ASK AINE
Dear Aine,
I need your help! We have a mixed marriage: I am a 12th Century Celt from Ireland and my husband is a 17th Century Samurai. We worked out our religious differences, where to live, who is in charge, who earns the living, who takes out the trash and so on. The problem is our head collection. I have a venerable old family collection, carefully preserved. And he keeps defeating enemies and contemplating his decapitated foes in the front yard. There is just no room left in the house or on the pikes out in front. And oh, the dusting! What shall I do?
Dear Catherine,
I have checked with many sources on the disposition of war trophies in Celt and Japanese societies.
Barry Cuncliffe in The Celtic World published by Crown and Peter Wilcox in Rome's Enemies: Gallic and British Celts published by Osprey write of the cult of the human head. Celts believed that a person's life force lay in his head. The taking of a head was a way of participating in the strength and spirit of an enemy. A Celt would decorate lintels, doorbeams, and niches with heads (skulls). A special collection of heads of distinguished enemies were embalmed in cedar oil, kept in a chest and displayed proudly to strangers.
The Japanese, on the other hand, (according to Stephen Turnbull in Samurai Warriors and Samurai Warlords published by Blanford) practice instant gratification. The taking of heads was to prove a task was done. Heads of fallen foes were prepared by the women (washed, drained of blood, mounted on a spiked wooden board, made lifelike with cosmetics, and marked with a tag containing the enemy's name and lineage) and presented in a "Head Viewing Ceremony." These served as an object lesson to one's enemies and a chance to praise one's allies. But after the ceremony the heads were returned to the deceased's family.
This problem is just a lack of communication between you and your husband. As head of household management you have control of finances and servants. Your husband is expecting you to handle the posting of his war trophies back to the appropriate families. I say, keep your family heads in their boxes, keep enough skulls around the doors for the correct fashion statement, and mail his heads back. Be assured that in later years the nationality of the skulls will not matter in his recounting of his war prowess.
Aine du Bayonne sur l'Adour is a 12th Century Celt who merchants her family's wares in the Court of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Jane Anne Carey is of Irish descent and merchants Science Fiction, Comics and Games to the residents of Gainesville.
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