[Sca-cooks] Horseflesh in Early Period NW Europe?
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at att.net
Mon Mar 15 13:55:08 PDT 2010
Gerald or Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) provides a description of the
sacrifice and consumption of horse in Ulster, chapter 102 of his The History
and Topography of Ireland.
St. Boniface's mission to the Germans (part of Charlemagne's move to control
the various German tribes) espoused the papal prohibition of not eating
horsemeat. Hippophagy was prohibited to Christians apparently because it
was tied to pagan sacrifice across a wide range of migratory peoples. A
dispensation was given to Iceland in 999.
You might wish to check out: Bhawe, S., Die Yajus des Asvamedba; Versuch
einer Rekontruktion dieses Abschnittes des Yajurveda auf Grund der
Uberlieferung seiner funf Schulen, Bonner orientalistiche Studien 25,
Stuttgart, 1939. Bhawe ties hippophagy to to an ancient Indo-European
fertility rite.
You might also try contacting Ken Jukes, who appears to writing a dsoctoral
thesis entitled Hippophagy in AngloSaxon England.
http://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/?id=1225
Bear
----- Original Message -----
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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