[Sca-cooks] horsemeat, butchering

Terry Decker t.d.decker at att.net
Sat Sep 18 11:39:35 PDT 2010


The Papal prohibition dates to 732 and is primarily in support of St. 
Boniface's mission to the Germans as eating horse flesh was part of the 
worship of Odin.

In general, horse fell out of favor as a general meat in Europe until the 
French reintroduced it in the 19th Century.  However, horses were eaten in 
times of famine.  As one account of the Famine of 1315 had it, "The usual 
kinds of meats, suitable for eating, were scarce: hoirse meat was precious, 
plump dogs were stolen.  And according to many reports, men and women in 
many places secretly ate there own children."

Bear

> The eating of horse meat was considered mega social taboo in the Christian 
> world during the Middle Ages. It was a point of contention in Viking Age 
> Iceland when they went Christian in 1000 A.D. In the sagas and documents 
> they were discouraged from eating horse meat and performing the 
> traditional infanticide. Chieftain (Jarl) (Th)orgeir was told by the 
> missionaries that the rest of Christian Europe was no longer eating horses 
> and it was taboo.
> Source- Under the Cloak A Pagan Ritual Point in the Conversion of Iceland 
> by On Hnefill A(th)alsteinsson
> Aelina the Saami
> By the way- the Saami hated horses. They were the symbols of the dreaded 
> and feared Odin.




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