The Middle Ages were positively medieval...

[felis_ultharus]

I've been scarce, but I wanted to wish a Happy (Belated) Lughnassadh to those who celebrate it.

I haven't been on LJ for awhile, and it'll be at least a couple of days before I can backread. I finished the major edit on my novel a few days ago, and now I'm working on a last culing of unnecessary parts. After that, there's a quick edit, and then it's ready to show.

I've never been anywhere this far in the novel-writing process. I've never even gotten far into the major edit.

Meanwhile, in my readings for school, I came across the saying "to give somebody horns" -- for a wife to sleep around on a husband. This saying was popular in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and has equivalents in many European origins.

I wondered about the origins. montrealais didn't know, but thought it might come from a traditional story of some kind -- a myth or folktale. That sounded logical to me.

Anyway, truth is stranger than fiction as it turns out. I could scarcely believe it, but The Oxford English Dictionary, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, and Cecil Adams all agree. In the words of the OED:

The origin of this, which appears in so many European langs ... is referred by Dunger (Germania XXIX. 59) to the practice formerly prevalent of planting or engrafting the spurs of a castrated cock on the root of the excised comb, where they grew and became horns, sometimes of several inches long. He shows that Ger. hahnreh or hahnrei ‘cuckold’, originally meant ‘capon’.]

So, to summarise, these medieval farmers, not content with simply removing the rooster's balls, felt the need to cut off its comb, cut off its spurs, attach the spurs to its head so it would transform into a mutant demon rooster.

I have only two questions.

Number one: Why in the name of all the gods would anyone do that to a rooster?

Number two: Who was the sick fuck who actually figured out how to do it?

Comments

[sugar-spun.livejournal.com]

The Romans also used the phrase "to put horns on [a husband's] head".

Perhaps they just had to do something to fill the long evenings.

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

That's the only explanation I can come up with, too, but I have to say I've never been so bored that I turned to grafting barnyard animals as a pastime.

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I completely lose track of time when I'm on vacation. Happy Lughnassadh!

I'm afraid to find out what else medieval farmers did when they were bored....

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and just assume they're not doing anything worse than having sex with the animals. Suddenly, bestiality is less disturbing by comparison.

This Island of Dr. Moreau stuff is just too damn weird. As I said in the response above, I've never been so bored that I considered grafting barnyard animals a viable source of entertainment.