Wednesday, December 29, 2010

I Blow My Nose At You

While the portions of Monty Python and the Holy Grail showing the French abusing the English are funny, they also seem a little over the top. Then you read something like the Gesta Herewardi where the Normans hire a witch to put a curse on the besieged at Ely. As the hag stands on top of a wooden structure so she can see and be seen, she hurls abuse and incantations and then she turns around to finish the job by baring her behind at the defenders. Yes, the witch mooned Hereward. Take that!

7 comments:

Anachronist said...

Lololol she had the cheek to moon him?

Do you know where the whole mooning business comes from? In the Middle Ages people thought that the Devil doesn't have any behind/buttocks/ass to speak of. I don't know why they think so but even in some pictures from the period devils are very skinny fellows with nothing to sit on. Litteraly. So showing your opponent your behind was tantamount to proving that you are ok - not a devil's spawn or such, quite the opposite - and he/she/them are not.

The Red Witch said...

LOL You are an amazing fountain of facts!
I wonder why the old women who were burned as witches were not spared for having buttocks. Since many of them were middle aged, surely they had well developed buttocks. :-)

Anachronist said...

Apparently it wasn't as widely known as it should have been. It would spare a lot of human beings.

Tracy said...

Excellent!

But I think they were determined to burn those women as witches anyway, regardless of any evidence - the poor women were in a lose/lose situation, so well-cushioned posteriors or not, they were doomed.

Anachronist said...

Exactly - if you are determined to burn a witch the fact that she is well-padded in her nether regions won't stop you.

Brooke from The Bluestocking Guide said...

Wow. That's very interesting about the nooning thing.!!

The Red Witch said...

Makes Monty Python look like realists, don't it?