• TheIvoryTower@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    My favourite is the belief that goose-necked barnacles grew into geese.

    The idea was started by the Norman scholar Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th century when he visited Ireland, and was very popular because it meant that the monks who were required to fast and eat only fish during Lent could eat geese. Technically if they lived part of their life underwater, they must be fish.