medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I'm reminded of Canon 91 in Burchard of Worm's _Corrector et Medicus_ (c. 1010), where he writes:
"Have you made tiny shooting bows or shoes for little boys [puerorum suturalia] and thrown them [jocarentur] in your cellar [cellarium] or in your shed/barn [horreum] for satyrs and gnomes [satyri vel pilosi] to play with in order that they will bring you other people's goods and make you richer? If you have, you should do penance for ten days."
Could be that hiding shoes in houses is a way of appeasing spirits with free footwear.
Best,
John
----- Original Message -----
From: Katherine French <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, June 26, 2004 2:55 pm
Subject: Re: bath tubs
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
> but will they leave mary in fear of her reprisals?? or will mary
> come after
> them in search of her lost "house?" just as she did when a woman
> took her
> baby because her own son was in prison and mary hadn't rescued
> him? ;-) is
> seem to remember reading that christmas lawn ornaments, especially
> crechesdon't suffer as much vandalism as other forms of lawn art.
> as to shoes--having given some thought to them. yes shoes were
> expensive,but kids wore things (and shoes) out--the antiques road
> show makes this
> point over and over again, so that there might have been some
> unusable ones
> hanging around. or one got lost and so there was a spare--
> certainly it
> would be tough to study the combined histories of house
> construction and
> family reproduction with an eye towards when they deposited a
> shoe. the two
> i found in my house, one was a boot, under the cellar stairs by
> cellar fire
> place. i was replacing the stairs, and the boot was in nasty
> condition, but
> that might have more to do with the water that rushes through the
> basementnow following a nor'easter. the second was a nice dress up
> shoe with side
> ties in a cupboard next to the fireplace. (it is still in that
> location) i
> haven't gotten around to trying to date it. it too is tattered,
> but hard to
> know how much of that is mice, soot, and whatever. the boot is
> gone, found
> it first and didn't know what to make of it, and as it was
> icky.... but
> when my puppy ate one of my clogs, i took the remaining one, which
> was in
> good shape, and tossed it under the stairs...
> kit
> At 07:34 PM 6/26/2004 +0000, you wrote:
> >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture>
> >Kit wrote:
> >"so whatever charm or magic
> >they worked would not actually cost extra money. bathtubs are
> difficult to
> >dispose of--at least they were until the latest house renovation
> >craze--and Victorian ones could be used for a different purpose
> when the
> >bathroom was remodeled."
> >The irony here is that antique bathtubs are enjoying a current
> renovation>craze, worth their weight in gold... We might see a
> spate of "purloined
> >shrines ..."
> >MG
> >
> >
> >-- Katherine French <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture>
> >concealed shoes, as they are called by the folks who study them
> are an old
> >practice, and were still buried in the 19th cent. in the US. my
> house is
> >from the 1820s and i have found 2 of them in areas near one of my
> chimneys.>you can find out more about them on the web site for the
> Society for the
> >Preservation of New England Antiquities, but they are more wide
> spread than
> >New England (i live in New York.) the museum of London also has
> on display
> >an collection of "good luck charms" taken out of a 16th cent.
> London house.
> >from personal experience i can tell you that these aren't shoes
> forgotten>when drying them out, in both cases i found only 1 shoe
> and neither were in
> >locations that would have facilitated drying. the interesting
> thing is that
> >my house was "re muddled" in the early 1990s by a local real
> estate agent
> >who worked extensively in the cupboard where one of the shoes
> was. it was
> >only concealed by a corner, not blocked up. he would have found
> it. he took
> >much of the old and cool stuff out of my house, but left the shoe-
> -he seems
> >to have known that it would have created 'bad ju-ju.' but my
> point, lest i
> >get too far from the middle ages is that this is a long-lasting
> practice,>and one that some still seem to know about and even observe.
> >as for bath tub Maries that seems like a similar practice in
> another way.
> >many of the shoes found in other houses were children's shoes,
> presumably>available because children had out grown them. so
> whatever charm or magic
> >they worked would not actually cost extra money. bathtubs are
> difficult to
> >dispose of--at least they were until the latest house renovation
> >craze--and Victorian ones could be used for a different purpose
> when the
> >bathroom was remodeled. they look like a niche, so one wouldn't
> necessarily>need much formal education to make a visual link
> between what one saw in
> >church and what one used of a saturday night to bathe in.
> interesting how
> >frugality and piety/superstition blend nicely together.
> >kit french
> >At 07:33 AM 6/26/2004 +0100, you wrote:
> > >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion
> and culture
> > >
> > > In
> > > > Ralph Merrifield's
> > > > The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, he has a whole chapter
> on the
> > > > practice of
> > > > enclosing old shoes, dead chickens and other odd things in
> cavities> > > in the chimneys
> > > > of English houses of the apparent age of your presbytery. Once
> > > > again, we don't
> > > > know exactly why, but you might just have a look!
> > >
> > >I have, I suspect, a number of dead pigeons in the cavity of my
> > >chimney, but I don't think there would be any any religious
> motive for
> > >their being there! One might put meat in the cavity of a
> chimney for
> > >the obvious purpose of smoking it. I don't know if people tried to
> > >preserve chickens in this way, before the arrival of fridges.
> As to
> > >shoes, could someone have been trying to dry them out after getting
> > >them soaking wet?
> > >
> > >Bill.
> > >
> > >=====
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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