Cannibalism in Europe

[Cain]

http://www.opendemocracy.net/jen-paton/europe-and-its-cannibals

In the fourteenth century Romance of Richard the Lionheart, the crusader king falls ill outside of Acre: the food he needs to recover, he claims, is pork. Since rumor has it Saracens taste of pork, his men cook and feed him human flesh without his knowledge. Demanding to see the head of the "pig" he has just eaten, the cooks bring in the human head. Richard reacts with amusement, laughing aloud. Gnawing the bones with relish, he announces now that he knows what good food Saracens are, his men won't starve:

"We shall never die of hunger
While that we may first
Slay the Saracens downright
Wash the flesh and roast the head..."

While the flashiest modern headlines about cannibalism are confined to the depraved (Dorangel Vargas and Jeffrey Dahmer) or the desperate (the Uruguyan rugby team who crashed in the Andres in 1972), stories of European cannibalism during the middle ages celebrated its supposed fierceness and utility.

[Jasper]

Wow, guy really knew how to take a joke!