The Twentieth Century Sin-Eater

The Twentieth Century Sin-Eater#

In the years that followed the second controversy, references to the sin-eater typically started to fade away, except as the occasional historical note or curiosity, such as this remark in the Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal, Saturday, 10th February 1900, p5 in an article on death customs:

Superstition at Haringey

… Perhaps the most curious of all the superstitions connected with death is that attached to the office of
SIN-EATER.

In each village an old gaffer who came at a death and, sitting on a stool outside the door, was furnished with bread and ale, which he consumed, and a groat, which he pocketed. The ceremony over, he rose, and assured the mourners of the eternal peace of the soul of the departed, since he had, in eating and drinkirig, taken all sin upon himself. His soul was in pawn for that of the deceased, who was accordingly released from all penalties of what he had done in life, including the neressity of walking. It is to be assumed that the sin-eater found at his death another sin-eater willing to take the accumulated burden upon him, and he another, and so on —a highly convenient mode of shifting one’s responsiblity on no one in particular. Many as are the superstitions associated with death, they are few compared with those that cluster round
MARRIAGE.

But as the new century began, it seems as if the flames of debate that could be triggered by mentions of the old sin-eater tradition would not erupt as they once had, even though though references might still be challenged by return of post.

That said, the “fakelore” around the story did continue to evolve, as the previous example shows with its mention that “[t]he people believe that every drop of wine drunk at a funeral is a sin committed by the deceased, but that by drinking the wine the soul of the dead is released from the burden of the sin”.

A few short years later, in 1904, we also see a report claiming that Professor Silvan Evans had actually seen a sin-eater whan he was a child:

The sin-eater story was also touched upon in a series of lectures given in the 1907 MacCullum Lectures presented by the Rev. Dr Henderson on Celtic funeral and death rites:

Dr. Henderson concluded his lecture by briefly referring to the ritual of sacrifice, and stated that in the next lecture he would give some instances of propitiation.

Several years later, the sin-eater then made a re-appearance in the pages of “Precious Bane”, a novel by Mary Webb that appeared in 1924.

Most notable for the purposes of our tale is one chapter in particular (Chapter 4: Torches and Rosemary), where a funeral scene recounting the activities of a sin-eater is described. The phrase used by the sin-eater in taking on the souls of deceased in this purely fictional account is given as: ‘I give easement and rest now to the, dear man. Come not down the lanes nor in our meadows. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul. Amen.’ Echoes of “the ease and rest of the soul departed for which he would pawn his own soul” and of being “freed from walking after they were dead” are both clear to see.

See “Precious Bane”, Mary Webb for the text of the relevant chapter.

An Old Mention Rediscovered#

TO DO - reference to witnessing sin eater FUNEC_funeral_customs_puckle.md MEMOH_memorials_herefordshire_reade_leather.md CURCH_curious_church_andrews.md FLWWA_folklore_west_midwales_davies.md

http://themutineer.org/the-sin-eaters/ TH: lots of colour in this, also:

Rather surprisingly, the practice of sin-eating seems to have persisted into relatively modern times, only dying out in the nineteenth century. In 1825, a Professor Evans of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, Wales, described a sin-eater he had met as follows: “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.”

Cites https://www.weirdhistorian.com/the-funeral-rite-few-could-stomach/

Funeral Customs, Bertam S. Puckle, 1926

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.238346/page/n11/mode/2up Funeral Customs by Puckle Bertram S. Publication date 1926 p68-71

A less known but even more remarkable functionary, whose professional services were once considered necessary to the dead, is the sin-eater. Savage tribes have been known to slaughter an animal on the grave, in the belief that it would take upon itself the sins of the dead. In the same manner, it was the province of the human scapegoat to take upon himself the moral trespasses of his client — and whatever the consequences might be ift die after life — in return for a miserable fee and a scanty meal. That such a creature should be unearthed from a remote period of pagan history would be surprising enough, but to find reliable evidence of his existence in the British Isles a hundred years ago is surely very much more remarkable.

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.

Howlett mentions sin-eating as an old custom in Hereford, and thus describes the practice : “ The corpse being taken out of the house, and laid on a bier, a loaf of bread was given to the sin-eater over the corpse , also a maga-bowl of maple, full of beef. These consumed, a fee of sixpence was given him for the consideration of his taking upon himself the sins of the deceased, who, thus freed, would not walk after death.” He suggests the connection between the sin-eater and the Jewish scapegoat of the old Testament. [England Howlett. F.S.A., "Burial Customs" (Curious Church Customs and Cognate Subjects). Edited by Wm. Andrews]

We shall consider in its proper order the relations between death and the funeral feast, but there is an aspect of the matter which is closely allied to the idea of the transfer of a personality for good or for evil, by means of the consumption of certain food, as in the case of sin-eaters, or by actually partaking of such parts of the human body as are associated with vitality. Traces of this revolting cult are still to be found, but its roots are deeply buried in antiquity. It is not exactly what we mean by cannibalism, in the sense in which we commonly use the word, to imply the eating of the human flesh as food. We shall remember having read in accounts of travel that these savage orgies were accompanied by demoniacal dances, which were supposed to be manifestations of joy or “ war dances “ in token of victory over a fallen enemy.

These dances are probably a survival of religious rites, performed the world over, in honour of a human sacrifice offered to the great god Bel. “ Cannibalism,” says Gamier, “ appears to have been initiated by Cronus (i.e., Saturn or Cush), Cronus being the originator of human sacrifices “ ; he quotes R. G. Hislop, who states that the word cannibal — our term for the eater of human flesh — is probably derived from Cahna Bal, i.e., the Priest of Bel. The eating of human flesh is still part of the religious rites of many of the Hamitic races of Africa. [Col. T. Gamier, "Worship of the Dead." ]

Mentions in the 1930s#

In the mid-1930s, we also find a mention of a sin-eater character in the Shields Daily News.

Turning to the children’s section of the paper, on page 4 of the edition of Tuesday, September 11th, 1934, we find the following rather saccharine tale:

Thus far, I haven’t been able to find any other reference to “Simon the Missionary”, and the tale does rather take the form of a parable that might be used as the basis for a children’s sermon. For example, Simon as a child seems unconcerned that the sins could actually be transferred to him, although the rest of society does start treat him as a pariah. On reaching adulthood, he stops the practice that so offended his peers, accepting, perhaps, that he had been transgressing in some way, and seeing fit to then redeem himself by the proxy of atone for the sins of others that he had taken on himself. Do we read this as Simon falling in with a bad lot, being led by others, believing “but *I’m” not doing anything wrong”, then perhaps realising his bad ways and deciding to help others less fortunate than himself — “there but for the grace of God go I?” — redeeming not what he perceived as his own indiscretions, necessarily, presumably believing himself to be essentially good at heart, but those who had led him astray?

In recent years, the sin-eater tradition has appeared in several literary works, including and “The Sin Eater” by Megan Campisi, 2022 [interview]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Sin_Eater_(film)

Alice Thomas Ellis, The Sin Eater, 1977.

Atwood, Margaret (1982). Weaver, Robert (ed.). Small Wonders : New stories by twelve distinguished Canadian authors. Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. pp. 11–23. ISBN 0887941044.

Margaret Atwood - sin eater short story in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard’s_Egg The Sin Eater Atwood, Margaret Bluebeard’s Egg is a collection of short stories by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, first published in 1983. The book’s first American edition was released in 1986 under the name Bluebeard’s Egg and other stories. The 1986 American edition didn’t include the tale, but it was reprinted that year in The Irish Times (1921-); Aug 15, 1986; also appeared in 1992 edition of Dancing Girls & Other Stories (first published without the Sin Eater tale, in 1977) ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Irish