Rowan & Pine: A Feminist Folklore & Mythology Podcast - July 21, 2024


Pine Cones： Sin Eaters ｜ Rowan & Pine Shorts

Episode Thirty-Five： Japanese Witchcraft - Too many oranges Pine Cones： Lughnasadh ｜ Rowan & Pine Shorts

Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

126.89

Word count

1,196

Sentence count

48

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 In the quiet, misty valleys of northern Europe and beyond, where the wind whispers secrets
00:00:18.680 through the heather and the rugged hills keep ancient tales close to their heart,
00:00:22.380 there existed a peculiar and eerie tradition, the ritual of the sin-eater.
00:00:30.000 the sin eater was a figure known in nearly every village a person who for a nominal payment given
00:00:37.740 in the form of food took upon themselves the sins of a deceased person as soon as a death occurred
00:00:44.120 this official was notified presenting right away to the deceased's home he was given at the door
00:00:50.280 a groat an old silver coin along with bread and ale having partaken of the meal he took upon
00:00:57.160 himself the sins of the deceased, for whom he had thus pawned his own soul.
00:01:07.960 On the most basic level, the sin eater is an individual who nominates themselves to
00:01:12.800 take on the sins of another person, usually who has died before death rites and absolution
00:01:18.480 could be performed.
00:01:20.560 An earlier and cruder form of the ceremony involved bringing the sin eater into the
00:01:25.500 chamber of the deceased. There he received food, sometimes along with money, across the body of
00:01:31.460 the corpse. Having eaten the food in the presence of the dead, he was driven out of the house with
00:01:37.300 curses and abuse. Sticks, cinders and every available missile were hurled at him, symbolically
00:01:44.100 expelling the sins from the community.
00:01:55.500 The origins of sin-eating are seemingly multiple and diluted by the passage of time.
00:02:15.200 However, the practice and imagery spring up cross-culturally.
00:02:18.700 The Aztec goddess of filth, Tlazalteot, is often depicted providing redemptive salvation
00:02:26.200 to individuals after death by eating the filth of the soul. The ancient Egyptians held that
00:02:32.120 the heart was the ledger of one's life deeds, both virtuous and vile, and crucial for judgment
00:02:37.040 in the afterlife. In solemn ritual after death, a heart is placed on a scale and weighed against
00:02:43.140 the feather of mat the goddess of truth and justice anubis the formidable jackal-headed
00:02:48.580 god of embalming stands vigil over the scales while thoth wise ibis-headed god of writing
00:02:54.720 meticulously records the verdict should the heart balance with the feather it signifies
00:03:00.080 a well-lived life rendering the individual worthy of eternal bliss in the paradise of osiris
00:03:13.140 Many societies have a concept of a preordained individual
00:03:19.800 designated to suffer and atone for the sins of others.
00:03:22.880 Such as the Sacral King, Jesus Christ can be seen setting a precedent for sin eaters
00:03:27.880 by sacrificing his pure soul for the sins of the world.
00:03:35.480 The ritual itself of the sin eater is simple.
00:03:39.360 The nominated person eats a meal over the corpse.
00:03:41.900 This ensures the spiritual safety of the dead and safe passage of the soul to heaven.
00:03:47.700 Through the literal consumption of bread, wine or burial cakes,
00:03:51.640 the eater would consume the sins of the person,
00:03:54.560 freeing the deceased of their sins and earthly ties,
00:03:57.720 thus allowing them to gain an appropriate Christian burial. 0.88
00:04:01.380 Prayers would then be said over the corpse to cement the ritual. 0.97
00:04:05.400 Prayers such as
00:04:06.580 I give easement and rest now to thee.
00:04:10.240 Sin-eating also served a practical purpose, ensuring the village was safe from the sin-ridden dead.
00:04:35.920 Without the appropriate death rites, it was believed that the dead would be left to wander and cause harm to the local area.
00:04:43.540 By removing the sins from the physical body, there was nothing blocking the passage to heaven,
00:04:48.520 severing the ties to the mortal world and leaving the village spook-free.
00:04:56.480 Though there is some speculation regarding when the practice began, the first concrete mention of it dates to the 1600s.
00:05:03.080 diarist john aubrey writes that at funerals they would hire poor people who were to take upon
00:05:09.740 themselves the sins of the party deceased when the corpse was brought out of the house and laid on
00:05:14.820 the beer a loaf of bread was delivered to the sin eater over the corpse along with a bowl of beer
00:05:19.880 which he was to drink up early sin eaters were pitiable figures condemned to the fringes of
00:05:25.980 society they were outcasts embodying the very essence of evil in the eyes of their community
00:05:31.820 The ritual of sin-eating transferred the sins of the deceased onto the sin-eater,
00:05:36.860 leading many to believe that these individuals remained perpetually tainted by malevolence.
00:05:43.160 Some chose this grim profession, living isolated and shunned like lepers.
00:05:48.560 Their presence was so feared that people avoided them, seeking them out only when death struck. 0.98
00:05:54.320 The most successful sin-eaters became notorious for their unsettling demeanour,
00:05:58.820 simultaneously humble, repulsive and sinister. For the cunning sin-eating proved lucrative as
00:06:05.960 they preyed upon the deep-seated superstitions of the masses. The emphasis on poor people being the
00:06:12.540 ideal candidates for sin-eating is significant. These individuals often from the most marginalized
00:06:18.360 areas of society think drunkards, beggars, poor, vulnerable were seen as already corrupted and
00:06:24.980 therefore of less spiritual worth. The practice added yet another layer of stigma to their already
00:06:30.120 harsh lives. By the late 19th century, the practice had mostly declined. However, Richard
00:06:43.580 Munslow, the last recorded sin eater, briefly revived it. Born in 1833 in the village of
00:06:49.860 Rattling Hope near Shrewsbury, Munnslow was not a typical sin eater. He was a successful farmer,
00:06:55.840 but he suffered a tragic loss, four of his children, including three in a single week. 0.73
00:07:01.540 It's speculated that this tragedy drove him to practice the sin eating trade,
00:07:05.500 at first as a form of grieving to help his children on into the afterlife.
00:07:13.740 Sin eating had mostly died out by the early 20th century, yet its echoes persist in literature and
00:07:19.600 folklore. The concept found its way to Appalachia in the United States where it survived as legends
00:07:25.940 about nomads who roam the countryside looking to absorb dark and powerful sins. The practice
00:07:32.320 though gone leaves behind a legacy of human desperation, hope and the lengths we go to
00:07:38.820 secure peace for our loved ones. Richard Munslow, Shropshire's last sin eater, is buried in St
00:07:45.740 Margaret's churchyard, his name enshrined in the folklore of the region. In 2010, his grave was
00:07:51.980 restored by the local community, a tribute to his role in this haunting tradition.
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