The Butcher's Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town

In this chapter Smith pulls back from the main narrative and explores the history behind the antisemitic ritual murder/blood libel charge.

Smith opines that the first millennium the Christian era was “filled […] with more sympathy than antagonism, more tolerance than tension” (91) between Christians and Jews, and that antisemitism and tales of Jewish ritual murder came to the fore only after 1100. In 1150, the British monk Thomas of Monmouth wrote The Life and Passion of Saint William the Martyr of Norwich, which contained the “first officially documented accusation of ritual murder” (91). The book described the murder of a young boy that took place in Norwich, England, in 1144, presenting it as a symbolic crucifixion. As elaborated later in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the story displayed the main motifs of the antisemitic blood libel myth as it would exist for centuries:

1. Jews killed Christian boys before Easter.
2. They tortured the boys out of hatred for Christians.
3. The killing imitates the killing of Christ.
4. The Jews are a present threat to Christians.
5. The murdered person becomes a martyr for the Christian community and performs miracles.

Smith places the ritual murder myth in the context of the cultural renaissance taking place in the High Middle Ages.