WEBVTT - The Cauldron, Part 4 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:05.280 My Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:14.800 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.480 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:22.520 it's Cauldron's Part four. This is really the last Cauldron's episode, right, yes, 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.760 for now, um, but no, no, this is the last one. 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.760 Even my son when he asked what I was doing today, 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:30.880 I said, we're going to record a fourth Cauldron's episode. 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:32.560 He's like, really, I was still you are still doing 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.599 those Cauldron episodes? Like, yeah, yeah, this is some more 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.879 exciting stuff. And you know, there's so much we're not 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.080 even gonna be able to cover in these episodes, but 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:42.680 this is an exciting one because we're gonna roll through 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.080 a few more myths. We have some more content about 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.839 just how Cauldron's factor into our our history and our beliefs. 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.800 Uh and you know we'll get into uh the Inferno 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.440 a bit as well. Rob, I am ready to be boiled. 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:01.680 All right, Well, let's the basically we've we've alluded to this. 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.720 We've all along we've mentioned that you have some strong 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.160 Celtic traditions that involve the Cauldron and they end up 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:13.440 having an influence over European traditions of the cauldron in general. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:16.240 Uh So let's roll through just a few of these 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.560 different myths. I'm not going to go into super detail 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.240 on these, though a number of these are the subject 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.560 of of epics and longer tales and of course treatments 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.959 and retreatments over the years. So let's start with the 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:34.280 Dogda's cauldron. So Dogdo or the Dogdo was the most 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.200 powerful of all the too often to dine and you 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:41.080 know these are the magical folk, um, you know, the 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:45.880 ancestors of Ireland and so forth. Uh, Dogto was a 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:50.240 master of the battle club, the magic harp, and the cauldron. 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.960 He was sometimes called the good God because he was 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:58.200 simply good at everything. Today you'd call him a Mary Sue. 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:04.760 As Patricia Monagan explains in the Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.280 and Folklore, he was kind of a god of not 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:11.320 only fertility, but also kind of exaggerated male desire. So 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.840 he's round, you know, kind of a rotund individual. His 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.400 tunic is a bit too short to cover his genitals 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:21.360 in some depictions. Anyway, he wields a mallet that's so 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.160 huge that he has to drag it behind him in 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.079 a cart So he's he's kind of this exaggerated cartoon 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.359 character in many respects. I like them already. He also 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.200 has a pair of self replenishing pigs that you can 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:39.600 just keep eating. Um, I'm I'm not sure how the 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:41.639 details of that work. I'm assuming it's like you cook 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:43.600 them up or you're I don't know if you're slicing 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:45.720 pieces off of them. I'm not sure. But anyway, I 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.560 don't know that the pigs really mind. They're magical after all, 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.520 but even more magical than the pigs. He also has 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:55.400 a magic cauldron that can never be emptied. It it 0:02:55.760 --> 0:03:00.320 overfloweth with goodness. Uh. So he has many romantic adventure years. 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.440 He has many children. He's eventually slain in battle by 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.519 the seth Leon, wife of the Great fa Marii and 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.760 King Baler, and then he goes on to party forever 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:15.760 in the other world, sustained by his his bottomless cauldron 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.880 that he gets to bring with him into the afterlife. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:23.040 Oh that's lucky. Yeah. Now. Bonnigan, who also wrote The 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:28.680 Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, wrote that that the Irish 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.560 cauldron is of course not only a mundane item for 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.280 cooking and stewing, but also quote a place where new 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.480 life was brewed and stewed. Uh. It was a symbol 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.920 of great power for the Celts. The Roman writers. Strabo 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.960 describes a great cauldron sent to Caesar by Simbri and 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:51.000 claims that the Celts ritually sliced open the throats of 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.320 prisoners over such a cauldron. And these traditions, to whatever 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.840 extent they are accurately reported here, may connect to the 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:02.040 Gunstrip cauldron that we talked about in the last episode 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.920 that was unearthed in Denmark but burying Celtic symbols, etcetera. Um. 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.600 Other cauldron's Monican rights have been found in bogs and 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.040 lakes and are suspected to have been offerings to the 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.080 other world. Yeah, that'll actually connect to an archaeology paper 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.880 I want to talk about in a minute. In general, though, 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.599 she she contends that the Irish cauldron means fullness and abundance, 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:26.400 and Doctor's cauldron is just a great example of this, 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.720 a never ending supply of good eats. Um. The Welsh 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.960 goddess sur Win also uses a cauldron to make a 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.960 broth that abuse one with great wisdom. Uh So it's 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.640 interesting how you know, we're getting into talking about just 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.919 sustaining the self, sustaining the body via the contents of 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.080 the cauldron, but then we kind of take that into 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:51.240 another dimension as well, sustaining the mind. Uh and uh. 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:56.600 This will have ramifications on on other storytelling and mythic traditions. 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:58.719 All right, we'll come back to some of these ideas, 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.360 but let's let's move on of the next myth here. 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.320 This is another one from Celtic traditions, but it takes 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.280 the idea of the cauldron as lifebringer and kind of 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.440 puts a different spin on it. This is the story 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.640 of the pair do deny the cauldron of Rebirth? Now 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.440 there there are already some some accounts that indicate that 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.560 the Dogda's cauldron, in addition to overflowing with great and 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:24.599 miraculously healing foods, in some cases, could also raise the 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:28.279 dead if they were lowered into the cauldron. And yeah, 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.240 that leads us into what is perhaps the most noteworthy 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.360 necromantic cauldron. Um. This is the cauldron of Rebirth from 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.880 Welsh mythology and literature. Along with the Cauldron of Dogda. 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:43.240 It's a key mythic cauldron. To understand the artifacts place 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.760 in European traditions. It's also the primary inspiration for the 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.039 black cauldron that shows up in the novels of Lloyd Alexander. 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:55.440 It factors into a few different tales, including um Brandwyn, 0:05:55.640 --> 0:06:00.000 daughter of Lear, a legendary tale from medieval Welsh literature, 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.360 and the second of four branches of the mob in 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.880 Ogeon collection of Tales. So this is a this is 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.359 a pretty interesting one, and again I'm just giving you 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.600 the broad strokes here. Again, this one has received much 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.640 more expansive treatment and works of literature, but it concerns 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.080 the mythic conflict between the Welsh and the Irish, and 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:24.560 involves the exploits of Ifnissian, the half brother of Bron 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.520 the Blessed, who has been described as an easily offended 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:33.760 troublemaker or even as a psychotic anti hero. Okay, so 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.400 this is a guy who does things like mutil aid 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:42.719 horses inside wars, burn people alive. So he's not presented 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:44.560 as a good guy. He's not. It doesn't even seem 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.800 like it's one of these cases where you can say, well, 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.280 today we wouldn't like him, but we have to put him. 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:52.279 Look at him within the context of the time. Now 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.000 it seems like everyone seems to think that he's supposed 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:59.640 to be a crazy dangerous fellow. He's not Snake plis Skin. 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:04.159 He's Darth Vader. Yeah yeah, But like Darth Vader, he 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:08.160 has a redemption arc of sorts, ends up engaging in 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.600 a little bit of self sacrifice to bring balance to things. 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:14.559 So it comes to light that the Irish are using 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:19.000 the magical Cauldron of Rebirth to resurrect their dead warriors 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.320 so that they can keep on fighting. And so you 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.720 know that the Welsh forces are concerned about this. This 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.920 is an unfair advantage, right if you're bringing your own 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.120 dead back to life onto the battlefield. So what does 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:34.320 Ethnician do. Well, he hides himself among the enemy Irish dead, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.480 and then the Irish hall all those dead bodies back. 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.760 They take them to the Cauldron of Rebirth and one 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.360 by one they throw them in the cauldron, and then 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:47.520 one by one each warrior emerges once more to fight. 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.480 Eventually they come to Ethnician, who again is pretending to 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.120 be a dead irishman. They throw him into the cauldron alive, 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.480 and this seems to sort of short circuit everything. You know, 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.520 the the cauldron is not designed or made, It does 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:08.000 not exist to resurrect the living. It totally just screws 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.480 up everything. And and somehow if Nisinin is then able 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.040 to destroy the cauldron from within, but in doing so, 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.960 not only does he shatter the cauldron, but he dies 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.720 in the process. And there's some wonderful illustrations of this. 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.040 I want more detail here. Did like, did he know 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.800 that was going to happen to him? Or what did 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.600 he expect was gonna like? Did it not? Just did 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.240 it not cross his mind that like, oh, yeah, I 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.440 can't be resurrected because I'm not dead yet. I think 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:38.600 he knew, I mean, otherwise it's not that I mean, 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:42.200 the self sacrifice is diminished if he doesn't know that 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.640 that this is probably going to destroy him. Uh So, 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.040 I think the general vibe is the he knows that 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.760 this will be the end, but it's the only way 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.800 to stop the cauldron of rebirth. Okay, he's not just 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:58.480 being like, dude, I'd love to be resurrected from the dead. No, no, no, alright, 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:00.960 I'm gonna run through a few other cauldrons. Of note, 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.560 there's the Cauldron of drin which the giant In medieval 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.360 Welsh tradition, there are thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain, 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.240 in tailing various horns and chariots, knives, rings, and more. 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.560 But there's also a cauldron owned by the giant Drin 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.480 which which can tell brave men from cowards because it 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.960 will not boil meat for a coward, but we'll quickly 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.800 boil meat for a brave man. Now I'm not sure 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:28.400 if there was a vegetarian option, but basically it's it's 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.920 said to just be massive enough to cook an entire 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.440 wedding feast within Uh. It eventually falls into the possession 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.720 of King Arthur and some tellings. But yeah, I guess 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.319 it's like if if you're not sure if somebody is 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.679 is brave or cowardly, you just have them bring forth 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.360 their chicken Cutlets throw them into the cauldron here and 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:49.960 see what happens. Here's another one where I wonder about 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.280 the mechanics of exactly what that means. So you put 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:54.319 the meat in. Does it mean if you're a coward 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.080 the water won't come to a boil, or does it 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.599 mean even if it boils, the meat won't get under 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.280 I don't know. I'm I'm just imagining it like, Okay, 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:06.600 you put the meat in and maybe the water looks 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.240 like it's boiling, but the meat is not cooking. You 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.760 just got some some raw chicken cutlets in there, just 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.960 bobbing around. Well, it reminds me of those stories of 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:20.280 um people up on mountaintops trying to cook food, like 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:24.040 boiling potatoes in a pot on Mount Everest, where your 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.720 potatoes don't get cooked because when you go higher and 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.360 higher into the into the atmosphere, the boiling point of 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.079 water goes down. So you can be there boiling a 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.040 pot on the stove and it is actually boiling, like 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.480 it's bubbling and turning into steam, but the boiling point 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:41.760 is so low that the water is actually not hot 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.600 enough to cook your food. So you can boil potatoes 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:46.440 at the top of a mountain for a long time, 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.520 take them out, and they're basically still raw. Yeah. I 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:51.760 don't have an answer for that, but it does make 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.800 me wonder to what extent like to experiences with different 0:10:56.120 --> 0:11:00.560 altitudes and uh and and attempts to boil stuff in 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.600 the cauldron, how that might affect this because they would 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.600 clearly notice you would know that well here it seems 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.920 to take longer to to cook our food. Uh why 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.240 might that be? I haven't done the math. I don't 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.560 know if there are peaks in Britain high enough for 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.960 that to happen. I'm not sure. Maybe so perhaps word 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.839 of of this had traveled, who knows. Let's see, here's 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.480 another cauldron. This one comes from Norse mythology. Heimer is 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.520 a giant and the father of two ace or gods, 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.240 according to Carol Rose, who was said to live on 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.800 the eastern edge of the universe and had a brewing 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.240 pot or a cauldron so large that the heavens could 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.319 fit inside it. So we we mentally alluded to this 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:42.600 something like this earlier, and one of the other episodes 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:44.960 about the cauldron becomes kind of like a model, a 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.600 technological model for the cosmos itself. And here we have 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:53.200 a cauldron so vast that the universe itself fits inside it. 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:55.600 Whereas the cauldron while you're thinking too hard about this 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.360 myth or maybe you're not, I mean, maybe that's ultimately 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.880 kind of the goal of one of these stories is 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.240 to sort of give you a real head spinner about 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:06.839 about the nature of the universe. So that's the cauldron itself, 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.760 but there's there are some stories attached to it. So 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:12.200 at one point the gods decide they're gonna have a 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:16.040 great feast, but they need some sort of vessel to 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.800 put all the meat that they're going to drink. And 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:20.520 they're the gods, they can drink a lot of meat. 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:25.040 So they send Thor to borrow uh Heimer's brewing cauldron. 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:29.480 So Thor shows up and Heimer says, no, you can't 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.319 borrow this. But they start discussing and they agree, well, 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.320 well let's settle this. We'll have a fishing contest. And 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:40.080 there are apparently many different versions of what follows next um. 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.240 In one version of Heimer uses two bowls too as 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.880 bait and then catches two whales, but then Thor, not 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.640 to be outdone, catches the mid guard storm itself the 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:55.920 world serpent um. In some versions, the results are inconclusive 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.560 or they're disputed, so they move on to a drinking 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.080 contest after of the fishing contest, and in some tales, 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:06.079 Door wins and takes the vessel with him, or finally 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.200 just steals it, and Heimer chases after him with an 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:11.480 army of giants, and Thor has to smite all of 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.840 them with his hammer. Um. But at any rate, thor 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.000 it usually ends up with the cauldron. And the cauldron's 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:25.959 power again is that it's just super big. Thank you, 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.760 thank so. Maybe this is a good place in the 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.720 discussion to talk about interesting paper. I was reading an 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:37.839 archaeology paper. So this was published by uh the Proceedings 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:42.040 of the Prehistoric Society, Cambridge University Press in and it's 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.920 called fire Burn and Cauldron, Bubble, Iron Age and Early 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:50.160 Roman Cauldrons of Britain and Ireland by Jody Joy. The 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.120 author of this paper, Jodie Joy, is a senior curator 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.359 at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.120 of Cambridge. And the paper begins with the quote I 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.240 really like it's as uh. It's an old Kazakh saying 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.160 that a man can live to fifty, but a cauldron 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:09.120 will live to a hundred. I think you compare yourself 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:13.240 to a cauldron now. But anyway, so Joy begins with 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:17.160 some sections examining the archaeological record of cauldrons in Britain 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:21.360 and Ireland from the Iron Age and the Early Roman period, 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:23.400 and the early parts of this paper going to a 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.880 sort of catalog of all these different cauldron artifacts and 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:31.760 a discussion of their manufacture and physical characteristics. One of 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.640 the main things about the section is that cauldrons of 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.680 the time took a lot of skill to produce. But 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.800 the part of this paper that really got my attention 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.720 was his section on the use and significance of cauldrons 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.080 from this period. Now, it's obvious from the prominent role 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.840 of cauldron's in myths and legends like the ones we've 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.280 just been talking about, uh and as magical items in 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.360 early medieval literature from Ireland and Wales, that these objects 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:06.479 were charged with mythical significance, particularly associated with resurrection and sacrifice. 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.320 But if you think about it, why would just a 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:15.880 big metal pot have any particular symbolic or mythic significance? Now, 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.360 rob we we've already talked about some ideas we've had 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.080 on that that maybe uh it has something to do 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:25.400 with the way that cauldron's transform foods when you cook them, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:27.440 though of course that's straw of smaller pots as well. 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.880 You know, cooking transforms, and thus uh it may be 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.400 is symbolic of transformation in some way, But there are 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.680 other ways that they could acquire magical significance, as well, 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.400 and Joy argues that some of the significance might be 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.200 related to how these objects were actually used in their 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.080 role in the culture of iron Age Britain in Ireland. 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.640 So how were they used? Uh, This is a good 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.720 question because there are several lines of evidence pointing to 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.680 the conclusion that these huge pots were primarily used to 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.480 cook food, particular pularly soups and stews containing meat. Now 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.640 we we've already sort of been assuming the soup and 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.880 stew connection, but technically, you know, just a big metal 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:10.760 pot could have been used for all kinds of things. 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.280 So it is good to examine what the actual evidence is. 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.440 And we know of examples where large metal vessels were 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.880 used for other things that might have been just decorative, 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:21.880 or they might have been used to make burnt offerings 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.040 to the gods or something like that. But no. In 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.480 the case of these cauldrons from from iron Age and 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:31.480 and early Roman Britain and Ireland, first of all, it 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.680 seems they were clearly designed to hold liquid, and we 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.280 can tell because almost all of the cauldrons from this 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:43.320 period in this place show signs of having been through repairs, 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.160 which in itself is interesting because it indicates a long 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.360 social life for each individual cauldron. You know, they're being 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.520 used long enough that people have to like go in 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.760 and fix them up after they get damaged. Yeah, it 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.640 kind of takes us back to that quote. Right, you 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:00.720 may live to be fifty, but you're auldron will live 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.960 to be a hundred. Right. Nowadays humans may live to 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.280 be a hundred, but like these cauldrons, you'll probably have 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.760 to have some holes patched here. And that's true. Uh 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.359 and and so why do we think that these cauldrons 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.920 were designed to hold liquid? It's because when you look 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:18.640 at the repairs that were done to them, we see 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.479 that they're essentially repairs that would function to keep the 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:25.159 cauldron's water tight. And if these were just decorative or 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.479 if they were used for say like making a burnt 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.399 offering to the gods or something, they wouldn't need to 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.640 patch tiny holes and keep the vessel water tight. It's 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:37.920 obvious that they wanted to prevent leaks. Second line of evidence, 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:42.560 they were clearly designed to be suspended over fires. So uh, 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.640 this can be seen from the presence of uh, sort 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:51.520 of supplemental materials like chains, handles, and frames that would 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:55.440 all serve to hang or suspend the cauldron over a hearth. Uh. 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.720 And also many cauldrons have layers of soot caked onto 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.720 the outside surface, knowing that a fire was applied to 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:06.920 them from the outside. Third, you've got organic residues. Few 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.560 artifacts from this period, for example, a group known as 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:14.159 the Chiselden cauldrons have been sampled for organic residues on 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:18.080 the inner surfaces, and chemical analyses indicate the presence of 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:24.320 animal fats, which points to soup source stews containing meat. However, 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:28.240 some cauldrons from Northwest Europe also showed traces of honey, 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.639 probably indicating their use in serving honey based meads, which 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.240 would be an alcoholic beverage. Yeah, which brings us back 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:40.359 to the myth of the giants brewing cauldron. Yeah. Yeah, 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:45.080 So these cauldrons were almost definitely used mostly for cooking food, 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.480 usually meat based soups and stews, but sometimes alcoholic beverages 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:53.040 as well. But can we infer anything else about how 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.520 they were used? Well, Joy argues yes we can, and 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.880 points as specifically to the fact that these were big. Boy, 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:05.000 these cauldrons are huge. Quote. The cauldron from Hochdorff could 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.680 hold five hundred leaders. The cauldrons examined here had more 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:13.000 modest capacities, ranging from thirty to eighty leaders. Even taking 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.919 into account the fact that they are unlikely to have 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.120 been filled to the brim and probably only ever two 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.760 thirds full, even the smallest cauldrons still probably contained twenty leaders. 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.040 This is a substantial quantity of food and drink. And 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.800 I agree. I don't think I could eat twenty leaders 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.480 of soup in a single sitting, but that alone. You 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:38.760 can easily imagine this becoming extrapolated into myths of cauldrons 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.159 that are just so full of goodness that you cannot 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.159 empty it. You cannot possibly eat all of this food. 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:48.720 Now combine the bigness of these boys with the another factor, 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.880 which is that cauldrons are relatively scarce in the archaeological 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:56.359 record compared to other types of household items, even those 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.560 made of similar materials. And from these facts, Joy infers 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:05.080 that cauldrons were not used for everyday cooking, but instead 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:09.600 they were used for the community based practice of feasting. 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.080 And I believe the argument is that this is sort 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.040 of what gives cauldrons their special power, what makes them 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.960 uh fit for use as a recurring magical item in myths. 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:25.200 And legends and literature. Uh Joy rights as follows. At 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.840 their heart, feasts involved the creation and maintenance of social 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:32.919 relationships and can be used to redistribute wealth, mobilized labor, 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:39.040 create alliances between or exclude different groups, celebrate marriages, commemorate deaths, 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:44.520 and compensate for transgressions. As objects used during feasts, cauldrons 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.840 helped facilitate these activities and that is where much of 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:52.640 their significance and value derives. So Joy is arguing that 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.960 feasting was this incredibly important tradition in the cultures of 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.119 Iron Age Europe, and it had this complex suite of 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.200 social utilities. And the paper invokes the work of a 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:07.520 different scholar named Michael Dietler, who has created three different 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:11.560 categories of sort of the social roles of feasting, which 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:17.440 are empowering, the patron role, and the diacritical. So empowering 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:22.320 feasts quote allow people or groups to acquire prestige without 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:27.960 necessarily requiring the existence of fixed social hierarchies. By hosting 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:32.119 a feast, debts or obligations are passed on to guests, 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:36.919 thus making feasts arenas for negotiations of social influence. But 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.960 empowering feasts can also be viewed as celebrations of community identity. 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:42.879 So there's a lot that's going on here in this 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.719 first category. Like you you could host a feast and 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:49.520 serve people out of a cauldron, and this is this 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.439 is a powerful community activity. In one sense, it maybe 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.840 makes everybody who's at the feast feel more united. It's, 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.320 you know, um, it cements this idea of community identity, 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.080 but it also sort of puts guests in your debt. 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.040 It is, you know, empowering to the host in terms 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:10.680 of enhancing their perceived social prestige, maybe even making them 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:14.879 feel temporarily like some kind of king or something. And 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:16.720 then there are a couple of other types of feasts. 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.840 One of the patron role feasts where they're um is 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:23.720 sort of an it's sort of like without the strings attached. 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:27.440 It's an expectation that the social elite must host, but 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:32.160 not necessarily the the obligation for reciprocation by the guests. 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:36.119 And then finally there's what is called a diacritical feast, 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:39.840 and this is where subgroups of a culture consume different 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:42.920 types of food or drink to emphasize their difference from 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:46.399 other people. Interesting, I mean, I don't know if this 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.600 is a useful exercise. But I can't help but try 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:53.480 and take these categories and apply them to modern communal 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:56.920 feasting situations, like I do feel like the patron role 0:22:57.000 --> 0:22:59.960 feast does sound a lot like the office Christmas party 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:03.439 you know, where uh, you know, it's kind of expected 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.600 that the that the boss powers will provide you with 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.080 some sort of a food or you know, some sort 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:13.400 of wine from plastic cups at least, but there's no 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:15.720 it doesn't mean that we need to host the next 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:20.080 feast for our processes. It doesn't put you any more 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:23.600 in the boss's debt or service than you were already. Right, 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:26.000 But then if they don't know the first category, the 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:29.000 empowering feast, if your CEO was too suddenly out of 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:31.040 the blue say hey, why don't you and your family 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:32.720