Surprised Eel Historian, PhDさんのイラストまとめ

In 1397 the city of London arrested several Dutch eel merchants for unpaid debts. But that meant fewer eels! And that won't do.

So the king intervened. He ordered that the Dutch be set free to sell their eels, and also that the city never again hassle eel merchants in this way.

Let's end the week talking about congers in heraldry!

Like freshwater eels, congers showed up in English heraldry. And they still do sometimes! Here's the 1967 coat of arms for the town of Congleton, with 2 congers surrounding a floating tun.

Get it? Conger + tun = Congleton!

@cakrolik @medievalhistory @tlecaque @salu1292 This is me, now. I’m just a twitter eel.

So you've decided to pay your rent in medieval eels. But how do you count them?

Eels were counted in units called sticks, w/ 25 eels to a stick. The term "stick" likely comes from the number of eels you can smoke on a stick at one time.

10 sticks of eels was called a bind.1/2

@jondcpowell @gr8writingtips

@grenouille781 All the other sea monsters are jealous.

Sometimes the food goes bad before you use it. Then what?

Just don't be like Salamon Salamon! In 1390, the London fishmonger was charged w/ hiding his bad eels in someone else's cellar. This was his second offense: earlier he was caught slipping rotting eels into a local well!

In 1654, in a discussion of breaking asylum in ancient temples, Francis Rous used the same phrase.

He wrote that, once granted asylum, a person was safe forever "unlesse they made a fire, and burnt him out of the hole, as we use to do eeles."

Or...you know...priests. 3/4

Writing about the siege of Catholics at Basing House in 1645, the Mercurius Britannicus wrote that: "Colonel D’Albier last week tried to smoake him out with Straw, just as they use to serve eeles in old walles."

But...eels don't live in walls! Whatever could this mean? 2/4

@liz_lizanderson