It's quite unusual how little this is really necessary. For instance a read I found incredibly fascinating was Konungs skuggsjá - The King's Mirror [1]. It was

It's quite unusual how little this is really necessary. For instance a read I found incredibly fascinating was Konungs skuggsjá - The King's Mirror [1]. It was a book written for the education of the heir of King Haakon IV of Norway, in the 1200s. It takes the form of hypothetical questions from the son and prepared answers from the father. It covers a wide array of training and topics. And you'd think you'd need an encyclopedia of references aside to understand the day and age of which it spoke. It features extensive religious and political references, yet the weird thing is a book written for royalty around 800 years ago feels oddly familiar. And in reality I found a good deal of the advice and knowledge it shared not only interesting but actually quite useful and wise. It also rather gives proof to the meaning of the tale of Damocles, without in any way intending to do such! [1 - actual book] - http://www.mediumaevum.com/75years/mirror/index.html http://www.mediumaevum.com/75years/mirror/index.html [1 - wiki overview] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konungs_skuggsj%C3%A1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konungs_skuggsj%C3%A1