Re: Frankish pigs

[Robert J Welenc <rjwelenc@erols.com>]

Poster: Robert J Welenc <rjwelenc@erols.com>

>Poster: Kerry Romano <linneah@erols.com>
>
>Hello to all good gentles on the Merry Rose.  I am in a quandry and in 
>need of your kind assistance.  I am to do a paper on the Salic Law 
>concerning the theft of pigs.  Though i have a lot of material on the 
>history, I need to know more about why pigs were so important to the 
>early Franks that they needed such an extensive law about them.  Any 
>assistance in finding sourse material or even your own knowledge of the 
>subject would be appreciated.
>
>Linneah Gordon

I can't help with source materials, as much of the following information
comes from my reading of historical fiction.  It is my understanding that
pigs were extremely important throughout our period because they were a
major source of meat for the lower classes.  Pigs did not need to have food
especially grown for them, but subsisted quite happily on garbage  and (in
some areas/cultures) acorns that they could forage for themselves.  Pigs
grow somewhat  faster than other farm animals, enough that a pig born in the
spring and slaughtered in the fall provided a substantial amount of meat,
lard, bacon, etc.  Even the waste bits like the head, feet, entrails and
bones could be processed into something edible or useful.  The saying was
that one could use "everything but the squeal".  They were thus important
enough that a family (or even worse, a village) suffered substantial
hardship if their pigs died or were stolen.

It would seem logical, then, that laws would be necessary for the protection
and regulation of such useful animals.

I hope this helps.

Alanna Volchevo Lesa

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