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Speaking of gallows humor, via the Brothers Grimm. . . 'when they had walked a little farther to where they could see the gallows, the man said to him, "Look,

Speaking of gallows humor, via the Brothers Grimm. . . 'when they had walked a little farther to where they could see the gallows, the man said to him, "Look, there is the tree where seven men got married to the rope maker's daughter, and are now learning how to fly..."' https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm004.html https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm004.html Whether that idiom's origin is old enough to qualify as Dark Ages isn't known, but it's certainly Dark Humor. Bonus points for the sexual subtext of the noose.

Archelaos 5y ago
Remindes me of one of François Villon's prison poems from 1462 (in modern spelling): Je suis François, dont il me poise, Né de Paris emprès Pontoise, Et de la corde d'une toise Saura mon col que mon cul poise. For the various attempts to translate this into English see: "Getting the Hang of it" at https://www.loquence.com/eblog/?p=114 https://www.loquence.com/eblog/?p=114