Press Release:
hi
████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████when i was in south sweden this summer i drove to see this medieval castle, was more like a fortress,
the two lowest floors had stone walls 20meters thick which made it look like a building on top of a square mound. the following two floors had 5 meter thick stone walls, and the fifth floor, added later, thin brick walls.
Part of it was still inhabited by the clan with a Capricorn charge on their coat of arms, bloodline descendants since hundreds of years, but most of it had been turned into a museum.
in the dungeons they had put on a temporary exhibition about a decree passed in the 16th century granting feudal lords with enough land the right to set up a court of law and apply a version of the law of moses, known popularly as the Law of Hand and Neck, basically eye for an eye.
the exhibition included large scale black and white prints of dramatical reenactments as well as historical artefacts and excerpts from legal annals; among these was a price list of an executioner; the prices were steep, as whoever performed the tasks risked damnation if the convicted turned out to be innocent.1
In order to avoid high costs in tough times,
there was, however, a loophole; as long as you did not inflict injury on the body of the convicted, you were innocent in the eyes of god.
dante places Ugolino of Gherardesca in the ninth circle of hell for the crime of devouring his already dead children while walled in to a tower,3 alongside him the man who betrayed him and wrongly accused him of treason, causing his immurement, but the hands of those who convicted him, and of those who laid the bricks, are clean.
1 in the 17th century it became common practice to offer the job to men condemned to death, they would get a mark branded on their skin, but could live as long as they would serve as an executioner, since their souls were already doomed the task wouldn’t mess them up further.
2(the convicted could also be pardoned, or the punishment reduced to maiming)
3 'Father our pain', they said,
'Will lessen if you eat us
you are the one
Who clothed us with this wretched flesh: we plead For you to be the one who strips it away'.
'Will lessen if you eat us
you are the one
Who clothed us with this wretched flesh: we plead For you to be the one who strips it away'.
(Canto XXXIII, ln. 56–59)
... And I,
Already going blind, groped over my brood Calling to them, though I had watched them die, For two long days. And then the hunger had more Power than even sorrow over me
Already going blind, groped over my brood Calling to them, though I had watched them die, For two long days. And then the hunger had more Power than even sorrow over me
(Canto XXXIII, ln. 70-73)