The Village Sin Eater

atlasobscura.com

27 points·pepys··6 comments

IIRC, one of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels (a.k.a the Master and Commander series) sees a former sin-eater among the crew: ostracised by his crew-mates, he is taken on as a surgeon's mate by Dr Maturin.

Another occurrence in pop culture: The Order, with Heath Ledger, focused on a Sin Eater. Not a great movie, but I remember enjoying it enough in the theater.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304711/

There was also a 'Night Gallery' episode centered sin eaters this with a typical Rod Serling (or who ever he copied in this case) twist ending.

I forget, was that the one that wound up addicted to opiates or was that paddy the Irishman?

It's awful, I read the whole series just a year ago

Maturin himself is both Irish and rather fond of laudanum: I don't recall either being true of the sin-eater (but then I can't even remember which novel he appears in).

Ah, I read about this long ago in a short story called "Eater of Souls" (maybe the one by Henry Kuttner [1937]?). I didn't read it in English, but a translation.

The central character is treated like untouchable scum because of his profession as eater of souls. Yet he is necessary. I seem to remember about the eater getting a reward of actual food. People would leave the eater of souls some food and stay the heck out of his way while he does his job not to have any interaction with him. So by eating souls he actually gets to eat.

A similar theme of discrimination against undertakers is explored in the Japanese film Okuribito ("Departures").

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