SC - Re: "cruel food" (Long)

[Jeff Gedney]

Phlip wrote:

>"Exposure of children" is a polite phrase describing taking an unwanted
>child (female, too many other kids, deformed, bastard, politically
>undesirable bloodlines, whatever) and leaving it out in the woods to die
>without shedding its blood, shedding the blood of a relative being an
>undesirable thing in most cultures.

In Iceland at least, the most common reason seems to have been fear of
overpopulation - the babies that were left to die mostly belonged to the
poor, or to slaves. The father, or the master, had absolute control over the
fate of his child, but according to Christian beliefs, the child itself had
a right to life. But the Icelandic Christians seem to have been swayed by
economic arguments - both regarding exposure and the eating of horsemeat.
This is from The Saga of Ólafur Tryggvason (sorry, can´t find the English
translation just now so I´ll just translate loosely myself):

"Those men who have been the greatest opponents of Christianisation will
hardly find it easy to understand how it can be combined to feed every child
that is born, both to poor men and rich, but at the same time forbid and
deny as food something that used to be very important for the common people"
(i.e. horsemeat).

>There is always the "possibility" of rescue, which salves some folks'
>fragile consciences. The theme of abandoned children being rescued is a
very
>important one across many of our cultures- look at Moses and Romulus and
>Remus, for example.


Yes, there are a few examples of this in the Icelandic sagas also. Usually,
however, these wretched souls turned into fearsome ghosts and sought revenge
on their parents, or on innocent travellers that happened to pass the place
where the children had been abandoned.

Nanna

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