Re: Glorantha Digest V1 #164

From: Truls Parsson <Truls.Parsson_at_eua.ericsson.se>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 95 09:22:30 +0100


Sandy Wrote:

Sandy we seem to disagree on what constitutes lots of japanese.

> Now see here. Since when did the ancient Swedes eat only
>indigenous plants? Not since the neolithic. Didn't they have
>cabbages? Carrots? Turnips? They had some kind of grain, if only rye,
>barley, and/or flax.

We had grain growing naturally in Sweden, rye I know for sure. Vegetables yes some kinds. But still they were indigenous. Swedes didn't import new crop back then maybe a few exceptions but I can't think of any right now.

>And how about fruit -- probably had apples? And lingonberries I know for sure?
>Raspberries? If you're smart enough to bury your apples or dry your berries,
>you get it year-round.

Yes we had lingon, and apples maybe we had raspberries then, I'm not sure. So yes you could get fruits.

>And let's not forget booze (beer is food!). We KNOW they had that, and no
>one has ever claimed CA to be teetotalers. Plus they could (and did)
>import wine.

Well not so much beer as mead. But beer,mead and wine is hardly necessary for survival and doesn't replace meat. Even though they imported wine the vikings did not import food stuff (too expensive and no real need). And vikings were great traders. At other times there was much less trade.

> And remember you get to drink milk and eat cheese, too.
>There's plenty of that around. The typical medieval Swede probably
>had a more varied diet than the renaissance-era Italian farmer.

Yes this is probably true. But a vegetarian is losing a very important part of his diet and he must find something to replace meat. That is the important point not wether the rest of his diet was varied or not.

> Hell, I grew up in Utah, which is about as barren a state as
>you can find with humans living in it. But, having taken a survival
>course there, I can report that even without storing your food, you
>can get enough variety in the various native plants to live for quite
>a while.

It is one thing to survive for quite awhile and live for your whole life. What you don't get from eating you must get from somewhere else. This somewhere else is your body. This works fine for a while but doesn't work in the long run. So while it is no problem to travel through Sweden it is totally different thing to live there.  

> I repeats. If you can get fruit, a grain, a vegetable, and
>cheese, you have all the vitamins, minerals, etc., you need.

This is far to generalised. While you can find a combination of the above which is enough to live on, you could also find one that isn't. The important thing is to get the right combination not necessarily to get a wide selection. I can't see which combination of the above that exists in Sweden that has all the necessary proteins,minerals etc.   

The path to dietary deficiency is by living in a culture that has a one sided diet OR by abstaning from certain parts of a "full" diet and being unable to replace it.

And now to something completely different

>Short List of Psychopomps

> EAST ISLES: the White Moon

Is this the white moon of Lunar fame? If not where did they get the idea of a white moon, as there hasn't been any in the sky as far as I know. Maybe the Lunar idea of a white moon came from the east isles? Is there some refernence in published materials to this white moon?

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