LL-L "Folklore" 2003.05.04 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: "thomas byro" <thbyro at earthlink.net>
Subject: LL-L "Folklore" 2003.04.28 (08) [E]

Ron

I recall that we ate horsemeat in my area.  A practise that the church
tried to exterminate in times past because of its strong associations
with the old religion.

I am curious about some other aspects of life in my area.  For example,
when someone died, the body was kept in a pavillion in the cemetery for
three days before burial.  Was this a purely local custom or was this
common in all the lowlands areas?

In walking to a friends house, I used to pass a thatch roofed farm
house(with the usual horse heads on top).  The old woman who lived there
had pigtails that virtually swept the ground.  It was said that she had
never cut her hair in her life.  She used to keep her pigtails clean by
covering them with cloth sheaths.  Was this her personal abberation or
was she one of the last practitioners of an old custom?

Tom Byro

Folks, as for the crossed horse heads (which I find more intriguing as
we go along), isn't there a general horse theme in Old Saxon culture,
perhaps arisen from some sort of ancient horse-centered cult?
Certainly, horses were, if not worshipped, highly revered, and horses
tended to be buried with their owners.  (I read that such a Saxon burial
was recently unearthed in England.)  Also, there is the widespread
(white) horse theme throughout Germany's Lower Saxony, Westphalia and
the Saxon parts of the Netherlands, especially in coats of arms, city
and state emblems, flags, etc.  Is this also a common theme in England?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language survival

Tom, Lowlanders,

As many of you probably know, horse meat is eaten in several parts of
Europe, most well-known in French-speaking areas.  In Germany it is
eaten too, though by a minority.  Where I lived in a part of Hamburg,
there was a special horse butcher shop.  My father liked horse meat and
would occasionally demand it, but I absolutely detested it for
psychological and sensory reasons and had to be forced, literally
starved, to eat it (and my stomach still churns as I think of it,
especially horse sausage ...), and the same applies to rabbit meat,
especially when served on Easter ...

Anyway (as he stops gagging), I have looked into this horse cult thing a
bit more, and, yes, such a thing did exist in various parts of Eurasia,
also among pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic tribes.  This included
horse sacrifices and the ritual partaking of horse meat.

A few sources:
German:
http://www.snl.ch/dhs/externe/protect/textes/D13945.html
http://www.asatru.ch/3/fron.php
http://www.halls-of-odin.de/unterseiten/MagischeOrte/magische_orte_2.htm

English:
http://www.akhalteke.net/web/domat.nsf/5abe13a9c284b300c1256b960051a825/9650735d529fa3d8c12565a000246fa8!OpenDocument
http://greek-gods.tripod.com/Scandinavian2.htm
http://indigo.ie/~imago/dubh/new6-4.html

The "cult" is still alive in parts of Eurasia, especially in Central
Asia (e.g., in Turkmenistan
[http://www.akhalteke.net/web/domat.nsf/5abe13a9c284b300c1256b960051a825/9650735d529fa3d8c12565a000246fa8!OpenDocument]),
and horse meat, including horse sausage, is highly desirable in many
parts of the region, including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and
Xinjiang (Eastern Turkestan).

> I am curious about some other aspects of life in my area.  For example,
> when someone died, the body was kept in a pavillion in the cemetery for
> three days before burial.  Was this a purely local custom or was this
> common in all the lowlands areas?

I have a feeling that some of that still survived during my childhood,
at least in people's minds.  The "three days" thing also rings a bell.
I have heard it mention several times that "it can take the soul up to
three days to leave its body."  I don't think that at that time
postmortem investigations were routine, and that there were still some
small cemetery morgues around, of the type you mentioned.  There was a
small, old cemetery near our home (meanwhile converted to a somewhat
scary park).  We children either had been told or simply fantasized that
bodies were being kept in that small building, and we were on a constant
(unsuccessful) quest to get to see some of them through the
stained-glass windows.  Some adults said it was simply a chapel, but we
never saw it used as a chapel, even during funerals.  I am still
inclined to believe that it was a morgue, but if at that time it was
still used as such is another question.

<quote>
In walking to a friends house, I used to pass a thatch roofed farm
house(with the usual horse heads on top).  The old woman who lived there
had pigtails that virtually swept the ground.  It was said that she had
never cut her hair in her life.  She used to keep her pigtails clean by
covering them with cloth sheaths.  Was this her personal abberation or
was she one of the last practitioners of an old custom?
</quote>

I suppose she was your resident "witch."  I think many communities had
those, usually some elderly woman living alone.

The pigtail thing sounds interesting.  My hunch is that the lady was a
bit excentric.  However, it could have been a remnant of a local "look,"
given that there used to be incredible variety in traditional costume
and hairstyle. Cloth sheaths covering braids are not uncommon in
Eurasia, especially among Mongolic- and Tibetic-speaking groups (and in
North America, previously buckskin sheaths).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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