Killing the Elderly

[Thomas Chelmowski]

The author also talks about sacrificing the king if the people are  having a hard go of it.  
Ermanaric, the Greuthingi Goth king killed himself (a self-sacrifice was suggested in one of the history texts I read) when he was losing to the Huns.  
  If one is true, it makes me think that the other might also be true.
Any suggestions or comments?
Tom



On Thursday, January 30, 2014 9:39 AM, OSCAR HERRE <duke.co at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
 
  
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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