Trivia of Dead Worlds: Taboo Names

Those who die are dead. As much as we might want them back, there’s generally an agreement that it’s for the best if they don’t actually come back. Various cultures have various practices to ensure that the dead stay dead. In medieval Iceland, a person who died at home was never carried out through the front door. Instead a hole was carved in the wall and the body was removed through there. The logic of this ritual was so that the undead spirit would not know the way back home. In Christian tradition, bodies that were in danger of returning could be buried under crossroads. Since the crossroads formed a giant symbol of the Holy Cross, a cursed body would be unable to rise.

The medieval Mongolians had their own approach. They would avoid speaking the name of the dead in order to keep from attracting their spirits back to the living world. But one still wants to speak about those who have passed. And so they assigned the dead “Taboo Names”. These new names replaced their dead names and became the primary way of talking about them.

– A few thoughts from your friend Saxo