Laudator Temporis Acti

Carolyne Larrington, "Diet, Defecation and the Devil: Disgust and the Pagan Past," in Nicola McDonald, ed., Medieval Obscenities (2006; rpt. Suffolk: York Medieval Press, 2014), pp. 138-155 (at 146):

Excretion is not much referred to in Scandinavian texts; however, when the inhabitants of one farmhouse in northern Iceland in Laxdœla saga are prevented by an enemy from leaving the main building to use the external privy for three days, the outcome is regarded as both disgusting and shameful:

Kjartan lét þar taka dyrr allar á húsum ok bannaði öllum mönnum útgöngu ok dreitti þau inni þrjár nætr. . . . þeim Laugamönnum líkar illa ok þótti þetta miklu meiri svívirðing ok verri en þótt Kjartan hefði drepit mann eða tvá fyrir þeim.

Kjartan secured all the doors on the buildings and prevented everyone from going outside and they had to defecate inside for three nights. . . . The people at Laugar were very displeased and thought it was a much greater disgrace and worse than if Kjartan had killed one or two of them.³²

32 Laxdœla saga, ed. E.Ó. Sveinsson, Íslenzk Fornrit 5 (Reykjavík, 1934), p. 145.

Labels: noctes scatologicae