[Sca-cooks] Horseflesh in Early Period NW Europe?

[David Friedman]

I am reasonably sure that there are references in 
the sagas implying that eating horse was 
connected with paganism--perhaps sacrifices. My 
vague memory is that it was connected to the 
arbitrated settlement in 1000 A.D. that made 
Christianity the official religion of Iceland, 
with toleration for private but not public pagan 
worship. I also have a vague memory of someone 
insulting someone else by a reference to his 
eating horse meat.

A little googling finds:

"It has a particular role in the culture and 
history of the island, as its consumption was one 
of the concessions won when the pagan Norse 
Icelanders  eventually adopted Christianity in 
the year 1000."

"The following day he announced that that Iceland 
was to become Christian, with the condition that 
old laws concerning the exposure of infants and 
the eating of horseflesh would remain, and that 
private pagan worship be permitted. These 
sticking points related to long-established 
customs that ran contrary to the laws of the 
Church. Horsemeat is a taboo food in many 
cultures, and Pope Gregory III had banned the 
Germanic custom of its consumption in 732. "

"Once the church was firmly in control in 
Iceland, horsemeat, infanticide, and pagan 
rituals practiced in private were banned.[1]"

>Salvete
>
>I've been trying to figure this out for a while 
>now, but I guess someone here might have done so 
>already and found some source I'm not aware of. 
>Do we have any evidence for horse beraingeaten 
>in Early period Northwestern or northern europe? 
>I know that afew bones from Hedeby show signs of 
>slaughter, and there are horse sacrifices that 
>deposit only the head and feet (the rest 
>presumably consumed), but these are rare outside 
>Slavic areas after the Iron Age. Most horse 
>burials dpon't seem to show any such evidence.
>
>Has anyone looked at the sagas or Anglo-Saxon 
>literature from thatz point of view? Or know of 
>a good study of scandinavian graves theway the 
>RBO did the continental ones?
>
>Any help appreciated
>
>Giano
>
>
>
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-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com