Viking are cookery (was: SC - Irish period recipes??)

[Par Leijonhufvud]

On Sun, 9 Nov 1997, david friedman wrote:

> At 6:31 AM +0100 11/10/97, Par Leijonhufvud wrote:
> 
> 
> >In addition there are mentions of food in the sagas and the Edda (e.g.
> >Rigsthula, Lokesenna, Thrymskvida), but as these were written down much
> >later than the Viking era their value is questionable in many cases.
> 
> I thought it was generally accepted that the Eddic poetry was from well
> before the end of the Viking period. We don't have manuscripts that old, of
> course, and it may not have been written down--but neither was Homer, and I
> believe that is generally accepted as reasonably accurate to its date of
> composition.

Well, yes. But the fact that we, AFAIK, have no written sources from the 
actual period leaves the question of "contamination" open. In addition the 
information on food given in the Eddas is rather sparse to say the least. 

> On the sagas, of course, there is a long scholarly dispute as to whether
> they are an oral form written down long after their composition, or a
> written form composed by those who wrote them down, using material from a
> previous oral tradition.

Which makes it a bit like the cause for the Eddas I make above.

What we _really_ need is a runestone which begins "Take two eggs..." :-)

/UlfR

- --
Par Leijonhufvud                  par.leijonhufvud at labtek.ki.se 
Tum pultus sicissentem ur ne lus sem ittibus profugnatreius.

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