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

[Volker Bach]

The Christian ban on horsemeat is mypoint of departure. I've found repeated references by various authors to the fact that eating horses was a pagan practice that theChurch banned because of its ritual connotations, but so far, I've come up all but empty with evidence of actual pagans eating actual horses. 

It is interesting, though, that the NOrthern part of Iceland was also particularly active with horse burials. Certainly something going on with horses there.

Thanks

Giano

--- David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com> schrieb am Mo, 15.3.2010:

> Von: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
> Betreff: Re: [Sca-cooks] Horseflesh in Early Period NW Europe?
> An: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Datum: Montag, 15. März, 2010 21:10 Uhr
> 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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> www.daviddfriedman.com
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