I'm not against giving him the option to improve his combat skills, that seems quite reasonable, I'm against actively pushing him to do so. I also think you're misreading Norse cultural queues somewhat...most warriors don't train. If you want to fight you just start fighting. Members of a Warband are a bit different, but most Norsemen just don't actually do that. So, if Kurt wanted to go out and be a warrior, economic disadvantage is definitely not stopping him. Other things might be, but not that.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting actively pushing him to do so.
What I'm suggesting is that we offer him a token of our respect and recognition, and implicitly offer him the choice of whether he'd like to remain in his current role, or explore moving up in the world. There's no pressure or leverage being exerted either way. If he does want to remain as our farmhand, then that's fine and he should know we're cool with it. I would also note that he is already a warrior, given he fought in the battle - being a free man and having the right and obligation to bear arms are kind of hard to divorce.
However, I'm not sure I agree with your characterisation of Norse cultivators here? Like, if we look at Hasvir, he absolutely does train, and a lot of the stronger men in the valley also clearly find time to train, even if it's just via arranging regular sparring with friends. Remember IF saying when we made the cauldron that we were actually relatively unusual in not having training aids? (I presume he meant amongst stronger Norse warriors, rather than all Norsemen, but even so.) Whilst all free men can go out and fight if they so wish, I think having the social status and werewithal for training aids and a bunch of strong friends in regular sparring matches is less common.
To be clear, I'm in agreement that we should not own slaves for any meaningful period of time. Though I'll note that even if we free them immediately, we can offer a ride home (or at least back to Christian lands) in exchange for Latin instruction to just about anyone who speaks Latin.
Yeah, that seems reasonable to me. I would also offer some kind of wages, maybe eve see if any of our kids are old enough to start learning to read and write and make them an official tutor. This would also make our reasons for wanting the tuition seem a bit more innocuous , honestly.
EDIT:
Sure. My point was more that they don't train more than Kurt likely does as a farmhand. Not as, like, a separate thing.
I think that they absolutely do, because being a landowner or the armed and kept retainer of a landowner gives you leisure time to devote to dedicated martial training; like the dedicated training which we are constantly engaged in. Look at the regular sparring matches that we engage in with our huskarls and neighbours. Or the extensive amount of time Halla can devotes to her cultivation research and crafting projects. Not to mention cultivation itself!
Being a farmhand means Kurt has to spend more of his time, y'know, doing a fulltime job as a farmhand. Some of which may double as practice in skills for war, sure, but watching cattle or making hay sure isn't, certainly not when compared to constantly training with other experts.
