"I'd wager most of the traditions around drinking come from Viking feasts. All the pledge drinking -- I think it's the same as heitstrenging, without an animal sacrifice. To be a man of state, you need a second stomach for wine and liquor, because every oath is sworn by draining a flask of Rhenish, with kettle-drums and trumpets to sound out the pledge¹. But the queen, my sister-in-law --" Thus far, Claudius has been select in showing the layers of what Queen Gertrude means to him. There was a time, newly arrived, when he'd be reluctant to speak of her as anything but the queen he respected. If he spoke of her as his dear sister, he'd separate it from any feelings of longing, to the point that Laertes was surprised when Claudius spoke of his intention to marry her. If he spoke of the woman he loved, he'd never speak of her by name, except to Lan Wangji. That name was like a precious pearl, a union thrown in a cup to drink to better health, not to be tossed around carelessly. But Gertrude is in a play. And Claudius is sure his hopeless feelings for her are the in the play, too, because his story isn't much without it. "Gertrude had a way of making anyone feel welcome," he says. "That made the company at feasts more varied, the conversation more interesting and convivial, and the whole affair much more communal. At least for me. I used to be far less sociable."