Episode two of Outlander's sixth season has left fans delighted, with many enjoying the drama and excitement but one scene seemed to raise more than a few talking points online.
Granny Wilson's funeral introduced us not only to the new church (or should that be, as Jamie says, meeting place?) at Fraser's Ridge but also the ominous-sounding sin eater.
The ghastly looking character left fans confused as to who he was and why he was involved in the (up until then) humourous funeral scene.
So, just what is the sin eater and is the role a traditional Scottish funeral custom?
The Sin-eater
Traditionally, a sin eater was a person (usually a man) who was paid to eat bread that sat upon the corpse at a funeral.
Thought to have soaked up their sins, when eaten by the sin eater, it absolves the dead of their sins leaving them free to enter heaven unburdened.
Seen as an important duty at certain points of Christian history, the sin eater was often a poor person or social outcast who was seen as being able to afford to pay the spiritual price that others believed they could ill afford.
According to Atlas Obscura, a book known as Brand’s Popular Antiquities of Great Britain which was first published in 1813, said that this person would be given a "groat" as well as the bread and a draught of ale, which they ate before pronouncing that ‘the ease and rest of the soul departed' meaning they had pawned their own soul in return.
Not officially sanctioned by the Protestant or Catholic churches, it was unlikely that the practice would have been seen in many bigger towns and cities and was often kept to more rural settings (such as the fishing village where Tom Christie's followers came from).
How did it originate and was it a Scottish funeral custom?
The practice is said to have died out just after the start of the 20th century, with the last known sin eater, Richard Munslow, dying in England in 1909.
With many believing the custom to be a pagan one, mystery surrounds where it actually comes from but similar practices were carried out all throughout Europe.
Most researchers agree that while the practice took place in rural areas in Scotland, England and Ireland, the original practice is said to have originated in Wales.
Though its connection to Celtic culture is probably why it was also seen in Scotland in Ireland.
Those who played the role were completely ostracised from the villages in which they lived and many would treat them as lepers (perhaps symbolised by the lesions the man in episode two has?).
Who is the sin eater?
Perhaps most interestingly, though the book offers more information on the man himself, the TV show has left it ambiguous as to where he came from, is he an outcast from another township? Or did he arrive with Tom's fisher folk? Will he have a part to play going forward? We'll have to wait and find out.
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