The Shadowlit Realms
| Labyrinth of the Mind |
BlackmailHere is an intriguing one, blackmail. Black mail is perhaps something that is seen as imply being a part of the fabric of humanity, something that has been around forever and we do not typically think of it having a history, or the very first attempt at blackmailing and how it all did come about. So here is something interesting about the origin of the act and the word itself.
Blackmail was first born from the Vikings and well strangely enough these marauding raiders can be seen in some ways as being one of the earliest formations of organized crime. It was the Vikings that started the idea of using their physical prowess and threats of violence to get others to them pay them protection money. Along the Scottish borders those who valued their crops and the virginity of their daughters would pay a tribute to the Vikings in order to ensure protection for themselves against the Vikings. This is what would come to be known as black mail (perhaps such practices as this have existed in other cultures but they were the first to give it a name, or at least the name of which we know it by today) So had to did then come to be referred to as black mail? It started with the word mal which is an Old English borrowing from Old Norwegian. The word originally meant speech but the Vikings came to associate the word more with their business deals, when demanding something at axeblade so the word came to mean tax or payment of tribute. The word mal would come to be latter spelled as mail and because of the brutish activities which were associated with this word and these dealings with the Vikings, they thus began to refer to it as black mail. 2:25 PM - 5/17/2009 - post comment
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