is in the middle of it: we cannot be sure our own gods are well disposed. A pagan at a pagan assembly saying the quiet thing about pagan religion.

“They pointed out that the whole world lived under Christian laws and that they could not by themselves withstand the whole world.”
The Polish envoys at Pyritz (1124), in Ebo/Herbord, Life of Otto, trans. Robinson (1920), public domain.public domain

Against the Whole World

HistoryArgument · power 74 · 95% accurate

In the gameThe argument from everyone else, made by envoys who had not come to debate. It is honest about the numbers, and it proves nothing about whether the thing is true.

“point out to them that the whole world was given over to the worship of idols until, illuminated by the knowledge of the Omnipotent God, its creator and ruler, it was vivified through the grace of Christ and reconciled to God.”
Daniel of Winchester, Letter to Boniface (c. 723), trans. Kylie (1911), public domain.public domain

The Whole World Was Given Over

HistoryArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameThis answers the charge that the faith is foreign. Every nation worshipped idols, the Saxons’ ancestors included, until it was taught otherwise. Every nation shares one condition and one remedy.

Strong against

×3The Common Law of the Peoplean argument · why?

It answers the one way that concedes nothing — everyone’s fathers were idolaters, and ours were too.