Medieval English epic had Christian heroes cannibalize Saracens, reversing the usual cannibal-monster trope.

Evidence

As we know from the previous chapter, tales of Saracen cannibalism were a popular feature in the medieval imaginary. Anthropophagy often played a prominent role in the chansons de geste, but in these stories it is the Saracen—in most cases, a black-skinned or hairy Muslim giant—who consumes the Christian. However, in Richard Couer de Lion, there is a reversal of this scenario, when two meals are made with the flesh of executed Saracens; the first for Christian knights and the second for their Muslim guests. Richard “instructs the cook to behead the highest ranking captives in his prison, shave and boil the heads, and then serve them up, each with a little name label attached to its forehead and with the mouth stretched in ‘a hideous grin,’ ” a grin that is still seen in modern renderings of the dish. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 337

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ADDENDUM ‘On Sacrifice’ article’s interest in violence rituals and to chapter 7 discussion of Saracen cannibalism; also links to Shylock-ear/body dismemberment literature on Christian projection.
• SHARE: The Turk’s Head pie with name labels and forced grinning mouths is a ghoulishly specific detail a medievalist food-history friend would love.