What would you do in 1000 AD Europe?

So I'm a big fan of historical fiction, and specifically the dark ages and medieval period, so I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about this period.

And finding it an interesting question I went through and read everyone's answers thus far.

And.. trying not to sound like a smart-alecky ogre here, but I found a lot of answers to be a bit naive as to the difficulty of life at the time. A number of them explained, basically, that they would learn to hunt, and then become wildly successful at it. People at the time weren't incompetent -- you coming in with no relevant experience whatsoever are absolutely positively NOT going to be more successful at hunting or farming than the locals.

A lot of the answers also involved thieving things. Well they were wise to thievery back then too. It won't be stealin candy from babies.


As for myself, well I'd be in a severe pickle, because being as it's the middle of summer in California, I'm currently sitting around in shorts. So assuming I teleported over there just this second, I'd be very shirtless and shoeless. If I had a second to grab something I think maybe I'd grab the microscope on the desk here, figure I could do something pretty crafty with that.

I speak English and Swedish. I think scandinavian languages have actually changed less than English (have you ever seen Beowulf in the original Old English? try reading it: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Beowulf_%28Harrison_and_Sharp%29#THE_PASSING_OF_SC... ), so I'd be best off probably landing myself in what would become Sweden. Now, I don't pretend to have some secret way I'd go from penniless to not-penniless, but I'd be sitting pretty if I was just able to establish myself a place to live and set up some beehives -- because I happen to be a beekeeper,. And beekeeping happens to be one of those rare occupations wherein the advancements that have been made since the year 1000 can all be easily implemented by someone who knows what they're doing. And I'd be truly rarely qualified for this, since I spent much of this year teaching beekeepers in Ethiopia, who use relatively medieval methods, how to implement modern methods of beekeeping.

But lest it sound like I'm being smug about that, let me remind you that first I'm going to have to deal with being penniless in Sweden with nothing but a pair of cargo-shorts to my name. And maybe that microscope. Lord knows how one is to make one's way in the world with nothing but a microscope...!

In somewhat related news, I actually have a short story I'll upload one of these days that takes place in Jorvik (York) in 976 AD.