The substantial opposition of modern culture is that of public space and private space. A modern European thinks of it as of ‘natural’. Yet, it has not always been the same. Cultural analysis of non-ecclesiastical Anglo-Saxon and Norse literature shows that ‘public’ was opposed to ‘non-public’ rather than to ‘private’, and ‘non-public’ was identified with ‘non-human’. Secluded space was not seen as cosily private but, rather, as dangerously isolated.
