Killing the Elderly

[the_lothian at YAHOO.COM]

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
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