http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:03:16 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/1273/sin-eaters http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/1273 It is a fascinating idea and perhaps you will not be surprised to learn that this ancient tradition survived in the east of Wales and just over the border in Shropshire and Herefordshire longer than anywhere else. Indeed, it was still practiced into the early 20th century.
It is a bizarre adoption process I suppose. After a death someone would be paid to eat and drink over the body. As a result of the ritual the sin eater would take on the sins of the dead person and their soul would then be able to rest, free of sin. The church wasnt that keen on the idea but often the local vicar would turn a blind eye in order to keep his parishioners happy.
Often the ritual was performed by a beggar, although some villages had a resident sin-eater. They would turn up at the bedside, where a relative would place a crust of bread on the chest of the dying and pass a bowl of beer to him. I imagine that if you thought you were just a bit under the weather and the sin eater was lurking in the background, waiting for a snack, you would start to worry. Anyway, after praying or reciting the ritual, he would then drink and eat the bread, thus adopting the sins of the dying.
As I said, it was mentioned on the BBC in connection with the grave of Richard Munslow who died in Ratlinghope in 1906. The grave stone has recently been restored since he was a well known farmer in the area who had a second career as a sin eater, munching on scraps of bread whilst others squabbled about the inheritance. I would have thought that for those with rather more interesting lives, a three course meal would have been more appropriate than a dry crust in order to absolve them of sin, but perhaps I am being unkind. However, I have to say it is odd to think that this sort of thing was going on in the lifetime of my grandparents.
I end this piece with this passage by B.S. Puckle in a book called Funeral Customs (1926) which goes to show how odd people can be.
"Professor Evans of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, actually saw a sin-eater about the year 1825, who was then living near Llanwenog, Cardiganshire. Abhorred by the superstitious villagers as a thing unclean, the sin-eater cut himself off from all social intercourse with his fellow creatures by reason of the life he had chosen; he lived as a rule in a remote place by himself, and those who chanced to meet him avoided him as they would a leper. This unfortunate was held to be the associate of evil spirits, and given to witchcraft, incantations and unholy practices; only when a death took place did they seek him out, and when his purpose was accomplished they burned the wooden bowl and platter from which he had eaten the food handed across, or placed on the corpse for his consumption"A bit mean when all is said and done. You provide a valuable service and this is how you are treated. No wonder that as a career option it never really caught on.





]]> Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:37:50 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/1155/phreno-mesmerism-in-denbigh http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/1155 Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:19:01 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/1040/harold-lowe-the-welsh-hero-of-the-titanic http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/1040 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:52:07 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/992/hywel-sele-and-the-demon-oak http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/992 Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:05:59 +0000 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/955/e-t-willows-of-cardiff http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/955 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:59:18 +0000 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/933/the-coachmans-cautionary http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/933 Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:33:46 +0000 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/919/the-story-of-gelert http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/919 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:02:43 +0000 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/832/halloween http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/832
Halloween. It is one of the oldest festivals of all, and represents a curious mixture of many different traditions. The Celts called it Samhain, a festival that provided a boost for people as they entered the long dark winter months, when the countryside seemed dead and the days seemed so short.
Over time it became mixed in with All Saints Day, a day set aside for those poor saints who didnt have a day of their own.
Originally it represented the end of the harvest season and the beginning of a new year. The Welsh term for the festival is Nos Calan Gaeaf - a reference to the beginning of winter. As we all know today it is regarded as a time when the boundaries between the living and the dead become blurred.
A door to another reality opened up briefly and all sorts of horrors spilled out. So bonfires were lit to frighten away the spirits. This was the time in the Welsh tradition when Hwch Ddu Cwta appeared the Black Sow.
They would light bonfires and roast apples (and in later years potatoes) and leap through the flames to bring good luck. Then they would throw stones in the fire and run home to escape Hwch Ddu who would be on the prowl. On the first of November they would return to look for their stone. If they could find it then you were guaranteed good luck for the New Year. If you couldnt then you were facing bad luck, or even death.
Apples played an important part in Samahin because it came at the end of the apple harvest and there were plenty around. Apple bobbing was common. The most successful technique, assuming they had no stalks, was to plunge into the barrel and trap the apple against the bottom. Boys have always been so competitive.
In another apple game, one was tied to a stick suspended from the ceiling with a candle tied to the other. It was spun around and you had to catch the apple with your teeth. How they laughed when someone got a face full of wax.
There was also the Puzzle Jug. It had many spouts and you had to guess which one was correct. Get it wrong and you would be soaked by beer or cider. I bet they could hardly wait for the invention of television.
A lot of the traditions seem to centre upon finding a partner.In Montgomeryshire villages they would make a large vegetable mash in which a ring would be hidden. The local girls would dig into it with wooden spoons. The one who found it would be the first to be married. In Carmarthenshire nine girls would gather together to make a pancake of nine ingredients. They would divide it up into nine pieces and eat it. As a result they would, before morning, have a vision of their future husband. Which may or may not have been a good idea.
In Scotland, as you can see similar traditions outlined in Robert Burns poem Halloween. A girl could eat an apple in front of a mirror and she would see her future husband looking over her shoulder, presumably telling her that the porridge needed stirring.
Alternatively she could hang a wet shirt sleeve in front of the fire to dry and watch it closely. At midnight the spirit of her future partner would appear and turn it round a fascinating idea completely destroyed by the invention of the tumble drier.
Everywhere Halloween has been a time for the universal walking abroad of spirits, a time when the boundaries between our world and the spirit world are momentarily lowered. A time of inversion, when everything was turned upside down. In parts of Wales it became a bit of a cross-dressing festival. Boys and girls would swap clothes and go from home to home, chanting verses and spells and asking for gifts of fruit or nuts which were used to predict the future.
Other boys might dress up in sheepskins and rags and blacken their faces. They were the gwrachod (hags or witches) and they would look for gifts of apples or nuts or beer. Their job was to drive away evil spirits from the home. Clearly an early variation on the theme of trick or treat.
Of course, these days the role of the Trick or Treaters themselves has changed. They are the evil spirits who should be driven away.
]]> Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:12:39 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/810/catapult-aircraft-merchantman http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/810 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:39:47 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/720/hedd-wyn http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/720 Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:05:56 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/652/the-channel-tunnel http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/652 Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:06:15 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/645/ss-polaria http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/645 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:49:02 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/621/taking-the-water http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/621 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:49:11 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/544/getting-elected-in-west-virginia http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/544 Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:42:09 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/520/living-stories http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/520 Tue, 26 May 2009 22:19:51 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/503/cnapan http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/503 Sun, 17 May 2009 18:00:25 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/482/the-lost-village http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/482 Sat, 09 May 2009 18:34:16 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/471/signing-books-in-cardiff http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/471 Sun, 03 May 2009 20:31:17 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/463/bundling http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/463 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:37:48 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/456/bedside-manners http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/456 Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:44:30 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/455/on-a-visit-to-beaumaris http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/geoff-brookes/blog/455 Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:52:17 +0100