Neither horse nor pig is kosher. Judith wonders why Christians eat the latter but not the former. Lauring explains:
"'Horse feasts were part of the ancient Nordic religion. So they were banned as pagan.'" (p. 29)
As with the sf references, the text of this mystery novel touches on another matter of interest to Poul Anderson and his readers.
I was told about the Christian horse taboo at a moot by a scholarly neo-Pagan. (Hi, Jez.) It is strange how deeply rooted food taboos are. Even when I ate meat, I regarded horse as unacceptable although we were never taught that it was taboo.
Lauring explains that Scandinavian culture is more than Ibsen or Andersen. Which Andersen?
Tryggve Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Not Vidar H. Andersen
I follow a Poul Anderson text wherever it leads. Chapter iii of Murder Bound has led us away from detective fiction into a brief discussion of Scandinavian culture. I do not know where this is taking us because I do not remember the details from previous readings and am blogging as I reread, a page or so at a time, but Anderson's texts are dense enough to warrant such close attention.
This weekend might be busy with other activities:
the Vintage Festival (and see previous references here) (scroll down);
it might be readily imagined that there is considerable political campaigning in Britain at present.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
But for strictly consistent Christians all foods are kosher, including even horse meat (as per Mark 7.17-23). And I would have pointed out as well what St. Paul said about "strong" Christians not worrying if the meat they purchased at the butcher's had first been offered to idols. Christians should give praise and honor to the true God and simply dismiss pagan "gods."
That said, I am aware, as was St. Paul, that "weaker" Christians would have scruples about eating meats, like the horse, that was strongly associated with pagan worship. So, the Church decided, as had St. Paul, that it was better and more charitable for "strong" Christians to defer to the worries of their more scrupulous brethren and sistren.
And Hans Christian Andersen was the man I picked from your list as helping to shape Scandinavian culture.
Sean
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