Killing the Elderly

[OSCAR HERRE]

I was curious about their daily habits ....worship, food and farming,.....shelter for themselves,etc.....
feasts and drinking such as wine or whatever they did do relieve themselves......
 

________________________________
 From: marja erwin <marja-e at riseup.net>
To: gothic-l at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: [gothic-l] Killing the Elderly
  
 
   
 
On Thu, 2014-01-30 at 08:17 -0800, the_lothian at yahoo.com wrote:
> 
> Hello All,
> 
> I am reading "Barbarian Rites" by Hans-Peter Hasenfratz.  In his
> chapter on Society and its Values he writes
> 
> The practice of killing the elderly, which is attested among the
> eastern and northern Germanic peoples, was probably connected to the
> idea of sparing "useless mouths" from the fate of a straw death.
> 
> The straw-death referring to dying in your bed. 
> Can anyone help me confirm this before I put it into my novel?
> 
> Thanks,
> Tom

This is the firs I've heard of it. This would, if true, show up in
funerary archaeology, so it should be testable.

   
         
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