Fw: [Sca-cooks] Crusades and cannibalism

[Phlip]

Ana, I forwarded the post on cannibalism to Paul Buell, to ask him if he was
aware of anything in the literature, perhaps that in other languages, that
might either refute or affirm the possibility of cannibalism, and here's his
response. It's nice having access to a scholar who reads all those "weird"
languages ;-)

Phlip

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....


> Interesting. This issue would be settled quite simply by going back to a
> full, original edition (in Old French) of Villehardouin with a complete
> apparatus and looking at the passage in question. If Villehardouin
actually
> said that this happened, it probably did since he was an eye-witness. The
> army in question was in a very difficult position. I know of no other
> references to cannibalism but, from the same period, the Tatar Relation
says
> something about Cinggis-qan and his army drawing lots to eat their own
> members during a difficult siege. Simon de Saint Quentin says that the
> "Tatars" ate human meat too. So this was something you accused an enemy
of.
> Villehardouin, however, is another thing entirely. He was in a position to
> know. But the passage may have been dropped because there are problems
with
> it.
>
> Paul