I knew there was something I wanted to post about. Last weekend I was home and de mudder was watching a Time Watch programme on the BBC called The Bog Man. Which, incidently was narrated by Robin of Sherwood. Anyways twas quite interesting, in a creepifying way. All about these two bodies found in bogs in Ireland in 2003. And because of being in the bog these two bodies were very well preserved. So well in fact that they could figure out that the one with a head actually used imported resin as hair gel. I think it came from Spain, or maybe France[1] .
But the reason I am posting about it is because of the way a lot of the news peoples reported on these bodies. A week or so before the programme aired the news was full of stories about how these two fellas were sacrificed in order to ensure the land remained fertile. Now this was not reported as a theory, but as a fact.
So I was a little interested in how exactly they knew this. Afterall, unless they can go back in time over 2000 years and ask someone then they can’t very well discover the reasons behind their motivations now can they?
But it turns out that the show never stated “these men were killed as human sacrifices”, instead that was one of an number of options. My favourite was the theory that they had committed some sort of crime, and part of their punishment was the manner of their death, torture and then after death rendition to the bog for burial. The reason being that a bog isn’t really land. And it isn’t water either. So it is an in between place. The historian/archeologist who suggested this theory said that he believed it was a method of ensuring that the souls of the dead[2] never got to go to the next life. The crimes they had committed were so heinous that death wasn’t enough, these people deserved to be punished for all eternity and by placing the bodies in the bog they were ensuring that they wouldn’t decay, wouldn’t let the spirit free.
And, unrelated to that stuff I’ve just written, I was following some fish earlier in the week, when Carroll’s Beware the Jabberwocky was mentioned, which in turn reminded me of that advert that was on a few years[3] back, anyays, found an online version, so does anyone else remember the Judder Man?
Very weird. Very, very weird.
Didn't follow the link but wasn't the ad for a drink? Beware the Judder Man my dear, when the moon is fat. Ne?
And by the way, nice excuse for a Will Scarlett pic… :-)
But in a good way right Anne?
And yes NM, the judder man.
"…that the one with the head…" is a fragment of thought that's going to haunt me deliciously all day today. Sacrificed to keep the land fertile? What land? The BOG? Besides, everybody knows that horrible, fiery deaths are required in order for sacrifices to work. I like the souls-trapped theory myself. They were probably just out for a walk, though, when one of them tripped and lost his head.
The bodies were found on the boundaries of royal land. And were thought to be part of a kingship ritual to keep the enclosed lands in good health.