# I keep kosher. Can I eat Mr. Tumnus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 16, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977 "2010-09-16T16:16:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/21 "2010-09-16T23:53:51Z")
> [@j\_sum1](#): > > I think you could eat his legs… > > And you could probably do that without killing him. Wonderfully horrible. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/22 "2010-09-16T23:58:07Z")
> [@](#): > > I think you could eat his legs… > > And you could probably do that without killing him. Eating the limb of the living is a _big_ no-no, the only dietary restriction that Jews consider to be binding on gentiles. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/23 "2010-09-17T00:02:54Z")
I don’t know but in emergency situations I think you get a pass 1 Sam 21 ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/24 "2010-09-17T01:38:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Eating the limb of the living is a _big_ no-no, the only dietary restriction that Jews consider to be binding on gentiles. Hmmmm…how do we define “living,” here? Would brain death suffice? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/25 "2010-09-17T02:22:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Hmmmm…how do we define “living,” here? Would brain death suffice? I imagine that “living” is defined the same way here, in the commandment against killing, and in the commandment against eating carrion, so I think that no matter how you try to finangle things, you’ll end up falling afoul of at least one of those three. I.e., if “brain-dead” counts as alive, then you’re eating the limb of the living when you eat his leg. If brain-dead is dead and you caused it, then you’re guilty of murder. And if brain-dead is dead and you didn’t cause it, then he’s carrion. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/26 "2010-09-17T02:28:00Z")
Yep, intelligent beings are not kosher. No eating the salmon people of of blorgzon 5. **Chronos** is correct about the restriction on eating a limb from a living animal being considered binding on all people. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/27 "2010-09-17T02:37:08Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Yep, intelligent beings are not kosher. No eating the salmon people of of blorgzon 5. Do we know that, though? What’s your argument? First of all, are the salmon people of Blorgzon 5 halachically people or creatures? If they’re creatures, then they’re kosher if they fit the category and treif if they don’t. If they’re people, then it’s harder, because people aren’t necessarily treif (but they may be). You’re just not allowed to eat them for other reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/28 "2010-09-17T02:43:36Z")
Anyone else thinking of [The Lifeboat Sketch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evExHXFtNfQ)? ‘I’d rather eat Johnson, sir.’ ‘Well, I um…’ ‘What’s the matter with Johnson, sir?’ ‘Well, he’s not kosher.’ ‘Depends how we kill him, sir.’ ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/29 "2010-09-17T03:47:13Z")
I read a book that said that Jewish dietary laws have a big emphasis on purity–one does not eat anything that can appear to be in two different “zones.” A faun is half human, half goat, so even thought goats are clean, eating human is [not](http://www.torah.org/qanda/seequanda.php?id=858), making the whole animal unclean. I also remember that the Narnia series itself has a little bit about Kosher, in a way: Puddleglum and Eustace are disgusted by the fact that they are eating a Talking Animal. It seems to me that they think of it as cannibalism, and that cannibalism is unclean. I would think this would apply even more to the even more human fauns. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/30 "2010-09-17T12:08:10Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Of course there are female fauns. It’s just that the only NAMED faun is Tumnus. Anyway, here’s the Wikipedia article on [satyresses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauness). (Fauness redirects there.) Ignorance faught. Ifor some reason, I was under the impression that nymphs were the female equivalents of fauns and satyrs. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > > [@NinjaChick](#): > > > > Interesting - I’m unfamiliar with the curdling thing. Is that an actual ‘test’ of kosherness? > > Yes. I don’t know if this is scientifically true, but the idea is that milk from a kosher animal curdles and milk from a non-kosher animal doesn’t. Recently, they found out that giraffe milk curdles, and a group of [vets in Israel declared that giraffes are officially kosher](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2084281/Giraffe-is-kosher-Israeli-vets-have-ruled.html). Unfortunately, because the neck is so long, no one is quite sure how to slaughter them. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/31 "2010-09-17T13:30:45Z")
First the shochet gets a ladder. . . ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/32 "2010-09-17T14:20:00Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > > Of course there are female fauns. It’s just that the only NAMED faun is Tumnus. Anyway, here’s the Wikipedia article on [satyresses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauness). (Fauness redirects there.) > > Ignorance faught. Ifor some reason, I was under the impression that nymphs were the female equivalents of fauns and satyrs. > > > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > > > Yes. I don’t know if this is scientifically true, but the idea is that milk from a kosher animal curdles and milk from a non-kosher animal doesn’t. > > Recently, they found out that giraffe milk curdles, and a group of [vets in Israel declared that giraffes are officially kosher](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2084281/Giraffe-is-kosher-Israeli-vets-have-ruled.html). Unfortunately, because the neck is so long, no one is quite sure how to slaughter them. Hmm. I’m (obviously) no rabbi, but I’m inclined to say that if you can’t figure out a decent way to kill something, you probably shouldn’t eat it. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/33 "2010-09-17T14:36:13Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Anyone else thinking of [The Lifeboat Sketch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evExHXFtNfQ)? > > ‘I’d rather eat Johnson, sir.’ > > ‘Well, I um…’ > > ‘What’s the matter with Johnson, sir?’ > > ‘Well, he’s not kosher.’ > > ‘Depends how we kill him, sir.’ Graham Chapman especially preferred eating Johnson. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/34 "2010-09-17T14:37:48Z")
Maus Magill: > [@](#): > > Unfortunately, because the neck is so long, no one is quite sure how to slaughter them. That’s a commonly-repeated myth, but the halacha is that anywhere on the neck will do. However, my sister mentioning that at the Yom Tov table last year Rosh Hashana led to a great moment between me and my father. She set us up by saying “the problem is that no one knows the right place to slaughter it” I told her, “That’s a myth, we do know the right place to slaughter a giraffe.” “Where?” she asked. At the exact same time, my father and I responded, “Africa.” ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/35 "2010-09-17T16:23:06Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Yep, intelligent beings are not kosher. No eating the salmon people of of blorgzon 5. > > **Chronos** is correct about the restriction on eating a limb from a living animal being considered binding on all people. What if Mr. Tumnus stepped on a land mine and his limbs were no longer attached but the rest of him was still living? I thought all milk curdled but they didn’t really teach us that in vet. tech. school. What would keep certain animal’s milk from curdling? Doesn’t goat’s milk curdle, isn’t that how cheese is made? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/36 "2010-09-17T16:44:59Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > What if Mr. Tumnus stepped on a land mine and his limbs were no longer attached but the rest of him was still living? Wouldn’t that be carrion? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/37 "2010-09-17T17:03:03Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > > Of course there are female fauns. It’s just that the only NAMED faun is Tumnus. Anyway, here’s the Wikipedia article on [satyresses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauness). (Fauness redirects there.) > > Ignorance faught. Ifor some reason, I was under the impression that nymphs were the female equivalents of fauns and satyrs. I think for most contexts, probably including Narnia, you were correct, **Maus**. The original classical conception of satyrs was exclusively male, whereas nymphs (including tree-nymph dryads and water-nymph naiads) were exclusively female. In some mythologies, the offspring of a satyr-nymph union would be a satyr boy or nymph girl, to be raised by the parent of the same gender (and cohorts). Mr. Tumnus mentions his father but not his mother. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/38 "2010-09-17T17:30:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Doesn’t goat’s milk curdle, isn’t that how cheese is made? Yes, and goats are kosher. I seem to recall, though, hearing of some group of Asian nomads making mare’s-milk cheese, and horses (due to their non-cloven hooves) are not kosher. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/39 "2010-09-17T17:51:17Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > No eating the salmon people of of blorgzon 5. Bet they’d be good on a bagel with some schmear, though. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977/40 "2010-09-17T18:15:46Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Anyone else thinking of [The Lifeboat Sketch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evExHXFtNfQ)? > > ‘I’d rather eat Johnson, sir.’ > > ‘Well, I um…’ > > ‘What’s the matter with Johnson, sir?’ > > ‘Well, he’s not kosher.’ > > ‘Depends how we kill him, sir.’ Vice Adm. Sir John Cunningham: “…and may I take this opportunity of emphasizing that there is no cannibalism in the British Navy. Absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount, more than we are prepared to admit, but all new ratings are warned that if they wake up in the morning and find any toothmarks at all anywhere on their bodies, they’re to tell me immediately so that I can immediately take every measure to hush the whole thing up. And, finally, necrophilia is right out…”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-kosher-can-i-eat-mr-tumnus/553977.md?page=3)