Pagan Protection Ritual?

[nathan]

My google search came up nada--but I think it's because I've had to be so general in my terms as I don't have the specific name of what I'm looking for, so I'm hoping you wise ones can help.

In dark age Europe/England there was a practice of bricking up a living child or young woman in a castle/keep/fortress wall in order to invoke "protection".

Does anyone know of an article about this or if the practice had a specific name?

My Weird World War II novel features allied commandos pulling a raid on a castle that can't be bombed from the air. They have to hit, knock open the wall then salt & burn the withered husk of the sacrificial victim--breaking the protective geas and letting a bomber wing blow the place to rubble.

But I'm having doubts about how authentic I'm making this practice. Any insight would be appreciate. Thanks much, good folks.

[wicked]

Could this be what you are thinking of?

hitobashira

http://pinktentacle.com/2010/03/human-pillars/

Oh, and hello, Nathan. Nice to see you around again.

[John M. Whalen]

Speak of the devil. We were just asking about you. Figured you were busy.

[nathan]

Awesome help and thanks for the shoutouts--much appreciated.

The link on human pillars in Japan did help. A reply in the discussion section of the blog used the ter "foundation sacrifice".

Armed with that term I was able to google much better and will, in fact, be using that phrase to describe the practice. It appears that it was less widespread than I gathered from the cable show I saw--which actually makes it more reasonable that not all castles would have been protected that way.

You guys rock!

[jason]

Good to see you on the forum again. I thought you'd gone into witness protection or something. Sounds like an interesting story, is it freelance, contract, or none of my business?

[nathan]

It's novel #1 for a trilogy written in this game world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannh%C...er_(board_game)
awsome fun stuff--Zombie Commandos

[H.P. Lovesauce]

Dare I suggest consulting the Republican candidate for the Senate in Delaware?

[John M. Whalen]

Sauce, you're just trying to egg him into starting one of those long political discussion threads, where everybody starts flaming each other. Gee, I kind of miss that.

[nathan]

Plz. If anyone was likely to wall up a foundational sacrifice it was Karl Rove.
However I have to admit that for pure pulp literary concerns evil hag dark age witches are SO much better than the kinder, gentler, neo-pagan Wiccan sissies we have nowah days.

[Scott M. Sandridge]

Plz. If anyone was likely to wall up a foundational sacrifice it was Karl Rove.
However I have to admit that for pure pulp literary concerns evil hag dark age witches are SO much better than the kinder, gentler, neo-pagan Wiccan sissies we have nowah days.

ROFL! They only appear to be sissies. In truth they found m-16s and grenade launchers to be more efficient than death chants and cursing rods.