Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
BY
ALEXANDER
LECTURER
IN
XILLE, Ph.D.
IN
DAVID NUTT,
270-271
1899
STRAND, LONDON
^^HBHAL
7S77f
copies of this book are
for
sale
GLASGOW
THIS BOOK
IS
DEDICATED TO
MY DEAR FRIEND,
GEORGE NEILSON,
AUTHOR OF "trial BY COMBAT," " PEEL ITS MEANING AND DERIVATION," " CAUDATUS ANGLICUS," ETC., ETC
;
175779
PREFACE
This book
treats of the
the
three-score-day
calendar,
part
tide
of
Germanic
festival
adoption
of
the
Roman
of the
German
It
year,
which
till
without
events,
a
in
festivity.
traces
the
revolution
to
brought
the
about
by these
century.
custom,
the
belief,
and legend up
believes,
fourteenth
By
that
time,
Author
come
to have their
Five chapters
of the
present book
but
somewhat shortened
appear
ALEXANDER
TILLE.
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I.
II.
III.
24
34
IV.
V. VI.
VII.
49
57
71
81
VIII.
IX.
....
.
107
X.
XI.
XII.
The Nativity of
Beda,
Christ,
119
138 158
177
.
De Mensibus Anglorum,
and Christmas,
XIII.
XIV.
...
189
XV.
XVI.
200 214
CHAPTER
I.
on the mode
in
year
is
exactly
eighteen
in
hundred years
all
found in the
"
Only
the
winter,
a.d. 98, and They do not divide the year into so many seasons as we do. spring, and summer have a name and a meaning among them autumn they know as little as its gifts." ^ It plainly means probability,
was written
of the
first
century of our
era
and
aestas,
and
for
Grimm
was based
He
Romans
in
hiems
vocabula habent
bona
ignorantur."
^Deutsche Mythologie,
p. 717.
the
fruit,
vintage,
and
after-math, things
is
the Germans.
decidedly of the seasons as such, and in the case of autumnus, at the nonexistence of which the
Grimm
wrong.^
and
to
Another scholar has told us that he knows better than Tacitus, and that
the ancient
fruits."
originally,
fruits,
and
was
later
judgment
on Tacitus' report
can the
fact
that
we
are
spring
for
(German
Lenz),
and Friihling
of
later growth.
The
tri-partition
is
an unshakable
fact.
It
has
been preserved
for a very
The
three
three seasons
the
annual legal
meetings which were fixed by tradition and not called by special royal
ordinance.
his
This
fact is
Romans, quartered
midsummer
whilst
the
1848, Vol.
p.
8.
L,
p.
74.
and February, May, autumn, took the place of those termsWeinhold gives ^ proofs
for the several cases.
Professor
in this proposition.
Grotefend,
says
*'
The
of
the
year
has
its
been
preserved
and there
finds
principal appli-
the
so-called
dreidinge,
echteitdinge,
echtendage,
at
or
eiting,
the
country, which
was held
three terms in
The terms
vary,
Easter,
St.
and midsummer
(also the
Twelve-nights,
Easter,
and Pentecost, or
The
capitulary
of Louis
the
Pious,
of 817,
ordains
"/ anno
tria
jurisdiction.
fact
till
The
of the
so generally admitted
is
an exception
any authority
to disagree.
And
number
So
far
three such
tri-partition
of the year
was
preserved
in
mode
who
received a sheep
lent
dinner
whey
'
on
siimera
'
(corresponding
^ C/l>er
1862, pp.
18,
p.
19.
^
^
*
90, Jahreszeitefi.
p.
Sohm,
Fr'dnkische Keichs-
und Gerichtsverfassung,
398.
" 1407 in unsen geheygeden gerichten to Luneborch drie des jares to den eddagen " (Centralarchiv zu Oldenburg), Grotefend, Zeiirechnung, II., 2, 194, Hannover und
Leipzig,
*
1898.
p.
338.
4
to
at sumri^
i.e.,
June
9),
which
is
It
not
gifts
for the
winter feast was the largest, but besides the enumeration of the three terms
begins with that term, as the old Germanic, and so late as in the eleventh
it.^
districts of
Eng-
Uni ancillae Vlll. pondia companagium, i. sester fabae ad quadragesimalem convictum. In estate suum hweig vel i. denaiium Be Wifmonna Metsunge. Dheowan wifmen viii. pund comes to mete, i. sceap odhdhe 11 1. peningas to winter-sufle, l. syster beana to Isengten-sufle. hwseig on sumera odhdhe l. pening."
^
I.,
annonae ad victum.
ovis vel
III.
2 Male servants also received three such gifts a year [Ibid., I., 436, 7: "Omnibus ehtemannis jure competit Natalis firma, et Paschalis sulhsecer, id est, carruce acra, et manipulus Augusti in augmentum jure debiti recti ; Eallum gehte-mannum gebyredh Mid-
winter feorm. and Eastor-feorm sulh-aecer. and hserfest-handful. to-eacan heora nyd-rihte
"),
two Christian festivals, Christmas and Easter, while the third had, in the same direction, moved onwards to August. The payment of shepherds' wages is regulated not so much by an old tri-partition of the year as by the development of sheep during the year [Ibid., I., 438, 9 " Pastoris ovium rectum est, ut habeat dingiam xii. noctium in Natali Domini, et i. agnum de juventute hornotina, et l. belflis, id est, timpani vellus, et lac gregis sui, Vli. noctibus
:
est,
Sceap-
hyrdes riht
is
and
i.
geogedhe. and
I. bel-flys. and his heorde meolc Vll. niht sefter emnihtes dsege. hweges odhdhe syringe ealne sumor"), just as the payment of goatherds is [Ibid., I., 438, 9 " Caprarius convenit lac gregis sui post festum Sancti Martini, et an tea pars sua mesgui, et capricum anniculum, si bene custodiat gregem suum ; Be Gat-hyrde. Gat-hyrde gebyredh his heorde meolc ofer Martinus msesse dseig. and ser dham his dsel hwasges. and i. ticcen of geares
:
").
The
:
considerably about 1030, being held partly at the two Christian festivals, Christmas and Easter,
other times
et et
[Ibid.,
I.,
p.
440,
"In quibusdam
hreaccroppum, id
locis
Domini,
firma Paschalis,
firma pratorum
et
arandum,
firma ad
fenandorum
macoli summitas,
et
macolum faciendum.
et alia plurima fuerint a pluribus, quorum hoc viaticum sit, et quod supra diximus ; on sumere [in some !] dheode gebyredh winter-feorm. Easter-feorm. ben-form for ripe, gytfeorm for yrdhe msedh-med hreac-mete. aet wudu-lade wsen-treow. set corn-lade hreac-copp. and fela dhinga de ic getellan ne mgeig. Dhis is dheah myngung manna biwiste and eal that ic ser beforan ymberehte ").
:
macholi
On German
ground
it
is
To
give at
least
one
instance,
which covers both the law courts and the terms of payment from
on Jan.
9,
I.
of Cologne
However
in favour of
adduced
an ancient
tri-partition of the
Germanic year
;
ancient
names
of
three
ancient
seasons
cannot
be
given
nay,
etymology
decidedly
We
economic year itself. Whilst no other Aryan language possesses the same terms denoting a period of
all
in
common
no third season-name
to join
the word
all
other Aryan
denomination of the coldest season of the year a word from a root ghitn
ighiem) which
hiems,
x^V*"'))
so that
we have Latin
Greek
We
know of no root from which winter might be derived, the derivation from wind being excluded on philological grounds. With the word summer it is not much different. It appears in all Germanic languages as the name
of the warmer half of the year, but exists in no other Aryan
language,
notwithstanding that words from the same root, though formed by means
of other suffixes and having a similar or the same significance, are found
in
several of them,
Cymric ham,
haf,
summer.
^Nasse, Uber mittelalterliche Feldgemeinschaft in England, Bonn, 1869, p. 51, Urbarium of the Monastery of Worcester of the thirteenth century, fol. 103'' "In hoc manerio sunt 8 virgatae servilis conditionis, quarum quaelibet, si censat, dabit ad quemlibet
:
^Kessel,
Der
des
selige Gerrich,
Diisseldorf,
1877, p.
187.
^On
Aryan
Berlin,
year,
Zeitteilung
indogermanischen
Volkes,
compare O. Schrader, Die aelteste Habel, 1878, pp. II ss., where the
":
he says
"Ih
Anglo-Saxon
legal
who died, if she has a child, should be "a cow in summer and an ox in winter";^
and summer.^
;
These
there
is
two names do not stand alone as the supports of a dual division was extremely familiar
a number of other phrases which show that the dual division of the year
to
the
Germanic
mind.
To
bi
denote
the
whole
:
iin
und im
love,^
im ruwen und im
bloten,^
and
stro
and
bi grase.^
division
of Aryan
home growth
certainly
is
it
fact that
etymology
is
as to the tri-partition
It
of foreign extraction.
is
and,
as
far
as
we can
into
see,
it
of
Egyptian
perhaps
origin,
although
the
early,
even at
evolved
time
before
divided
self-dependent
tribes
which
Ewald sums
"People
in those countries of
Asia and
had
seasons.
These
to that
were fixed
in
the
1881,
p.
77.
St.
Gall document of
aelteste
Zeitteihmg
itidogermanischen
Volkes,
Berlin,
18).
Winter and Summer, compare Uhland's Volkslieder. Prof. in Greek legends a great number of similar traits seem to
"^Ancient
xxxviii.
^
:
^
'^
Laws and Institutes of England (ed. by Thorpe), London, 1840, I., " cu on sumera. oxan on wintra. Ibid., p. 126, XV.: "wintres ond sumeres." ^ Ibid., III., Grimm, Deutsche RechtsaltertUmer III., 256, 258. 249.
,
126,
Ibid.,
I.,
III.,
31,
62,
130,
190,
223;
Grotefend,
alters,
"^
77.
ed.,
the
first,
the
second,
etc."^
About the
seems
Indian year
Grimm remarks
summer
;
t^
"In
to
have been
vasanta, spring
to the oldest
grisckma,
or,
according
time
hema?ita, winter
and elsewhere
xei[jLu>v,
six seasons.
ca/a,
spring; Oepos,
in
summer;
winter."
The
general,
Ewald,
after
"A
was
must also
of
Syriac
and Arabic
well
as
countries.
in
The proof
first
the fact
that,
in
the
Syriac as
the
Arabic almanac,
and second
is
same
'tide,'
and that
tide after
evidently
to
in
a season.
The
distinction
it
between a
first
is
true,
months, at
least
But,
as
we know,
that
tides are
fact that
for the
no
satisfactory
Germanic
oldest
names of Germanic
per-
^ ^
Lepsius,
I.,
p.
I.,
134.
p.
1848,
72.
Ibid., p. 456.
avoid the presupposition that the early Aryans based He did so with full consciousness their partition of the year on a knowledge of the stars.
O. Schrader
the
first
to
Berlin,
Ilabel,
1878,
pp. 24), 32, and expressly says that the three roots used for denoting sun in the Aryan languages contain no element referring in any way to time or partition of time, whilst as
regards the
moon he
when
had
to point to the probability that these names, like the institutions they denote,
have
their origin
nations,
Oriental language, together with the six three-score-day tides which formed
This probability
is
enhanced by the
fact that
Gothic
and
IovXlo<s is
found to denote
the time from Dec. 22 to Jan. 23 in old Cyprus,^ which can scarcely be
ascribed to chance.
of important facts
several
It is
to
Aryan
is
"Stress
to
be
"on
(or even
three) subsequent
to
be a
2
relic
four)
parts.
Thus,
among
the
bound together
geola.
as brachot-houwot,
and a double
oiigest,
Thus, in
a double wintermonat,
threefold
herbstmonat).
January and
much
later
find
months presented
and a sporkel
Likewise we find
serpan,
among
the
where the small precedes the large one, whilst our small horning succeeds
large
horn.
first
wintermonat,
According to Slavic
order, however, the small cerwen preceded the large lerwenec. similar
is
Something
?nichrundu
for
November and
June and
July.
for
p.
64.
1848,
I.,
iios.
" I
to
me
to
be wrong
in
Grimm's argument.
common heading
years had
become popular, a
9
(I.
the
gipsies,
116),
style
June and July by the cognate names nutibe and nunutibe; and in Albanese
and
yoo-To^teo-re for
is
thing.
This coupling
in
my
added another
the
first,
Jews did
year
still
their adar,
its
The Arabic
:
lunar
shows
months connected
rebi el avvel
and
rebi el
and dschemadi
I.
el accher, dsulkade
and
dsulhedsche.
I.
The
it
Syriac
and
II.
and a khamm
and
lost.
II.;
this
But
quite apparent in the division of the Indian year into six parts, each
viz.
and
one
months
nabhas,
cloud (Latin
nubes,
cloudy sky),
tide,
the
nourishing one; hemanta, winter, contains the months sahas, strength, and
sahasja, the strong
one
stsira,
and
tapasja, the
warm
one.
dew tide, contains the months iapas, warmth, The relation of the names taj>as and tapasja,
is
analogous
cerwen
sporkel
and
sporkelsin, ongest
and ougsiin
gosti
and
to
gostobieste,
and
cerwenec,
be more popular
than the learned ones, which were fixed for the aditjas; and through the
division of the Indian year into six seasons, the division of the
Germanic
it,
is
justified in
Further on
six
he
says,
"A
connection
acknowledged. "2
Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, p.
113.
In Mahabharata the six Indian seasons vasanta, grtsma, varsa, farad, hemania, and
men who
lo
way
partition
of the
Germanic
the
year.
But since
accumulated,
of
it.
day so
it
much
material
to
bearing
upon
point
has
that
is
necessary
On
the
Nether-Rhine
the
division of the year into six tides or periods of sixty days each Avas
till
known
to
so late as
as
the fourteenth
antiquated
be
deter-
mining seasons.
As
11,
November
January
13,
March
tides,
17,
and
May
12,
by ancient Gerweeks
manic three-scoreday
eight
weeks
and
nine
were
On November n,
difficult
on March
rather
to
the
German
legal
and
documents there
occur quite numerous denominations which clearly cover a longer time than
a month, and yet neither amount to three nor to four months.
Such
erne,
der
im houwet, im
hanffluchet^^ ze afterhahne
und
in
sat,
dem
sniie,
laubbrost,
and
St. Victor,
8=^.
leaf
Bonn.
It
runs:
"Item
notandum,
quod
to me, like all and Tirol, by Dr. Armin Tille of secundum antiquum modum computandi
scilicet a festo Margarete (ubi usque Lamberti sunt 9 ebdomade, item a Lamberti usque Martini sunt octo ebdomade, item a Martini usque ad festum baculi, quod est octava epiphanie, et sunt 9 ebdomade. Item a festo baculi usque Gertrudis sunt 9 ebdomade, item a festo Gertrudis usque ad festum Pancracii sunt 8 ebdomade, item a festo Pancracii usque
annus
et faciunt
simul
unum annum,
I.,
scilicet
52 ebdomadas."
Grimm, Deutsche
I.,
^Ibid.,
419.
II.,
673, 679.
p.
'Neocorus,
75,
13.
It
To
these
be added, the
latter
being on
German ground
(August), which, however, covers a longer time than August, so that July 25,
St.
z2iS\tdi
Jacobstag im augstP-
It
that the
in the
second half-millennium
of our
after
the
Roman
among
the
Germanics.
is
month-name erntmanot;
and
that
that
dite
windumemanot
sat
and he expressly
snite
and
in
dem
laubbrost
and
laubrtse
English
expres-
sions
also,
hotil
and perhaps,
Latin
later
ver
and autumnus.
root, lang,
perhaps
the
time
;
when
langiz,
lenzin
Middle-HighEnglish
lent),
German
Dutch
lente;
Anglo-Saxon
lengten,
lencten;
not
it
to
mention the
not the
common
of an
Germanic.^
old
This makes
rather likely
that
was
name
new.
The
although
its
root
is
common Aryan
property.
It
is
Old-High-
I.,
79.
I,
2.
p.
^If Neocorus, II., 315, explains in howman edder in der howame (Weinhold, Ibid., 13), it follows that he regarded the term hmvarne as still more popular than the newly
iv.
4. 35,
li
German
hcerfest,
Middle-High-German
harvest,
herbest,
Dutch
herfst,
Anglo-Saxon
pluck,
English
and belongs
to
Latin
carpei'e,
to
and
Greek
Kapiro^, fruit. ^
Yet more important than these rather vague terms are several others
which can be proved to have exactly covered a Germanic
score days.
tide
it
of threeis
They
are the
more
striking since, in
for
two cases,
simply
Roman month-names
so
that
two subsequent
Germanics are
fre-
and
month of
that designation
whilst
some Germanic
three
tides
months
is
divided into
j^
herbst as denoting
in
very
common
the Middle
latter
and the
der
is
Middle Ages appeared as aust. In English the Germanic word of a season was completely superseded by Romance autumn.
"*
'^Weinhold, Altnordisches Leben, Berlin, 1856, pp. 371-383. Grotefend, Zeitrechnung des deutschen Mittelalters, I., 84; Weinhold, Deutsche Monat15, 42.
namen, pp.
The naming of There appears even a dritt herbst for November. months as first, second, and third augst or hej-bst admits of several explanaThe Roman quarter of a year having taken the place of the old third, it was but tions. there natural that all the three months forming it should have received a common name is no doubt that in this way herbst, which simply meant harvest, advanced to the meaning This is the more likely, since the tripling of the month-name of the season of autumn. is found just in that season, which, according to Tacitus, among the Germanics had no
three subsequent
;
name.
purpose,
Beda
viz.,
month, though
for
another
His June, July, and third Lida covering to a large extent the same ground as the July, August, and September, called the three herbste or augste, it may seem probable that the leap year had also
forming an intercalary month for the leap year.
it
That do with the origination of the series of three months bearing the same name. was August which was doubled may be inferred from Northic tvtmdnadhr, double-month, which is the name for August, and has not been understood by Professor Weinhold. *Moritz Heyne, Ulfilas, Paderborn und MUnster, 1885, p, 226.
to
13
called
;
fruma
in
Jiuleis,
list
liuleis
Beda's
month-names ^
it
is
stated
that
the
for which,
later,
and
ceftera
in the
that the
Lida respectively;
Middle Germany up
to
this
day January
is
called
in
kinds of things
small
Saxony
but
Hornung
Horn or son of Horn) is found among the list ot German month-names composed by Charlemagne, and brought down to us by his
biographer Eginhart.^
It
it
name
in
the
list
which
is
not a
compound
As
a
of mdnoth,
bound
to
be of ancient German
origin.
The
herbst
homer and
and
der
herbst,^
horn.^
der
erst
herbst
is
September,*
under
October.^
frequently
It
though more
shows a
state of things a
little
advanced when, as
is
frequently
erste
and der
andere herbstmonat
^
numerous examples
^
for
November
De Tempormn
Horn
the
name
of an old
und der Neuzeit, 1891, I., 86. I German three-score-day tide, just
p. 45.
Diefenbach, iVovujti Glossariwn, 32; Codex Germanicus Monacensis, 93, 398, 700, 730; Grazer Kalender ; " der erst heribst," Codex Germanicus Monacensis, 349.
^
Klingenberger Kronik, 343; Diefenbach, Novum Glossaritim, 32; Codex Germ. Monac, Grazer Kalender; Huber, "der ander herbst," Giess. MS.,
;
978
"
Codex Germ. Monac, 32. ^Diefenbach, Novum Glossariwn, 32; Codex Germ. Monac, 349, 730. ^ Tegernseer Kalender ; Weinhold, Ibid. p. 42.
,
I., p. 85; Zellweger, No. 191, a. 1407; and pp. 42, 43, where a long list of cases is given. November is sometimes called der dritt herbistmanot {Ibid., p. 43), and December der vierd herbistmonad ox letst herbistmotieth (Grotefend, Zeitrechnung, I., 84), a fact which leads us beyond Roman quarters of years into Germanic thirds of years. Unserfrauen
Grimm,
15, note,
14
being called der erst winter, and December being called der ander winter
(and even January being
is
named manot
;^
so
November
calls
or der
wintermond.'^
erst
On
to these
Roman month-names
,'^
are used
in
same purposes.
There
is
quite an
abundance of instances
which
May
is
augst,
meaning September,
In the Diocese
dem
290, Pilgram
Grotefend, Zeitrechnung,
68.
^
p.
61.
"^
Ibid., p. 62.
is
Ibid.,
p.
62.
I.,
a.d.
months
or
Germanic
* Pfeiffer,
thirds of years.
Germania, IX,
192 f
I.,
i.
14.
^Grotefend, Zeitrechnung,
13,
50,
;
almanacs
1848,
I.,
is
this peculiarity
Grimm,
15.
84,
1445.
Muglen
bei
Kovachich,
p.
Grimm,
p. 85.
In some Bavarian almanacs August and September are called der erste and der andere
augst (Diefenbach,
Novum
;
Glossarium
it is
Tegernseer Fischbuchlein)
;
so
Latino-germanicutn, Francofurti, 1857, 34, and on Alemannic and Swabian ground (Weinhold, Deutsche
Monatnamen, p. 15 Codex Germanicus Monacensis, 32 ; Diefenbach, Novum Glossarium, Mone, Anzeiger, VIII., 496) der ander ougst is September (Grimm, Geschichte der 34 Among the German communities of Valsugan and on the deutschen Sprache, p. 85). hills between Brenta and Drau, August is called erster Aux, and September dnderts Aux, a form in which it also appears in some Roman documents of Rhaetia (Hormayr,
; ;
Tirol,
I.,
Section
i,
p.
,
I41).
;
Der
erste
MS. 978
may be August
(Codex
Germanicus Monacensis, 93, 398, 7CX3, 848, 3384; Giessen MS. 978; Gmund's Grazer Kalender; Ruber's /Calender; der andere auste, Diefenbach, Novum Glossarium, 4), or September (Megenberg, Diefenbach, Novum Glossarium, 34 ; Tegernseer Fischbuch {der ander august)). In the xiii. comuni there are even three Agester,
Kalender;
meaning August, September, October (Cimbr. Worterbuch, 107; Weinhold, Die deutschen Monatnamen, p. 32).
15
called ougst,
August
is
called augest,
auwestin,
i.e.,
Sometimes
Though Augstine
for
and Aygsien appear a few times as meaning August,^ on the whole Ougstine,
i.e.,
small August,
the
compound
oegstin.
Herbistouwistinne'^
in his
means September f nay, there even appears and the word Huberougst.^
September
So Konrad
von Dankrotsheim
Numenbuch
and
On
Roman
said
as a relic of a
pre-Roman Germanic
usage.
If
it
it
was able
to
influence the
tide,
it
Roman
the
three-score-day
must needs
have
firmly estabHshed
among
it
South.
fact
Not only is
itself,
in
but
the
means of
reconciling
the
tri-partition
of the year.
The
units of
which
Ehinger Spitalbtuh, Germanic Museum, Niirnberg, No. 7008. Sette communi Schtneller-Frommann, Bayrisches Wdrterbuch,
;
54
Grotefend,
Zeitrechnung,
^
I.,
14.
Schmeller-Frommann,
I.,
Bayrisches
Zeitrechnung,
*
14.
Grimm
Grotefend, Worterbtich, 54 (1453, Baselland) ; explained the term wrongly as the wife of August.
14.
^
Grotefend, Zeitrechnung,
I.,
Codex
Germanicus
Monacetisis,
558
(Schmeller,
Augstin, Dasypodius 488d (1537); Ougsten, Diefenbach, Novum Glossarium, 40; Oegstin, Dankrotsheim; Ouwestin, Kbditz, Leben des heiligen Ludwig, Leipzig, 1851, 40, 61 ;
Owestin,
Hermann von
p.
32
Grotefend, Zeitrechnung,
^
**
14,
Ehinger Spitalbuch
Weinhold,
Ibid.,
p.
39.
p.
und
Literatur-
1827, p.
109
ss.
their
and
it
is
apparent
that
of
these tides
either
thirds, or thrSe
and a
half,
division of
entirely in error;
mode by
the other
that
other,
at the
dawn
The
the Germanic
mind
each.
parts
And
the
naturally divided
into
three
the
the cultivation
to
grass,
and
the harvest.^
There
is
take
speculations
about
symbols and the religious opinions of the early Germanics to explain their
division of the year.
at all times
weighed much
as
heavier than
strivings,
fancies.
The
of the
times,
pre-Roman Germanic
as
it
is
in life
in
early times
by hunting
and keeping
on by
as
cultivation of
meadows, and
finally
by
agri-
culture in addition.
Then
now
for
human
beings
at all times
determined the
and
races, pressed
if
upon
individuals,
to
work
by leaving them,
p.
7.
p.
7.
CHAPTER
II.
by
days as the
part of the
or eve as
day.^
still
living
among
us,
so that
we count by
fortnights
mas-time.
It
good an authority
the
In
is
summer which followed it as- one year, a not exclusively Germanic.^ The Saxon Chronicle
" Spatia omnis temporis non numero et annorum initia observant, ut " Coeunt nisi quid fortuitum Germania, chap. xi.
xviii.
:
natales et
mensium
Tacitus,
diebus,
subitum
incidit,
certis
cum
nam
agendis
computant
condicunt
II,
12,
1
and
89 1,
p.
^
131,
and 1898,
II.,
De Temporum
sua,
:
" Merito autem quaeritur, quare populus Israel, mane semper usque ad mane servabat, festa
facimus, vespere
incipiens,
tamen omnia
sicut
et
nos hodie
vespere
consummarit
dicente legislatore
^Manilius, Astronotnicon,
triginta."
On
"per quinquaginta brumas"; and Martialis, "ante brumas and between day and summer, see O.
B
Schx&dex, Die aelteste Zeitteilungdes indogermaniscken Volkes,'Be:x\m, Habel, 1878, pp. 12, 44SS.
l8
is
used thus,
it
is
by no means exclusively
terms,
Alemannic
dialects,
Thus
there can be
no doubt
that the
as did the
Roman
year with
the Germanic
in
New Year?
On
an average,
it
in
Germany
cattle,
own
food
when
is
it
begins to freeze
There
the
no doubt
nomadic cattle-keeping
this
tribes,
is
such as at
dawn of
history the
their
in
summer
most
habits,
new season
But
the
incisive way.
may, therefore,
later
than
mid-November.
earlier,
in order to
determine whether
it
begin
we need
other
We
Now
tide
we know
of
the
liuleis tide
among
It
is
the Goths
Roman
liuleis.
months, November
more than
year
of the
Saxon Chronicle
uuintra,"
(ed.
by
Earle in
" Two of
the
Saxon
Cristes
xciiii.
and
in the
synonyms ("and he
.
.
and heold
. . .
xvii.
winter
heold
Ibid.,
vii.
gear
2).
p.
The
version belongs to
the
century (R.
Wlilker,
1885, 509).
^Weinhold, Deutsche Jahrteilung, pp. 12 and 19; just as the Bavarians counted autumns {Lex Baiuvariorurn, VIII., 19, 4; Weinhold, Ibid.).
after
^The
Germanic
periods
seasons,
call
tides,
call
and the
19
it
to
assume
November
year.
or September
to
Germanic
of a
Germany
summer month,
Germanic year
nay,
at
the
beginning of
out of
beginning of September
is
practically
November
Among
is
fruma
appears from
which
how-
marked down
that the
in
that
and
from some
All
we
Goths of the
Roman
calendar,
Germanic
from
It
by no means follows
Roman
months.
case,
It
indeed
if
that
it.
account for
middle of the
similar for the
Roman
months,^
we have
Germanic three-score-day
not
but
This assumption
each of the
six
is
sup-
facts.
Had
ancient
Germanic
tides
exactly,
fairly
Roman
months, we should have to expect that the same would be the case with
the
for
the
denomination of the
quote a witness be"
Roman
yond
of the
is
the case.
To
says
:
suspicion,
Weinhold,^
:
who
We
find a wavering
names between
;
several
months
and April
lasemdnt
February
hundeman
is
rosenmant to
^
"^
Grimm, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, 1848, Die deutschen Monainamen, Halle, 1869, p. 2.
I.,
p.
75.
20
the
names
occur for
January, and
list
which could
easily
be increased.
It is
now
generally admitted that the Germanic month-names are a very late product, and
that they were merely formed for the purpose of replacing the Latin names.
If,
Germanic three-score-day
to
tides
middle of one
Roman month
that,
the
was
bound
to
happen
at
the
time
taken over, they were applied to the interval between the middles of two
consecutive
Roman
it
than that
e.g.
the term
November was
others
made
from November 15 to
December
When,
later,
the Latin
name was
replaced by a
German word,
to happen,
In consequence
that, of
it
could not
fail
two consecutive
Roman
months, some-
and sometimes the second was called by the one Latin name.
do, that the Goths called liuleis the time from
Finding, as
we
31,
November
to
i
December
we can scarcely help assuming that liuleis originally covered a period from about November 15 to January 15, and that, at the taking over of the Roman calendar, among the Goths that name was shifted a fortnight back, and among the Anglo-Saxons a fortnight forward, so as to create an
to January 31,
incongruence of a whole
Roman
month.
Germanic
;
for
had
it
between
November-December and December-January. All this points to the conclusion that a Germanic three-score-day tide began originally about the
middle of November, and that the beginning of
it
was
at the
same time
21
This result
is
Xanten.^
17,
12, Sept.
Nov.
March
17,
and
May
12,
The
their
is
not new.
Fin Magnusen^ remarked, about a century ago, that the Germanics began
year about the Advent
after
tide,
which
for a
Sunday
with
Martinmas.
Martinmas coincides
it
the
actual
beginning ol
which character
is
clearly
and
" Sanct Marten Miss Is der Winter wiss";^
whilst,
their year
i.e.,
Romans began
Day.
It is
new
on September
to
historically,
can scarcely be taken seriously, jumps over the whole point which ought
to
his investigation.
It
and
that,
their
November,
it
was bound
to
commence on
tide
took
for
its
inception.
air
in
his
life
left
his
study
fresh
can
winter
began
at
the
close
of
"
Stift
Xanten," R, No.
according
to
^Specimen
p.
1018,
Pfannenschmid,
Germanische
Erniefeste, p. 512
inter christianos
astic!."
^
" Suspicor vulgarem inter veteres Germanos anni adventum posterius certo modo mutatum fuisse in adventum domini sive initium anni ecclesip.
5.
p.
2a
September
the
realize that
rule
is
month and a
quences
solstice
!
two
He
to three
months before
cattle are
on the meadows?
;
summer
that the
is
To do him no
injustice in
respect, I shall
assume
phrase " in March " (which implies thirty-one days to select from)
to
meant
Then we have a winter extending from the end of September to the middle of March; a spring extending from the middle of March to June 24; and a summer extending from June 24 to the end of September (which seems to mean September 29), i.e., a winter of more than five months and a half! a spring of three months and nine a calculation which days and a summer of three months and five days
mean
honour
of our Germanic
!
Would
to
one take the phrase "in March" as "in the end of March," the time
when
storks
in flocks
grow
green again,
quite three
we should have a winter of full six months, a spring of not months, and a summer of a little more than three months.
But perhaps one must not draw the consequences from these ill-considered
assumptions.
The
truth
is,
is
absolutely untenable,
that
really
took place
become of importance
tion of the
Roman
new
and was
fixed
on Michaelmas.
Having,
at last,
arrived
at
the starting-point,
it
will
Germanic
year,
and
to
from that
winters,
result.
Counting by original
to
fix
Germanic
half-years,
summers
two
at
and
we have
the
other
the
junction-point of the
to all
who have
Landmanns
23
made
thirds of years, or
early
late
summer
is
bound
all,
and
institutions
above
in legal institutions, in
belief
and
and
were created
amount of Germanic
tradition
and thought.
CHAPTER
III.
Roman
a
legions in Gaul
into
it
winter
varied
little,
As a
rule
rain
No Roman
try
to
frost
set
in.
When
Caesar, for once, tried to keep his legions engaged in war beyond
he was compelled to
retreat,
as
his
soldiers
could no
On
he did not
to
it.2
like
do
so,
The Now, A.D. 14, Germanicus was fighting some German tribes. autumn came, and he withdrew into winter quarters. The winter was
imminent, but had not yet set
in
in.^
The
stone,
fifth
and
twenty-first legions
were
winter quarters at
the
sixtieth
Castra
"
Incredibili celeritate
magno
spatio
cum iam
densiores silvas peterent, eiusmodi sunt tempestates consecutae, uti opus necessario
intermitteretur et continuatione
imbrium
non possent."
bellis
^Bellum
deduxit."
quam tempus
I.,
chap.
xliv.
"Ob
imminentem
hiemem."
25
Germanicus undertook
autumn
He
for
no snow having
expedition.
He
the Germans,
gay banqueting.
In a beautiful clear
them completely
held at the begin-
festival
in,
which, in the
in
German
first
at
the
half
of November.
the most serious difficulties as to the weather, whilst to assume that the
festival
had been
in
sufficient
drawing of the legions into winter quarters, the mutiny, and the warlike
expedition after held in the
first
it.
So we have a
German
festival
was
half of
it
November
the oldest
as far
back as
a.d.
of the report of
is
certainly to
be
set
down
before
It is
Germanic
festival
it
on
historical record
and although
before
the
half a
millenium
to
elapsed
its
we have no reason
Christian
tribes,
doubt
existence.
And
is
mentioned again
all
of
the
St.
Western
Martin
Germanic
towards
end
of the sixth
century,
when
11,
saint of the
his
the date of
day of commemoration.
"Quintae
et
apud lapidem
nomen
est)
hibernantium."
via cetera accelerantur
:
^Ibid., chap.
tores festam earn
cohortibus
sequuntur.
stationes,
vigiliis.
modico intervallo ventumque ad vicos Marsorum, et circumdatae stratis etiam turn per cubilia propterque mensas, nullo metu, non antepositis Adeo cuncta incuria disiecta erant, neque belli timor ac ne pax quidem nisi
praeire
luvit
silvarum
amoliri
iubetur
legiones
nox sideribus
illustris,
etc.
26
in 401.
About
the middle
11,
in
Gaul
in his
commemoration.
Martinmas ^
Whilst
in early
festival
of
the
Germanics
till
banqueting
long
morning broke.
in
We know
its
in
Auxerre
testifies
578 forbade
celebration. ^
in
De Temporum
to a
Germanic
festival
November, saying
kill.*
Martinmas,
when
same
all saints'
^A
life
and
activity is given
ss.,
by Heino Pfannenschmid,
ss.
Germanische Erntefeste, Hannover, 1878, pp. 193 ^Pfannenschmid, Ibid., p. 466, note 10.
^"Omnino
observant,
et inter
domni Martini
omnimodo
prohibete," Acta
Conciliorum, Parisiis,
7 14,
Synodus Autissiodorensis, A.D. 578, v. The supradictae conditiones can only be the contents of Canons iii. and iv., which run as follows: "iii. Non licet compensos in domibus
propriis,
sacrivos, vel
et matriculae
fieri
penitus
Non
licet
ad
sortilegos,
caragios, nee
ad
sortes,
aspicere
sed quaecumque
homo
facere
vult
omnia
in
nomine Domini
important to notice that the only two feasts which are mentioned by their
name by
that
Synod of Auxerre are the Calends of January and Martinmas, and from that the conclusion may be drawn that the heathen customs were more prominent at these two tides than at
any
^
other.
De Temporum
De Mensibus Anglorum:
suis
^^
Blotmanoth,
mensis
vovebant."
vulgus per sanctorum
Acta Conciliorum,
:
589, xxiii.
est irreligiosa
consuetude,
quam
^Acta Conciliorum,
levia
minime
27
veneration of
St.
cross,
the
highest reputation
in the
Gaul
much
different,^
dedicationes
basilicarum,
et
aut
obscena
dum
Unde
convenit, ut sacerdotes loci talia a septis basilicarum, vel porticibus ipsarum, ac etiam ab
ipsius atriis vetare
debeant et arcere.
Et
si
in to
banquet
orationis
in the
same sacred
Acta
place.
'*
Non
licet in ecclesia
:
Domus
col.
mea, domus
vocabittir"
Conciliorum,
ix.
Parisiis,
1714,
445,
Synodus
Concilium
Germanicum, A.D.
Acta Conciliorum, Parisiis, 1714, Vol. III., col. 1920-I, '* Decrevimus quoque, ut secundum canones 742, v.:
faciat,
unusquisque episcopus in sua parochia solicitudinem gerat, adjuvante gravione, qui defensor
ecclesiae ejus est, ut populus
sive profana sacrificia
mortuorum,
quas
stulti
homines juxta
ecclesias ritu
pagano
ad
ira-
Deum
et sanctos suos
;
cundiam provocantes
sive
omnes, quae-
cumque
'*'
sunt,
paganorum observationes
Parisiis,
1
diligenter prohibeant."
Acta Conciliorum,
Hilarium
Radegundis ad Episcopos,
et beatos
"Dei
et
et sanctae crucis, et
Deum
sorores
meas
tradidi defendendas,
Ibid., col. 371-72,
God
" Beatum
Martinum peregrina de stirpe ad inluminationem patriae dignatus est dirigere misericordia consulente. Qui licet apostolorum tempore non fuerit, tamen apostolicam gratiam non effugit. Nam quod defuit in ordine, suppletum est in mercede," etc. '^When the Roman missionaries under Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory
Britain, settled
states,
to
Great
of
and
is
church which, after some medieval reconstructions, still exists, Beda, Historia Eccle-
siastica gentis
Plummer, Oxford 1896, p. 47: " Erat honorem sancti Martini antiquitus facta, dum adhuc Romani Brittanniam incolerent, in qua regina, quam Christianam fuisse praediximus, orare consuerat." (Her name was Bercta, and she was a Frankish princess.) St. Martin, besides, had at Canterbury a potticus, in which King Aedilberct was buried
ecclesia in
v.
:
die XXiiii.
mensis
28
whilst in
same
Christianity.^
The
popularity of
St.
the fact that his day was placed at the greatest ancient Germanic festive
tide;
is
festivals,
we know
feasting
of no other so
much
as
we do about Martinmas
is
as a time of
saint, there
is
and banqueting.
Martin-geese.
If Martin
called the
drunken
is
The
is
oldest
St.
we
know
a silver one, and belongs to the year 1171, although the testimony
it
by which
is
warranted
not contemporaneous.
A monk
of Corvei,
Februarii
ecclesiam
est.")
unum annos acceptae fidei, atque in porticu sancti Martini intro beatonim apostolorum Petri et Pauli sepultus ubi et Bercta(e) regina condita St. Ninian had a bishop seat, which was later on celebrated through the name and
post XX. et
iv.
:
"Cuius sedem
episcopatus,
iam nunc Anglorum gens obtinet "). Ninian probably died earlier than St. Martin {Lives of St. Ninian and St. Kentigern, ed. Forbes, 1874, xxvii., xxxviii., 256, 266, 271-273). There was also a monastery called " Et abbas monasterii beati Martini, ..." after that saint (Beda, Hist. Eccl., IV., xvi. and "corpusque eius ab amicis propter amorem St. Martini, cuius monasterio praeerat,
nomine
et ecclesia
insignem
Turonis delatum atque honorifice sepultum est"; and Beda, Historia Abbatuin, 6, ed. Plummer, p. 369 " Ab Agathone papa archicantore ecclesiae beati apostoli Petri et abbate
:
monasterii
ed.
beati
in
Martini
Johanne
."
and
Historia
Abbatum
auctore
Anonymo,
Plummer,
Oxford 1296, Vol. I., p. 391, 10: Mr. Plummer, in his edition of Bede's Histhe popularity of the cultus of St.
Writitigs (Vol.
II., p.
43) says:
)
"To
Martin
(who died between 397 and 401 in Britain, Venantius Fortunatus (born about 530 at Ceneta and having died as bishop of Poitiers after 600) bears striking testimony, saying of him " Quem Hispanus, Maurus, Persa, Britannus amat." Cf. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils
:
and
Ecclesiastical
Documents relating
to
Great Britain
and
Ireland^
I.,
13,
Isles
Venantius
Fortunatus,
IV., vv.
621
4to series).
^
Boniface
also
speaks
of " fundamenta
in castello
S.
quam
Willibrordus
...
Traiecto repperit, et
eam
mento construxit
260, ed. Jaffe).
Martini consecravit {Monuvienta Moguntina, pp. 259Ducange, Glossariict?t, under Festum S. Martini: " Recensetur inter festa
et in
honore
in Lib. VI.
Capitul.,
c.
c.
46;
in
in Capitulari
163."
29
who, in the middle of the fifteenth century, compiled the Annals of that
monastery,!
^q[\^
th^t in
11 71
of
gave
monks
This
Germanic
offering tides,
was
and a
story
that he
and a
composed
and promulgated
to
Public bonfires on
was called Funkentag;'^ and are again mentioned about the end
Perhaps
it
has also to
do with
St.
Martin's
fires that,
when
in
p.
229.
308:
"Othelricus de Svalenberg
aigenteum anserem in
in festo S.
pro fratemitate
(obtulit). "
Pfannenschmid, Gernianische
:
Old Leibnitz, Scriptores, II., /ntrodmtio, p. 28 " Anserem assatum In\ntat anni Martini per omnes fere domos, mensis inferunt Gennani.
.
. .
Pfannenschmid, Ibid., p. 505, beats all enim anseres pingues habentur." speculators about the connection between St. Martin and geese, by the simple declaration This was of even that St. Martin's day is just the time of the year when geese are fat.
tempus
turn
greater
moment
in fonner centuries,
when
considerable difficulties,
and domestic animals were difficult to feed during winter time. Compare also D. Georg Joachim Marks, Geschichte vovt Martini- Abend und Martins-Mann, Hamburg und Giistrow, 1772, p. 20.
3
The
state.
story
It
is is
told
in
bee
Bonum
universale de apibus:
"Quod autem
obscoena carmina finguntur a daemonibus et perditorum mentibus immittuntur, quidam daemon nequissimus, qui in Nivella urbe Brabantiae puellam nobilem anno domini 12 16
prosequebatur, manifeste populis audientibus dixit
:
cum
collega
meo composui
ille
autem cantus
I., p.
71.
30
down, a report expressly remarks that the young fellows when feasting and
holding Martinmas had neglected
it.^
in
fires,
singing
"
Sinte Marten konit hier Met syne bloote arnien Hy sonde hem geerne warmen."
;
to the praise
and and
memory
century
jhis
of St. Martin.^
is
A joke
preserved to us in the
poem
St.
MarttnsnachtA
St.
A A
rich farmer
Martin.
when
pretending to be
St.
Martin.
The
on with
his
banquet, with the result that in the morning he finds his stable empty.
the
festivity
That
is
documents.
The monastery
a quantity of wine
drink
it
for the
What
it
not known.
A.D.
A
of
knight,
Duke Otto
to Harzburg,
at the
same time
^Birlinger,
that feasting
Aus Schwaben, II., p. 132. This happened on October was called Martinsnacht apparently because in olden times
,
10.
it
Nevertheless
on November
'^
11.
^Der
I,
1263:
"Dem
guoten
und zu minnen."
Stuttgart
^Hagen, Gesammtaienteuer,
'
50.
p.
Reimann, Deutsche Volksfeste, 284 ; Pfannenschmid, Germanische Emtefeste, Marks, Geschichtevom Martini- Abend und Marlinsmann, Hamburg, 1772, p. 20.
222
31
On
with his
He
accepted the invitation, and on the following day presented his host
und
genss
Oswald von Wolkenstein (1367-1445) sings: I'ss Ott^'^ and bones of Martin's geese
fifteenth century.^
:
were used
for
Sebastian
Martin with good wine and geese, until they are drunk.
Unblessed
is
far," to
of a
game
circuit or circle
divided
among
Bodonis Chronicon
pict. p.
in Leibnitz's
Germanische Erntefeste,
500
Scriptores Br., III., 385, H. Pfannenschmid, and Uralte Sachsen Chronic by Caspar Abel, written
about 1455 (^<i annum 1375). Pfannenschmid, Ibid.: "HertogOtto de bose to Getting halde eyn grot hop des Quecks uth Holt-Lande van der Wulfesborch, unde wolde darmidde
driven in dat Lant to Getting, so legerde he sick under der Levenborch, unde was St.
Martens- Avend, dar spysen se one myt alle sinen Volke, unde dem Quecke, des Morgens wolde he de Koste betalen, des wolden de van Schwichgelde nyn Gelt vore hebben, unde ereden sine Gnaden darmidde, do dreyff he sin Roffqueck in dat Lant to Getting, unde spisede dar sine Borghe midde, unde gaff do denen Schwichgelde vor de Woldad de Hartesborch to erve unde to egen, de worden so derna der Borch Goddes Friint, unde
aller
"^
werlde vyent."
Odo = November
13.
Duke Albrecht
Oi
Bavaria, in his
BucA
aller
der zatiberei (1455) says: "Als man zu sant Martinstag oder nacht die gans geessen hat, so behalten die eltesten und die weisen das prustpain, und
und
werden
bis
morgens fru und schawen dan das nach Darnach so urtailen si dan den winter wie
si
alien umbstenden,
er sol
warm
hab."
darauf verwetten
hundred and
Golems, Calendarium
fifty years later that habit was still in use, as we know from J. Oeconomicum (1591), and from Olorinus Variscus and his writing
on
St.
Martin's geese.
**'Nach dem kompt S. Martin, da jsset ein jeder Haussvater mit seinem Ilaussgesinde eine Ganss, vermag ers, kaufft er jnen Wein vnd Medt, vnd loben S. Martin mit voll seyn,
essen, trincken,
Nation Heldenbuch
singen"; Heinrich Panthaleon, of Bale (1522-1595), writes in Der deutschen "Die Leute pflegen zum Gedachtniss S. Martini in Deutschland mit
:
32
A
St.
"We
Burkhard, and
when people
St.
should be gay and banquet more than at other seasons of the year: on
Burkhard's eve for the sake of the
the
new must
on Martinmas perhaps
fat
for
sake of the
^
roast
geese,
all
the
world
rejoicing."
tell
its
geese.^
The
On
On
frohlichem Gemlith St. Martensnacht zu begehen, die Martensganss zu essen, und mit den
wenn
aller
Dinge Ueberflusi
Simrock, Martinslteder,
where other proofs for similar festivities are given from Thomas Naogeorgus (Thomas Kirchmaier of Straubingen, 1511-1563), Regnum Papistkum, Lib. IV. ; Joannes Boemus
Aubanus, De Omnitan Gentium Kitibus, 1520, fol. Ix. G. Forster, Frische Liedlein, Parts, Nlirnberg, 1540, No. 5, and many items of later dates.
;
II
Scheible,
:
Schaltjahr,
I.,
187,
Martinspredigt
des
17.
Jahrhunderts
iibel
"
Und
weil
heute der
Tag Martini
gefallet,
anatomieren
und
zutheilen.
jetzt
von kiinftiger Winterwitterung aus dem Brustbein weissagen, sondern was wir bei einer Gans christlich zu lernen haben, anzeigen. Richtet ihr hierauf eure beharrliche Andacht. Es isset Mancher eine Gans nach der andern, und ist und bleibet selbst eine Gans, versteht und weiss nicht, was Gott und die Natur uns an derselben zu studiren gegeben." Ibid.,
I.,
p.
194:
"Ganse geben
Speis,
ist.
.
sonderlich
. .
um
diese
Martinszeit.
sie
Drum
ihnen auch
zu fullen und zu einem lieblichen Schmack zu geben." On Martinmas gaieties a mass of material is contained in Mussard, Ceremoniae Ecclesiasticae, p. 117; Blumberg, Delineatio frateniitatum Calendarum, p. 155; Calvor, Ritual EccL, P. II., p. 362; Keisler, Antiquitates Stptentrionales ; Pirnische Chronick in Meiuken, II.,
p.
1554; Marks, Geschichte vom Martini- Abend und Martinsmann, Hamburg, 1772.
^Grasse, Des deutschen
Landmanns
"
33
man
Spandau, Brandenburg, to a young fellow, and raged about in an indescribable fashion, so that
all
usages.
So
on February
it
4,
1605,
and June
many
places. 2
e.g.^
Rhine country,
gift in
where such
being given as a
return
in
^Al Oberaussem,
the persons
soller
in
Sunday
102).
after
Martinmas,
who
They dined
at
two
tables, at a tisch
auffm
and a
specktisch ifn
haus (Armin
Tille, Archiviibersicht, p.
CHAPTER
IV.
the
earliest
term
occurring
in
the
Anglo-Saxon
Laws.
at
which a
to
man
stayed in
the
He who
failed
do so
was to
forfeit
twelve-fold.^
^ Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Laws of King Ine of Wessex, about
A.D.
690 (688-693):
"Be
Ciric-sceattum.
Ciric-
"Be
ciric-sceatte. Ciric-sceat
mon
sceal agifan to
tham healme
In
and
^
to
to
middum
a.d.
wintra."
1840, II., 460.
In Thorpe's Ancient
Laws and
Institutes of
(ca.
England (London),
967)
it
the
was enjoined that plough-alms were to be given xv. days after Easter ; and a tithe of young by Pentecost ; and of earth-fruits by All Saints; and Rome-"feoh" by St. Peter's mass; and church-scot by Martinmass ("serest sulh-oelmessan xv. niht onufan Estron. and ge&gudhe teodhunge be Pentecosten. and eordh-westma be Omnium Sanctorum, and Rom-fe6h be Petres-maessan, and ciric-sceat be Martinus-maessan "). This is the reading of MS. D, a small folio of the middle of the eleventh century. Corpus Christi, 201 (v. 18) ; X, a large octavo MS. of the tenth century, Bodleana, Junius, 121, has Ealra Hdlgena jnisssan instead of Omnium Sanctorum, and has the following sentence immediately preceding to the quoted AngloSaxon text ";and riht is that man thisses mynegige to Eastrum. odhre sidhe to gang-dagum.
:
" whilst
it
adds
"and
leoht-gesceotu
thriwa on geare.
on Easter-sefen. and odhre sidhe on candel-msesse sefen. thriddan sidhe on Ealra Halgena msesse sefen." Acta Conciliorum, Parisiis, 1714, Vol. VI., i, col. 657-8, Leges " Quisque fetuum decimas omnes ante Ecclesiasticae Regis Edgari, ca. A.D. 967, iii.
:
35
at
any
rate,
preserved
Henry
deal
longer.^
It
is
like
many
other Germanic
institutes
also found in
Pentecosten persolvito terrae quidem fructuum decimas ante aequinoctium pendito ipsas " Et autem seminum primitias sub festum divi Martini reddito." Ibid., col. 659, iii. omnis decimatio juventutis reddita sit ad Pentecosten, et terrae frugum ad aequinoctium,
:
et
omne
judicialis
liber dicit."
aratri scilicet
fetuum seu novellorum gregum decimas, ad Pentecosten ; et terrae fructuum, ad festum omnium Sanctorum, xi. Census Romae debitus [quem denarium sancti Petri vocant]
and festum
qui cyrick
sancti Petri
sceat
ad vincula ad
(alias
Missam
sancti
Petri) persolvatur
et ecclesiae census,
xiii.
appellatur,
Missam
Martini.
xii.
et.
Luminarium
mention of
Rome
(Thorpe, Ancient
Laws and
England {X^x^Aoxi) 1840, I., p. 104: " Et seminarum ad ecclesiam sub cujus parochia quisque " De nominatur") {Ibid, in the notes). Also Heming, 21
Institutes of
:
cirisceato
de Perscora
dicit
vicecomitatus,
quod
ilia
ecclesia
hidis, scilicet
si
homo
manet unam
fuerit,
summam
annonse,
et,
dies fractus
et
in festivitate
Sancti
summam,
undecies
persolvat abbati de Perscora, et reddat forisfacturam abbati de Westminstre quia sua terra
est"
I.
{Ibid.).
Cnut's letter
is
col.
ad Anglorwn
1031
"Omnium
debita,
quae secundum legem antiquam debemus, sint persoluta: scilicet eleemosyna pro aratris, et decimae animalium ipso anno procreatorum, et denarii, quos Romam ad sanctum Petrum debetis, sive ex urbibus, sive ex villis, et mediante Augusto decimae frugum, et
in festivitate sancti Martini primitiae
seminum, ad ecclesiam sub cujus parochia quisque degit, Bye and bye Easter creaps into the number of these 1714, VI., I, col. 899, Leges Ecclesiasticae Canuti Regis,
"a
is
"All
Saints,"
whilst,
besides,
Peter's
penny
firstlings
col.
908, xvi.
col.
also three times a year the candle money has to be ; "at Pasch," "at All Saints," and "at Mary's Purification"; 909, xvii., xix ; Thorpe's Ancient Laws, XL, 524.
I.,
xi.,
4):
"Qui
cyric-
eum
regi
1.
This
institute
is
by von
et
Magnae Britanniae
Hiberniae, London,
p.
204.
36
and
in
Germany, where
falling-
obtained
all
due
at
it
Martin's penny,^
when
to
the
payment of
had been
shifted to Christmas, a
similar
shifting of terms
is
to
be observed in
England
in
the
at
eleventh century.^
the beginning
of
made
Then was
also paid
servants,
beginning of winter, at
Vita
1 1
30), auctore
lohanne Diacono
Glossary,
No.
15
(Ducange-Henschel,
1845,
304):
quae vulgariter
^Norrenberg,
1889,
p.
Martiniega,
in
Majorinum
Coin,
certissime advenisse."
H. Pfannenschmid, Girmanische
der Pfarreien
des 23.
1878, p. 466.
Geschichte
Dekanates
Miinchen
Gladbach,
276,
No.
is
A.D.
1324,
Dec.
24:
Among
the
revenues of the
church at
Giesenkirchen
^
dicitur
Mertyns pennynge."
Hand- Book to the Land- Charters and other Saxonic Docutnents, Oxford, Eadward (1042-1066), his Writ of Privileges to the Abbey of Ramsey, 1888, pp. 344-345. CO. Huntingdon (Manuscript of century xil., Cottoniana, Otho, B, xiv., f. 257): "and ealle dha gyltes dha belimpedh to mine kinehelme inne lol and inne Easteme and inne dha hali wuca set Gangdagas on ealle thingan al swa ic he6 meseolf ahe, and tolfreo ofer ealle Engleland, widhinne burhe and widhiitan, set gares cepinge and on sefrice styde, be wsetere and be lande habeant et omnes forisfacturas quae pertinent ad regiam coronam meam in natali dominico, in pascha, et in sancta ebdomada rogationum, in omnibus rebus sicut ipse habeo, et per totam Angliam infra ciuitatem et extra, in omni foro et annuls nundinis et in omnibus omnino locis per aquam et terram, ab omni telonii exactione liberi sint."
John Earle,
;
I.,
;
ad hiemale companagium;
ad quadragesimalem convictum
and on sumera." A similar state of things survived up to the present time. Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, February 4, 1899, p. 85, in a note on Pack Rag Feast by R. Hedger The agricultural labourers in some of the North Derbyshire villages, among Wallace
in aestate,
i.e.
and
to winter-sufle, to laengten-sufle,
'
'
November), which
is,
Old Martinmas Day (23 Rag Dinner. The name refers who are changing masters at
Martinmas, gather together their belongings for removal from one house to another."
37
and
it
was
in
general use.^
are
^
We know
of such
gifts
to the clergy
on
saints'
I.,
p.
341,
Emtefeste, p. 204, confuse the legal recognition of an existing status with the introduction
of
it.
'Ltyitr,
Pfriindenordnung of the Monastery of Geisenfeld, ed. by Wittmann, Miinchen, 1856; Mitlelhochdeutsches Ergdnzungsworterbuch, I., p. 736 ; Pfannenschmid, GertJianische
ze sente Mertinstage," Sachsenspiegel, ed.
or,
:
Emtefeste, p. 205
hune
5
;
" leclichen hof und vourt unde sunderlich hus verzendet man mit eyme by Weiske, Landrecht, Book H., Art. 48, " Jeglichen hoff, odder wiiste hofstadt vnd sonderlich as another version has it
:
heuser, verzehent
man
am
S. Martinstag."
"An
St.
Martinstag sind
allerhand pfleg
und
H., 58,
Middle
Germany.
^
xxi.
Parisiis,
si
Vol. HI., col. 352; Cotuiliujji Bracarense, I., 1 7 14, quid ex collatione fidelium, aut per festivitates martyrum, aut
offertur,
apud unum clericorum fideliter colligatur ; et omnes clericos dividatur nam non modica ex ipsa inaequalitate discordia generatur, si unusquisque in sua septimana quod oblatum fuerit, sibi defendat." Ample evidence on Martinmas as a term I have given in my Geschichte der deutschen Weihnacht, Leipzig, 1S93, PP- 23-28, and pp. 291-296. Mark's Geschichte vom Martini- Abend und Martins-Mann, Hamburg, 1772, contains on pp. 26, 27 a chapter (13), Von der Zahlungsfrist auf Martini, and mentions there documents of a.d. 1294, 1318, 1460, to w^hich are to be added those mentioned in E. J. Westphalen's Monumenta Inediia, Part IV., Preface, p. 95. Nicolaus von Werle, A.D. 1297, gave the town of Waren exemtionem ab angariis et petitionibus omnibus under the condition that the citizens every year at Martinmas would send him on a cart quantitatem seminum ; Georg Joachim Mark's Geschichte vom Martini-Abend und Martins-Mann, Hamburg, 1772, p. 49. Ibid., p. 81, mentioned that two generations earlier Graf Heinrich of Schwerin concluded a bargain with Archbishop Engelbrecht of Koln to the effect that the archbishop had to send him annually at Martinmas fifteen harradas or barrels of wine. That book is devoted to the question of the origin of the custom of the so-called Martinsviann at LUbeck, which, however, it fails to answer. The origin of the habit is unknown, but it is certain that in 1567 it was called an old habit, that on Martinmas the Town Council of the Imperial city of Liibeck sent a barrel of old Rheinweinmost to the Court of Schwerin. The story is firequently related in modern times, e.g., by Mark ; by Reimann, Deutsche Volksfeste, Pfannenschmid, p. 28S ; by
per
commemorationem defunctorum
As
kind
New
Year's
in
gift
the
Town
The
Wiirtemberg monasteries.
38
merely a term
year,
is
like
other terms,
the
fact
that,
but the
in
evident from
the
same
period, which
is
As long
the last days within which the duties had to be paid; but
when
the taxes
were paid in money, they became the days on which the payment had to
be made.^
As
early as a.d.
for the
whole of the
a.
made
at
In medieval Frankfurt
M.
the
officials
Sunday
previous.^
wine to
all
In
man and
in the cradle,
Wine was also given at 684 ; Reinsberg-Uiiringsfeld, Das festliche Jahr, p. 340). Martinmas at the court of the Archbishop of Mayence, at Erfurt, about 1494 (Michelsen, Der Maimer Hof zu Erfurt am Ausgange des Mittelalters (1494), Jena, 1853, p. 26, Regu" Uff sanct Martins abent sal lations for the Kiichenmeister (the highest economic official) er wein, uff weihenachten opffergelt und uff das neue jhor zum neuen jhor geben, wie das rothbuchlein und die rechnung in belt, und auch christsemeln wie sich gehurth geben,") and about 1520 at Wiirzburg, as Martin Boemus tells us.
:
862, p. 68.
^Grimm, Deutsche
stete reht hat, der sol sin zolles halp."
^
607,
Oeringen,
A.D.
heller,
1253: " Swer dirre und sol daz jar alles fri
Frankfurt
a.
M.
Rechenbuch, 1358-59,
sin jar
fol.
iG*
" Hartmude an
fizscher porten
synen
und geng
lb. sines
93*:
divisionis
zu Bonemesse
achtel
unde ged
sin jar uz
unde an
i
pliget
fol.
under
" Einzelinge Innemen:" "Item 2951b. 14 ss. i,\\i. han wir enphangen von Johan Heller, im spitale zum heiligen geiste als der uns rechnunge getan hat von dem jare das Martini anno 74 ussgangen ist." Actum sabbato post dominicam Esto mihi anno 1475.
'^Frankfurt Kechenbuch,
141b.
1435,
fol.
39%
under
"Einzelinge ussgeben:"
"i 100
lb.,
keiser
mynner 3iss. han wir ussgeben und bezalt unserm gnedigen herren dem Sigmund die gewonliche des rijchs sture von sant Mertinstag izunt vergangen
keiser die
im
"
"
"
39
to
came
that
the
tax had
to
be paid
for all
people
it,
who
lived
see
lives
St.
who died
for
before
because their
On
requisite
Martinmas was
free
from
last
In the medieval
Frankfurt
in
M.,
all
November
all
now
which
Sf.
agricultural
work was
till
Petri
ad
catJiedram (Feb. 22), for during that time, in 1297, the Ffahla.
biirger of
Frankfurt
M. were required
to have
ramparts of the
city.^
it
proclaimed the
day
Walther Swarzenberg,
tancil.
Heinrich
vom
Rijne
frunde
umb
siner
sunderlichen begerunge willen zu Pressburg zuvor bezalten und ussrichten uff sine quer^ Bedebuch of Frankfurt a. M. of A.T>. 1476, Ob. 19'': "6ss. von siner swieger seligen wegen, die nach sant Mertins dage von dodes wegen abegegangen ist."
a.
M.,
I., p.
263.
does not pay his citizen money, "sal geben zuschen hie vnd sant Mertins dag neist kommet 10 lb. und 4ss. hell; wo he det nit entede, so mochte man sie uff in zun juden uff sinen schaden nemen ; Ibid., I., p. 485, A.D. 1372, the inhabitants of the villages which are under the protectorate of the city have to give "eyme schultheizsen eynen schilling phennige vnd ein hun uff
Ibid., I., p.
Citizettbook
of
1378.
He who
sant Martins
dag";
Ibid.,
I.,
p.
"Und
sal
dem
schultheiszen sin
von Dozenten der Leipziger Hochschule, Leipzig, 1894, p. 139. ^ Ibid., p. 150 The duties are to be raised (a.d. 1474) " eyn
:
komenden
drj' jare
kommend
p.
anetzufahen.
39.
40
were elected,^ and for which duties and interests were paid.^
property was burnt before
year.3
fifteenth
St.
no
duties that
and seventeenth
centuries.*
When
This
also
shown by the
fact that
leases
many a
one, though
into
money.
is
To
Martin
is
'
Martin
in,
a bad man.'^
all
So other
sorts
;
at Martinmas;'^
of
accounts are
church
The
finally
agricultural
Then
new
new
servants are
hired.
and Torminz, Upper an sanct Martins des heiligen bischofs tag zu gwalthabern und dreierern furgenomen, erwolt und " Ein feldsaltner erkiest warden;" Ibid., III., p. 258, A.D. 1607, of Latsch, Vintschgau soil, wo es kann, auch am kassuntag, wo nit doch neyst darnach angenomen und seinen
^Zingerle, Tiroler IVeisiiimer, II., p. 173, a.d.
'*
:
1580, of Nassereit
.
.
Engadine
jarlich
dienst, als
hernach
folgt unzt
p.
193,
und
soil
auch jahrlich
1674;
" Der messner allhier hat auch jahrlich am st Martinstag " vor der ganzen gemeinde stehen und um solches amt bitten
;
I., p. 79,
;
A.D. 1727.
A.D. 1416; Vintschgau "
:
1303
II., p. 104,
Und ob dann
ainer verprent
umb
wurd und
long
list
of other cases
is
my
Weihnacht, p, 293.
^Zingerle, Tiroler Weistiiiner, IV., p. 33, a.d.
143 i, of Partschins
Ibid.,
III., p.
65,
Nork, Festkalender,
Leoprechting,
Germanische Erntefeste, Hannover, 1878, p. 237. p. 683, and Simrock, Martins Lieder, xv.
'
Aus
Aus Schwaben,
II., 132.
41
latter fact
high
held.
But
in
as,
Germany
considered
Tours, even a
new
era was
computed from
on the
Montanus^ noted
left
and
that
that
in
Germany.
Hoya
date for the elders of the church to lay the accounts before the
list
of facts in support
Martinmas.^
About Martinmas,
In the
Hannover,
was so
and
till
in
other regions
all
servants did.^
Havel country
it
Now
in
began
Martinmas
among
p. 511. p. 511.
Germanische Erntefeste,
^Richter, H., 359; Pfannenschmid, Germanische Erntefeste, p. 511. ^Schambach, IVorterbuch, 131. elder Gebrduche, 15. ^Waldmann, Eichsf
^Kuhn und
^Ibid.
Birlinger,
Aus
^"Nork, Festkalender,
^^
p.
p.
308;
Rochholz, Wandelkirchen,
p. 14.
" Martinstag
ist
19).
42
In
New
Year.
It
in
some phrases
still
used as identical
Instead of:
"a
man
eat
many
The man
has helped to
many
St.
Martin's goose.^
"
Iss
The
old hexameter,
also alludes
to
Martinmas as the
to a
when people
of regular
new annual
of
termly duties
It
stands
that
among
The only
of
it
foreign impost
It
was fixed
Thus
it
Germanic
institutions.
name Rome-feoh on
it
foreign origin
and purpose of
Keeping
mind,
we cannot
fail
i,
wrong.
1262. The explanation of that phrase, given there by The time from one St. Martin's goose to the next is
^A
sub
that
its
meaning had
nuncupatus,
been forgotten
sic
Lib.
II.,
chap.
Ixi.,
23: "
Ue
tritingis,
super wapentakia quae tritinga dicebantur, eo quod erat tertia pars provinciae
quia vero
super eos dominabantur, trithingreves vocabantur, quibus differebantur causae quae non in
wapentakes poterint
diffiniri in
vel quatuor,
vel plura
in
comitatum differebatur
quod in Trithingis non potuit diffiniri, in Schiram terminandum modernis autem temporibus pro uno
et
:
et Trithinga."
"
UNIVERSITY
Of
43
little
year,
in
after
Under King Ethelred (991-10 16) plough-alms were Easter, and a tithe of young by Pentecost, and
mass
(and
Rome-feoh by
St.
of
by
All-hallows'
Peter's
for
mass),
and
light-scot thrice
in the year,^
named
to losngten-sufle
and ad quadragesi-
I.,
p.
306:
"xi.
And
gelaeste
man Codes
gerihta georne
Ibid.,
I.,
p.
318,
in
the
resolutions
passed
geare
the
Council of
georne. that
Enham
is.
"xvi.
And
gelaeste
man Codes
niht
ofer
gerihta.
:
s^hwilce
xvii.
rihtlice
sulh-aslmessan
huru XX.
Eastron
And
:
ge6godhe teodhunge be Pentecosten. and eordh-waestma be Ealra Halgena msessan xviii. And Rom-fe6h be Petres msessan. and ciric-sceat t6 Martinus msessan xix. And leoht-gescot thriwa on geare"; Ibid., I., 338, under King Ethelred: " iv. Et
praecipimus, ut omnis homo, super dilectionem Dei et
et
omnium sanctorum,
det cyricsceattum
rectam
;
decimam suam,
est,
sicut in
stetit,
quando melius
stetit
hoc
sicut
"^Ibid.,
gelsest
"ix. And si selc geogudhe teodhung I., p. 342 (also under King Ethelred): be Pentecosten be wite. and eordh-wsestma be emnihte. oththe huru be Ealra
Halgena msessan." {Here the equinox was probably substituted for the older All-Hallows "x. And Rom-fe6h gelaeste man seghwilce geare be Petres maessan. and sethe that nelle gelaestan sylle thar-t6-eacan. xxx. peninga. and gilde tham cyninge cxx. xi. And ciric-sceat gelaeste man be Martinus-maessan. and sethe that ne scillingas. gelaeste for gilde hine mid twelffealdan. and tham cyninge cxx. scillingas. xii. Sulhaelmessan gebyredh that man gelaeste be wite aeghwilce geare. thonne XV. niht beodh agan ofer Easter-tid. and leoht-gescot gelaeste man to Candel-maessan. d6 oftor sethe wille." The same is ordained in the Laws of King Cnut, 1017-1042 (Ibid. I., 366 " viii. And gelaest man Codes gerihta aeghwylce geare rihtlice georne. that is. sulhterm.)
:
selmesse huru
fiftene
niht
ofer
eordh-waestma be
be Petres maessan.
xii.
De
Primitiis
De
Pecunia Pro
Lucernis.
aet
And
aefen
healf-penig-wurdh wexes
aelcere hide,
and
eft
swa mycel. and eft to thaem Sanctan Mariam claensunge eal swa" (Feb. 2); Ibid., 434-35 " Et det suum cyric-sceatum in festo Sancti Martini (and sylle his cyric-sceat
:
to
Martinus maessan
"),
{Rectitudines
I.,
Singularum Personarum).
436-7.
44
malem
Tirol
The
Urbary of
spring
St.
Victor,
Xanten,! gives
Gertrudis
Day (March
17) as the
it
term, whilst
documents of the
later,^
two centuries
beginning
Gertrudis
of
begin on April
23,*
the
St.
Martinmas.
In
Flanders
Day (March
Sommer
at
tag/^
Just as the
mid-May term,
fail
to
term, or rather to a
mid-March term.
22, a
could
fall
was March
date
three
only a week
March
15.
Grimm
that
has
shown ^
that
the
There
is
no doubt
the autumn Thing and the spring Thing were the most important,
while the
reason
that, in
men
festival
should be the
deny
to Ger-
had any
earlier
early relation to a
summer
which
It
fell
is
gainsaid.
true the
almost
all
June
24).
festival
summer
at
the
tenth
eleventh
term in
many
had been.
itself
is
As the expression
foreign.
ze einer
sunnenwenden
foreign,
so
the
date
Were
it
otherwise,
would be
how
to mid-July,
Stift
8*.
^Zingerle,
178.
ss.
245, 745.
45
Besides, there
is
no
any
Germanic
showing
and
in
the
existence of a
midsummer
it
Thing
is
as well
vouched
Old Norse
history, without
the fact that the Scandinavian year began between October 9 and 14, and
had a Gbiblbt between February 9 and 14, the summer Thing was held between June 9 and 14. In Germany, where the terms of both the
beginning of winter and of the beginning of early summer
later,
about July
(St.
St.
new
season,
So
in
At other places July 1 7 appears Swabia children and gilds received gifts the
year.
new
It is also
Germany a Roman
had
quarter
of a year was taken as identical with spring, and counted from February 22
to
May
25.^
festival
originally nothing to
te
do with a
solstice
In 1461
it
was
still
taken
was
still
sixteenth century.
It
who,
at Laatsch, Tirol, in
Holtzmann,
Germanische
AltertUmer,
Leipzig,
1873,
PP-
127 and
173;
Grimm,
*'
Stifc
8*.
p.
*Ibid.;
'
~"
I., 1 16.
Grotefend, Zeiirecknung,
in
XIX., 49: "de Mey beginnet sunte Urbans daghe" (Grotefend, Zeiirecknung, I.,
^
Baltische Studien,
de summer
^Grotefend, Zeiirecknung,
^
I.,
87.
Annalen des historischen Vereins fiir den Niederrkein, Vol. LXV., p. 42 (Town-Archive of Kempen, Docs. Nos. 367 and 387). It there appears as St. Jacob's day.
46
community
Saxon
four Bernese
pounds
for
each
pair,^ whilst,
St.
is
In the Anglo-
expression corresponding
June 9 to
to
14),
When
its
it
June
24,
it
Midsummer was
is
by law
"
fleece until
Midsummer, or
King
Ine's
let
the fleece
doom
in
Laws.*
still
But
later.
courts
king's
all
whom
it
behoveth.^
till
of the year
late in the
on by
life,
It
economic
and
and
agriculture.
In connection with
fields,
an old
tri-partition
us.
century*' ordains
Day, to cause
all
the old
and
bad teeth
to
be drafted
out,
and
all
barren,
and
the young avers that will not grow to good, and put
to fatten, so the worst shall then be worth a better.
good pasture
And
he ought, three
all
men
all
who know
of
their business
later,
May, and
for
p. 89).
436-7.
I., p.
146:
I.,
194:
"ond
thses sie to
thsem
in
p. 97.
47
best,
killing
many
of the worst, or
let
by proof of the
the wool.
And
let
Lammas, and
them be put
good pasture
fat,
is
let
them be sold
after
more sought
August; and
let all
And
let all
down
that
a part was
to
be sold by true
Easter),
men
good
security,
until
Hockday
from
(Thursday
after
under
shelter.^
^"E
2
tote le remeignant
seit
vendu deuant
la
seint martin."
la seynt
Walter of Henley's Husbandry, ed. by Elizabeth Lamond, London, 1890, p. 33 symon e seyn lude facet tuer deus de meylurs e deus de myuueyns e deus de
:
"A
pyres e
si
mye
hokeday e done
Fleta seu Commetitarius Juris Anglicani, London, 1647, p. 167, Lib. IL, chap. Ixxix., " Inter festa autem sancti Martini et Paschae, infra domum oves expedit noctanter
Registrum
:
sive
Liber
Irrotularius
Londini,
with an Introduction, Notes, and Illustrations by William Hale Hale, Sumptibus Societatis Camdensis, 1865 ; Redditus Prioratus Wigomiae Anno Incarnationis Domini MCCXL., p. 14'': " Praeterea arabit ad yvemagium, tramesium, et ad Wigorniensis
warrectum, per
opere,
et
vocatur
;
benherthe.' "
Ibid.,
si
p.
14'':
die ad
yvemagium
et Prior inveniet
semen, et
necesse
48
fuerit quaelibet herciabit
pro opere, donee perventum fuerit ad carueas, praeterea arabit uno uno die warectabit," etc., ut supra. Ibid., p. iS*" "Nova assisa de In hoc manerio sunt xxvil. dimidiae virgatae Quarum quaelibet ad vilenagio de Mora. firmam posita reddit ad quemlibet terminum ll^ solidos et in Purificatione I quarter. Quaelibet etiam debet x'^''"^ summagia apud Wygorniam et terram arare sicut sibi avenae. arat ; scilicet semel ad yvernagium et ad tratmesium et ad warectum et debent sarclare et metere et intassare una cum cottariorum operibus et aliorum in autumpno totum bladum de dominico, et debent Thac et Thol et pannagium et gersummationem prolis et hujusmodi." " Et dat auxilium, scilicet xviil. denarios Et in Purificatione dimidiam Ibid., p. \<^ quarterium avenae et facit III" aniras scilicet ad yvernagium ad tratmesium et ad Warectum
die ad tramesium, et
:
'
et iii^=
Benrip."
CHAPTER
V.
district
May
tax and
autumn
tax.
In
The
all
In
dated Whitsunday and Martinmas, while the dates of the custumars' accounts
vary considerably.
occur.
Martinmas
thus
being shown to
the years 1359 to 1379, Whitsunday and Martinmas are also the two main
The
is
printed by
i.
B.,
Rotuli Scaccarii
Regum
x.,
xi.,
Scotortan, edited by
I.
^On
pages
viii.,
xii.,
xv., xvii.
in the contents
5 In England
( 1
state of things
mid-May
Days
Edward
ordained that the great assembly of his people was to take place on
May
i.^
As regards
the Franks^
it
in the
middle of May.
Can
three
the
name
of this assembly
Campus Martins
the tri-partition
(to
important of them was held in the middle of March, and thus has nothing
to
all
over
German
soil as far
As
late as
secular territory of Trient, reserved to itself the right of keeping two placita
the one in
May and
It
this institution,
and replace
Roman
quarters
Legal institutions were not the only form in which the Germanic terms
survived.
in
to
make
mode
phrases of Vol.
II.
are:
"de
281)
;
72, 73)
"de duobus terminis huius compoti, videlicet Pentecostes et Sancti Martini" (pp. " de termino Pentecostes ultimo preterito " (pp. 72, 73) ; " de terminis Pentecostes
Martini" (pp. 72, 73 twice); "de eodem termino Pentecostes" (pp. 72, 73 twice). Calendarum Maji, Hampson, II., 94, Grotefend, Zeitrechntmg, I., 20*. The
is
et Sancti
^
In
capite
the Rogation
Days.
"And we
ordain that every 'burh' be repaired xiv. days over Rogation Days."
I.,
Laws of King
Gang-dagas."
accuser,
p.
niht
ofer
"And
every
man
'
that
will
may make
:
wite,' until
Rogation days
and be
it
after that as
it
was
before."
^
H. L.
Laws of King Athelstan, iii. "odh Gong-dagas." Ahrens, Uber Namen und Zeit des campus Martins der alien Franken, Hannover,
Second Division, Diplomata, Vol. V., No. 212, p. 417: comniunitas de Flemmis sicut de jure et ex antiquo est anno quolibet non debeant conveniri in foro temporali et juri parere
homines
et
s.
1872.
'^Pontes Keriwi Austriacarum,
ipsi
nisi bis in
civilibus
et
.
Martini et in placito
Majo.
."
"
51
found expression
in
Two
so
closely corresponding^
their
these
tides,
that
relationship
to appear.
and decreed
a three days'
from
clergy
to
all
work
for servants of
both sexes.
Because of a suspicion
too great a
that
the
might
try to
ignore this
new
institution, as
concession
processions about
mid-May, a special
in case of
non-com-
command
made
of the Church.
place
in
the
further
in
concessions
being
the
Germanic
celebration,
uoba,
the
of June 8,
present, ordained in
November respectively,^ That so that the latter were held between November i and November 9. this was a permanent institution appears from Canon VI. of the second Synod of Lyon in 567,^ from which we also learn that, between 517 and
weeks subsequent
and
to the Calends of
^Acta Conciliorum,
A.D. 511,
Parisiis,
:
Canon
xxvii.
" Rogationes,
;
ita ut
solvatur
per quod
et ancillae ab omni opere relaxentur, quo quo triduo omnes abstineant, et quadragesimalibus cibis "Clerici vero qui ad hoc opus sanctum adesse contempserint,
triduum ser\i
^Acta Conciliorum,
ii.
"De
in
litania,
Item secundae
ut
si
litaniae faciendae
alia
et
hebdomada,
in
incipiantur,
col.
"Placuit
enim universis fratribus, ut in prima hebdomada noni mensis, hoc est, ante diem Dominicam, quae prima in ipso mense illuxerit, litaniae, sicut ante Ascensionem Domini sancti patres fieri decreverunt, deinceps ab omnibus ecclesiis, seu parochiis celebrentur.
52
567
to
May
term.
7
The autumn
days'
litany
which
after.
forty
itself.
from Martinmas
St.
Martin
till
long
I.
His
feast
appears
first
in a Sacra-
(492-496), and
;2
in the Liber
Sacramentorum
Martin
is
I.
Gregory
the
Great
it
(590-604)
a
great
but
it
was
only
Pope
(649-654)
who made
the
Church
festival.^
So the excuse
as has been
not
St.
Martinmas, or
fasting-tide
beginning with
it,
suggested
own
words, the
first
certain traces
some
Yet
by Caesarius of
who
died in 542.
even there
it
is
and
in 595,
it
who ordained
burial
for his
diocese a fast
Christmas.^
tide
of three
days a week,
from
St.
Martin's
day
till
From
new
Church.
First the
monks
only.
Tours
in
567 (where nine bishops were gathered, and among them those
King Charibert, a
daily
About
no7ius
I.,
131.
"^
464.
d' Archery,
II.;
Pfannenschmid, Ibid.,
^
^
465.
p.
Gennanische Erntefeste,
515.
In Appendix Augustianus,
Tom. V.
Operum
St. Atigustini,
nova
edit..
No.
15 et
16.
''Lib. X.,
8" A
53
monks during December up till Christmas day, a period bye and bye extended to forty days, and made applicable to laymen also. The first testimony as to a general celebration of an Advent-tide
was decreed
for
is
an ordinance on
in
fasting for
first
Synod of Macon,
Its
Canon IX.
runs as
"
From
is
St.
Martin's day
till
and Friday
to
be a day of
fast."^
fast-tide
all
sixth century
Rome
and
in the
seventh
it
was
kept
over
Spain,
and
England.
in 836,
In
at
Germany
and
Erfurt in 932.
The period
Finally, the
fast-tide,
of fast as well as
its
considerably.
a continuous
In 1022
Advent
till
new
ecclesiastical
until
significance.
About
in
the
year
608
the
Roman
Saints;" and
it
In
extended the
" Ut a
litanies,
which so
in
May
'
feria sancti
{Ada Condliorum,
Parisiis,
Pfannenschmid, Germanische
Alcuin,
Ertitefeste,
p.
'
De
Divitto Officio.
ad
"Monente
Germania
festiuitas
omnium sanctorum
in Calen.
Nouemb.
celebraretur,
quam Romani
54
and
November
over
important Germanic
festival,
it
a.d.
Acta Conciliorum,
Parisiis,
vi.
mensium
cursum, litaniarum vota decreverit persolvendum, nee tamen specialiter sanxerit pro quibus
causis idipsum
peragendum
inolevit oberrandi
consuetudo, et jurisjurandi
qui ait
in
commune
decernimus,
et
ut deinceps per
totum annum,
in cunctis
Galliarum
provincias, pro
statu
ecclesiae
pro incolumitate
principis
nostri,
atque
Dominus
"^
perspexerit, et
delictis
omnium
procul efficiat."
III.,
col.
Acta Conciliorum,
:
Parisiis,
1714, Vol.
1956,
"Sextodecimo condixerunt
omnique populo his diebus cum magna reverentia agantur id est, die septimo Kalendarum Maiaium [this date must mean May 7], juxta ritum Romanae ecclesiae quae et litania major apud earn vocatur. Et item quoque, secundum morem priorum nostrorum, dies ante ascensionem Domini in coelos cum jejunio usque ad horam nonam, et missarum celebratione venerentur non admixtis vanitatibus, uti mos est plurimis, vel negligentibus, vel imperitis id est, in ludis, et equorum cursibus, et epulis majoribus sed magis cum timore et tremore,
:
signo passionis Christi, nostraeque aeternae redemptionis, et reliquiis sanctorum ejus coram
portatis,
^
indulgentiam."
Acta Conciliorum,
:
1714, Vol.
IV.,
1014-5,
Concilium Moguntiacuin,
sit
"
Placuit nobis,
ut litania
maior observanda
a cunctis Christianis
diebus tribus, sicut legendo reperimus, et sicut sancti patres nostri instituerunt, non equitando,
impedierit."
''Do Litania quoque maiore atque de Rogationibus ventilatum est sed communi consensu ab omnibus electum atque decretum, juxta morem Romanum, vil. Kalendas Maii illam celebralionem, secundum consuetudinem nostrae ecclesiae non omittendam." Ibid., Vol. V., col. 456, " De Letania Romana vil. Kalendis Maii, llerardi Turonensis Capitula, A.D. 858, xciv. " De diebus Rogationum, ut reverenter ac studiose absque turpibus ut rememoretur. " xcv.
IV.,
col.
Vol.
1395,
Conciliutn
Aquisgratiense,
:
II.,
a.d. 836,
x.
55
Church
and raid-November by
special litanies, so
was decreed
meet
at
at
November
i),
i.
When
(in
was fixed
meeting
a date
more than a century.^ Not before a.d. 755 were these terms superseded by March
i,*
and
October
but
even
after
the
of
the Church
were held
in
the
beginning of
November.^
name
of
Ut
Concilium Engilenheimense,
" Ut
litania
Domini exerceatur."
^
Acta Conciliorutn,
'*
Canon
vii.
Ut medio Maio omnes presbyteri ad synodum Novembris omnes abbates ad concilium conveniant."
:
"^
in
Acta
589,
Cottciliorum, Parisiis,
xviii.
:
col.
482, Concilium
ut
Toletanutn, III.,
stante
A.D.
"
Praecipit
bis
haec
in
sancta
et
veneranda synodus,
semel
in
priorum
auctoritate
canonum, quae
et
anno
praecipit
congregari concilia,
consulta itineris
in
longitudine,
paupertate
ecclesiarum
Hispaniae,
:
anno
locum
quem
patrimoniorum,
ex
decreto
gloriosissimi
Novembrium
unum
conveniant."
in 681.
at another Council of
Toledo
Acta Conciliorum,
xii.
:
"
Placuit
huic
venerando
juxta
priorum
canonum
instituta,
episcopi
singularum
celebraturi
unaquaque provincia Kalendis Novembribus concilium autem in praedictis Kalendis Novembribus pro celebratione synodi venire distulerit, excommunicationi debitae subjacebit."
provinciarum
annis
singulis
conveniant.
Quisquis
*^Acta Cottciliorum, Parisiis, 1714, Vol. III., col. 1995, Concilium Veronense, A.D. 755,
iv,
:
" Ut
bis
in
anno synodus
fiat.
Kalendis, ubicumque
domnus
Prima synodus mense primo, quod est Martiis Secunda synodus Kalendis
Octobris, aut ad Suessiones, aut alibi, uti in Martiis Kalendis inter ipsos episcopos convenit."
^
Acta Conciliorum,
A.D.
852,
Parisiis,
i.
:
Capitula,
"Anno
DCCCLii.
Kalendis
etc.
presbytorum
in metropoli civitate
Remorum,"
56
time.
Chronicle, in the
same year
in
which
Martinmas appears
Rogation Days
:
and niiddurn sumera. They are held to be fixed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the Ascension week, and appear once more in 921 to gangdagum, and in 922 betweox gangdagum and middan sumera.^ In the other group of chronicles represented by the
betweox gangdagum
Laud
is
the same,
whilst
the
next two
are lacking.
Then
November
to
mid-November,
the
the
The only
is
hlafinassa,
the later
Lammas
is
it
is
the
first
ad
viiuiila
(Augusti), frequently
with gula (the throat
;
and
comp,
p.
Gutnplete
Completa
Grotefend,
I.,
78,
also found.
little
Lammas
middum sumera)
whilst in the
interpolation
B and C, which is styled by Earle The Atmals of ALthelflccd, it occurs and 917 {thces foran to hlafmassan send, foran to hlcefmassan lespectively). It seems to have been the term dividing the economic summer-tide, instead of July 15. Hlafmmssa appears in 917, in 1085, in iioo, in iioi, and 1 135, whilst ane dtcge icr sanctes Petres massan afene and on sanctes Pet res mcessa dccg are mentioned in 1048,
'^
I131,
1132.
is
when the term is shifted back as far as October 18. In the was in the south of England usual and right that plough beasts should be in the stall between the feast of St. Luke (October 18) and the feast of the Holy Cross (on May 3), five-and-twenty weeks (Walter of Henley's Husbandry, ed. by Elizabeth Lamond, London, 1890, p. 13 "Custume est edreyt ke bestes des charues seyent a la creche entre la feste de seynt luc e la feste de la seyt croys en may par vint e cynk semeynes "). At the " Veet same time sheep were kept in houses between Martinmas and Easter [Ibid., p. 31 ke vos berbyz seyent en mesun entre la seynt martyn e pasche "). Even in these five-andtwenty weeks the wintry half of the year is clearly recognisable.
^It
a mere exception
it
thirteenth century
CHAPTER
VI.
festival
a view not
book on the
division of the
in
German
legal
some
Day
and when,
in the apparatus,^
five
seven cases, in
John
Baptist's
Day
it
only in
is
two.
If
any
to
facts,
that,
Roman
Martinmas by
far prevailed
over Michaelmas.
He
further
talks ^ of all
The
fact
is
that,
the
Germanics the
quartering of the year and a beginning of the winter on September 29, the
little,
Martinmas has
of
in
many
preserved
its
character as
the
popular
beginning
the winter.
Uber
I-Ciel,
1862, p.
10.
I.,
"^Ibid,, p. 19.
"^
Ibid., p. 5.
89, JahreszeiUtt.
58
September 29 to November
beginning of
reality the
and adds
to
it
an imaginary
shifting of the
the middle of of
May,
whilst in
May
know
very
by one
full
and
first
in 913,
Michaelmas
first
1014; but
after
latter quickly
outnumber those
Martinmas
913
of the former.
From
Chronicle
We
have
in
ymb
thces
to
foran
;
to
single time
in tlie
Laud
was written
A.D.
so that
it
is
under
759 appears a
971
(B),
1009,
1021,
Then Martinmas is mentioned under 913, 915, 1089, 1097, 1099, HOC, 1 1 14, whilst Michaelmas as 1014 (also in ms. C) but its occurrences become
;
Nobody
Ernlefeste*
will
is
deny
that Dr.
the
first
authority
is still
By
in
to the conclusion that only very slight traces of a thanksgiving for the corn
harvest
the
later
it
almost
an abundance
^ Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel, ed. by John Earle, Oxford, 1865. 'They are 1066, 1086, 1089, 1091, 1095, 1097 (twice), 1098, 1099, 1 100, iioi, 1102, 1103, Asserius, De Rebus Gestis Ailfredi, Afonutnenta 106, 1 1 19, 1125, 1 126 (twice), 1 129 (twice).
Historka Britannica,
I.
p.
*Ibid., p.
193.
59
festival
held in honour of
is
;
St.
Martin."
The
this
should be
Festival of
winter's beginning
and summer's
close.^
at
was not before the ninth century that the Church made an
Roman
year a special
angels
importance by a
festival
that
of
in
St.
Michael
and of the
and
called
Germany Engelweihe
2).^
and on May
Round
this
there
of them
more popular
been
worth
with every century, although their popularity cannot, even so late as the
seventeenth
century,
festival
compete with
that of Martinmas.
Had
there
it
any Germanic
own
purposes,
it
some
saint's
Michaelmas cannot
fruit-
be proved before the tenth century, when the Anglo-Saxons paid the
When,
in
I
my
Weihtmcht,
did not suppose that any folklorist could be unfamiliar with the results of Dr.
them and summing them up. But Professor Weinhold seems really to Otherwise he could no longer be in favour of Michaelmas as the
Germanische Erntefeste,
II.
Pfannenschmid,
S. Michaelis:
p.
169
Ducange,
Glossariuin under
"Est ilia dies, inquit Honorius Augustod., Lib. III., cap. 167, qua populus Christianus cum paganis pugnavit, et victoriam per S. Michaelem Archangelum obtinuit ; Cathiulphi Epistitla ad Carolum Magnum, Vol. II. ; Historia Francontim, p. 667;
Festum
Beletus,
^
c.
cxxix.,
cliii.
c. xii."
Acta
Cotuiliorum,
1714,
Vol.
IV.,
col.
1015;
Pfannenschmid,
Ibid.,
P-
175-
6o
tithe to the
been paid
rent day
that
is
England
in
at
fifteenth century.
The
fact
marked
centuries
by the
the
landlords
de
la
Hay
among
other things as rent for part of his land, a goose for Michaelmas.^
are able to trace the
We
still
way
in
Roman
year was
made popular by
the
+ 604),
813,'^
is
brought
Aus dem
Englischen
ilbersetzt
von
Ritter, p.
'^N.
^
165.
Fragmenta Antiquitatis ; Antient Tenures of Land, and Jocular Customs of some Manners, by T[homas] B[lount], London, 1679, p. 8 "Johannes de la Hay cepit de Will. Barneby Domino de Lastres in Com. Heref. imam parcellam terrae de terris Dominicalibus. Reddend. inde per annum xx. d. et unam Aucam habilem, pro prandio Domini in Festo
:
S.
Goose
in
Curiae et alia Servitia inde debita, etc. i. Paying a on Michaelmas day." *"Doceant presbyteri populum quatuor legitima temporum jejunia observare, hoc est mense Martio, Junio, Septembri et Decembri." ^ Acta Conciliorum, Parisiis, 1714, Vol. IV., col. 1015 Pfannenschmid, Germanische
fit
Erntefeste, 425.
^
Acta Cotuiliorum,
i.,
col.
794
ii.
:
regis circa
annum
" Et
instituimus, ut
habet, jejunet tribus diebus, jejunet in pane, et aqua, et herbis crudis, ante festum Sancti
Et omnis homo ad confessionem vadat, et nudis pedibus ad ecclesiam ; et omnibus abrenunciet emendando et cessando. Et eat omnis presbyter cum populo suo ad processionem tribus diebus nudis pedibus, et super hoc cantet omnis presbyter triginta Missas, et omnis diaconus et clericus triginta psalmos et apparetur tribus diebus
peccatis
:
jejunare possit
operetur siljimet
idem comedere deberet, et Et sit omnis servus liber ab opere illis tribus, quo melius quod vult. Hi sunt illi tres dies ; dies Lunae, dies
in
cibo et
potu,
sicut
"
6l
in 813,
is
to
mark
In 858 the
list
not in the
list,
Days
are.^
In England
St.
much
before
King
Ethelred's
first
collection
Church
festivals of
Some-
The mentions
of Michaelmas
became
Mf/a
813, xxxvi.
ut in Pascha.
In natali apostolorum Petri et Pauli diem unum, Nativitatem sancti loannis Assumptionem sanctae Mariae, dedicationem sancti Michaelis, natalem sancti In Natali Domini dies quatuor, octavas Domini, Remigii, sancti Martini, sancti Andreae. Epiphaniam Domini, Purificationem sanctae Mariae. Et illas festivitates martyrum, vel confessorum observare decrevimus, quorum in unaquaque parochia sancta corpora requiescunt.
Baptistae.
Similiter etiam
Dedicationem templi."
1
A.D. 858,
Ixi.
" De
festivitatibus anni,
quae
feriari
debeant, id
Mariae,
et
et Pentecoste.
Apostolorum Petri
sancti
^
"^
atque
omnium sanctorum,
xviii.,
Andreae,
et
King
Ethelred's
Laws
ii.);
p.
337,
ii.
col.
a.d.
1012,
and
Michaelis,
si
alicubi
retro
per plenam
witam,"
etc.
I.,
iiii.
479, xxviii. of the Laws of William the Conqueror: " De homines ad stretwarde invenientur a festo Sancti Michaelis,
62
more frequent
been effected
all
Councils
of
Church,'
quarters of years
unities to
be reckoned with.
at
economic basis
in
Up
to the third
livelihood,
was only
;
the
in
meadows began
produce of
to develop
and
in
cattle,
the
continental
Germanic
tribes
grew quickly
in
numbers.
for the
But
for
and
it
before a.d. iooo that agriculture took equal rank with pasture as a
means
of livelihood.
winter.
The
After Martinmas
it
to pasture foals,
at pasture after
them be out
in the
oak
in
forest
in the Westphalia
fifteenth century.^
The time
which
Acta
i.,
ii.
Conciliorut?t,
Parisiis,
1714, VI.,
i,
col.
185,
877,
"^
Capitulare de
Villis,
by Charlemagne
sancti
*Zingerle,
the
common
legal
long
of cases from
Tirol
documents,
63
documents of the
be
summer from
Easter,
fields
came
between February
harvest-tide.2
contained.
work
sets in
though
in
Germany nowhere
at the
beginning of February.
in
autumn
also a
All grain
bams towards
winter,
is
my
As
is
addressed as
and patron of
cattle
" Ich
in
Abrahames garten
der lieber herr sant Martein der sol heut meines vihes warten."
p.
243-5.
Hirtensegen
from a
^Zingerle,
p.
on Martinmas.
65, A.D.
1630, of Burgeis.
:
^ 1 horpe's Ancient Laws, I., 434-435, : " Rectitudines Singularum Personarum Geburi consuetudines inveniuntur multimodae, et ubi sunt onerosae et ubi sunt leviores aut mediae.
In quibusdam
terris
11.
dies,
sic
opus sicut
ei
dicetur
per
eius
Augusto HI. dies pro septimanali operatione, et a Candelarum ad usque Pascha III. Si averiat, non cogitur operari quamdiu equus Dare debet in festo Sancti Michaelis X. denarios de gablo, et Sancti foris moratur.
et in
II. gallinas. Ad Pascha i. ovem juvenem, vel II. Et jacebit a festo Sancti Martini usque ad Pascha ad faldani domini sui, quotiens ei pertinebit. Et a termino quo primitus arabitur usque ad festum Sancti Martini arabit unaquaque septimana i. acram, et ipse parabit semen domini sui in horreo. Ad haec 11 1,
denarios.
acras precum, et
duas de herbagio.
is
permittatur."
Here August
in the
Anglo-Saxon
text corresponded
by
hcerfest.
64
the end of September.
harvest.^
Mogk
agrees with
Heino PfannenMichaelmas
is
who maintains
that
Romans.2
as,
in the centuries
which followed,
means of producing
food,
Martinmas was
bound
to
decay
in favour of
new
stress.
with a tendency
in
it
destructive of a
to
grounds
till
such of
first
Thus, in the
half
of November, a great killing time for the domestic animals had begun,
festival
at
the
beginning of
of
in
the cultivation
meadows
the
Carolingian
^This appears plainly from Thorpe's Ancient Laws, I., 432-33: " Recti tudines SinguCot-setle rectum est juxta quod in terra constitutum est. Apud quosdam debet omni die Lunae, per anni spatium, operari domino suo, et tribus diebus unaquaque septimana in Augusto. Apud quosdam, operatur per totum Augustum, omni
larum Personarum
:
die, et
in the
again hcerfest
on lande
On sumon
selcre
he sceal
selce
wyrcan.
odhdh
Grimm
wucan on hserfest ne dhearf he land-gafol syllan." When Jacob explains evenmant (September) as meaning oats-month (from Latin havaia,
dagar
1848,
L,
p.
87),
is
he
is
The
term, which
rather to be put
month
So
is
p.
54).
From
is
apparent
Evenmaend is confined to the Nether-Rhine up to Cologne. '^"Auch auf deutschem Boden scheinen wir noch Uberreste dieser alten Sommer- und Herbstopfer zu haben jener in der Hagelfeier, dem Johannisopfer, an dem es besonders gait, Menschen, Vieh und Erzeugnisse des Bodens vor bosen Geistern zu schiitzen, dieser in den Erntefesten oder den Martinsschmausen, doch sind die Nachrichten auf diesem
:
fiir
sie in
Kulturverhaltnissen
"
65
at
the
domestic animals
in
some time
in the stable,
and fattened
Thus the
winter
to
5).^
St.
Nicolas
day
(December
So
late
as
the
I.
the
usual time of slaughter for cattle, swine, and sheep was from Martinmas
till
Christmas,
and these
forty-four
called
"tyme
ihre
of slauchter."^
127, in
This argument
',
and horses beyond Martinmas is much older than the Roman influence upon the Germanics is. *A St. Andrew's feast is mentioned e.g. by Melchior Goldast of Haiminsfeld, Rerum Alamannicarum Scriptores Aliquot Vetusti, Francofurti, 1661, I., p. 97, in Ephetnerides Monasterii S. Galli: "Andreae Apostoli. Eodem festo dat Hospitarius X. fercula, scilicet
bis
et
ciatos, et
leibonem,
minorem leibunculum, et in vespera stuopum, lunulas et oblatas de Linkinwiller. ^Thorpe, Aiuient Laws, I., 461, Leges Regis Edwardi Confessoris (1042-1066): " De Occisionibus Animalium contra natale. xxxix. Cum autem dictum est, quod non emerent
animalia
praeter pl^ios, clamaverunt macecrarii,
civitatibus et burgis,
:
quod quaque die oportebat eos emere animalia, occidere et vendere [L. add nam in occisione animalium erat vita eorum]. Clamabant etiam cives et burgenses pro consuetudinibus suis, quod circa festum Sancti Martini emebant animalia [L. instead
:
sine plegiis,
et sapienter
tamen
in
cum
compare the
As to the masting of swine and Lmws of King lite in Thorpe's Ancient Laru's
and
of England, I., p. 133 (xlix.), where different fines are prescribed for taking forbidden mast, according to the thickness of the fat of the swine. There were rules laid
Institutes
down
(Thorpe,
pertinet, ut
Stat, ut
" Gafolswane, id est, ad censum porcario, suam occisionem det secundum quod in patria statutum est. In multis locis det singulis annis xv. porcos ad occisionem, x. veteres et V. juvenes ; ipse autem
Ancient
Laws,
pp.
436 437
habeat super-augmentum
*
"),
is
not stated in
Burgorum
Scocie,
luges
et
Consuetudines
edite
Quatuor Burgorum
Regent
Berewic
titulo
Rokisburg Edinburg
et Strivelin, constitute
ac confirmate per
David,
66
was
be
killed at once.
This was
"commonly
later time
called Martlemas in
'
Martlemas beef.'"^
or
of a
little
"
Two
more of the
having been
filled
formed into
presents,
etc.
From
their
our
LXIV.
1
De
Officio
;
Carnificum
(in
:
The Acts of
I.,
A.D.
124 to 1423
1844, p. 346)
LXIV.
"De
Officio Carnificum
carnes
"Of Fleschewaris
" Quha
gude
he
that
in
the Burgh
he
sal sell
eftir
" Quicunque
et porcinas et
vendere
voluerit
wyl
sell
flesche
scilicet
bovinas ovinas
flesche beyff
the ordinans of
ponat
communes omniCarnifices
that
be sene communly
bus
emere
volentibus
vero
will tharof
And
servient
scilicet
burgensibus
tempore
occisionis
a festo sancti
Martini usque ad
suis preparandis
natale
Domini de carnibus
preparentur
et conficiendis in lardariis
Si vero carnes
restituet
ei
And
he
gif the
male
carnifex
fleschewar graythis
flesche
sal restor
dampnum
Carnifices
suum
cuius
erant
animalia
hym
aw
the bestys
And
ser-
dum
dent
ad
mensam
illorum
scilicet
cum
servientibus
eorum Et habebunt pro uno marto obolum pro quinque ovibus obulum pro uno porco obulum "
^
vandis
And
cow
or ane
ox a halpeny and
v shepe a halpeny
and
for a
Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsaltertiimer, V., 537, Baubach, Lower Alsace, A.i). 1 143, "Ipse villicus mansum cum omnibus iustitiis habebit, porro in natale domini curiam visitabit, 12 panes, 4 sextaria vini et unum porcum, quem pascalem vocant, apportabit." ''English and Swedish Dictionary, Nykoping, 1757. ^Jamieson, Etytnological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, under "Mart."
5
:
*P. 355-
^Jbid.
67
in Scotland.
are,
They
cow
or
at least
and a
little
oatmeal.^
A
was
ox which was
from the
(Gaelic
fattened, killed,
to the
and salted
fifteenth
nineteenth
Mart
= cow),
Marie, or Mairt?
The
While June
is
month of
hunting with a hawk, and July as the time of mowing with a scythe, the
representative of August, holding in one
in the other a
weed-hook,
leaf
is
cutting off with the latter the thick succulent stalk of a thistle;
and
it
is
is
denoted as
the
month of
grain-harvest,
its
in a field of wheat,
left.
October
is
hand,
The
It fell
And a gay time it was than, When our gudewife got puddings to And she boil'd them in the pan."
(_The Songs of Scotland chronologically arranged,
London, 2nd
ed., p.
158;
"Get up and
'
'
Mart. "
He gives the
war
in
following instances:
"Of fleshers
39,
s.
{Chalmerlan Air,
sustentation of his
c.
68).
"That
pultrie,
that
c.
the
Skene,
Laws and
were
v.,
'2.(>'i
Acts of Parliament, Fol., Edin., 1597, c. lo). 60 marts or fat beeves, 162 sheep," 19s. 2d. sterling,
"In
1565,
the rents
etc. {Statistical
Account,
4).
is
who
are
pampered
a.,
"As
Marts of
Lord
in his righteous
There can be no doubt that this Celtic word Mart -covf was very early brought into connection with Martinmas. ^ Described by James Fowler in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westviorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, IV., p. 280, which description is extracted in R. S.
Ferguson's Guide to Carlisle, Carlisle, 1890, pp. 45-46.
68
the hooked knife in
right
hand
of the
it
vine-dresser,
side denoting
as
such.
in the
domestic animals.
man
in boots,
his right
member
of this capital
capital
is
seen a swine-
herd
in the
December
held
fast
it.
man
its
with an axe grasped by the handle in both hands, raised, and with
it
the back of
about to
fall
on the forehead of an
ox,
which
is
by
first,
standing behind
January
its
unbearded faces under one skull cap, drinking by the right and
out of shallow cups held respectively in the
right
mouths
the
left,
hand and
in
A
digs
jug wherewith
on the ground
February
is
March
up the ground
round
still
leafless trees;
;
April,
is
and
May
the gay
in
month of young
foliage
and
flowers,
each hand a
^^eur-de-fys-shsL^ted.
bunch
of sprouting foliage, and presenting them to a young man, who, by his right
On
the Nether Rhine, about a.d. 1400, the killing time of swine was
little later,
December was
the principal
month of
slaughter.^
^ Annalen des Historischett Vereins fiir den Niederrhein, Instalment LIV., 1892, p. 12; " i alb Book of Expenditure of Herr von Drachenfels, 139S, p. 21, Jan. 4, 1396, No. 56 um spiskraut, i alb um eier up dat huis, doe man die verken affdeide ; " p. 37, Nov. 29, 1396 "Ich haen Heynen Volrait gegen 55 m van den verken die zuo jair up vur kirsnacht wurden gegulden." ^ Bartholomaeus Anglicus, IX., chap. xix. (ed. 1488): "De Decembre. In hoc mense
: :
altilia et
plurimum impinguantur.
Unde
69
to St. Anthony's
Day
it
To February
to
was
when
become popular
cum
porcum suum.'
. . .
That the slaughter began in November is shown by the following passage " Of our tame boars we make brawn, which is a kind of meat not usually known to strangers. With us it is accounted a great piece of service at the table from November until February be ended, but chiefly in the Christmas time. With the same also we begin our
dinners each day after other
;
and, because
is
it
is
somewhat hard of
. . .
digestion, a draught
{Elizabethan England:
Chronicles),
from
"A
Harrison
J.
(in
Hollinshed' s
Library, p. 658).
^
III.,
369: a young
pig which had not reached maturity was led round through the benches (and, probably,
killed afterwards).
^Montanus,
p.
I.,
p.
131;
Opfergebrduche, p. 266.
^
way
October.
"
bibit.
October mustum
Et
serit
November.
Ligna vehit mactatque boves,
Ebria Martini
festa
et laetus
ad ignem
November
agit.
Ad
pastum
Autumnus quaecunque dedit, consume November, Et pinguem hybema glande trucido suem.
70
of the winter.
shifting of
a great
number
to
new
year,
reckoned either as
Christmas or on January
so that Michaelall
St.
John's
Day came
to
the
Roman Church
succeeded
Germanic
The economic
celebration,
evolution,
more
Germanic mid-November
festival
development of a
festival
December.
In nive persequitur vestigia pressa ferarum,
Abluit et calida
membra December
tribula dura
ferit.
aqua.
Et iugulat porcos,
A liter.
Haud avis, baud fera venanti deest ulla Decembri, Quamvis ningat atrox et gelet usque vadum.
Januarius.
lanus vina
bibit,
Et pingues carnes
editque suem.
Annum
{Ranzovii Exempla,
piece from the
Sed venam
pp. 304, 306, 307, which latter two are there wrongly
Quibus Aetrologicae Scientiae Certitudo Contprobatur, Coloniae, 1585, numbered 400 and 303). Another
" Prassen will ich und leben wol, Eine Sau ich itzunder stechen sol."
(Grasse,
^
p.
28).
Michaelmas appears as a term for paying duties very frequently from the sixteenth century. Landesordnung des Herzogtums Preussen von 1525, Pfannenschmid, Gernianische
Erntefeste, p. 118; Richter, Kirchenordnungen, I., 32; Ibid., II., 355; Hoyaische Kirchenordnung von 1573, where Michaelmas is called the vierte Hochfesttag, and put into parallel with Christmas, Pasch, and Whitsunday, thus clearly standing in relation to the
Roman
CHAPTER
SOLSTICES
Jacob Grimm,
six-fold
VII.
AND EQUINOXES.
as
has
history.
And though he
did not
among the Germanics at the dawn of know that it had been borrowed from
that
it
the
Orient,
was by no
fail
did not
to
see
how
deep-rooted
it
was in the
is
legal,
our ancestors.
It
knowledge of two
solstices
conclusions
as
to
six-fold
Had
year
and
Roman
and
is
of purely
Roman
origin,
that there
no
historical
evidence
whatever
for
of
solstices
and
equinoxes
among
that philology
and
and the
year with
history of agri-
culture
the
beginning
to
regard
who
72
Struggle
their for
their
yearly course
according to
that
it
own
fancies
and
and he
failed to see
is
more important
features of daily
and yearly
life,
leaving only
Jacob
Grimm was
walk
even where he stumbled on his royal road, he could not help indicating
the
way
it
to
safely.
his
route?
Was
all,
not strange
that
neglect
in
hints
and
It
the
direction?
looks like a joke in the history of Germanic antiquarian studies, that the
man who
years to
after
Grimm made
in
this
all
subject
his
his
special
study,
and devoted
it,
the
Germanics
the
same year
as
the
Romans;
and rejoiced
and equinoxes.^
The
is
summer
the
one
movement
horizon
another.
If
some peoples of
lines
connection between the two things, that connection was hopelessly wrong,
the proper relation of the two
of observation
sixteenth
having been
known
is
only since
Copernicus,
i.e.,
since
the
is
century.
true,
That primitive
by no means
and
it
more
than doubtful whether the next thing would be to observe so-called solstices
and equinoxes.
equal
lacks
The
entirely in
economic
interest
and
significance,
and
certainly
The
observation of so-called
^ So even Heino Pfannenschmid seems to think when he explains his theory of the Germanic year in his otherwise excellent book on Germanische Erntefeste im heidnischen
und
christlichen Culttis
ss.
and 326
ss).
SOLSTICES
solstices,
AND EQUINOXES
difficult.
73
Whilst in autumn and
it
is
extremely
spring the rising-point of the sun visibly shifts from day to day,
shifts
scarcely
at
all
June
to
the
middle
of
July.
Even the
fix
whom
the
sol-
and
equinox^^; actually
on June
24,
the
i
;
winter
solstice
making a
December
18,
23, a.d.
on December
on December
A.D.
21, a.d.
401; on December
it
601; on December
17, a.d.
801; and so
12.
to take place
on December
The
in
spring equinox
same
Romans
that the
Roman
but
to
which
men
faithfully
stuck
for
knew nothing of
called
may be
philological. They were compelled to create new words for the new conceptions with which they were made familiar, and they chose the But not simplest way that offered, by merely translating the Latin terms.
tribes
fulfilling
all
that
task
in
the
common word
they
for
them, such
over
the
they
had
for
Nay,
even
took
Solsticium
^
is
for
the
Kuhn's
fur
deutsche Philologie,
1868,
I.,
is
not to
be taken seriously, at
fails to
give any
" ;
74
summer
from
How
that
of that appears
late
the
fact
the
adjective
solsticialis
even in
Latin,
exclusively to
of brumalis.
summer and the middle of it, and is used as the contrary The name for the shortest day of the year was simply bruma
\dies\)^
whole of winter.
four
of
Germany
summer
solstice
alone
sunwende,
that
is,
sungiht^
sunstede,
and sommertag.
Grotefend,^
by sohticium
in
most
cases,
meant,
in
is
which a winter
estivale,
occurs,
his
paragraph
In
Sohticium
estivale.
expressions
sonnwenden,
sonnabenden,
sonnenbenttag,
sunn-
sunwende,
alone.
summer
is
solstice
fact,
that
no medieval instance
it,
known
of
December
about
that
German language
like,
nay,
there
the corre-
sponding
term
New-High-German
being
in
of
quite
modern
growth.
and
no doubt that
it
can apply
summer
is
solstice solely.
No
clear.^
any adjective
sungicht
to
make
that
;
Sonnenwende
is
is
and sunstede
three
but
over Germany,
"^
Zeitrechnung des deutschen Mittelalters, 1891, I., Zeitrechnung des deutschen Mittelalters, I., p. 181.
ist
p.
178.
^"Hiute
Ibid.,
694,
3;
Ibid.,
1352, 4;
1717;
"Santjohans sunewenden
SOLSTICES
as far as the continent
is
AND EQUINOXES
it
75
concerned, for
we may conclude that the Germanics became acquainted with the Roman summer solstice at a time when the Western Germanics had already separated into German* and Anglo-Frisians, but beforeMhe;* community of speech bgtw^^ Angles'
From
this
and
Frisians was
broken
uplpprtTiiis^ is
the more
>
likely,
as-^FrisianTTaiid
English
for
the
same notion:
Fnsiaii
sumerdey, English
summer
night-f'
whilst
sommertag
German.
This being
will
tfee .sj9.te
of matters
among
it
nobody
evolved
How
could
summer solstice^ juntil after they had north! Thus Danish hjj^s Solhverv, or
-is
derived Vintersolhvers-
Norwegian,
likewise,"
modern
Solsta^tl^
derivatives
Sommersolkve^t and
derivative
with the
the
modern
derivative Vintersolstand,
Vetrarsblstodur.
61^/y/[)i/r witii
.
modern
In
German
is
solstice,
sometimes
solstices,
for
equinox^
so
that
Germany can
boast
of
having
three
which
s,she
certainly
deserves
on account of her
and English
It is found, e.g. , in
an Anglo-Saxon
:
treatise
on astjonomy based
Treatises
entirely
on Beda's
work,
De Ratione Temporum
on Scieiue written
during the Middle Ages in Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and English, London, mdcccxli..
Historical Society of Science Publication, pp. 8, 9:
hiems
is
'"^^
p.
,-,
178.
^"Sonnwende
Zeitrechnung,
1891,
I., I.,
181.
among
189:
"A
sunna ewenda bifara sente Liudgeris dei" (Richthofen, Friesische Rechtsquellen, 169); we have there to do with Saturday instead
Grotefend, Zeitrechnung,
178.
891,
I.,
p.
76
In Middle-High-German the
very
rare
literal
of
equinox
{ebennaht)
and very
not
late,
so
that
it
it
At any
before
rate
never
term.
It
is
the
fifteenth
it
The complicated
artificial
little
expression
is
Tag und
of quite
Nachtgletche, which
stamp of
manufacture,
earlier
modern
their
origin.
Frisian
than
German
common term for equinox, A.S. evenniht or emnihie,^ Frisian evennaht.^ Among the Northern Germanics the term is exceedingly rare and very
late.
Modern
has
and
Modern
Danish
^cEVudogn;
jevndogn, and
jafnncetti.
If
it
seasons and
on
solstices
and equinoxes.
everything
to
which
myth,
custom
was
or observations of the events visible in the sky, such as the rising of the
sun, the hiding of the sun behind clouds,
and the
shifting of the
rising-
the horizon.
But, as regards
Germanic
tribes,
that
theory
is
so
little
applicable as to
make
it
among our
^ ' Der onager, in dem merzen an dem funf und zweinzigisten tage so luot er zwelfstunt unde sam ofte in der naht, davon bekennet man sint, daz ebennaht belouhtet ir sunne unde
'
Mliller und Zarncke, Mittelhochdeutsches Worterbuch, 82, 26 L, 301. Ibid., " Ebennahtec, equinoxialis obent-nehtig," Diefenbach, Glossen., 109; " Equinoxium, ebennachtig," lbid.\ " aequinoctium ewennachtig," Mone, VI IL, 249.
waet
ir
wint,"
Karajan,
Leipzig,
1863,
^"1402
als
equenoxium was
umme
Treatises
;
on
Science,
London,
1841,
pp.
8,
9,
"Ver
is
emnihte
autumnus
is hserfest,
Chronicle,
Laud
MS., E, 1048;
"to
hserfestes
Two
is
of the
Saxon Saxon
180.
"Letera evennaht"
the
September
54.
SOLSTICES
ancestors the sun was no deity.
AND EQUINOXES
77
We
of sun worship
among
Nay,
Germanic
tribes
words
though
(Gothic
German
sol;
Sonne, fem.
Anglo-Saxon
Old Scandinavian
the Germanics seem to have originally had one god only, his
*Tiwaz (Greek
whom
in
common Germanic
named *Thonaraz, whilst North Germany still later produced a third, * Wodanaz, who in the Middle Ages immigrated to Scandinavia, Besides, there but never won the adoration of the High-German tribes. At any rate we may affirm that at the was one goddess, called Frija. time when, probably in the first century of our era, the Germans took over
from the Romans the Phoenician week of seven days, and replaced their
exactly to the
Roman
directly
terms,
god
Whilst
the
summer
solstice
was
probably
taken
over
from
to
popular
Roman
tradition, the
equinoxes seem to
the
have become
familiar
mind through
more
bearing the
spring equinox
had
on the
proper time for holding Easter were going on for several centuries, and
most
It is in
controversy that
we
get our
first
Tonsure, written circa a.d. 710,^ shows that about that time the capacity to
^ Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, Oxford, 1871, III., 289: Aequinoctium autem, juxta sententiam omnium Orientalium, et maxima Aegyptiorum, qui prae ceteris doctoribus calculandi palmam tenent, duodecimo kalendarium Aprilium die pro venire consuevit, ut etiam ipsi horologica inspectione probamus." What stress was
' *
by the Middle Ages on the coincidence of Christmas and the winter solstice is evident fact that the keeping up of that coincidence is given as the reason for the Bracton's Note Book, ed. by F. W. Maitland, Vol. III., institution of the leap year. London, i887, p. 301 (fol. 196): "Sed hoc fit propter quandam necessitatem ad evitandam
laid
from the
illud inconveniens,
quod
si
possit
"
jS
fix
Great
Britain,
after their
first
acquaintance with
year of 365
eleventh
century
this
astronomy, which
entirely
The Anglo-Saxon treatise of took place. based on Beda's Z>e Temporum Ratione'^ and
four
on Roman
which
views, calls
the
Roman
a
which are
lencten-tid,
sumor,
hcerfest,
tide,
is
and winter, of
by
its
very
name
compound
with
shown
to
be
Notwithstanding
all
Germanic
solstices
and equinoxes as
better established.
to declare
the
Germanics halved
two
seasons,
summer and
winter,
and
thus arrived, absolutely like the Romans, at four seasons (which, however,
were no longer seasons, but broke entirely through the system of actual
seasons).
down
^
:
" Midwinter
of
John
Baptist,
German
year as
still
of the
sun, which,
new
et Nativitas B.
;
Johannis Bapt. in
Ilenrici
hieme."
de Bracton,
fol.
De
' '
Legibus
De
in
Essoniis,
SSQ*"
Ille
vero dies excrescens qui non est computabilis, ea ratione propter necessitatem ad
illud inconveniens
vitandum
aestate et Nativitas
Sancti Johannis Baptistae in hieme, quod contingere posset infra quingentos vel sexcentos
annos, et etiam
^
ita
Historical Society of Science, Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle
Ages, ed. by
1841, pp. 8, 9:
anum
geare,
;
synd,
ver,
sestas,
autumnus,
;
hiems.
emnihte emnihte
^
sestas
autumnus
^
hserfest,
hiems
Deutsche Jahrteilung,
Ibid,, p. 9.
79
and with
Yet there
is
not a
neither
shadow of
had a
The Germanics
festival
The
Dode-
Nay,
all
the term Sonnenwende, or solstice, has not a single time been shown to
its
use
is
absolutely
restricted
to
June
24,
just as
the word
solsticium
If
Wein-
them
as lind
and
lau, trans-
forms these meanings to "resting," and refers that adjective to the "rest
of the sun," which, according to popular belief,
i.e.,
according to his
belief,
may
well be doubtful
The
later
whom he^
lays
much
stress,
he has
But he
still
Scandinavians
and
that
14 and April 9 to 14 {vetrnatt and the Germans are shown to have had the Roman
i,
knew
ancient
German
year."*
^
"The Germanico-heathen
still
more enraptur-
Germanic
festival,
Deutsche Jahrteilung,
p.
15.
Ibid., p. 6.
4, ss.
8o
We
village
learn
or Hera, or
Gode;
all,
was
not a boar at
cession,
The
holy
is
almost touching.
;
with wheel',
great
is
number
of the
customs
in
use from
or, at least,
and an extensive
that book.
disciple.
list
Dr. Ulrich
his
Ackerbau und
winter
solstice,
Viehzucht,'^
contain,
so
far
as
meant
to
apply to pre-
Christian times, nothing but unhistorical speculations, and would have been
better omitted from that book, which, in various respects,
useful,
may be
called
and
certainly represents a
much more
tradition.
critical
attitude
on the part
of
its
the problems of
German popular
^^'
P-
Breslau,
CHAPTER
VIII.
number
commerce and
from them
in
came
Roman
capital
origin to turn
calendar with
its
Roman
its
intercalary
did not add this mensis Mercidonius every second year between February 23
and
24, but
know.
first
German
year, which,
so
far,
tides
of sixty days,
lunar periods
the purpose
of dividing time,
however conscientiously
to the affairs of
as bringing
Tacitus
division
of the year.
So
it
continued
for
at
least
three-quarters
of a
^We know
"^
this
from Beda,
De Temporum
nisi
who
expressly testifies
month among
Germania, chap.
xi.
"Coeunt
;
cum
nam
"
82
millennium.^
sixty
Roman months
required.
days
The
fact
Germanic
of the
tides,
year,
little difificult.
Yet the
Roman monthterms,
names were taken over and bye and bye replaced by new German
moon, mdnodh (Gothic menoths, Old Saxon monadh).
however, doubtful
is
exactly of the
same
derivation.
disputed
The moon
Germanics
in particular,
among the Aryans and among the anything but the medium for dividing the course
was,
of the year, for which they received, at a very early date, a ready-made
to each
mark them
the
So
the old liuleis tide of sixty days at the beginning of winter was divided
into a
first
summer
Liuleis,
into a
month and a second liuleis month, the Lida tide Lida month and a second Lida month, to which,
Lida
in
in
intercalary
years,
etc.,
a third
whilst
the
words
about
Lida,
mean a
tide of
sixty days,
days.
tides
which were denoted months, most of these names being taken from
life,
economic
the Baltic
'^
Acta Conciliorum,
Parisiis,
:
col.
in
"Qui
demos
iubemus deinceps
:
cessare.
quidem
clericus,
deponatur
'^
sin
autem
laicus, segregetur.
83
names
for these
series of
for all
Germanic
tribes, or
The
several
make impossible
707, />.,
embrace them
which
all.
In the year of
later
Rome
forty-five
years
before the
date
from^^
reign in Italy
in general.
years which
followed,
Roman
legions
and
Roman
administration carried
as
long as
Germans served
the
in
Roman towns; as long as hundreds of thousands of Roman armies, visiting Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt,
known, and more than once disposing of Goths went down
to Italy
;
Roman
imperial throne
as long as invading
there
was
terri-
Roman knowledge
into
Germanic
tory;
and
its
in the suite
with
grammar and
the
Among
the
Germanics
there
successfully
compete
became,
with
for
products
of
higher
civilization,
and so
the
it
ever
mental
gifts
from
the
civilization
of
empire
they
destroyed.
new calendar
year with the Calends of January (at which date, subsequently to 153
84
the
south of
first
observed in
all
Bohemia;
Roman
calendar was
it
one of the three forces which shaped the medieval German calendar,^
will
Roman
festivals.
There was
first
of
all
the
custom of New-Year's
or
Strenae.^
In imperial
Rome
the people
to present
New-Year's
a
day,
gifts to
the emperors,*
requiring
to
being
related
that
Augustus
had
had
nocturnal
present
his
vision
that
people
should annually, on a
certain
money
reign
him,
During
lost
they
were
on the Capitol;
to
a sense of shame,
The
many
connection with Lithuanian Kalada, log (Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th ed., p. 522),
but
till
is
word
for
Christmas
is
up
Bohemian Christmas processions calendisatiotus (Usener, Christlicher Festbranch, Bonn, 1889 Johannes von Holleschau's Treatise on Christmas), and a verb colendisare appearing in old sources of Bohemian law (Rossler, Prager Recht, p. 95, No. 140). Compare
;
my own
"^
14,^,
where
The
Uber deutsche Jahrteilung, Kiel, 1862, p. 3. habit of New-Year's presents boni ominis causa
B.C.) in his Stichus,
iii.
is
is
first
mentioned by Plautus
i.
(+ 184
187.
2,
v. 2, 24.
Their purpose
gifts
Cakes and
fruits
(Martialis,
viii.
33;
xiii.
37;
Seneca,
Epistulae, Ixxxvii.).
It
seems
to
still
of these eatables.
The custom
have been under Augustus that money took the place prevailed about A.D. 400 under the Emperors Arcadius
in Tiberius, chap, xxxiv.
in Caligula, chap. xlii.
and Honorius.
*
Ivii.
Compare
161.
^"Cavam manum
85
publish
of
gifts,
and
to in
stand in order
It
the
porch
on
of
the
Calends
of
January,
to
all
descriptions
brought to him.^
was
of
the
cloak
was expanded;
but
was
in
accounted
objectionable.
Hence
rapine
was
proverbially
expressed
that manner.^
Rome
of
:
festivals,
so
that
Seneca
+ a.d.
39)
Lucilius
" It
is
is
now
the
month
of December,
when the
if
greatest part of
the city
in a bustle.
Loose
every-
there were
some
for transact-
ing business.
truth
year.
am
who said that anciently it was the month of December, but now the Were you here, I would willingly confer with you as to the plan of our conduct whether we should live in our usual way, or, to avoid singu;
larity,
now done
change
Men
*
their dress.
were certainly
be
These
festivals
and
xlii.
Seneca, Epistulae,
Jamieson, Etym. Diet, of Scot. Lang., "Yule," IV. " Cereos Satumalibus muneri dabant humiliores potentioribus, quia candelis pauperes,
xviii.
;
Kaletidaticum.
The new year's gift was called III. Ducange, Glossarium, explains " Kalendaticum praestatio quae Januarii
"
86
December
Saturnalia
23.
I
Then
followed the
\
day of the
Dies Invicti
Solis,
day
The
first
character
of
Saturnalia,
Brumalia, and
that,
lascivious,
so wild
together
the Septi-
Rome,
means meant
to
be a compHment.
So Tertullian
+ a.d.
"By
to
of January,
hither
are
sent
and
there
is
of the
Strenae,
feasting.
better
faith
own
Charta Rogerii
terraticum,
I137,
315:
"Angarias,
herbaticum,
carnaticum,
vinum,
olivas,
relevum,
century, the custom of benevolences exacted by kings was connected with the
Roman
" Rex autem Regalis magnificentiae terminos impudenter transgrediens, a civibus Londinensibus, quos novit ditiores, die Circumcisionis Dominicae, a quolibet exegit singulatim primitiva, quae vulgares nova dona novi anni superstitiose solent appellare." The king is Henry III., A.D. 1249 (Matthaei Paris, Monachi Albanensis Angli, Historia Major, London, 1640, p. 757, under the year 1249). Matthew Paris goes on to say:
Calends custom
:
"Veruntamen
festo
beati
Aeduwardi, quod
est
in
vigilia
Epiphaniae,
:
appropinquante,
ut simul
vocavit dominus
Rex
Magnatum multitudinem
et
cum
eo,
Lunae
in
pane
aqua
prout de more solet, ipsum festum magnifice celebrarent in ecclesia S. Petri apud West-
monasterium.
^
Tertullian,
De
The Strenae
King
Tatius,
who
at this season
a happy or fortunate tree from the grove of Streniae as favourable omens with respect
to the
alia,
new
year.
x.
"Saturn-
omnia."
Compare
also Tertullian's
De Fuga
in Persecutione, chap.
xiii.
87
kinds
of southern
all
the
making of processions
trees, the
through the streets and singing of songs, the lighting of candles and lamps,
the adorning
presents,
giving of
men
year.^
up
in
in the hides
of animals, and the erection of a table of fortune for the good luck of
the
new
first
Roman
legion
Britain,
was
in constant
Roman
legions.
The
we
great
to
mass of
their
Roman
to
inscriptions found
there.
It
is
Britain
gives
that
ample evidence as
sojourn
not
astonishing
among
"
these
find
Sol),
^
one devoted
the
"God The
Calends of
Unconquered Sun
assumption
that
{Deus Invictus
legions
these
did
not
the
Saturnalia.
The
Britain
no doubt
Roman
civilization
and Roman
his
religious
so that
Roman
592) they
Acta Concilioruvi,
:
II.,
A.D.
" Enim vero quoniam cognovimus nonnuUos inveniri sequipedas erroris antiqui, qui Kalendas lanuarii colunt cum lanus homo gentilis fuerit rex quidem, sed Deus esse non potuit." And eight years later: " Non liceat iniquas observationes agere Kalendarum,
567, xxii.
:
viriditate
Omnis haec
A.D. 575.)
^
Ibid., Vol.
III., col.
399.
"Ex
Britannia,"
116,
No.
103:
"Deo
Invicto
Pii
Soli
Felic.
M.
Aureli Antonini
braneis
Inscriptionibus Excerpta de Soc Sacrum Pro Salute Et Aug. L. Caecilius Optatus Trib.
Coh.
I.
Vardul
Cum Con*
Votum.
" Deo Invicto Herculi Sacr. L. Aemil. Salvianus Trib. Coh. I. Vangi V.S. P.M." (Risingham, Northumberland), and No. 75, " Silvano Invicto Sacrum C. Tertius Veturius Micianus," etc., show, however, that Invictus was a rather general divine predicate, which excludes the possibility of interpreting Inscription No. 103 as dedicated to the sole unconquered God, taking Wz as the dative singular of solus.
(Riechester or
Rochester, Northumberland).
Extruct
102,
*"
88
same
day.
late
As
Germanics, as
sacramental usage
Calends
being
rites
Roman
felt
to
We
com-
know
this
Pope
Zacharias,
sowing
and Franci.
justified
For when
themselves
to
St.
he interdicted them from certain heathen customs, they by the excuse that they had seen similar things
Peter's Church,
at
Rome,
close
And
they told Boniface they had seen that every year on the eve of the
after
Calends of January,
streets
singing
unchristian
tables
and
using
heathen
exclamations,
fire
that
people
erected
of fortune
from which
they would not give anything away, just as they refused to lend anything
else to their
women went
them
actually
publicly
and
offered
to others for
things
happened
in
Rome;
them, as
Acta Concilionwi,
Franci,
Parisiis,
17 14,
1880,
juxta
et
homines
Alamanni, vel
fieri
quae
concessum a sacerdotibus esse putant et dum nobis improperium deputant, sibi scandalum vitae accipiunt. VI. Sicut affirmant se vidisse annis singulis in Romana urbe, et juxta ecclesiam sancti Petri, in die vel nocte quando Kalendae
nos prohibemus, licitum
lanuarii intrant,
paganorum consuetudine
nullum de domo sua vel ignem, vel ferramentum, vel aliquid commodi vicino suo praestare velle. Dicunt quoque se ibi vidisse mulieres pagano ritu phylacteria et ligaturas
89
all
interdicted
usages of that
An
interdiction
which was
for several centuries repeated and repeated again, was in the form of a
all
more important
which
it
was meant
to
The
question was
January
heathen custom, so as to lead singers and choirs through the streets and open places? "^
after
From
that,
it
appears
according to
Roman
fire
custom, the
at the
regarded as holy, and custom did not permit anything to be taken away
from
a
fire
it.^
The Calends
affair,
whilst
Germanic
festive
fires
aliis
offerre.
improperium
vel
et
replied {Ibid.,
Quae omnia eo quod ibi a carnalibus et insipientibus videntur, nobis hie To this the Pope impedimentum praedicationis et doctrinae faciunt." " De Kalendis vero Januariis, vel ceteris auguriis, III., col. 1883, vi.)
:
phylacteriis,
dixisti
et' incantationibus,
vel
aliis
diversis observationibus,
quae
;
gentili
et
more
observari
vel
in
urbe
Roma
hoc
nobis, et
The Letters are omnibus Christianis detestabile et perniciosum esse judicamus," etc. reprinted in Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini aevi, L, Berlin, 1892, p. 301, and commented upon by Rudolf Koegel, Geschichte der detUschen Literattir bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters,
Strassburg,
^
fails to
Acta
Conciliorum,
Parisiis,
1714, Vol.
IIL,
1929,
Concilium
Romanum,
I.,
" Ut nullus Kalendas Januarias et broma colere praesumpserit, aut mensas cum dapibus in domibus praeparare, aut per vicos et plateas cantationes et choros ducere, quod maxima iniquitas est coram Deo anathema sit." Compare R. Koegel, Geschichte
A.D. 743, ix.:
:
I.
28.
ritu
paganorum
ita
ut per vicos
et
Worms
(Friedberg,
Aus
Literattir,
1894,
I.,
29).
Acta Conciliorum,
1714,
it
1880, Epistola
Bonifacii Episcopi
ad Zachariam Papam,
where
is
" Et nullum de
domo
commodi
"Cereos
locupletes
Pompeius, Lib.
III.
witnessed by Martialis
and Macrobius.
go
There
fire
is
New
Year's or Christmas
fires
when such
that, in
are recorded,
towards the end of the twelfth century, they are of a perfectly private
character.^
It
warm
fire,
and
oldest cases of quasi public Christmas fires are found in 1577 and 1591. They however, kindled in the private houses of the sexton or provost. Wahlscheid, Sieg District, Archive of the Protestant Parish, Document of April 23, 1577, on the Miinchhof of
^
The
are,
Wahlscheid, property of the Monastery of Maer near Neuss, paragraph 5 " Zum funfften soil der opferman haben von dem vorschrieben munchhofif heixholtz, notturfftigen brandt
:
soil
wem
solches gefellig,
"
;
muegen gehen
umb
sich bei
dem
christock zu
wermen
Schroteler, Herrlichkeit
wetter
in der
ist soil
der scholtis den kiister die klocken helffen trecken oder sein diener, desgleichen
man
kommen,
servitude.
sich etwas
wermen mogen."
is
The
new
year's
seems, under the influence of the special conditions of early morning service, to
institute
have become an
January.
and
But
it
is
any special
fire for
of the Calends of
How
great
is
from the requirements of the season, can be seen from the following case
Curtasye from the
Sloane MS.,
1986,
in
the
British
Furnivall for the Early English Text Society, London, 1868, in The Baabees Book, etc.,
p.
also,
ar thes
two
brenne
I
the kenne,
He
yche mele ; and formes also. The cupborde in his warde schalle go, The dosurs cortines to henge in halle, Thes offices nede do he schalle 393 Bryng in fyre on alhalawgh day. To condulmas euen, I dar welle say Per quantum tempus armigeri habebunt liberatam et ignis ardebit So longe squiers lyueres shalle hafe,
In halle
fyre at
make
Borde,
trestuls,
in aula.
"
; ; ;
91
purpose large pieces of wood were put on, but a thorough proof would be
requisite before
such
fires
Besides,
An
old Bavarian
manuscript contains
the item
We know
for
(a.d.
right of delivery to
of a whole tree
at Christmas
eve.
But that
fire
is
at the
same time
festive
Of grome
of halle, or
ellis his
knafe
But fyre shalle brenne in halle at mete To Cena domini that men hase ete Ther browgt schalle be a holyn kene,
That
sett shalle
be in erber grene,
;
And And
and
p.
327
be brent,
ther-to, yf
ge take tent
Of
men kenne
To
Of
So
mon
fires
wille kraue."
are to
bum
February
2,
Thursday {Cetia Domini). A daily candle they receive Had mention of these customs been made about Christmas-tide, they might easily have been supposed to be popular Christmas customs. In churches, no doubt, the number of candles used at Christmas was very great, as can still be seen from church accounts, e.g., at the manse of Engelskirchen, District of Wipperfurth, Rhine-country, of a.d. 1596-7: "In Anno 96 auff christmess funft' und ein fiidel pont wachfs zu kertzen gemacht vur jeder pont gegeben 22 alb. facit 4 guld. 19 alb. 6 heller, und in der christnacht ein halff pont kleiner
kertzen, costen 4 alb."
1
p.
255.
:
"^
When
" Et arborem
in nativi-
tate
domini ad festivum ignem suum adducendum esse dicebat." Kindlinger, MUnstersche Beitrdge, II., document 34; Grimm, Deutsche Alythologie, 2nd ed., p. 594.
92
said to be entitled
whilst a third
remarks: "Item ein bochg zu hawen vff Christabend vor den Christbraten
so that
\
we have no more
meat
to
do with a
of the
festive fire,
fire
for roasting
common
common
Christbraden of burghers.^
That the
medieval
festive
fire
at Christmas
was a private
affair,
and
that poor
little
people were not always able to have one of their own, appears from a
story,
either
century,
which
seems to point
to the fact
Grimm, Deutsche Kechtsaltertiimer., II., 302. Ibid., 11., 264. Town- Archive of Bingen on the Rhine, No. 90, Town accounts of a.d. 1501, "Item 14 s. 6 hllr. hain wir geben zum Christbraden uff die christnacht den burgern und nachbern." * " Quidam in partibus de Winchelse sibi aggregavit pecuniam in cista, de qua nee sibi nee aUis voluit subvenire. Veniens igitur una die ut earn videret, vidit super eam quendam
^
sibi,
'
Quod
ille
audiens, et nolens
eam
in alicujus
commodum
pervenire, cavavit
magnum
Quern quidem truncum marinae undae ante ostium dicti Godewini, viri justi et innocentis, manentis in proxima villa, super Exiens itaque idem Godwinus litus in siccum projecerunt, circa vigilium Dominici Natalis.
truncum, ipsamque imposuit,
reclusit, et in
mare
projecit.
in tanto festo,
eum
domum suam
ignis
traxit, et
ad locum
foci
gaudens apposuit.
Intrante itaque
et
festi praedicti
vigilia,
trunco supponitur,
liquescit,
exterius
defunditur.
Quod
ut
Sicque
dominus praedictae pecuniae victum quaereret hostiatim, dictusque faber de paupere fieret inopinate dives, devulgatur quia in vicinio quod miser ille pecuniam suam demersisset, cogitavit ergo uxor dicti Godwini quod eidem misero in aliquo cautius subveniret, cogitans dictam pecuniam fuisse suam, fecit uno die panem unum, et in eo XL. solidos abscondens Quern infortunatus ille accipiens piscatoribus super litus obviavit, panem eis pro dedit ei. uno denario vendidit, et recessit. Venientes itaque piscatores ad domum dicti Godwini, Quern prout fuerunt assueti, dictum panem extrahunt et suis equis elargiri proponunt.
agnoscens domina domus, avenam pro
scripts of the thirteenth
eis dedit et
eum
recepit.
Idemque miser
Stories
finetenus
A
:
Selection of Latin
(from
Manu-
and fourteenth centuries a Contribution to the History of Fiction during the Middle Ages. London, printed for the Percy Society, 1842), pp. 220, 221,
from Altdeutsche Blatter, Vol.
I.,
p.
75
93
to
be given.
winter-solstice fire
would have
to
Nay, the very fact that the British version of the above story ^ makes
the^
that
blacksmith use the tree trunk as an anvil seems to indicate that the Yulelog
is
For the
story
fact
kept in the
German
vice versa.^
The
privilege of cutting
it
wood
is
in
the
forest
On DecemAs a reward
women
the
and
Prior
John's day at Christmas, with a hatchet into the forest of the monastery
as
and cut
much wood
But
when
it
women used
in
meadow, which,
1826, was
still
women
is
of Hetteswil,
and the
That we
yearly yield of which was spent for a meal called the fowl-soup.*
some wood to
in
a castle
or
landlord's
dwelling,
known
to
medieval Latinity as
truncagium, and in
early
bet
p.
258.
Thomas Wright, A Selection of Latin Stories, p. 27, No. 25. 3 The passage of the English story runs: "Dixit quidam puer ad magistrum
^
navis,
'Da
istius villae
amicus meus
est,
et
volo
ei
dare truncum ut
die operaet
exinde incudem.'
Et magister concessit.
Cum
retur super
truncum ilium
omnes
imd Branch,
Berlin, 1867,
II., p. 317.
^
x.,
472,
1890,
Ti-uncagium.
94
alone, but
at
and mid-May So
fire is
mentioned,
it
When
was not a
the tenant of a small, holding paid his duties at the old terms,
rule, entertained to
he was, as a
The meal he
got
duration was, in the fifteenth century, fixed by the time requisite for burning away a wet wheel on the open
place.
fire
in the hall in
We know
as
in
that
autumn
^
winter.^
As long
district
as
the
only
instance
known
Kirspels
fell
on
Biirgermeisteramt
in 1683, after
Osterath,
Crefeld,
Schatzregister
des
Osteraht,
made
models of 1603 and 1640, contains the regulation that the community drive to the castle of Linn twelve cart-loads of wood every eight weeks
tury Christmas and Pentecost (instead of Martinmas and Pentecost) appear together in the
same way (Klotz, Beschreibung der Herrschaft und Stadt Gera, l8l6, p. 237; the first " Zu gedenken das Opfer-Geld zu article of the Reussische Kirchenvisitation of 1533 is: Besserung des Pfarrers jahrlich auf zwo Tagzeit, als namlich zu Weyhnachten und Pfingsten ordentlich einzubringen und zusammlen"). The Archive of the Protestant parish of Leuscheid, Rhine country, contains, under
IV.
3^,
According to
it, it
ein
der welcher ein gefahr unter henden hat, auff christmess umbtrent ein karrich hotz, dass
Christ-holtz, zu unterhaltung der hauss-steur
schuldig."
^
Weistum on
ist
the services to be
messen die corstbrende dem haus Liedberg aufzufahren " {advenattt Is the document which among the several communities of the servitudes to be borne by
the whole district).
^
Siirst,
district
between
is
Bonn and
is
Euskirchen,
Rhine
country,
of
in
decreed that the holders have to deliver their duties to the landlord
on
St.
"Wann
95
was
at least
some
now
this
no longer holds
image
all
mythologists found in
its
that
wheel an
In
of
the
and regarded
burning as a solstice-celebration.
probability
of
make them
too thin.
its
The custom
hinder
it
of Christmas
rite
fire
no doubt has
root
in
the
fact
Roman j/^
did not
Calends of January
But that
from receiving an
It
was an
old institute for the landlord to give his tenant a cart-load or wheelbarrow-
load
of
wood
at
the
birth
of
a child.
Christ
being regarded,
little
in
the
universal brother to
for gifts
at the birth of a
baby brother or
gifts
to
children
the
same name
schwein, erbsen und pfeffer, week und brod, wein und bier, wie von alters gebrauchlich.
die geschwornen ihre zeit sitzen, so soil man ein rad an das feur legen, welches und 6 wochen im wasser gelegen hat, so lang den geschwornen essen und trinken geben, bis ein auswendiger mann komt und nicht erkennen mag, was das gewesen sei" (communicated to me by Dr. Armin Tille of Bonn). It was the custom that the peculiarities of such dinners as were legal institutions should be prescribed exactly. Compare Lamprecht, Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter, III., p. 32, Urbary of the Stift St. Trond of a.d. 1274 (Bridal on the Mosella) "Item autumpno facto debent praedicti feodales habere servitium sive prSndium de tribus ferculis ab ecclesia sancti Trudonis, olera cum camibus bovinis, carnes porcinas cum pipere et porcinas carnes assas." Another example of this custom was published by Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsaltertumer, II., p. 615, '* Uff sant stephans tage solle der lehenmann liefem vnd bezalen pfenningzins 616, 693 vnd weissbroit, dan soil man dem lehenman guitlich thuin auff dem hofe, zweyerley wein zweyerley fleischs, zweyerley brot vnd alles desjeniges, wass vom tage zeitig iss. abe der lehenher bedoecht, dass der lehenman zu lange seess, so solle der lehenher ein naefF sechs wochen vnd drey tag in ein mistphole legen laissen, dieselb nit rbdeln noch stochen, vnd wannehe die verbrandt, dass der dauon keyner mehr erkandt mocht werden, soil der lehenman vffstehen." 3 tag
:
Wann
still
Roman
Catholic service at
Stralsund, A.D.
1523,
96
being given
to
the
cattle,
swine, geese,
and
in the rejoicing
Similarly
was a custom
at
that,
at Hippetsweiler,
the
child. ^
first
The
Gotteshausleiite of the
monastery
on the
birth of a
boy a
cart-load,
and on the
There
is
which found
comparatively
to Great Britain
late.
finding
custom to be of
Italian origin.^
That
this habit
was unknown
Germany comparatively late can be glossator when translating a There was a German custom to sit down on a cow's
in inner
cer-
and wait
for oracles.
When
the
referred to that
cervtilo, in liodersdza,
i.e.,
in the procession.
About
these masquerades,
xviii.,
"s6 dr6gen
dadt se de windt sne rip efte sus de lucht beschinen konde, dadt hetede
men
schloch eine garue 2 efte 3 uth undt gaf den swinen koyen enten gensen dadsealle des kindesv6thes geneten scholdenn."
men
litth,
^Weistum of
huch, Tubingen,
'^A.D,
Upper Rhine,
Hossler,
Ziir
Fiirstaibergisches U^-kunden-
132, p. 216.
1444,
Vol.
VI.,
No.
240,
Entstehungsgeschichte
des
Bauernkrieges in Siidwestdetitschland, Leipzig Dissertation, 1895, pp. 25, 26. Geschichie der deutschen Literatur, Strassburg, 1894, I., p. 30.
'^
17.
I.,
30,
truchti quite rightly as procession, while Miillenhoff, Zeitschrift fiir deutsches Altertum,
XII., 351, thought it to refer to the Wild Huntsman, who, however, is in no way connected with the Twelve-nights, as Koegel assumes, these Twelve-nights themselves being
of Christian origin, the Dodekahemeron of the old Church.
97
very late associated with the Calends, and have for a long
we have
various
De
Sacrilegiis, written in
Gaul
the
commonly
ascribed to Augustine.^
up
still
worse,
some baptized
Christians take
on
and monstrous
faces,
of
sad.
man would
believe that
men
in
into
the
shape
of
no more appear
to
be human beings.
How
horrible
is
it,
further,
that
those
their
women's
dresses,
and effeminate
!
abominable masquerade
women
"
"What
is
so insane
as,
by a disgraceful
and put
What
To
parallels
to
the
Brduche, Munchen,
1855,
Vol.
II.,
Compare Friedrich Panzer, Bayerische Sagen und "Cervulum seu vitulam facere." pp. 466-468:
Alii
homines non
essent.
Et
illud
"In istis diebus miseri homines sumunt capita bestiarum, gaudentes et Viri tunicis mulierum quid turpe est
: !
The
usual
phrases
are:
"cervulum
et
vetulam
deutschen Literatur,
Merffvingici,
ed.
I.,
30, note.
The Council
of Auxerre,
1893,
p.
by Frid.
Maassen, Hannover,
179),
Kalendis Januarii vetolo aut cervolo facere vel streneas diabolicas observare, sed in ipsa
die sic
omnia
beneficia
tribuantur sicut
et
reliquis
Parisiis,
98
to
demons!"
the
in
the
rite
know
that
to
men
but to demons.
do not permit
your house."!
almost looks as
the Matronalia
of
March
i,
the
of ancient
Rome,
and
revived
in
ever-new
glory
and
licentiousness
In less
eloquent
speech the same habit was repeatedly forbidden by Councils and mentioned
in Penitentials, especially during the eighth century.^
^A
^
list
of other allusions to
this
custom
is
given in
my
Geschichte
der deutschen
mensis die
dicuntur, et vota, et brumalia quae vocantur ; et qui in primo Martii conventum, ex fidelium universitate omnino toUi volumus sed et publicas
:
mulierum
saltationes
afferentes
;
eomm,
limus;
vel
et expel-
Sed neque comicas, vel satyricas, vel tragicas personas induat ; neque execrandi Bacchi nomen, uvam in torcularibus exprimentes, invocent ; neque vinum in dolis effundentes, risum moveant ; ignorantia vel vanitate, ea quae ab insaniae impostura
conveniente.
procedunt, exercentes" (Acta Conciliorum, Parisiis, 1714, Vol. III., col. 1683, Concilium Quinisextum sivi in Trullo, a.d. 706, Ixii.). The same appears in England: Thorpe, Ancient Laws, II., 34 (xxvii. "De Idolatria et Sacrilegio, et qui in Kalendas
...
etc.).
pellibus pecudum, assumunt capita bestiarum; qui vero taliter in ferinas species se transformant, iii. annos poeniteant ; quia hoc daemoniacum est " (seventh century). ... 24. '" Qui observat
vel
lanuarii in cervulo
divinos,
praecantatores,
lovis,
;
philacteria etiam
diabolica,
et
aut v.
est,
feriam, honore
V.
vel
laicus
si
clericus
annos poeniteat
annos poeniteat."
Haddan and
Stubbs,
Councils
and
Ecclesiastical
viii.
Documents, Oxford, 1871, Vol. III., p. 424; Egbert's Penitential, a.d. 732-766, 4: "Caraios et divinos praecantatores, filecteria etiam diabolica vel herbas vel facino
feria in
" Concilium
;
Toletanum,
Can.
x.
S.
Isidorus,
Lib.
I.,
De
xl.
Concilium
: :
99
among
first
like others,
new
year.
But
in the course
Turonense,
ii.
xvii.
St.
Nullus in Kalendis Januarii nefanda et ridiculosa, vetulas, aut cervulos, aut jotticos facial;'
Si quis in Kalendis lanuarii,
;
'
quod Burchardus IVormaciensis, Lib. XIX., cap. v.: 'Fecisti aliquid tale, quod pagani fecerunt, et adhuc faciunt in Kalendis lanuarii in cervolo et vetula si fecisti, triginta dies in pane et aqua 'Sed poeniteas;' St. Pacianus in Paraetusi ad Poenitentiam ; S. Ambrosius in Psalmo xli.
Halitgarius Cambrensis in Libra Poenitentiali, cap.
multi faciunt, et in cervulo ducit, aut in vetula vadit, tres annos poeniteat
iain satis in
;
'
Faustinus
'
aliquos sanae mentis, qui cervulum facientes, inferarum se velint habitus commutari?
pecudum,
alii
et exultantes,
'
si
Malmesburiensis
A.D.
initio Epistolae
ad Eahfridum
1610;
De
; Aldhelmus, Abbas homines non esse videantur Epistolae Petri Damiani, p. 384, editionis ; Ducange, Glossarium, under Ratione; cap. xv."
Kalendae, quotes a large number of other prohibitions of the Calends of January celebrations
viii.
Concilium Turonense,
;
ii.,
Cann.
xvii.-xxii.;
ipsiusZachariaeadBonifaciumMogimtinum;
;
Januariis
Joannis Chrysostomi
S. Asterii
xl.
;
Tertullianus
De
Idolatria, c. xiv.
Officio, c.
iv.
;
De
II.,
Cyprianus in Vita S.
fine.
Anonymus
in Vita S.
Kalendae
Lib.
"
Confratres, forte
I.,
Laurentii Archiep.
Strigon.,
xlvi."
Under
the influence of a
Greek
Greek
version),
says
ex versione Anastasii (Canon xvi. is wanting in the " Fuisse quosdam Laicos qui secundum diversam Imperatoriam
xvi.,
comam circumplexam involvere atque reponere " (ita namque, ait hoc loco Anastasius, a cervice usque ad capita contorquebant, ut clericali more in rotundam tonsi viderentur) "et gradum quasi sacerdotalem per quaedam indusia et
vestimenta sacerdotalia sumere, et ut putabatur, Episcopos constituere, superhumeralibus,
id
est,
palliis,
circumamictos, et
omnem
aliam
Pontificalem
indutos stolam,
qui etiam
in adinventionibus
lOO
of time that side was
later
come
fail
to
rival
and,
on,
to
replace
old
Germanic
that
New Year
of November.
So
it
could not
quibusque divinis,
electiones,
promotiones, et consecrationes,
modo autem
tales
autem
actio
est,"
etc.
The
later
medieval
ecclesiastical
is
it lived on for centuries, and is, in Great Ducange, Glossarium, under Kalendae: " Beletus
:
in
quibus usitatum
est,
cum
suis ludant
fuerit, ut
Atque haec quidem libertas ideo dicta hoc mense servi et ancillae, et
Pastores velut
quadam
libertate donarentur,
fierentque
:
communia
ludere.
'
messium
tamen laudabilius esse non Festum Hypodiaconorum, quod vocamus Stultorum, a quibusdam perficitur in Circumcisione, a quibusdam vero in Epiphania, vel in eius octavis. Fiunt autem quatuor tripudia post Nativitatem Domini in
Libra de Divinis
Officiis,
chap. Ixxii
Levitarum scilicet, Sacerdotum, Puerorum, id est, minorum aetate et ordine, et Hypodiaconorum, qui ordo incertus est. Unde fit ut ille quandoque annumeretur inter sacros Ordines, quandoque non,'" etc. Ducange, Glossarium, under Kalendae, also mentions: "Litterae Petri Capuani Cardinalis Legati in Francia, a.d. 1198, quibus praecipit Odoni Episcopo Parisiensi et aliquot Canonicis eiusdem Ecclesiae, ut hocce festum quod ' Fatuorum appellabatur, et in Ecclesia Parisiensi, ut in caeteris, invaluerat, penitus abolerent quod dictus Episcopus aliique ad id nominati Commissarii executi sunt, facta ordinatione in Ecclesia deinceps observanda, quae habetur apud Gusanvillam post Notas ad Petrum Blesensem. lUud etiam interdixit Conciliuvi Parisiense, a.d., 121 2, Part IV., Can. xvi.
Ecclesia,
'
'
'
'A
festis
omnino
abstineatur.'
is
Id
est,
baculus
Episcopalis."
festivities
made by Ducange,
"At
quo
serio
manum
admovit
1444,
quo Sacerdotes
Papam
'
creabant,
eumque 'Fatuorum'
appellabant
'
mulierum, aut leonum, vel histrionum, choreas ducebant, in Choro cantilenas inhonestas
cantabant,
ofiFas
fumo
etc.
foetido, ex corio
veterum sotularium,
Epistolae,
et
per totam
Ecclesiam
currebant,
saltabant,'
Verba
is
sunt
citatae
quam
loi
eleventh centuries.^
The
first
satisfactorily explained in
At
New
down on
houses to
new
year.
find out what good and bad things would be brought by the Others sat down at a cross road on a cow-hide. As was men-
down
for the
purpose of
who
But
this habit
all
to
holy
and
certainly
of the moon,
pose of
illnesses.
as
it
was resorted
among
saza
is
others,
referred to as the
god
in
done.
from this group of customs. Early documental evidence for it seems to be lacking entirely. Ducange, Glossarium, under Kalendae, mentions an " Inventarium omamentorum Ecclesiae " Item una Eboracensis, ann. 1530," in Monast. Anglic.^ Vol. III., p. 169, where we find
:
mitra parva
cum
petris pro
modum
Crucis
cum
lapidibus in
circum-
To
Parisiis, 1714,
*'
Vol. III.,
et
col.
1863,
720), ix.);
Ut
incantationes,
tradidit
paganorum,
magorum
84:
2
'^
"Vel
in Friedberg, Atis deutschen Bussbiickern, in bivio sedisti supra taurinam cutem, ut et ibi futura tibi intelligeres ? "
Burchard von
Worms
Vol.
Althochdeutsche Glossen.,
215, 33;
II.,
763, 9;
II.,
Acta Conciliorum,
:
Parisiis,
1714, Vol.
III., col.
1875,
xxiii.
"Si
quis
maleficus
aut
malefica
filium
suum aut
supra
tectum
aut in
vel maleficiis sacrilego usu se defensare posse confidunt, vel ut frater in honore Jovis vel
placuit
secundum
Humanius
tres
annos judicaverunt."
lo;i
months,
and of the
not,
effective
hours.
Even the
Church could
Calends.
the
in the
An
ecclesiastical
middle
of
the
ninth
a.d.
1222,
Circumcisio
Domini,
Church.
a
little
is
day to
be
strictly
kept
by the
in
speaks in
1426 of calendisaiiones
which
about
slight
booklet written by a
priest,
Alsso,
A.D.
1400.
Alsso even
carried
tells
us more.*
month
a
the
Bohemians
Czechic song.
faithfully
They
that,
rejoiced
the
god thus
the
their
houses,
hoping
in
consequence,
all their
it
fortune and
Therefore people
themselves
were a
tribute, regarding
as his true
St,
But
Adalbert, because
do so
at the
beginning
of every month, and in order that the Christians might not also celebrate
the beginning of the
months according
months
to
this
it,
thinking that
would be better
to exercise
Acta Conciliorum,
xiii.
:
Parisiis, 1714,
Vol. VI.,
i., col,
A.D. 878),
"Si
lunam,
et
menses
et
horarum
Acta Conciliorum,
:
Parisiis,
" Ut quando
et
presbyteri
col. 394, Hincmari Remensis Capitula, per Kalendas simul convenerint, post peractum
ibi
divinum mysterium,
resideant,
et
ad tabulam
est,
et
onerosum.
conquirunt, et
Saepe enim tarde ad ecclesias suas redeuntes majus damnum de reprehensione de gravedinc mutua contrahunt, quam lucrum ibi faciunt." A large number
of quotations as to the monthly meetings of the clergy on the Calends are given by Ducange,
p.
72,
103
at the
beginning of
months,
at
He
also
is
name and
If this report
does not imply that medieval Christmas in South Germany took the place
of an older Calends celebration according to
Roman
usage, I
do not know
rites as
what
is
it
implies.
The
best
shown by the
that
that
up
to St.
Adalbert's
was
this Saint
who
two
When
faithful to
of leisure,
trees,^
and
laurel
and green
this
folklore, for
seems
to
us,
be the only prohibition of that Calends custom which has come down to
and
it
is
to
It
New
told,
is
whom
century
by the legend
B.C.,
a date
eighth
that
in
of Streniae as favourable
that story
is
omens with
respect to the
new
year.
It is true
told
by a
Roman
writer of
about 400
a.d.,
Q. Aurelius Sym-
"^
Acta Conciliorum,
Parisiis,
17 14,
Vol.
:
III.,
col.
399,
Capitula
Martmi Episcopi
" Non liceat iniquas observationes agere KalenBracensis (circa A.D. 575), chap. Ixxiii. darum, et otiis vacare gentilibus, neque lauro aut viriditate arborum cingere domes. Omnis
haec observatio paganism! est."
^Viriditate arborum can only mean the same as viridibus arboribus, and not "with green branches of trees"; viridifas never meaning leaves or branches, but referring simply to the
colour.
I04
machus, and
is
that, in the
time of the
Roman
good luck
in the
new
year.^
It is again solely
from
Rosinus, Antiquitatum
Romanarum Corpus
" Kalendas
invicem ominabantur
teste,
'
alternis,
accipimusque preces.'
et
Item munera
mella,
sibi
et
stipem, id est,
nummum
signatum
a
Symmacho
quod
is
gratia,
trenam, praeposita S.
C. Octavium
Augustum Monarchia,
strenam
mos
populus
ipsis
etiam Imperatoribus
Suetonius."
Kalendis
lanuarii
conferrent
qua de
re
saepe
loquitur
Ep.
xxviii.
D.D.
Imperatores.
Nomen
ob virtutem
atque ideo
quorum
divinus
quam omen expectat." The verbenae felicis arboris mentioned part in Roman ceremonies. Compare Ammianus Marcellinus,
felicis
XXIX.
"Verbenas
laurel, olive,
arboris gestans."
and myrtles. A great number of instances are enumerated in the Lib. X. of the Miscellanies which accompany the Epistles of Symmachus, under Ep. xxviii., in the Paris edition of
1604, by A. Fr.
The
Symmachus
" Strenae
munere regio, Olim Principibus probis lani principiis auspicio datae, Fausto temporis omine Ut ferret Ducibus strenua strenuis Annus gesta recentior. Illas nobilitas Caesaribus piis, Rex dignis Procerum dabat. Urbi quas latiae turn iuveni dedit Rex Titus Tatius prior, Festas accipiens paupere munere
praeterea nitent
aureolae,
Plures
105
and green
good omens
is
Even
evidence of
this
custom
very scarce.
That
in
Italy
it
lived
fifteenth century,
who
says
"
Trimmyng
of the
their Idoles
arraye."^
come both
from the Rhine country, from Strassburg, and both mention that at
Year's day the houses were adorned with green
fir
New
1^
branches.^
In Strassburg
tree appears,
it
is
also that, a
hundred years
branches
later,
the
first
Christmas
habit
of adorning
and
trees
according
to
\
Roman
to which, in
when
born,
all
trees
bloom and
I \
Germany
in
of the fifteenth
and sixteenth
centuries.
In England the same custom must have been popular, at least in the
fifteenth century,
even
artificial
trees.
"Against
mans house,
were decked with Holm, luy, Bayes, and whatsoeuer the season of the yeere
aforded to be greene.
likewise, garnished.
The Conduits and Standards in the streetes Amongst the which, I read, that in the yeere
tiotable
were,
1444,
An
1
abridgegment of the
don,
55 1)
i., fol.
98^.
worke of Polidore Vergile, by Thomas Langley, LonThis remark refers to festivals in general.
ss.
1854,
64:
*'
Vnd wer nit ettwas nuwes hat Vnd vmb das nuw jor syngen gat, Vnd gryen tann riss steckt in syn huss
Der meynt
er leb das jor nit uss
jor
Wem
And
Geiler von Kaisersberg,
man
nit
werd
nit guot."
das
Strassburg,
Grieninger, 1516.
OP THE
OF
X
J
io6
on the
first
of February at night,
Leaden Hall
in
Cornhill, a
fast in
Standard
the ground,
nayled
of
Holme and
all
was
downe by
houses, so that the people were sore aghast at the great Tempests."^
in his
Gay,
Trivia, sings
"
When Rosemary and Bays, the poet's crown, Are bawl'd in frequent cries through all the town
Then judge
the festival of Christmas near,
'
Now
all
And
and
is
re-
evergreen
fifteenth century
ijohn Stow, The Survay of London (written a.d. 1598), London, 1618, pp. 149, 150. p. 667, Stow, speaking of a long pole preserved in Gisors or Gerrards Hall in the city, says: "The Pole in the Hall might be vsed of old time (as then the custome was in
On
Summer
Parish or Street, and to stand in the Hall before the Serine, decked with
The Ladder
To this he adds the marginal note " Euery mans house of old time was decked with Holly and luy in the winter, especially at Christmas. " In the edition of 1 598 Compare Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, 3rd ed., by the passage is found on p. 284. Carew Haslitt, London, 1877, p. 113. This undeniable correspondence between Christmas customs and May customs in later times, which is also found in the servitude of woodlade or
of the Hall."
truncagium,
is one of the conclusive proofs that Christmas has taken the place which had been held before by Martinmas.
CHAPTER
IX.
TABULA FORTUNAE.
Among
it
the
Roman
tribes
Calends-of-January
there
is
by Germanic
gave
one deserving
because
among modern
celebrated a festival of the dead about the darkest time of the year.
fact, this
In
of a
winter
which
Professor Weinhold
to
still
believe.
be
no
longer
Professor
had any
He
rite
which, at the
sight
no doubt,
is
an
offering
to
dead,
but in reality
of
Rome.
says
:
" But
my
that
troop,
(
and
that
furnish
the
that number."^
Jerome
+ a.d.
420), in
" Et vos qui dereliquistis dominum, et is Qui ponitis fortunae mensam et libatis super earn " " Vos autem qui dereliquistis nie which, however, the Septuagint translated as meaning
obliti estis
version
et
montis
sancti
mei,
et
paratis
fortunae
potionem."
that forget
The English
mensam "But ye
et
impletis
daemoni
my
up mingled
io8
his
to
Isaiah,
remarks
" But
there
is
in
all
towns,
that,
and
most of
of idolatry
on
full
and of the
last
of eatables of various kind, and a cup mixed with mead, in order to try
to find out the fertility either of the year past or the year to also
come.
all
This
ghosts,
Israelites,
animals
at
In the Sermo de
is
Sacrilegiis,
Augustine
+ A.D.
430), a
penalty
the
January, adorns
and other
dishes.^
The wandering
Pope Zacharias,
of
it
by
St.
of A.D, 742,5
which he
testifies to that
usage
still
existing both in
it
Rome
at
(
was interdicted
Council of
In his
Rome
first
a.d.
+ a.d.
1024).'^
in
Prophetas
Qiios Maiores
Vacant Continet, Basileae, 1537 (ed. Reuchlin), p. 240. ^ " Est autem in cunctis urbibus, et maxime in Aegypto, et in Alexandria idololatriae
vetus
consuetudo
ut
est,
ponant mensam
poculum mulso mixtum vel praeteriti anni vel futuri fertilitatem auspicantes. Hoc autem faciebant Israelitae, omnium simulacrorum portenta venerantes et nequaquam altari victimas, sed huiusce modi mensae liba fundebant." ^17: "Quicunque in calendas ianuarias mensas panibus et aliis cybis ornat." * " Nullus in cal. Ian. nefanda aut ridiculosa, vetulas, aut cervulos, aut jotticos faciat,
refertam varii generis
:
neque mensas super noctem componat, neque strenas aut bibitiones superfluas exerceat."
Aberglatlbe A.
17 14, Vol.
III.,
col.
Parisiis,
1880:
"Mensas
ilia
dapibus onerare."
^
Parisiis,
1714,
Vol.
III.,
col. et
1929,
Concilium
colere
Romanum,
I.,
Kalendas Januarias mensas cum dapibus in domibus praeparare." Deereta, Coloniae, 1548, 193: " Observasti
A.D. 743,
''
" Ut
nullus
broma
praesumpserit,
aut
calendas
januarias
ritu
Paganorum,
eo
dico,
ut
aut
domo
tua
p.
praeparares
tempore, aut per vicos et plateas cantores et choros duceres " ; and ut quaedam mulieres in quibusdam temporibus anni facere solent,
198*: "Fecisti
ut
mensam
potum cum
TABULA FORTUNAE
in the
I 09
The
further
we advance,
and
then
the
more
and
of
is
shifted to
Epiphany
century,
to
Christmas.
the
thirteenth
on the eve
seems to
put food
"Von
Berhten
mit
in the
and
Italian
become
part
folk -belief.
Some
new holy
to
tide,
So
is
in
country,
example
in
Largum Sero
for the
of 1426.^
Money and
would
tells
trinkets
were built up on a
people
laid
increase.
:
same purpose.
He
"
The
roll.
is,
that
it
on Christmas
We
use for
leaven to
make
ut
si
venissent
ibi
tres
illae
sorores,
quas
tulisti
antiqua
divinae
posteritas
pietati
illas
et
antiqua
stultitia
Parcas
nominavit,
reficerentur.
Et
ita
potestatem
tu
dicis
suam,
esse
et
nomen
suum,
^
et
diabolo tradidisti,
dico,
ut crederes
quas
sorores tibi
ed.,
p.
256:
'^^
Perchtnacht."
^
My
^"^ Z^T'
Codex Tegeniseeensis, 434, Ulrich Jahn, Deutsche Opfergebr'duche, Breslau, 1S84, p. 282 " Multi credunt sacris noctibus inter natalem diem Christi et noctem Epiphaniae evenire ad
^
domos
suas
quasdam
Multi in domibus in
lac,
carnes, ova,
vinum
et
aquam
et
visitationem Perhtae
cum
et
prosperitatem
domus
On
seeming
offerings,
no
it
tastier.
belief
and
fair
mind
on the
if
tables,
or to leave
it
am
own
favour;
for,
as I was told,
some
regions the Christians put the rolls and knives on the tables and
dishes, not for the praise of the childhood of Christ, but in order that in
come and eat them. But that is a gross delusion who have many gods faithful Christians, however, have one
;
And
it
is
rather a gross
conception
that
those
spirits,
which are
being
spirits."^
Not much
at
later,
There
Christmas a plough was put under the table, and a Frau Perthatisch was
prepared.2
time.
soil
till
comes and
eats of
it,
there will be a
after
all
good
year.
some of
locked.
it,
In other parts
left
on the table
they
may
plurality
is
evident
and 1469,
ed.
by Usenet
in
Bonn, 1889,
p. 83, ss. p.
^M. Lexer
in
I., p.
300; Karl Weinhold, Weihnachtspiele, p. 25 The items were collected by Ulrich 271.
und
Viehzucht, Breslau,
more modern cases of the same custom are mentioned. *An dem geperchtentag den man haizet der zwelfte,
Grotefend,
Zeitrechnung,
I.,
1334,
Innicher
Stiftsarchiv,
73.
The
B'dcheltag,
bachtag,
however,
or day
preceding
Christmas, which Schmeller-Fromman, Bayrisches Worterbuch, 271, 194, and Grotefend, Zeitrechnung, I., 14, derive from Berchta, is dies baculi episcopalis (compare the note
on
p. 100), the
day on which children are "driven out of school," because the Christmas
vacation begins.
The same
is
TABULA FORTUNAE
There are s'undry other
fifteenth century cases
ill
on record. ^
sixteenth
On
the
more
purely,
In Rothenkirchen,
now on
laid
on the
to St.
future
wife,* or
it
make bread
in the
name
for
now
derived from
High-German verhehkn,
beside
to hide
Hidden, or Hollen,
Frau Nolle, the former at least in the word Geperchtentag mentioned above. ^ "Also versUnden sich ouch, die an der Perchtnacht der Percht speiss opfernt und dem schretlein, von der Hagen's Germania, I., 349, 356; H., 64; Die am ersten jar monden
Monacensis, 234, f. \^'^, of 1458; Panzer, Beitrdge zur deutschen Mythologie, H., p. 262, 2, from " Buch der zehen gebot, spriiche der lehrer, tafel der christlichen weisheit," of 1458 ; and " Die am jahrsstag dez abentz einen tisch mit guter speyss setzen die nacht der schretlein," Codex Germanicus MoJtacensis, 523, fol. 233 ; Panzer, Beitrdge zur deutschen Mythologie,
des abentz ein tisch mit guter speiss seczen die nacht den schretelen," Codex Germaniais
W.,
p. 263, 3,
libris
In modern times the table remained set at Christmas eve in Silesia, in order that the poor souls, or the angels, might come and eat of the food; Peter, VolkstUmliches H., p. 274;
,
Weinhold, Weihnachtspiele, p. 25 ; Ulrich Jahn, Deutsche Opfergebr'duche, 2 Sebastian Franck, Weltbuch, 1567, Part I., fol. 50.
^Praetorius, Saturnalia, 1663.
p. 286.
*Englien und Lahn, Der Volksnmnd in der Mark Brandetiburg, Berlin, 1868, p. 237. ^ Schulenburg, Wendische Volksagen und Gebrduche aus dem Spreewald, Leipzig, 1880,
p.
248.
This table
is
HL,
123).
112
Other dishes
continued.
it
To
They
bread Julagalt."
to
be regarded as
spirits,
it
and evolved
into
a self-dependent custom.
Tertullian
(
The same
as found
rising of
we know from
+ a.d.
year,
220),^
before,
About
commemoration of
the
her afterbirth, a view to which the Council of TruUus of a.d. 706 took
serious
objection,
punishing
priest,
the
rite
with
death
in
case
of
its
being practised by a
heretic
declared in
Canon
Ixxix.
He who came
man, was
afterbirth,
and announcing
we
not decent
day
God and
to divide the
afterbirth of the
Virgin mother,
we decree
For
that
henceforth
by the
faithful.
this is
no honour
to the Virgin
who,
Word
^Jamieson, Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, Paisley, 1882, Vol. IV.,
p. 865'', after Verel.
"^
Not.
ad Hervarar Saga,
p.
39.
sed in ipsa die sic omnia beneficia tribuantur, sicut et reliquis diebus."
Parisiis, 1714, Vol. III., col.
Acta Conciliorutn,
i.
"
TABULA FORTUNAE
understood
113
to
define,
according to
common
in ourselves.
If therefore
anybody
shall
will
die, if
be excommunicated,
he be a layman. "^
he be cleric
of Trullus that question had occupied the most serious attention of the
Church
in
I.,^
Pope Martin
Acta Conciliorum,
Parisiis,
Canon
Ixxix.
1714, Vol. III., col. 1690, Concilium Quinisextum sire in "0^'. ^kkhxevrov t6v in t^j vapOevov deiov rbKov 6fw\oiroi/j-vLip
yovvres ws
Ti
/cat
TUP ov deovTiov
KadvTro^dWonev
6dv
ay ias toO
Xoxe'w
Tifii]
t'^s
dxpdvTOV
ov
ydp
ye tovto Ty
Kud'
r]/xa.s
\byov rd dx'j'p^Tov
TSKOijcrr)
KOLvdv T
/cat
Ta
&<ppa(TTOV avT-rjs t6kov opl^eiv koX inroypd(j>eiv. et rts oSv dirb rod
Kadaipeiffdu.
el
5e \ai/c6s, d<popi^ea6<>}."
"Absque
sit,
ullis
esse
constitutus
idque
toti gregi
quod non
scilicet
fiat
nostri nativitatis
Quare quoniam aliqui post sanctae Christi Dei diem similam coquere ostenduntur, et earn sibi invicem impertiri, honoris
Neque enim hoc honor est Virginis, quae supra mentem et sermonem, quod comprehendi non potest Verbum peperit came, ex communibus et iis quae in nobis fiunt,
a fidelibus.
Si quis ergo deinceps hoc facere
si
quidem
clericus,
deponatur
si
Acta Conciliorum,
intra
Parisiis, 1714,
est, in
Filii
Dei,
ut juxta id nobis
:
quod scriptum
viscera
:
novissimis temporibus
Verbum
Dei
sine
aliqua
confusione naturis
et nasceretur
non
solvens.
Dignum
plane
Deo
corruptione,
qui
conceptum
fecit
esse
sine
semine
servans
quod ex Patre
to
erat,
et
Haddan and
Ireland,
Stubbs, Councils
1871, Vol.
and
III.,
Ecclesiastical
p.
Documents Relating
Beata Virgine.
Great Britain
secundum non confitetur proprie et secundum veritatem Dei genitricem sanctam semperque virginem et immaculatam Mariam, utpote ipsum Deum Verbum specialiter et veraciter, qui a Deo Patre ante omnia saecula natus est, in ultimis saeculorum absque semine concepisse ex Spiritu Sancto, et incorruptibiliter eam genuisse, indissolubili permanente et post partum ejusdem virginitate, condemnatus sit."
Oxford,
and
146:
"De
Si quis
sanctos patres
114
Rome
to Great Britain
by John
in
in the
name
of
persons.
When
luck.^
prosperity in
the
was deemed
prophetic
of
bad
When
we
the Church
transferred
the
year
them
in the fourteenth
and
fifteenth centuries.^
If its quantity
;
had
was
plentiful year
if
if it
less
than before,
About 1800,
in bed.
in Scotland,
cakes.
A
not,
for every
If
person for
whom
it
was baked
would
it
It is
no wonder
who
did not
know
is
Jerome should have taken this custom for an offering to the dead or the
chthonic
deities
of the
Germanic
tribes.
But
it
not
true
that
the
Worms
1884,
1024), Coloniae,
1548,
is
p.
193",
Ulrich
p.
280,
the question
fecisti
put about
ut
si
New
bene
of
"Vel
si
panes
tuo nomine:
anno praevideres."
MS.
Grimm,
Deutsche
St.
Mythologie,
Abe'rglaube
F,
No.
43,
from an Austrian
the
Item an dem weihnachtabend noch an dem rauchen so messent die lewt 9 leffl wasser in ain hefen, vnd lassent es sten vncz an den tag vnd messent herwider auf. 1st sein mynner das dy mass nicht ganz ist, so chumpt es des jars in armiit. Ist sy gancz so pestet es. Ist sein aber mer, so wirt es vberflussiMonastery of
Florian
'
:
'
kleich reich."
J.
Wittenberg, 1591 ; and in the seventeenth century Praetorius, Sattirnalia, Leipzig, 1663, p. 407, bear testimony of the same custom. Ulrich Jahn, Deutsche Opfergebrduche, p. 284.
vii.
TABULA FORTUNAE
115
Mogk
thinks.^
all
Plain statistics
show
that they
Nor can
Germanic
Germany be adduced
do not occur
than at any other time of the year, and more especially the Christmas
rides of the wild
huntsman and
his host
although
them
shape
old
for
a kind of
artificial
beast
are,
as far as they
in
Germany,
the form
general masquerade,
of
Roman
is
origin,
as has
over
to
The dressing up of artificial animals, however, which German soil, from Martinmas till mid-Lent confined
in
olden days
century
to
Martinmas,
mid-Lent
is
a slaughtering
destined to be killed were dressed up, whilst bye and bye, in part at least,
artificial
animals
December
December
the day
for
killing
the
boar.
The
kind of public
affair,
since,
one
bull,
one
stallion,
whole community,
use
members
own
Volkstuvi, Leipzig,
1898, p. 292.
to
down
einen
s.
1800:
"Hat
ieder
brauchbaren
v.
herdstier
stollen,
observanz
der
eine
pfarrer
den
schwilch zu
deren
mann
st.
mit
dem
rever kUevich
am
langets auflfahrt,
von Martini an
bis
Peters tag dienen muss, hingegen aber sind diese 2 stier in denen
ii6
familiar to
English
is
not a
;
Mogk
thinks,
and
(Wodan
had
shining
originally
in
glory)
man
servant,
and
nothing
In 1832
Vorzeit,
H, Hoffmann published,
in the
a conversation between master and servant, in which the servant has the
name
^^
Knecht RuprechtJ"
The
conversation, which
In
a
1847
J.
Scheible, in
the
third
volume of
his
Schaltjahr,
is
fly-leaflet
in
called
Ein Gesprdch von den gemeinen Schwabacher Kasien, ah diirch Bruder Heinrich, Knecht Ruprecht, Kdmmerin, Spuler, und ihretn Meister, des
"
Handwerks der
contrasted.
wollen
Tuchmacherr
Here
also
are
Here
lacking.
Here
be
who might
popular
as well
named Knecht
as
alone.
:
From
he
is
these
two
cases
his
significance
much
individuality of social
rank and as
little
personal individuality
as the
The probable
cause of the
after
combination
his first
is
appearance
customs.
The
first
is
know, he appears
in
a Christmas play
a printed
the
known
to
me
is
printed in
1668,
and
wo sie wollen, frei zu sommern, 1801. Fliess-Oberinnthal," Zingerle and Inama-Sternegg, Die Tirolischen Weistiimer, II. 234. About the payment of non-members of the community, compare Vol. III., p. 182. A more extensive explanation of these economic
gemeinds-alpen,
,
matters
is
contained in
my
Berlin,
Wintersonnenwende,
551.
TABULA FORTUNAE
Holy
Christ.
117
The
as
list
addresses him
Acesto.
to
call
him Ruprecht^
Dass
" Christe,
Ruprecht^
plays,
Will
Du
Bitt nhnmst
an.
Ich
Du
thust
Dein
Knecht
little
Der
sie striegeln
Und zerprugebi."
Through these
printed
by
law,
identical
etliche
Hitherto no proof has been given that the drinking in honour of the
dead,
the
so-called
drinking
of
Minne^
was
confined
to,
or
even
As
an
as
know,
alfablbt
and
disablbt^
offerings
for elves
festival, so that
festival
These
offerings
took place
winter,
or
which,
^
in
the
if
later late
it
would be
identical
with
"at Yule-tide."
in
And
in
Yule
feasting,
is
difficult to
how
this
feast
was a
Mogk
schdndlichen
Weynacht Larven,
so
man
Von
MM.,
Christiattorum Larvas There seems to be an older Latin edition of this pamphlet natalitias Satuii Christi nomine commendaias post evolutam originem confodit stylo theologico conscientiosus Christi cultor Chresulder (ed. auctior cum apologia, Lipsiae anno
1677, 12), which
^
I,
;
minne has the same stem with Latin memini and Greek iaiivi\aKU). ^ According to the Olafssaga ins Helga, 80, Sighvatr the Scald came late in winter to a farm in which alfabldt was celebrated (Mogk, Mythologie in Paul's Grundriss der gerMinnetrinken
manischen Fhilologie,
I.,
126).
*Ibid., according to
Christentum,
"
Il8
name
it
and
review
of
my
book,2 accuses
me
of following
Mogk
tide
for
the
dead
is
Shrovetide
has
it.
time
relic
of
true,
besides
the
Scandinavian
customs just mentioned, we have express testimony from the sixth century
that
it
was
at
dead.*
But therein they followed again the course of the Romans, whose
21.
Geschichte
ndchte,'
I. ),
als
der deutschen Weihnacht, p. 282: " Der Voigtlandische Name 'Unterden Mogk, Mythologie, 11 26 (Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, 1891, Nachte der Toten deutet, bedeutet nur Nachte vor dem Feste (vor Epiphanias
' '
[das oberster
Tag
heisst:
zu obersten,
1891,
I.,
am
und
der Neuzeit,
'
p.
137]) wie
'unter
Mittag
'
tiber
'um
100.
Mittag' heissen.
So
Zeitschrift des
Vereins
fur
p.
^"Nur
wolle
vogtlandischen
man Namen
I
das nicht, wie E. Mogk, und ihm nach A. Tille thun, durch den
der Zwolften Unterndchte beweisen, der nichts als
Zwischenvi.i.c!aX.&
tag
is
gave above,
need scarcely
In
state that
Weinhold's explanation as
Zwischenndchte"
probably wrong
Professor
in
Mogk
1898, p. 292, repeated the error that the ancient Germanics celebrated a dead festival
year,
also.
Leipzig,
Acta Conciliorum,
:
Parisiis,
1714,
III.,
col.
365,
Concilium
Turonense
II.,
in festivitate cathedrae
domni
accipiunt.
in
quam
presbyteros gerere, ut
quemcumque
ad
;
vel
ad nescio quas
The same
habit seems referred to in caput Ixix. of the Capitula Martini Episcopi Bracarensis, Ibid.,
"Non liceat Christianis prandia ad defunctorum sepulchra deferre, et de re mortuorum " (about A.D. 575).
CHAPTER
THE NATIVITY OF
For
centuries after Julius Caesar
X.
CHRIST.
solstice to
take
place on
December
in
25, the
Brumaiia, celebrated
the
at that date,
could not
compete
splendour with
and
significance they owe not to ancient Rome, but to the new religion
first
all
directions from
They owe
to
Christianity.
The
year in which
the
two,
Brumalia and
Christianity,
Roman
early
-^H
The
fathers of the
Church
by speculation
what date
He
ought
to have been born, the matter apparently lacked interest for the Church.
November
the date
17 and
for,
oTThe miraculous
Clemens of
'
Alexandria was as
'The
early
but merely
as having
He
was
Him
at the
baptism in Jordan^
dogma
common
text of the
New
Testament,^
i.
was a descendant of David, it is shown that His father Joseph was such " And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was bom Jesus, who is called Christ." The medieval Church noticed this incongruity, and got over it by decreeing that Mary had been a cousin
of Joseph's, and consequently of the
'
same stock
as he was.
I20
the Gospels of St. the
first
The
festival in
commemoration
appearance
the
festival of Christ's
God,
as
it
was called
later.
in the early
Western
new opinion on
He
God from birth, His Father having been God Himself. It was the which made itself the advocate of this doctrine, and evolved the necessary basis for it in her own Gospel, which is called "according to St. Luk^r' Within little more than a century that new dogma conquered the
have been a
Church of
Rome
it
it
memory
6.
It
was the
Roman
Bishop Liberius
(a.d.
352-366)
who had
[y'
January
glory,
6,
new
belief.
On
God
in Christ
on December
25,
all his
new
festival to victory
The mere
choice of
well
beforehand.^
Whilst attaching
all
of the year,
solstice the
it
it
did not
make them
(or,
as
after
winter solstice.
When
Bishop
Liberius
made
his choice of
new
fact that
December 25
is
first
mentioned
Kl.
in
Das
Weihnachtsfest, Bonn,
:
1889, p. 267),
ianu.
"viii.
Judeae."
121
calendar
Roman
an
idea for
Roman
beginning
the time
at least
wherever Christian
civilisation
But the
of
the
Roman
calendar,
and
therefore
of
its
Christmas from
very
first
on the
basis of the
Roman ^
managed
by jnaking
itself
Roman
Calends of January.
Up
in
Reformation
its
sanctity
was
historical
foundation attacked, so
not outshining
Whitsunday,
it
and the
heirs of St.
Rome,
the
new custom
first
of the
to the East.
In Constantinople the
on December 25 was
it
among
the
Eastern Germanics.
By
it
the
commentary
to
the
Law Book
it
of Alarich,
In Eastern
Rome
much
later,
to
be a
On
make
it
a real day of
all fasting
Beda knew the bearing of that difference between the two festivals quite well. Comparing Easter and Christmas, he says {De Temporibus, chap, xv.) " Ideo autem pascha non ad eundem redit anni diem, sicut tempus Dominicae nativitatis, quod ibi nativitatis ipsius memoria tantum solemnis habeatur hie vero vitae venturae et mysteria celebrentur, et munera capiantur."
:
^Usener, Das Weihnachtsfest, pp. 262, 247, 238. ^The Cotuilium Bracarense oi tjo\ ordains: "Siquis Natalem Christi secundum camera
122
if it
was celebrated
earlier
new day
it
to
be a
tide
Twelve-days
called on
Germanic
and
becoming so popular
new
Rome,
Christianity
went out to
civilisation.
following
Wherever
Roman
spread over Gaul and came to the Rhine, in the sixth century passed the
all
Rhine, and in the course of two other centuries won over almost
the
Western Germanics.
it
came
;
it
and
pressing
Christ's
faith,
birthday,
to fight
festivals of the
new
had
The Edicts
their evil
of the Councils
eloquent documents
in
demons attempted
Church
To
Great Britain Christianity had come about 4Ei-iQa from Asia Minor,
in the course of the third century, so that the perseits
shadows over
When some
tribes
Channel
the
Angles,
Saxons,
and
the
Jutes
it
Christian tradition
on
British soil
non bene honorat, sad honorare se simulat, jejunans in eodem die, et in Dominico quia Christum in vera hominis natura natum esse non credit, sicut Cerdon, Marcion, Manichaeus, et Priscillianus anathema sit." Acta Conciliorum, Parisiis, 17 14, III., col. 348. ^ Beda, Historia Ecclesiastica Geniis Anglorum, chap. vi.
:
'
y
THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST
seems not to have specially
the Great sent the
first
123
flourished.
It
was
in 592 that
Pope Gregory
Roman
if
who was
to
be their bishop
received by
,
settled in Canterbury.
in the
up
So the
first
it
Britain in 592
by Augustine and
fact.
his fellow-missionaries,
knowledge of that
in all probability, in
If there
consisted,
From
the
the famous
Mellitus in Britain
Pope Gregory the Great to the Abbot we know that, so late as the end of the sixth century,
letter
of
Pope attached
celebration
of the
proper
that
in
sacred days^
done
^Adamnan's Life of St. Columba (a.d. 521-597) (Adamnani Vita S. Columbae, edited from Dr. Reeves's Text, with an Introduction on early Irish Church History, Notes, and a
Glossary by
J.
first
half
knows of Christmas
great festivals of the Church, the other being the Paschales dies (Ibid., p. 46).
two names it
Natalitium Domini.
It tells
of a manuscript by
"Qui
Book
i.e.,
is the day on which he died, was bom into heaven, the word usually applied to the birthday of a saint being nativitas. Compare Fowler's book, p. 124, note " Quia ut saeculo et mundo moriuntur, ita tunc caelo
II.,
Off.,
this case
life-time.
the
evidence
is
lacking that
cum
historico instruxit Carolus 65 (chap, xxx.) " Cum ergo Deus omnipotens vos ad reverentissimum virum fratrem nostrum Augustinum episcopum perduxerit, dicite ei,
quam
Plummer, Tomus
quid diu
mecum de
videlicet,
124
Roman
festivals
by the
Christian
at least
origin,
missionaries, just
for
compete with
the
native
custpms
in that
originally
other
days
of the year.
second stage
is
it
evolution
festivals
on Germanic ground
that the
first
Church
had drawn
new
stage
festivals,
and
to interdict
Of
that
Church Councils
abundant
proof.
Whilst up to about a.d. 550 they fight against the participation of Christians
in
heathen
festivals,
after
that
date
of the
Church.
This
much more
to
slowly.
It
those
Germanic
tribes
alter
the
days
of
their
celebrations
than
of
to
practise
new usages
eadem
;
altogether.^
Just as,
according to
the
letter
Pope
idola
destrui
in
gente
minime
fiat,
debeant
sed
ipsa,
quae
in
eis
sunt,
destruantur
aqua benedicta
si
in
fana eadem bene constructa sunt, necesse est, ut a cultu daemonum Dei debeant commutari ; ut dum gens ipsa eadem fana sua non videt destrui, de corde errorem deponat, et Deum verum cognoscens ac adorans, ad loca, quae consuevit, familiarius concurrat, Et quia boves solent in sacrificio daemonum multos occidere, debet eis etiam hac de re aliqua sollemnitas immutari ; ut die dedicationis, vel natalitii sanctorum martyrum, quorum illic reliquiae ponuntur, tabemacula sibi circa easdem
ponantur.
in
Quia,
obsequio veri
ecclesias,
quae ex
fanis
commutatae
;
sunt,
de ramis arborum
satietate
sollemnitatem celebrent
et
omnium de
ut
dum
is,
ad interiora
gaudia
esse
facilius valeant.
est,
Nam
qui
non dubium
sed tamen
quia et
summum locum
ascendere
Aegypto Dominus
quatinus
quidem
innotuit
eis sacrificiorum
eis in
suo sacrificio
amitteient,
animalia immolare
aliud retinerent
;
cor
mutantes,
aliud de sacrificio
ut
ipsa
essent
animalia,
quae
ofiferre
consueverant,
vero tamen
Deo haec
^
et
non
idolis
immolantes, iam
sacrificia ipsa
col.
non
334,
essent."
Childeberti
Acta
Regis
Constitutio
sive
Constitutionis
I.,
quae supersunt
Capita duo
(511-558);
Boretius,
Capitularia
Regum
unde
Francorum,
2:
"Ad
fieri,
125
God
old
of the Christians,
the
to
new
have
Christian
churches are
for
expressly
been
used
celebrations
after
and
Germanic
manners,^ and so late as the beginning of the ninth century the repetition
of an interdict of that habit was thought expedient.^
of the
festivals
new
religious
community were
constantly
celebrations
Deus
laedatur, et
populus
per
Noctes pervigiles
cum
canticis,
Dominico, dansatrices per villas ambulare. Haec unde Deus agnoscitur laedi, nullatenus fieri permittimus. Quicunque post commonitionem sacerdotum, vel nostmm praeceptum, sacrilegia ista perpetrare praesumpserit, si servilis persona est, centum ictus flagellorum ut suscipiat iubemus si vero
reliquis festivitatibus, vel adveniente die
omnia,
Sunt hi autem
valeat
poenitentiam redigendi
cruciatus
ut
contemnunt,
sanitatem."
'
saltern
eos
ad
desiderandam
mentis
reducere
Council of Atitun
(573-603),
P-
chap,
:
ix.,
in
Concilia
cevi
Maassen,
Hannover,
1893,
i^o
" Non
licet in
ecclesia
vel
domus
mea domus
2
orationis vocabitur."
:
" Non
licet in ecclesia
Acta Conciliorum,
578,
Parisiis,
:
7 14,
licet
Vol.
in
III.,
col.
445,
Cotuilium Autissiodorense,
bibere
A.D.
Canon
xi.
"Non
in
ilia
vigilia
vigilias
perexplere,
quia
nocte
non
iii.
licet
mediam noctem
Jbid.,
in
[nee
III.,
Vol.
444,
Canons
iii.
and
v.
" Canon
sed
aut
Non
;
licet
compensos
domibus
ecclesia
propriis,
ad
fontes
vota
exsolvere
matriculae
ipsum
lineo
votum,
fieri
nee
v.
sculptilia
[sub
tilia]
aut
penitus praesumat.
Canon
Omnino
et inter supradictas
pervigilias,
Council of Chalons-sur-Sadne (639-654), chap, xix., in Concilia cevi Merowingici, ed. Frid. Maassen, Hannover, 1893, p. 212: "Valde omnibus nuscetur ese decretum, ne per
dedicationes basilicarum
et
aut festivitates
martyrum ad
obscina
turpea cantica,
dum
cum
choris foemineis,
126
is
were
just the
/Among
Church
ancient
Celtic
many
of
them had
definitely
tribe got
festivals,
or, as
from the middle of the fourth century, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost were absolutely fixed previous to a contact of the supreme authority
in the
Geschichte
bis
zum Ausgange
des
Mittelalters,
Strassburg,
1894, p. 25.
2
at Christian festive
days
number of further evidences of heathen practices "Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anecdota, Christiania, 1883, pp. 176,
188; Benedictus Levita, VI., 96, in Monumenta Germaniae, Scriptores, IV., 2; Wasserschleben, Bussordnungen der abendldndischen Kirche, p. 607 (Preuso-Theodorean Penitential);
Indiculus Superstitionum:
De
Sacrilegiis
per
ecclesias
p.
Regum Francorum,
balando
I.,
p.
179 (Council of Mayence, 813) ; Boretius, 376: 'Sunt quidam, et maxime mulieres, qui fastis
quibus
debent
delectantur
verba turpia decantando, choros tenendo ac ducendo, similitudinem paganorum peragendo, advenire procurant.'"
^Beda's Church,
Letter
to
Egbert,
Bishop of York,
on
the
state
of the
Northumbrian
734 (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, Oxford, 1871, III., p. 323: "Quod videlicet genus religionis, ac Deo devotae sanctificationis tam longe a cunctis pene nostrae provinciae laicis per incuriam docentium quasi prope peregrinum abest, ut hi qui inter religiosiores esse videntur, non
vi^hich
nisi
in
Natali
"),
Domini
et
Epiphania
et
Pascha
festivals
sacrosanctis
praesumant
*
of the
and Easter. Rudolph Koegel as late as 1894 maintained that Christmas and Easter were originally Germanic festivals {Geschichte der deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters, Strassburg, 1894, !> P- 28); but that part of his book was printed before he had come to know my own Geschichte der deutschen Weihnacht, which had appeared
time, Christmas, Epiphany,
in Leipzig,
1893.
27
It
have to be assumed,
to the
each of these
festivals
on a
'day sancrosanct
!
Germanics before
Romano-Christian world
Professor Weinhold
Christianity
to
What
it it
require
to
influenced
have
done!
it
He
of customs, of beliefs,
patriotic
feeling that
he does a
work
when he
and
the experience of
heart,
To
ascribe
to
Germanic
heathendom whatever
Christianity only in the
is
among
modern
by
_
times means nothing but to assume that the Germanics were touched
most
superficial way,
and
which the
institutions
Church made
in order to bring
home
to the
Germanic mind
were of no consequence.
The
means
Christmas to
to
mentioned
feast.
above, was
one
of
the
institution
it,
of a preparatory tide
and
The
for the
Advent-tide, with
its
beginning at Martinmas,
is
According to a
be written by
St.
in the
Departement Charente-Inferieur.
Com-
128
September
a manuscript of
the
eighth
century,
and stating
that
the
its
the
it
than
falsifi-
The
became an
It
ecclesiastical institution
to impress
on people's minds
its
by making each of
joy,
and by rendering
more
attractive
by
letting
strict fasting,
which were
extended to forty days each, a space of time which, however, seems seldom
to
To be
sure
it
the
three fasting-
tides
Nor
were the
fasting,
The
Roman
by dropping every kind of work was understood every-day life to business and law proceedings only
was made
drinking.
for
the
toil
of
for eating
and
In
Reformation that another view was taken which turned, though only within the
small area of Puritanism, the festive days of the Church into true dies nefasti
of
Roman
strictness,
making
it
in
any way on a
Sunday,
of
the
Catholic
Church almost
completely.
who had
to
do penitence for fifteen years were allowed to break their fasting on Sundays.^
1
" Ut a
feria sancti
Acta Conciliorum,
ix.
Parisiis,
I.,
A.D. 581,
^Haddan and
nunquam mutet
Stubbs, Councils
ii.,
Theodore's Penitential,
nisi
16:
and Ecclesiastical Doctiments, Oxford, 1871, III., 179, "Si cum matre quis fornicaverit, xv. annos peniteat, et
Dominicis diebus."
"
129
far as I
am
The mention
which
it is,
or Christmas. 2
the
first
time mentioned
between
a.d.
Roman
A.D.
Easter.*
In Armorica the
Easter
is
mentioned as early as
Between
597 and
A.D.
604 Gregory
is
said
to
Roman
Haddan and
it
Stubbs, Councils
and
Ecclesiastical
Documents Relating
to
Great Britain
and
I., p.
' *
where to the
penitent sinner
admiserit,
permitted
Per
^The mention occurs again and again. Ibid., I., p. 114, xi. "Tres quadragesimas;" " Quadragesimam duas quadragesimas;" Ibid., I., p. 117 (a.d. 569), Sinodus " Tribus quadragesimis ; iv. "Tres quadragesimas;" Ibid., Aquilonalis Britanniae, ii.
:
xvii.
''
p.
ii.
" Quadragesimam
tribus
^ Ibid., I., 124, Nennius, Appendix: " Eanfled filia illius duodecimo die post Pentecosten baptismum accepit cum universis hominibus suis de viris et mulieribus cum ea. Eadguin vero in sequenti Pascha baptismum suscepit, et duodecim millia hominum baptizati sunt cum eo;" Ibid., L, 124 (a.d. 731), Baedae Historica Ecclesiastica, III., 28: " Dominicum
paschae diem."
^Ibid., II.,
ii.,
6,
and
II.,
ii.,
no, Baedae
et
"Quo
tempore
tempus Domino donante suscepit." Documents, II., Oxford, 1873, P- 7S> " Placuit itaque, Deo propitio, ut sanctum Pascha secundum Concil. Aurelian., IV., Can. i. laterculum Victorii ab omnibus sacerdotibus uno tempore celebretur" (in Armorica); Ibid., " Eo anno dubietas Paschae fuit," II., 77 (A.D, 577, 590) ; Greg. Tur., V., 17 (a.d. 577) etc. About the Easter dispute, compare Beda, Hist. EccL, III., 3 and 25, 26.
et ecclesiasticum Paschalis observantiae
Haddan and
Stubbs, Councils
:
and
'^
Ibid., Vol.
:
Alexandria
transacta est
12, Letter by Gregorius to Eulogius, Bishop of Dominicae Nativitatis quae hac prima indictione plus quam decem milia Angli ab eodem [Augustino] nuntiati sunt fratre et
III.,
Oxford, 1871, p.
"In
solemnitate autem
Haddan and
Ireland, Vol.
Stubbs, Councils
III.,
and
is
Ecclesiastical
Documents Relating
it
to
Great Britain
and
Oxford,
1871, p.
ad
inclined to regard
I30
was
Church
Of
these
periods the forty days preceding Pasch were reckoned the holiest,^ at least
as regards chastity.
As
first.^
p.
' Haec sunt jejunia, quae S. Gregorius genti Anglorum praedicari praecepit 449) : quatuor jejunia quatuor temporum anni ; id est, veris, aestatis, autumni et hiemis. Sunt
'
Pentecosten
Jejunium
totum annum
nisi
si
major
festivitas fuerit."
^Haddan and
annos peniteat.
Stubbs, Comuils
and
" Quis perjurium facit in ecclesia undecim i, 2: Qui vero necessitate coactus sit tres quadragesimas." Ibid., III., p. 184, " De his qui damnant Dominicam et indicta jejunia ecclesiae viii., II ; Ibid., III., 186, xi. Dei. (i) Qui operantur die Dominico, eos Graeci prima vice arguunt, secunda toUunt aliquid ab eis, tertia vice partem tertiam de rebus eorum, aut vapulent, vel vii. diebus peniteant. (2) Si quis autem in Dominica die pro negligentia jejunaverit, ebdomadam
Theodore's Penitential (668-690), VI.
(2)
:
si
si
postea,
XL. dies.
(3) Si
pro
Judaeus abominetur ab omnibus ecclesiis catholicis. (4) Si autem contempserit indictum jejunium in ecclesia et contra decreta seniorum fecerit sine
diei jejunaverit, sicut
damnatione
XLma, XL. dies peniteat. Si autem in XLma, annum peniteat si quis autem contempserit XLmani XL. dies peniteat. (5) Si frequenter fecerit, et in consuetudine erit ei, exterminetur ab ecclesia. Domino dicente, 'Qui scandalizaverit unum de pusillis istis' et reliqua."
; ;
Ibid.,
III.,
196,
viii.:
"De
moribus Graecorum
et
Romanorum.
neque
(i)
In
Graeci et
Romani navigant
et equitant,
se.
panem non
Graeci et
ilia
faciunt,
Dominico ad
tunc pro
(2)
domu
scribunt.
...
(5)
In
die
Romani dant servis suis vestimenta et ante Natale Domini hora nona, expleta
et
missa
licet,
coenant.
...
(8)
Lavacrum
xii.
sed consuetudo
"^
Romanorum non
:
et in lexiva
pedes lavare
"
{2)
is
"post Pentecosten
una ebdomada"
iii.
\^Ibid., III.,
he frioh
and
se
Gif thonne se frigea thy dsege wyrce butan his hlafordes and preost si twy-scildig] " ; the same, ;
Laws of Wihtred
(693-731), 9-11.
131
to church dancing,
love-songs, as they
kind
had
to be
on the Continent.^
was very
excuse
if
liberal.
it
as an
man
limits allowed
by the Church.
of the
ecclesiastical
The
state
observance of Christmas
among
the
Haddan and
Stubbs, Councils
and
Ecclesiastical
Documents, Oxford,
87 1, III., 227,
:
Judicium dementis, probably written by Willibrord (690-693), 20 "Si quis in quacunque festivitate ad ecclesiam veniens pallat foris, aut saltat, aut cantat. orationes
in the
dum
paenitentiam
non
agit,
excommunicetur."
Kunstmann, Die Lateinischen P'dnitentialbiicher and Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnungen der Abendldndischen
in
The same
^Haddan and
p.
Stubbs,
I.,
Councils
and
Ecclesiastical
Documents,
Oxford,
1871,
III.,
177
Liber Primus
De
Crapula
et Ebrietate.
erit ei multum bibere vel manducare, Domini aut in Pascha aut pro alicujus Sanctorum commemoratione faciebat, et tunc plus non accipit quam decretum est a senioribus, nihil nocet. Si Episcopus juberit, non nocet illi, nisi ipse similiter faciat." It was mentioned above that the Concilium
Bracarense,
fasting
I.,
A.D.
7 14,
Vol.
iii.
"Si
quis
secundum camem non bene honorat, sed honorare se simulat, jejunans in anathema sit " ). The same prohibition occurs as late as eodem die, et in Dominico about A.D, 725 {Acta Conciliorum, Parisiis, 1714, Vol. III., col. 1863, Gregorii Papae II. " Ut dominicis diebus doceantur non licere omnino jejunare, (a.d. 715-731) Capitulae, x. propter resurrect ionis dominicae sacramentum, neque in festivitatibus Dominicis Nativitatis,
Natalem
.
. .
^Thorpe, Ancient Laws, II., 95-96; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, Oxford, 1871, Vol. III., 412, Dialc^ue of Egbert between a.d. 732 and 766: " De Quarto Jejuni: Quartum jejunium mense Novembrio a veteribus colebatur,
juxta praeceptum Domini ad Jeremiam dicentis
Tolle volumen libri, et scribe in eo Judam. Et factum est in mense nono, conspectu Domini omni populo in Jerusalem.' Hac ergo
: '
Israel et
132
made.
bound
auctoritate
Divinarum Scripturarum
ecclesia
catholica
morem
solemn itatem Domini nostri Jesu Christi ; ubi ante plures dies et continentia carnis et jejunia exhibenda sunt, ut unusquisque fidelis praeparet se ad communionem corporis et sanguinis
Christi
Quod
et
in
et sabbato, sed
juges xii.
Nam
haec,
Deo
gratias,
Theodori
Dorobernensis
Archiepiscopi
ut
inolevit
in
ecclesia
Anglorum consuetudo,
sed etiam
laici
non solum
clerici in monasteriis,
cum
Praeter haec
namque
II., 65,
constituta jejunia
feria,
Christi, et
ipso
die jacuit
et
plerique jejunaverunt."
Opei-um-.
Capitula
Fragmenta Theodori
66:
"Jejunia legitima
et
sunt in anno
Natale Domini,
illius
post
Pentecosten
in
quadraginta dies."
Ibid., II.,
isto
" Poenitentia
anni
unius,
illius
qui
pane
et
aqua jejunandus
pane
et
est,
Poenitentia
unaquaque hebdomada.
mellita
et
abstineat.
aqua jejunandus est, talis esse debet in quintam et sabbatum, a vino, medone, cervisia, a carne et sagimine, a caseo et ovis, et ab omni pingui pisce se Manducet autem minutos pisciculos, si habere potest. Si habere non potest,
anni unius, qui
in
Tres
dies,
id est feriam
tantum
unius
generis
;
piscem,
et
legumina,
et
olera,
et
poma,
et in
si
vult,
comedat, et
;
cervisiam bibat
et
in
;
illos
quatuor dies
et in
Epiphania
unum diem
Ascensione Domini,
Sanctae Mariae, et
et Pentecostes
quatuor dies
et in festo Sancti
Johannis Baptistae,
Michaelis, et
et
et
Omnium
Sanctorum,
Celebris
id
est,
et
Sancti
Martini,
et
in
Sancti
faciat
illi,
festivitate,
episcopatu
Christianis,
et
habetur.
utatur
charitatem
cum
ceteris
eodem
following
et
cibo
et
potu
quo
sed
tamen
ebrietatem,
ventris
secundam
reficiatur
feriam
sicco
quartam
est,
cibo, id
;
oleribus
crudis
unum
est,
eligat
unaquaque hebdomada, jejunet ad vesperam, et tunc de pane et leguminibus siccis sed coctis, aut pomis, aut ex his tribus, et utatur, et cervisiam bibat sed sobrie. Et
in
tertium
jejunet
diem, id
sextam feriam,
pane
el
aqua observet,
et
tres
quadragesimas
ante Natale
Joannis.
Et
in
his
pane
et aqua,
133
gluttony at the festival, so the injunctions about the sexual relations for the
same
tide.i
forty days
et
in Dominicis diebus, et in Natali Domini, et in Pentecoste quatuor illos dies ; et in Epiphania unum diem, et in Pascha usque ad septimum diem, et in Ascensione Homini, et reliqua ut supra." Ibid., II.,
68:
"De
illis
qui
jejunare
in
non possunt,
et
et nesciunt
quomodo poenitentiam
unius anni,
quem
jejunare debent
pane
quem
in
et
pane
et
Qui vero psalmos non novit, et jejunare non potest, aqua jejunare debet, det pauperibus in eleemosynam
ferias
duos solidos,
est,
omnes
si
sextas
jejunet
in
pane
et
gesimas, id
Johannis
Baptistae
ante
festivitatem
aliquid
tribus
remanserit,
postea
adimpleat,
et
Domini.
potu,
;
In
istis
vel
in
vel
cujuscumque
illius
generis
pretii
illud
aestimet
in et
quanti
vel
et
esse
possit
et
et
medietatem
roget
distribuat
ejus,
eleemosynam
eleemosynae
restricted;
pauperibus,
ejus,
assidue
oret,
Dominum,
ut
oratio
is
apud
II.,
Deum
83,
acceptabiles sint."
et
The
little
more
Fragmenta Theodori: "Ut septem annos agant poenitentiam, tres primos annos tres dies in hebdomada, id est, feria secunda, et quarta, et sexta quadraginta dies ante Pascha j viginti ante missam Sancti lohannis, viginti ante Natale Domini quatuor vero reliquos annos, feria quarta et sexta, et quatuordecim noctes ante missam Sancti Johannis, et alias ante Natale Domini." ^Thorpe, Ancient Laws, II., 12, Liber Poenitentialis, xvii. "De Observatione Conjugatoram, i. Qui in matrimonio sunt, abstineant se in iii. Quadragesimas, et in Dominica nocte, et in Sabbato, et feria illi. et VI. quae legitimae sunt, et iii. noctes abstineant se antequam communicent, et I. postquam communicent, et in Pascha usque ad octabas. ... 3. Qui autem in Quadragesima ante Pascha cognoscit mulierem suam, et non vult abstinere, I. annum poeniteat, vel suum pretium reddat ad ecclesias, vel
Ibid.,
Capitula
Qui vero
in
aut ante Natale Domini, non vult a sua conjuge abstinere, XL. dies poeniteat."
81,
Ex
De
uxoribus.
Natale Domini, et
omnem Dominicam
and
noctem,
et
Domini
and
Stubbs,
Councils
Ecclesiastical
Documents, Oxford,
329,
:
Beda's
Penitential, 731-34).
"Vir
ser
cum uxore ne
coeat XL. dies ante Pascha, nee vii. dies ante Pentecosten, nee XL. dies ante
Natalem Domini.
Wer
aer
middan-wintra."
"
Christmas
134
Mn
cance
new
signifi-
for the
It
new
in
Exiguus.
day of January
building of
Rome,
is
now
wrong
either
by three or by
five
years.
and
into France
and England
**
instance
occurring in
England belonging to the year 680.^ The Venerable Beda uses throughout
this year
the year
it
Nativity," as
that,
is
although
it
was so
late as 816,
all
their acts
Although the
Church had, from the middle of the fourth century, apparently thought of
rivalling the
Calends of January by
its
December 25 to January 6, was a festive and gay time, was suspended. Ecgbert's Confessional and Penitential ordains this expressly (Thorpe's Aiuient Laws, II., 135: "Secundo anno licebit homini [poenitentiam agenti] levare poenitentiam suam a Nativitate Domini ad Epiphaniam, et a Paschate ad Pentecosten ; On tham odhrum geare man mot lihtan his dsedbdte fram Drihtnes Haddan and Stubbs, gebyrd-tide odh twelftan dseg. and fram Eastron odh Pentecosten ").
itself,
Councils
and
Ecclesiastical
xiii.,
A.D. 732-766,
II
"De
Documents, Oxford, 1871, Vol. III., p. 429, Egbert's Penitential, natale Domini usque in Epiphaniam et illos praedictos dies,
Even
Canons of Aelfric, the time from Christ's Nativity till a week after Christ's Epiphany is excepted from Friday fasting, just as the time between Easter and Pentecost (Thorpe, Ancient Laws, II., 362: "And faeste aelc man twelf monadh selcne Frige-daeg. buton fram Eastron odh Pentecosten. and eft fram middan-wintra odh seofon niht ofer twelftan daeg "). ^"Regnante in perpetuum ac gubernante Domino nostro Salvatore secula universa, Anno recapitulationis Dionisi, id est ab Incarnatione Christi sexcentesimo octuagesimo. Indictione sexta revoluta, etc. Quapropter ego Oshere Rex, etc. "(Sir Harris Nicolas, The Chronology of History, London, 1838, p. 3, obs. ). Sir Harris gives some more instances from the eighth century, from the charter of Ethelbert, King of the West Saxons " Scripta
:
est
Dccxc"; from
a charter of Offa,
King of
"Actum anno Dominicae Incarnationis, DCCLXXXVlli."; from a charter of Ethelbert, the second King of Kent "Actum [anno] Dominicae Incarnationis, DCCLXXXi."; and from the charter of Egbert, King of Kent: "Actum anno Dominicae Incarnationis, dccclxv." {Textus Koffensis, pp. 134, 132, 131, 127). As to the introduction of the Dionysian computation, see Notes and Queries, Eighth Series, xii., 421 Ninth Series, i., 10, etc.
Mercia:
;
p.
4.
135
even consistently.
Italy,
The popular customs connected with the Calends of Gaul, and the West of Germany gave the Church ample
(569),!
+ 542),'^
century
and Bonifacius
the Church
+ 755)^
fought against
But
in
the seventh
made
a commemoration
at
Martinmas the
commenced on January
its
all
the Church, in
and, having in
it
its
hand almost
the secular
of princes, excluded
The Papal
Bonifacius
up
till
the
taking
March -25
instead.
Under
and
(1294-1303)
again,
In the fifteenth
a new change
set in,
The
earliest
at Christ-
later the
Roman
Coll.
803.
22.
I.,
22; Bemold,
'sive
(
in his
"Civilis
innovatur";
faciunt
Burchard of
Worms
Decretalia:
"
Fecisti
quod quidam
filant,
in calendis
nent, consuunt et
incipere
novum annum
the
and an addition to a Canon of Pope Zacharias of 743 about incipiunt " same subject runs: "Vel aliquid plus novi facere propter novum annum." Germany is the country which laid most stress on ^Grotefend, Zeitrechnung, I,, 205.
it
is
now
"^
in
Germany
a great
number of customs
and Great Britain belong to New Year. Momitnenta Germaniae, Scriptores, XL, 265, in the writing of Wipo, the biographer of King Conrad II. ( + 1039): "Inchoante anno Nativitatis Christi, 1027, Rex Chuonradus iu Iporegia civitate natalem Domini celebravit." Brinkmeier, Praktisches Handbuch
der historischen Chronologie, p. 89.
136
Church used
Roman
If the
its
achieving
its
purpose,
it
was because
The 25th December of the year o having a new era, it was by no means strange that
But soon the consideration
really
came
in
that
the
incarnation
of Christ had
ception, which
March 25th of the year o, and that style won considerable ground under the name of the Annunciation style,^ so that
was dated on
within the Church two styles rivalled each other: the Annunciation style and
name of
both
proved to have
to
been used.^
The
at last fatal to
which
in the
i.^
course
of the
Never-
any way
connected with
be
well
the
however
in
it
numerous may
Britain
as
the
as
exceptions
the
the
year
Great
on the Continent.
the
commencement
civilians
year,
the festival of the Nativity of Christ, had not thought of replacing altogether by
it
later,
new
era
on the year of
Christ's
birth,
and
the festival of the annual recurrence of the date of that fact grew a
more
ecclesiastical institution,
it
logical con-
^ Grotefend, Zeitrechnung, I., 22, Minutes of the Synod of Gnesen of 12^"]: "Annum autem a tempore circumcisionis domini, prout tenet ecclesia, intelligimus computandum"; Gervasius
of Canterbury
1208)
"Annus
I.,
Solaris
et ecclesiae dei
^Grotefend, Zeitrechnung,
I.,
I.,
7.
^For
23.
"Sir Harris Nicolas, The Chronology of History, London, 1838, p. 41, from which day the opening of the year was transferred to January i as late as 1753. It had been
so transferred in Scotland in 1600 {Ibid., p. 43).
137
sequence that the year should come to be reckoned to begin with December
25 instead of January
i,
importance, so that, for the clergyman of the seventh and eighth centuries,
it
year,
and soon
it
could no
when
it
was equally
to
unknown
Roman
and
Germanic
popular traditiopC
CHAPTER
XI.
A
of
CENTURY
it
after
Roman
;
Christianity
had come
its
was
christianized
and
in
one of
studied a youth of not yet twenty, the greatest genius of the early Anglic
Church,
Beda,
whose
life,
probably,
extended from
a.d.
673
to
735,
and
to
which
Although he lived
his life
in a Northern English
as
good a Christian
life
believer as
any
Roman
who
in the
immediate neigh-
brought up under the special care of Abbot Benedict, who was famous
for his learning
home
for
early
enough
less,
to
know commore he
followers
its
them the
the
The passage bearing on our question is chapter xv. in his work De Temporum Ratione, a book consisting, with the exception of that one chapter, solely of facts gathered from various Latin and Greek treatises on similar subjects, and showing an amount of classical and astronomical
learning which
is
astounding.
:
The
chapter
is
headed
De
Mensibus Anglo-
"But
it
me
BEDA, DE MENSIBUS
suitable to relate the yearly
ANGLORUM
silent
139 about
that of
my own
nation) counted
months
after
whence the
ceive their
latter,
and the
January,
April,
name from the moon, the moon being called by them Mona, month Monath. And their first month, which the Latins call
called Giuii:
\
is
-,
March, Rhed-monath
July, in the
;
Eostur-monath
;
Lida-,
same
way, Lida
August,
;
September, Haleg-monath
Giuli,
October,
Vinter-fylleth
called.
They began
25],
their year
And
now
night of mothers, as I
it,
keeping
watch
all
night.
And when
there was a
common
year, they
gave to each
to the
same time by
having
name of Lida, and on that account four summer months, but the usual
the
seasons.
was called
Thri-lidi,
three
months
Again, they divided, in the main, the whole year into two seasons,
summer
longer than
the
nights to
to winter.
things,
Vuinter-fylleth, this
moon, of
beginning.
is
Neither
is it
what
Angles.
The months
it.
sun towards the increasing of the day, because one of them precedes and
the other follows
in
it
Rheda, to
whom
they sacrificed in
it;
Eostur-monath, which
preted as the
now internamed
140
Eostre, to
they celebrated
festivals.
After
festivity
an ancient observance.
animals were in a time, the
it
fertility
Lida
is is
called
navigable,
because
in
usually navigated.
Veod-monath
month of
is
tares,
Haleg-monath
a newly-made
the
month
name
it
winter-full-moon.
Blot-tnonath
the
month
of immolation, because in
kill.
cattle
Thanks
Thee
1 Giles's edition of The Complete Works of the Venerable Bede, VI., Scientific Tracts and Appendix, London, 1843, but with the addition of the deviations from it in Grimm's text, from Jacob Grimm's Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, Vol. I., Sec. Ed., Leipzig, 1853, The pp. 56, 57, who says expressly that he used several texts for forming his own.
The italics are mine " De Mensibus Anglorum. Antiqui autem Anglorum populi (neque enim mihi congruum videtur, aliarum gentium annalem observantiam dicere, et meae reticere) juxta cursum lunse suos menses computavere unde et a luna Hebrseorum et Grsecorum more nomen accipiunt. Primusque Si quidem apud eos luna Mona, mensis Monath appellatur [apellatur Monath\ eorum mensis, quem Latini Januarium vocant, dicitur Giuli. Deinde Februarius, SolMaius, ThriMartius, Rhed-monath [Hredmonath'] Aprilis, Eostur-monath monath Vueod-monath Augustus, mylchi [Thrimilci]: Junius, Lida Julius similiter Lida:
deviations or additions are given in brackets.
:
: : :
September, Haleg-monath Vuinter-fylleth [ Vintirfyllith'] Veodmonath"] October, November, Blod-monath {Blotmonath'\ December, Giuli, eodem quo Januarius nomine Incipiebant autem annum ab octavo Calendarum Januariarum die, ubi nunc vocatur. Et ipsam noctem nunc nobis sacrosanctam, tunc gentili natale Dominicum celebramus. vocabulo Modranicht ^Modranehtl, id est, matrum noctem appellabant [ ] ob causam Et quotiescunque communis ut suspicamur ceremoniarum, quas in ea pervigiles agebant.
[
:
: :
menses lunares
Cum
vero Embolismus,
hoc
mensium lunarium annus occurreret, superfluum mensem sestati apponebant, Thri-lidi ita ut tunc tres menses simul Lida nomine vocarentur, et ob id annus ille [ ] \thrilidus\ cognominabatur, habens iv. menses sestatis, ternes ut semper temporum cseterorum. Item [Iterum] principaliter annum totum in duo tempora, hyemis videlicet, et sestatis disest, XIII.
partiebant
sex
illos
aestati
hyemi.
Unde
et
incipiebant, Vuinter-fylleth
Vintirfyllithl
BEDA, DE MENSIBUS
This
is
ANGLORUM
it
141
is
There
it
is
no doubt
that,
coming from so
dis-
Beda,
deserves
is
examination.
One
thing, however,
is
clear at
to
When Beda
But,
speaks
no reason
on the
other hand,
is
about their
beliefs
and
rites,
knew about
own
from hearsay.
So
all
some
things he
:
Another
parts.
remarkable
In the
first
second
mind
any
is
He
" Neither
if I
the
meaning
of the
hyeme et plenilunio, quia videlicet a plenilunio ejusdem Nee ab re est, si et csetera mensium eorum quid significent
nomina [eorum nomina quid significent] interpretari curemus. Menses Giuli a conversione solis in auctum diei, quia unus eorum prsecedit, alius subsequitur, nomina accipiunt. Solmonath dici potest mensis placentarum, quas in eo Diis suis offerebant Rhed-monath ^HredmonatK\ a Dea illorum Kheda [//reda], cui in illo sacrificabant, nominatur Eostur-nionalh, qui nunc Paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a Dea illorum quae Eostre vocabatur, et cui in illo festa celebrabant, nomen habuit a cujus nomine nunc Paschale tempus cogno:
: :
TriTalis
milchi \trimilc{\ dicebatur quod tribus vicibus in eo per diem pecora mulgebantur.
ubertas Britannise, vel Germanise de qua in Britanniam natio intravit Lida dicitur blandus, sive navigabilis [navigabilis eo quod] quod in utroque [utroque illo mense] mense et blanda sit serenitas aurarum, et navigari soleant sequora. Vueod-monath [FeodmonalA] mensis zizaniorum quod ea tempestate maxime abundent.
erat
enim
quondam
Anglorum.
novo
Blot-monath mensis immolationum, quia [quod] vovebant. Gratias [gratia] tibi, bone Jesu, qui
donasti."
142
The most
and one
they had
striking thing in
is
certainly
the
assertion
that
the Angles,
common name
June and
to
July,
December and January, namely, Giuli and Lida, which means that
for
still
some
extent
they
came
into
contact
with the
Roman
Giuli
moon and
earlier
months.
we know
i.e.,
among
Italy
the Goths,
an Eastern Germanic
This
latter
we have solved
already by showing that the old Germanic three- score-day tides began about
Roman
months, so that
15 to January 15,
liuleis
covered approximately
time from
November
shifted a fortnight
backwards so as to correspond to
December and January. Lida, the name for the middle of summer, is new and we ought to be grateful to Beda for preserving it. That exactly four months are between Giuli and Lida shows that no confusion has
to us,
taken place, but that two other three-score-day tides have to stand between
them.
Julian
When
Beda, however,
a
tells
the pre-
calendar,
whole
month was
and the
thirteenth
month
name
of
a month
thirty
among
days added would have meant only half a Lida, and there would
have been
half,
Besides,
the
month
in
a leap
year, but,
would
as
just
the
waited
amounted
whole
BEDA, DE MENSIBUS
week
i.e.,
ANGLORUM
143
at a
time, so
that
the
year
Thursday.
two ancient
we cannot conceal from the very names of those two tides amount to a other eight month-names which Beda mentions are
Gtuli and Lida,
right to express our regret that
for
So we have a
Beda was
year,
not,
by
existence of two
names
upon the
and
right
Germanic
that
he
all
Germanic year
sixty-six days.
of,
and
In his time
Perhaps even
of
them were
still
in use
among
The
are
is
eight
not old.
indeed, not
One
of
them
to
called Thrimilci, a
Thrilidi.
However important a
that the
for
it
must be
a tribe consisting of
cattle
that,
was not a
fact at all,
A
of a
when Germany from which the nation second month is said to bear the ingenious
full
name
all,
of Winter-fylleth, or winter
moon, which
is
not a month-name at
name
the
fact
that
the
winter,
the beginning
of which
in
common
Germanic
times, at the
!
began in the
The remaining
six
No
now would
Germanic month-
144
that
the Germanics received the institution of months from the Romans, professes
that
there
were
only
no
be
month-names
taken
as
in
common Germanic
of
?),
times.
local
Besides,
they
can
of
representative
purely
denomination
months.
Neither
Rugern
(August
which we know
for
March
sedr-
monadh, midsumor
for
June
mcedmonath
for
July
or
hearfestmonath for
literature, are
amongst
Of
the
six
right
he
says, the
month
in
to
their
gods their
cattle
which
they intended to
of worship, a
name probably
on a Christian foundation.
As
regards
That August
i.e.,
"month
doubtful,
abound
of cakes
much
indeed.
How
come
to
mean month
resources,
nobody can say, there being no such word meaning anything like cake in
any Germanic language.
When
he has exhausted
all
he takes
imaginary goddesses.
to
cognate
spring.
Latin
aurora
and
Greek
:
-qm,
and
means
something
like
whom
I
do not
believe, so long as
has not been proved that the principal feast of the Church could be
goddess.
Doubts
given a
his
dea Hreda,
who
is
said to have
name
March.
That Beda's
A. D.
696.
March comes dangerously near to Lida for June-July. If February and March, or originally January 15 to March 15, were Lida, the insertion of a leap month would almost take place on the same date as it did in the pre-Julian calendar, where it was inserted into February, which, of course, was impracticable in the highest degree.
^
Hlyda
for
BEDA, DE MENSIBUS
strength did not
as the
lie in
ANGLORUM
his explanation of
,'^
145
etymology
is
shown by
solmonad
month
and
at another
I observe,
if in
of two old three-score-day tides were preserved, which had in Beda's time
become
They can be
little
explained
Whilst Beda knows of a dual division of the Anglic year, which was
bound
to be familiar to
terms winter and summer together covering the whole course of a year,
and the
on
it,
by is quartered and equinoxes, a statement which is the more extraordinary, as, from what he said before, it is quite plain that he thought the Angles had a lunar year of 354 days, into which now and then (presumably every
year of the Julian
calendar, which
solstices
of the
Roman
third year) a
just as
under the
reign of the
Roman
pre-Julian calendar.
:
His words
practically
amount
to
own
was a lunar
that
it
year,
yet
began
This, of
course,
means
year,
which
is
quite
out of the
their
question, since
the
Germanics began
year
in
and not
but
that,
common Germanic
when
solstice
nay, that,
the Western
meaning of
solstice,
all.
for
the winter
Nor
is
this
According
real solstice
morning of December
'^
p.
4.
'^Ibid.,
p.
24.
146
18)/ but on December 25, the date which Julius Caesar had erroneously When he comes to speculations confessedly his own, fixed for the solstice.
the value of his statements becomes
still
more
doubtful.
after
He
them precedes
Giuli
follows."
so that the
first
ended
at
December
months were
Roman
tide
months.
i
Further,
to
we
know
31,
November
December
and
common Germanic
liuleis
November 15 to January 15, and that, consequently, December 25 was by no means the middle of it. So if Beda means to say, that Giuli was originally the name of the winter solstice, and that from it December and January received their names (a statement, however, which he himself gives merely as his own supposition, or interpretation, as he chooses to call it, and by no means the as a warranted fact), he may without any hesitation be said to be wrong more so, as he goes on to say that the day of the alleged solstice (to which he ascribes in one sentence the name Giuli) was called modraniht, i.e., night
of mothers, so that
this that
it
facts
may
he was
told,
gives,
or at least
names
similar to them,
were used
home
in his
own
nobody
facts,
will dispute.
The
And
the
customs,
of
whilst,
in
were
product
of a strange
old
elements
pre-Julian
Roman
owe
all calculations
Hermann
Jacobi of Bonn.
BEDA, DE MENSIBUS
calendar,
ANGLORUM
147
calendar,
Church
to
make
made
time there were four distinct layers, one above the other, in the popular
notions about the course of the year, and
if
we bear
this in
mind
all
the
seeming
difficulties
are elucidated.
new moons
their theory
and
full
moons among
their
do with
Beda thought
it
had.
Romans
leap
he
made
begin their
solstices
^Vhilst the
bound
to
according
and
as
birth,
venturing even
that
and
December
fact
that,
their
common name
Beda
from
it.
suggestion
no case known
which December 25
life,
i.e.,
is
called
Beda's
up
And
of too
late
date,
or the
original
is
is
not preserved,
suspected.
the
more
strange,
December
it
25
is is
frequently referred
called
in the
Saxon
Chronicle.
But
invariably
to Nativited,
Laud
a single
Yule.
When
towards the
25,
meaning of December
identical,
There is no doubt that Old Northern j6l. Original Northern Jul, Gothic Jiuleis is not and has absolutely nothing to do with A.S. hveol. Old Northern hvel, English
148
sets in,
is
mean Christmas through Hakon, King of Norway, who reigned from 940 to 963, and had shifted to December 25 the date of an old February festival, which in the course of time had come to be celebrated come
to
14,
with
it
on the same
wheel',
for
the Anglo-Saxon
word corresponding
p.
to
ss.
is
Geola, gehhol,
311
Studien, IX., 311) and Bugge {Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi, IV., 135), jSl, A.S. gehhol, from an original Germanic *jehwela, and declaring with Bugge the latter as identical with
Mogk
"gay
the fact that I regard the establishment of a relation between joculus and *jeh%vela as a
:
at the beginning of
January
These usages were a Roman Calends-ofJanuary custom, and were on Germanic soil limited to Gaul and to the extreme west of Germany, where the Roman influence was strongest. Professor Weinhold adduces the Cyprian term 'loi^Xios, which is assumed to have covered the time from December 22 to January 23, and which he, as Grimm's follower, boldly derives from the month of July,
are missing just where that time
name
of the
month of
the
summer
!
solstice (which,
however,
is
June!)
was
He
is
name
this
we should
in
case
have to
assume that
it
had been
when Goths, Scandinavians, and Anglo- Frisians spoke one language. He further overlooks the fact that, in the Germanic languages, it is not a month-name at all, but the name of an Oriental three-score-day tide, so that the alleged analog)' with the Cyprian name which is by no means proved to have had anything to do with the Roman month of July does not even hold good, though the whole argument is based upon it (Weinhold, Deutsche Monatnamen, Halle, 1869, p. 4; Deutsche Jahrteilung, 1862, p. 15; K. Fr. Hermann, Uber griechische Monatskunde, Gottingen, 1844, p. 64; Grimm, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, 1848, I., pp. '78 and 106, 107). The form of the Greek name varies considerably, as was shown above. In some cases it is not clear which month is meant. Perhaps, we have, as I suggested before, to do there with a relic of the same Oriental six-fold division of the year as among the Germanics, and, Perhaps that institution, consequently, with the same name for November and December.
like the
is
of the hour and the sixty seconds of the minute being perfect parallels to the sixty days
of the tide.
The
sari
and
sossi of ancient
the minazxidi the sixty ?ninas to the talent, and elsewhere, are contained in them.
or sixty,
is
The saros, Compare Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, HI., p. 136; and Max Miiller, Chipsfrom a German Workshop, New Ed., Vol. I., London, 1894, pp.202 ss.,Some
at the basis of all.
.:
149
In
for
so that
is
it
in Scotland
become
whoever
very frequent.
The
stole
that
on Sunday, or
Christmas, or at
or on
Holy Thursday,
or
Lent-fast, should
^
be fined twice as
much
it
as he
who
stole at
other times.
mean
So
it
the day of Nativity, but the time about that day in so far as
proclaimed holy by the Church, which would not be longer than twelve nights.
three-score-day
and,
later,
apparently a
single
month, but
it
does
Lessons of Antiquity.
Still
more uncertain
to\i\o%
:
is
name of
"Yule"
'
:
says:
hymn was in honour of Ceres," and the same thing is intimated by Theodoret in his work, De Materia et Miindo, when he says Let us not sing the liulos to Ceres, nor the
'
Dithyrambos
to
Bacchos."
^Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Lnstitutes of England, London, 1840, Vol. I., p. 64, v. " Sethe staladh 6n Sunnan niht. oththe on Gehhol oththe on Eastron oththe on thone Halgan Dunres dseg on Gang-dagas thara gehwelc we willadh sie twy-bote swa on Lencten-fsesten."
. .
II., 450 (Alfredi Legum Versio Antiqua) v.: "Qui furatur die Dominica, vel in sancto Natali, vel in Pascha, vel in Sancto die lovis, in Ascensione Domini,
eorum volumus
dupliciter
emendandum
St.
sit,
festival
Mary-mass was celebrated. Thorpe's Freolse Eallum frioum monnum thas dagas sien forgifene butan theowum mannum ond esne-wyrhtum xii. dagas on Gehhol ond thone dseg the Crist thone deofol oferswidhde ond Scs Gregorius gemynd-daeg .ond.vn. dagas to Eastron ond vii. ofer ond an dseg ast See Petres tide and See Paules ond on
in the harvest, a
I., p.
and
92,
"Be
Maesse
Daga
wican
ser
ond iiii. Wodnesdagas on Dheowum monnum eallum sien tham the him leofost sie to sellanne seghwset thses the him senig mon for Godes noman geselle. Oththe hie on senegum hiora hwilsticcum geearnian msegen."
dseg
.
set
.
forgifen
150
not yet
first
documentary evidence of
It
Ibl.
In
it
the
occurs in
Edward
Abbey
Unfortunately of the four manuscripts which contain Aelfred's laws, three are of the
century and one
is
tenth
of the
twelfth
century,
the
MS.
British
Museum, Nero EI
belonging to the end of the tenth century, and the Textus Roffensis to the twelfth century
(Wijlker, Grundriss zur Geschichte der angelsdchsischen Literatur, Leipzig, 1885, p. 399).
How
following example
may show,
in
which
middan-winti-a by geolum
gebyrd-tide.
and
England, London, 1840, Vol. die ante Natale Domini hora nona expleta missa,
Institutes of
II.,
p.
id est vigilia
Roman
and Greek churches as regards fasting on Christmas eve, without giving any particulars about what is to be done. Whilst the Greeks eat not before six p.m., the Romans take food after three p.m.; and Ecbert's Confessional and Penitential (Cotifessionale et Poenitentiale Ecberti,
Laws and
Institutes
of England, London, 1840, Vol. II., pp. 162, 163, gives details about the fast time before Christmas: " Legitima jejunia tria sunt in anno; unum pro omni populo, ut illud XL.
diebus ante Pascha,
solvimus
et illud
;
Natale Domini,
post Pentecosten
cum
;
.
swa that XL. nihta and that XL. nihta aer geolum thonne gebiddedh hine eall that werod fore and orationes rasdadh and that XL. nihta ofer Pentecosten." Instead of "geolum," which is the reading of O, Y has " middan-wintra," and Bx has "ures Dryhtnes zebyrd-tide," while X and Y add the following On tham serran dasge set geolum [Y, middan-wintra] aet n6ne sidhdhan msesse bydh gesungen. heo gereordiadh Romane. Grecas to sefenne. thonne aefen bidh gesungen and msesse thonne fSdh hi to mete." Of these O is a small folio MS. of Corpus Christi, C.C. 190 (L xil); Y is a small narrow volume of the eleventh century, Bodleiana, Laud, F
syndon on geare an
ofer eall folc
.
Dhreo
foran to Eastron
.
thonne
we thone teodhan
'
'
17
is
a tenth century octavo MS., Corpus Christi, 265 (K 2) ; X is a MS. of about 1000 Dues de Bourgogne ; O, which Thorpe, contrary
has wisely abstained from dating, belongs to the twelfth century, and
is
by Bishop
Leofric.
Hand- Book
to the
Land-charters
and
BEDA, DE MENSIBUS
to
ANGLORUM
but preserved only in
15, a twelfth
be dated between
1042 and
1066,
century manuscript.^
wuca
XIV., f. 257 : "inne lol and inne Easteme and inne dha hali Gangdagas.," " in natali dominico, in pascha, et in sancta hebdomada rogationum."
In the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland for the years 1264 till 1359 {Rotuli Scaccarii Regum Scotorum, ed. by J. Stuart and G. Burnett, Vol. I., 1264-1359, Edinburgh, 1878), the word "Yule" never occurs; while in the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scot-
to
Regum Scotorum,
ed.
by Th. Dickson,
1473-1498, Edinburgh,
is
Yule by no means referred to Christmas day exclusively, but to the whole season. The History and Chronicles of Scotland, written in Latin by Hector Boece, and translated by John Bellenden, Edinburgh, 1821, Vol. II., p. 340, Lib. XIII., chap. xiv. (under King Alexander II., A.D. 1222) " In the third yeir eftir, the Erie of Caithnes come to
:
king Alexander, quhen he wes sittand with his modir, on the Epiphany day, at his
yuill,
and
desirit grace."
HoUinshead, in
"As
which he followed Bellenden, King Alexander with his mother Eymingard were
on the 12th day in Christmas, otherwise called Yule," etc. Instances from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, of Yule as identical with Christmas,
at their
banket,
are
And
men
logyt thai,
:
Before Yhule
thowsand, trow
"A-pon
Of
a Yhule-ewyn alsua
Kyng
suld ga
He met
The
(
Wyntown, VIII.,
spelling in the last quarter of the fifteenth century
is
36,
Yowle
Scot-
Compota Thesaurariorum Regum Scotorum, Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of land, ed. by Thomas Dickson, Vol. I., 1473- 1498, Edinburgh, 1877: Yule, p.
Ywle,
p.
17;
99
Christmas.
Yole, p. 239 ; Yowle, p. 245), and the term was used as identical with P. 17, "fra Pasche to Yule," from Easter to Christmas; p. 99, again Ywle, a
;
short time before Christmas; p. 239 gives quite a number of points of time, from "the VIII. day of November" and "Sanct Martinis day" to "Sanct Nicholas day" (on which
"tua Sanct Nicholas bischoppis" appear who receive "xxxvi. s."), "Sanct Androis day," and "Yole," the festival at which day is called "the Kingis Yole." We find there the
also
terms used:
eftir
Yole," and
(p.
On
p.
"on "on
240 also occur "vpone Newger daye" and "on Vphaliday"; Candilmess day," "on Sanct Patrikis day," "agane Pasche,"
Pasche day" (twice); and
p.
"before Pasche,"
242,
152
He
says,
we now
celebrate the
is
birthday of the
us,
Lord.
And
that night,
i.e.,
which
now
sacrosanct to
keeping watch
all
night."
However
and
fact
theories
of the
his time
December
25,
a word which
one
translation
only,
that
translation
being
night of mothers.
much
discussion,
explanations.
Jacob
Grimm
tells
whom
Scandinavian poetry
tribe,
others of a
Germanic
But
all
Mogk
of Leipzig.
He
supposed
As a family name Yule (Yole) appears Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, Vol. IV., 1406-1436, pp. 411, 621, 675 and elsewhere. Item, In 1494 at the Royal Court of Scotland some timber was bought from Jonete Gule. for III.** burdis fra Jonete Gule III. li. XV. s. {Cotnpota Thesaurariorum Regum Scotorum,
Michaelis day," and "the vi. day of Nouember."
in the
Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, ed. by Thomas Dickson, Edinburgh, As late as 1636 datings occur like " decimo tertio die mensis Januarii 1877, p. 252).
nuncupate
lie twentie day of Yule" {Charters and other Documents relating to the City of Glasgow, A.D. 1175-1649, Part II., edited by Sir James D. Marwick, Glasgow, 1894,
p.
386, "Charter by
King Charles
December 25
to the exclusion of
from A.D. 1535 is, e.g., of Edinburgh (A.D. 1528-1557), Edinburgh, 1871, p. 71: "It is statute and ordanit [be] the provest baillies and counsale that all nichtboures within this towne, merchandis and
craftismen, as thai ar of power,
till furnis cortise till pas and convoy the provest fra the awin hows after evin sang in the haly dayes of Yule, New Yeir day, and Vphaly day, vnder the payne of xviii. shillingis to be tane of thame that wanttis cortise, and at every deykin haif power till poynd his craft for the samyn." ^"Matrem deum venerantur Aestii; insigne superstitiorum formas aprorum gestant" (Germania, chap. xlv.).
I."). The cases in which Yule unmistakably means any adjoining days are very rare and veiy late. A case the following taken from Extracts from the Records of The Burgh
kirk
till
his
153
whom
he
identifies with
Old Scandinavian
disar,
and
to a cult of the
dead
number of
nights,
a whole holy
the
souls of
tide,
devoted
to
the
dead,
the
female genii of
protection,
the
deceased, whilst
But
if
one
is
goes so
far,
one may go
mention of
Engyon, of
was celebrated
for
appearance of goddesses
in
who
number, appear
inscriptions
with the
lacking entirely
in
untenable, because
in Paul's
p.
126.
his Marcellus, chap. xx.
to
Tn
the
Roman Wall: a
Guide
to
Tourists
traversing the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus, 3rd edition, London, Longmans, 1885, says
also to
it
mention that the worship of the Deae Matres the was not lucky to mention, was much in vogue with the
with the Gothic portion of the
;
Romans
of a later age,
especially
Roman community.
in the
two of
these,
shown
woodcuts on
now
preserved in the
Museum
of the
p.
Newcastle Society of
These
On
station of the
p. 202.
Roman Wall
of England.
It
is
Bruce in a woodcut on
in
of Newcastle.
282,
No. 844, a stone of Camulodunum now kept in the Museum there. It has the inscription " Matribus Sulevis Similis Atti f(ilius) ci(vis) Cant(ius) v(otum) ](ibens) s(olvit)." Another
inscription
(927)
is
devoted
the
to
the
Domestic
Mothers:
"
Civliv
Crescesi
Matribus
Domesticis vs m.
1."
seem
to
belong
to
same group,
and
perhaps even
is
another stone
ntius," 1081
" Matribus
186:
tr{a)mar(inis),"
1091,
Perhaps
"
I(ovi)
'54
it
rests
festival
But
it
which
seem
basis
to support
is
support
it.
For
at their
the Egyptio-Roman
He who
that in
it
may assume
is
Beda himself
know why
I
The
the
allusion
Mothers, as he
name modranicht
to the states
he
in
is
this
from
it,
simply
There
is
human
hood.
Customs of
found
in the
Roman
Matronalia
and
The Romans
the the
so-called
celebrated,
on the
first
Rome
the
went to
of
Esquiline
the
temple of Lucina
celebrating
festival
matrimony.^
it
If that festival
Roman
legions,
could,
when
Mogvnto
Dis
Movno
ceterisq(ue)
I(ulius)
Britannorum
Ael(ianus),
Trib(us)
Coh(ortibus)
Britonnficus)
V(otum)
III.,
S(olvit)."
^Ovid, Fasti,
179
ss.
BEDA, DE MENSIBUS
from March
i
ANGLORUM
it
155
to the
to
January
the
i,
Calends of
25,
January, and,
when
Christian
birthday of Christ,
on December
Something
similar, indeed,
men
all
went about
in
women's
dresses,
women went
licentiousness
men wore
But
I
so,
hides
of stags,
vailing.^
do not think
that
Beda thought of
things
like
these.
Had
he done
And
there certainly
is
something
decidedly Christian in the report, the keeping watch all night, a peculiarity
of the early
at
at Christmas eve
and
Pasch
eve,
existed.
If the
custom
Beda
And
Roman
certain observances.
cult,
which the
were
made
but were
expressed
in
visible
In such celebrations
human mothers no
That the
part.
From
the night of birth to the night of motherare only two small steps.
all
of the birth
is
of a child
should be dedicated to
mothers or to
exist-
motherhood
only natural.
cult,
ence of such a
it
was
of a
706.
The development
Homilia
De
Sacrilegiis, ed.
by Caspari,
Christiania, 1886:
" Et
illud
mulierum induentes se feminas videri volunt." the above chapter headed the "Calends of January."
Viri tunicis
See the
list
of cases quoted in
156
cult of the Virgin
in
clearly traceable
the
Councils
of the
Church.
Seeking
for
ever-new objects of
veneration and supplying the "eternal feminine," which was found lacking
in the
new
religion, orientals
kinds of wild fancies about the act of Christ's birth, so that the Church
to
declare
that
and above
all,
people to bake, divide, and eat a cake in honour of the afterbirth of the im-
maculate Virgin.
seems
that
to
have
to
know
custom
to
649 under Pope Martin L, which Great Britain by John the Precentor and adopted by the During Beda's own
life-time the
whole matter
706.
But, of course,
his
hearsay, or from
own
poraneous.
That
in a thing so wicked,
which
to
Ada
col.
Trullo,
706,
Canon
faciunt
Ixxix.
"Absque
sit,
ullis
secundis
ex
Virgine
partum
esse
confitentes
idque
toti gregi
ignorantiam
invicem impertiri,
Ibid., Vol.
quod non decet, correctioni subiicimus. Quare quoniam Dei nostri nativitatis diem similam coquere ostenduntur, et earn honoris scilicet praetextu secundinarum impollutae Virginis matris
1014, Decrees of Pope Hormisdas (a.d. 514-523),
iii.;
..."
II., col.
Haddan
Ecclesiastical
p.
Documents relating
to
146,
De
Beata Virgine.
this
custom of representing in
Scotland (Jamieson,
some way the confinement of the Virgin spread As late as 1800 a more characteristic form.
prevailed
in
An
Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, under "Yule," VII.), where on the morning of the twenty- fifth of December one got up before the rest of the family and prepared
food for them, which had to be eaten in bed. with eggs, called Care-cakes.
BEDA, DE MENSIBUS
a
relic
ANGLORUM
And
it
157
of heathendom,
we cannot wonder.
He
Roman
Calends of
January, at which
Church had
fixed
"
l6o
Germany
here
and there
at least
e.g.^
to
myddtivynter^
different
word wuh,
holy.
As they had
i.e.,
holy
tide.
wUh
the
weichfasten,
which nobody
will
to
be a purely
ecclesiastical invention.
And
create
December
night, thus
25.
To
days wthnahten.^
After the year 800,
when
the
Pope on
that date
crowned Charlemagne
Roman Emperor, Christ's birthday was ceremonies. And this apparently was
queror,
why William
the Conit
who won
the battle
of Hastings
in
foran
to
middan wintra."
ic
I.,
p.
220,
iv.
"^dhelstan cyng
cydh that
hit
set
me
lyste.
oththe
Greatanlea
hsebbe.
gecweden
haebbe
waere.
ic
forboren
Nu
mine witan secgadh that ic hit to lange gefunden mid thsem witum the mid me wseron set
end
Exan-ceastre to middan-wintre,"
centuries,
it
etc.
lived
on
still
561
" This Chrystismess Wallace rama)myt thar In Laynrik oft till sport he maid repayr."
^Kempen, Town-Archive, D.
gheloefflyke
2
i,
myn
gelt to
gheven
in
No. i, about 1442: " Hefft in myn hant ghetastet den ver hylghen daghen to myddewynter.
i)
;
"An
"an
der heiligen
Christisnacht,
I.,
JeroscMn "
Pf.
58
^,
Miiller
301.
disen winnahten Tank^ser," ms. H 2, 93"; "zu nehest bi winachten," K, 46, 47; "swer zu winachten singet vor den hiisern," Saalfelder Stadtrecht, Wackernagel, Literaturgeschichte, I., p. 259, note 9; "zu weinachten," MUnchner
^"Gegen
Pass.
Stadtrecht,
Biterolf,
tag nach wichen nachten," Ziiricher Jahrbuch, 69, 5 ; "uf den hailgen tag zuo nachten," Ibid^, 80, 33; "zuo Wichennachten uf den ziestag," Ibid., 92, 13; kindli tag zuo wichen nachten," Ibid., 94, 33.
"an
der
"
AND CHRISTMAS
i6i
a
his
coronation at Westminster^
in the history
25, for
a Christmas
new chapter
festival
of Britain.
He
on December
begins to state regularly where the king kept that festive time.
when he held
Henry.2
In 1165 the Scottish king, William the Lion, was crowned on the
same
steps
day.^
The
towards
something
popularising
of the
first
of
the
English
Church
festival
(
among
1
people.
Florence of Worcester
+ A.D.
Nativity,
secular
quae
illo
anno
evenit,
in
Westmonasterio consecratus
est
honorifice.
^The Saxon
Winchester
with him
earls,
;
Whitsuntide at Westminster
all
the rich
men
over
all
he wore it at and then were England, archbishops and suffragan bishops, abbots and
;
at Easter
;
at
Midwinter
at Gloucester
and Other
Illustrations of
English Constitutional History, Oxford, 1884, p. 81). ^ There is a great number of other cases: The Historians of Scotland, Vol. I., Johannis de Fordun, Chronica Gentis Scotorum, Edinburgh, 1871, p. 259 (ad annum 1165):
"
Igitur
in
vigilia natalis
justiciae,
episcopo
Sancti
Andreae,
et
aliis
episcopis coadjuvantibus, in
He
has,
in
his
Chronicle,
to
the Saints'
Calendar
Caeciliae virginis
(November
24). 24).
22).
917 Ante Nativitatem S. Johannis Baptistae (June 918 Post Nativitatem S. Johannis Baptistae (June
1021 Ante festivitatem S. Martini (November 11).
11).
1052 In nocte festivitatis S. Thomae (December 18). 1053 In festivitate S. Kenelmi martiris (July 17).
1065 Post festivitatem
\^
i).
"
l62
pomp and splendour. On that day, in consequence, any humiliation was felt That was apparently the reason why King twice as much as on any other.
Magnus
them on
of Norway, the son of Olav and grandson of Harald Harfagr, in
his shoes, with the order to carry
day through
that
ambassadors,
in order to
show
From
become
somewhat commoner,
In Wales
vigilia
(January
5).
In Nativitate vero
ut potuit,
Lundoniae
tenuit.
ab
Aldredo
Eboracensium archiepiscopo
in
King Murecard carried the shoes, at the same time declaring that he would rather King Magnus's shoes in addition, than allow him to conquer a single province of Ireland. Chronica Regum Manniae et Insularum, The Chronicle of Man and the Stidreys, edited from the Manuscript Codex in the British Museum, and with historical " Murecardo notes by P. A. Munch, Christiania, i860, p. 6, under Anno MXCViii. regi Yberniae misit calceamenta sua, praecipiens ei ut ea super humeros suos in die natalis Domini per medium domus suae portaret in conspectu nunciorum ejus, quatinus
^
eat
intelligeret se
et
subjectum esse
sunt
nimis.
Magno
regi.
Quod
Sed rex saniori consilio usus, non solum, inquit, calceamenta ejus portare, verum etiam manducare mallem, quam Magnus rex unam provinciam in Ybernia destrueret. Multa Itaque complevit praeceptum et nuncios honoravit.
indignati
quoque munera per eos Magno regi transmisit, et foedus composuit. Nuncii vero redeuntes ad dominum suum narraverunt ei de situ Yberniae et amoenitate, de frugum fertilitate et aeris salubritate. Magnus vero haec audiens, nihil cogitabat quam totam Yberniam sibi
subjugare.
procedens,
explorare volens
circumvallatus, interiit
^
discessisset,
ab Ybernensibus
erant."
De
Institutis Lundoniae, et
primum quae
I., p. 3(X)
navibus
bonarum legum digni tenebantur, sicut et nos. diss[ol]utum unctum et tres porcos vivos licebat eis emere
suis,
naves suas
;
et
non
et
licebat
et
in
sancto Natali
cirotecas
;
unum brunum,
et
decem
libras
et
piperis,
totidem in Pascha
de
AND CHRISTMAS
163
in
1171.2
On German
festival
ground the
first
great
At
that
dosseris cum gallinis I. gallina telon, et de uno dossero cum ovis v. ova telonei, si veniant ad mercatum. Smeremangestre, que mangonant in caseo et butiro, xiiii. diebus ante Natale Domini, unum denarium, et septem diebus post Natale, unum alium." ^Haddan and Stubbs, Cotincils and Ecclesiastical Documents, Oxford, 1869, Vol. I., p. 294: " Et firmata missis manibus super quatuor euangelia, et in manu Heruualdi Episcopi consolidata, et coram omni populo suo, in die Natiuitatis Domini apud Ystumguy"; Ibid.,
I.,
295 (a.d.
1056-1087):
filii
Mourici, in die Nativitatis Domini, visitavit Landauiam bono affectu, et (ut dicitur de virga Aaron versa in draconem) animus illius familiae tardus ad sperandum bonum, velox ad
faciendum malum
scientiae
et ditatus prae
festivitatis,
cepit
baccare copia
viri,
in
amissa vi
Episcopi,
pietatis,
devastaverunt
unum
familiarem
nepotem
Hergualdi
medicum
under
totius patriae."
Rerum Anglicarum
pars
Scriptores post
p.
Baedam
Annalium,
perrexit
ieiunii:
posterior,
302,
praecipui, London, 1596, Kogeri Hcrvedeni " Henricus II." in 1171 "Rex Angliae
:
inde
usque
Diueline, et ibi
sibi
moram
de
fecit
a festo S.
S.
ibique fecit
construi iuxta
ecclesiam
Diueliniae, palatium
regium miro
artificio,
virgis
leuigatis
ad
modum
patriae
illius
constructum.
die natalis
In quo ipse
cum
regibus et principibus
is
tenuit
Domini."
The same
told
some
1603.
details.
Giraldi Cambrensis Expugnatio Hiberniae, chap, xxxii., p. 776, under A.D. 1171
II.]
" Imminente vero Dominici Natalis solemnitate, Dubliniam terrae illius Principes ad Curiam videndam accessere quam plurimi. Ubi et lautam Anglicanae mensae copiam vetustissimam quoque vemarum obsequium plurimum admirantes carne gruina,
[Henricus
;
quam
^
Populorum
Bremensis Historia Ecclesiastica (Adam became Canonicus Bremensis in 1077), Lib. IV., chap, xxxix., p. 53: "In die itaque natalis Domini, cum Magnus Dux praesens adesset, magnaque recumbentium multitudo, hilares convivje pro sua consuetudine finitis epulis
displicuit
Archiepiscopo [Adalberto
1072].
Itaque innuens fratribus nostris, qui simul aderant, praecepit Cantori, ut imponeret
Antiphonam,
iratus valde,
Hymnum
levari
cantate nobis.
venit
Sustinuimus pacem
et noji
At vero laicis denuo perstrepentibus, inchoari fecit Domine. Tertio vero cum adhuc in poculis ulularent,
mensam
praecepit,
Converte
Domine
captivi-
64
The
dinner being over, the duke and his people began to sing
archbishop.
He
members of
some
clerical
song, which they did without being able to defy their secular opponents.
be
lifted,
asking
God
to free
captivity.
bitterly.
Then, with
his followers,
The
our
festival
festive
about December
25
eyes,
and
is
receives
one
as
characteristic
early
another.
of
Work on
Edward and
wite
days
suppressed
it
as
in
his
the
Laws
Guthrum.
lah'Slit.
Through
a freeman
oblige
forfeits
freedom, or pays
or
And
to
if
lord
his
theow
to
work on a
and
wite
festival
day,
he
has
pay
lah-slit
within
the
Danish
law,
among
the
English.*
festival days.^
extended to the
;
till
and
from Septuagesima
fifteen
all
Christian
If
men
one
being
;
appeased.^
any
owed
another
borh
or
bot
on
tatem nostram
respondente choro
pone sequentibus,
et
Non
cessabo, ait,
;
meam:
est
vel potius
suam
quam Pastore
enim desiderium eorum, qui dixeinint : Hcereditate possideamus dies festos Dei a terra, et disperdamus eos de Exsurge: quare obdormis, Doniine, et ne gente, et non inemoretur nonien Israel ultra. Quia superbia eorum qui te aderunt, ascendit semper. Miserere nostri, repellas in jinem. quoniam multum repleti sumus despectione. Quoniam quern tu percussisti, persequuti sunt, et super dolorem vtdnerum tneorum addiderunt." freols-dcege. ^Thorpe's Ancient Laws, I., p. 172, 7; the A.S. term "Ordel ond adhas syndan tocwedene freols-dagum ond riht Ibid., p. 172, No. ix.
a lupis discerpi.
Impletum
et
sanctuarium Dei,
quiscere
faciamus onines
vs,
"^
faesten-dagum."
I., p. 309, xviii. "And ordal and adhar sindon tocweden Ymbren-dagum. and fram Adventum Domini odh octabas Epiphanie. and fram Septuagesimam odh XV. niht ofer Eastran." xix. "And beo tham halgum ttdan eal swa hit riht is, eallum cristenum mannum sib and s6m gemsene. and oelc sacu getwoemed,"
3
AND CHRISTMAS
it
165
or after,
fulfil
willingly
before
Edward
tide,
the
strict
peace was
i.e.,
to
be
which
in
previous
centuries,
has
been
shown
above
in
the
chapter on the Nativity of Christ, had been exempt from Friday fasting,
and
later
had been
called
Gehhol.^
With
little
alterations
these
pro-
manufactured in the
Laws of King Cnut, which were beginning of the twelfth century.^ The same holds
^Thor^Q^s
set
A ruient
Laws,
p. 308, xx.
"And
ser
gif
hwa odhrum
oththon seften."
The same
regulations are
Enam,
in
fol. 6'':
"Item desselben
no law
gelijck sail
oick
als
vry wesen in
onsen
jair
ende
men
i.e.,
there shall be
443, Leges
Edwardi
Confessoris (1042-1066):
"Quibus
"Ab
ecclesiae per omne regnum. Similiter a Septuagesima usque ad octavas Item ab Ascensione Domini usque ad octavas Pentecostes. Item omnibus diebus nil, temporum. Item omnibus Sabatis totius anni, ab hora nona, et totum diem sequentem. Item vigilia Sanctae Mariae, Sancti Michaelis, Sancti lohannis Baptistae, sanctorum omnium Apostolorum, et Sanctorum illorum quorum festivitates a sacerdotibus
Dei
et sanctae
Paschae.
semper
Omnium Sanctorum kalendis Novembris, nona vigiliarum et totum diem sequentem. Item in festivitatum celebrationibus Sanctorum quicumque fuerint in parochiis ubi sunt ecclesiae eorum." The king's peace, however, was different. Ibid., I. p. 447: "Pax regis multiplex est. Alia
ab
hora
data
manu
sua,
quam
Anglici
p.
368: "
st
De
leiuniis." xvi.
"And
si
that
man
aelc
beboden
fsesten.
fsesten healde.
hit
Ymbren-faesten.
hit
Lengcten-fsesten.
hit
elles
odher
mid
ealre
geornfiilnesse.
fseste
apostoles maessan
faesten. for
Sanctam
to Philippi
Mariam msessan
selcere.
and
to
selces
tham Easterlican
fre61se.
and
selces Frige-dseger
buton
And
ne thearf
man na
fsesten
hwa gescnfen
oththe he elles
wylle.
And
of middan-wintre
that
This
last
66
under Henry
I.
Christ's Nativity
seems
have passed from a mere ecclesiastical and state celebration into popularity
far,
is
so
that
it
became general
So
to
keep
it
by
feasting
and banqueting.
This
to
had proclaimed
it
to
which
all
fasting
was suspended
grave
not
the
offenders,
who had
to
do penance
for
number of
become too
This
in
is
years.
gay,
now
Church made attempts to check it. Laws of King Cnut, (1016-1028), which
were
fabricated
in
reality,
before
mentioned,
England
under
proofs that, in the beginning of the twelfth century, the term midwinter
25.
Ibid., I., p. 370,
meant December
xvii.
Laws
of
lustitiae."
"And we
dagum. and fram Adventum Domini [this term does not mean the AdventDecember 25] odh se eahtodha dseg agan sig ofer twelftan m:esse-d3ege. and fram Septuagesima odh xv. nihton ofer Eastron. And sancte Eadweardes msesse-dseg witan habbadh gecoren that man freSlsian sceal ofer eall Engla-land on xv. kl. April. And Sancte Dunstanes msesse-dseg on xilii. kl. lunii. And beo tham halgum tidum. eal swa hit riht is. eallum cristenum mannum sib and s8m gemsene. and selc sacu t6twaemed. And gyf hwa odhrum sceole borh oththe bfite. set woruldlicum thingum. gelseste hit him georne. ser oththe sefter." About the general observance of festival days, compare Ibid., I., 402, xlv., xlvii. and xlviii. of the Laws of King Cnut from
but
the beginning of the twelfth century.
I.
I.,
562-63,
Ixii.
"De
diebus,
in
Ab Adventu Domini
ad
xv.
dies
[i.e.,
December
25]
a Lxx.
diebus
usque
post
aliis
Pascha, et
festis
quatuor
temporum,
vigiliis
Quadragesimalibus, et
legitimis jejuniis, et
faciendi,
diebus Veneris, et
vel
sanctorum
domini,
Apostolorum, non
vel
est
tempus leges
bellum, vel
idem
jusjurandum pro
fidelitate
concordiam,
sit
vel
ferri,
sed
in
beata
Dei,
securi.
cujus
2.
Et qui debitor
honestis
ante
persolvat
3.
vel
induciet,
si
donee dies
isti
transeant,
gaudiis et
alicubi
datis,
voluptatibus
instituti.
Et
quis
malefactum
sit,
inter
manus habens
si
Si solum inculpatio
plegiis,
opus
est,
AND CHRISTMAS
strict
167
peace,
strict
Henry
fasting.2
I.
about a.d.
mo/
itself
century
the
Church
which
In thirteenth
Christmas
is
in his
is
best dress,
ridiculed.*
that
respect
When
^
the giving
of
presents
at
Christmas had
become
more
general,
Liebermann,
On
the
Instituta
II.,
" Haec
in
regis
Anglorum, Danorum,
et
et
et
ejus consilio,
ad laudem Dei,
commune commodum
atid Instittttes of
habita,
apud
Laws
Laws
mid
England, London, 1840, Vol. I., p. 368, that man selc beboden faesten
of middan-wintre odh octabas Epiphanie.
healde
that
is
ealre geornfulnesse.
^Compare
100.
ii.
:
Ducange,
inolevit,
Glossariiim, under
in ballealione,
Kalendae, Concilium
in festo S.S.
Copriniacense, a.d.
1260,
quae
Inno-
fieri
quam
aliis
He also refers to Statuta Joannis Archiand mentions from the Necrologium Ecclesiae Parisiensisy vii. "Idus Januarii obiit Hugo Clemens Decanus noster et Sacerdos" [frater Henrici dementis Franciae Marescalli]. "Procuravit etiam salubriter et devote, quod Festum B. Joannis Evangelistae post Nativitatem Domini, quod prius negligenter et joculariter
fieri
prohibemus."
misit
Natale
compararet.
cuidam militi bacones, ut ipsos venderet et vestes contra festum Sed stultus miles in festo bacones a dextris et a sinistris circa se
ille
suspendit, et
cum baconibus
induit
apparuit vestitus.
quod talem
qualem
sibi misit
dominus,
A
the
Selection of
No.
cxxii.
De
Milite
Stulto,
from
the
MS.
thirteenth
or fourteenth century).
So
hilfet
in
German
epic of Meier
Daz
sol tragen
gewant ze wlhnahten
swie ich daz
mac
betrachten."
OF THE
OF
UNiVERSiTY
68
fairs
Christmas
Roman
Calends-of-January customs,
now
evolved a number of beliefs and habits, legends and usages, springing from a
purely Christian
soil,
had not
been sung
in vain for so
many
centuries.^
the folk-belief
had sprung up
beneficial dew,
a special and
it.
The
one,
altar.
Church added
in
commemoration
this
of
the
birth
of
God,
more
priest
express
from the
Out of
Roman
Catholic service at
in A.D.
1461, in
Annalen
des historischen
Kempen, Rhine-country; Town-Archive, Document No. 367, Vereins fur den Niederrhein, Vol. LXV., p. 42.
Archbishop Dietrich of Cologne allowed the town a fair of six days at St. Jacob (July 25), and St. Thomas (December 21). Compare also Document No. 387 of March 10, 1465 ; St. Jacob is one of the days which frequently divide the summer into two parts, previous
to the introduction of the
summer
solstice of
June
24.
et Continuatione Walteri Boweri, Edinburgh, 1759, Vol. II., p. 59, Lib. IX., chap, xlviii., under the years 1231 to " Patricius comes de Dumbar, aeger corpore, convocavit filios et filias, cognatos et 1233
:
^Johannis
de
Fordun,
Scotichronicon
cum
Supplementis
ut festa Dominicae nativitatis secum celebrarent. Peractis quatuor diebus vocat abbatem de Melros, et ab eo extremam unctionem accepit ac habitum religionis, induit se monachum, et ultimum valedicens omnibus, diem clausit extremum." Bower
vicinos,
Adam
first
earlier evidence
down
third
" Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant justum " was sung on Wednesday after the Advent, and later on the fourth Advent, Grotefend, Zeitrechnting des deutschen
169.
:
Mittelalters, I.,
"Apud
nocte natalis Domini ponunt manipulum avenae sub dio, aut vasculum aliquod plenum
hordeo vel avena, super quam asserunt rorem coelestem nutu divino quotannis hora nativitatis Dei descendere." Liebrecht, Gervasius von Tilbury, s. 2, chap. xii.
AND CHRISTMAS
ceremony took
place
169
there,
its
year
1523,
a similar
birth.
after Christ's
When
little
presents which were called " child'scalled the gift which all the domestic
By
that
was
still
witnessed by
When Charlemagne
by
St.
of bishops and
St.
this
applied to
saints'
the
habit of
to
Stephan's
day,
on
other
days,
the
saint
Martinis minne.
In
the
had,
in
pre-Christian
their gods.
To
speak, however,
on the
e.g.^
basis of
Ulrich Jahn
does/
is
out
of place
for
existed before the second half of the sixteenth century, or 800 years after
it
When
in the sky
"so drogen
had
fasted
garuen in de koppele
till they saw the stars appear de lucht, dadt se de windt, sne, Dadt hetede men des morgens kindesvodt ; dadt
on Christmas eve
efte sus in
deelde
men
des morgen allem vth, schloch eine garue 2 efte 3 vth vndt gaf den swinen, alle des kindesvothes geneten scholdenn."
^Rostock, 1593,
De
I.
Beal, where
we are told the following: "An S. Steffens dage sonderen ock den Hauer vnd allerley Korn, mit etlyken
Criitzslegen
in,
vnd wenn ydt geseyet, Lyues vnd der Seelen gesundtheit mitdele." Ulrich Jahn, Deutsche Opfergebrdtiche, pp. 277, 278, where a great number of cases are given in which that custom still survives.
^
vnd sprickt, dat solckes an mehr alse dat vngewyhede, sehr vele fruchte bringe, ock den Minschen de daruan ethen,
dem vehe
Acta Concilionim,
;
Parisiis,
1714, Vol.
IV., col.
846,
Caroli
iii.,
Magni
Regis Capitula
alia, X.
I., p.
286, chap,
anni 789:
"Omnino
pro-
hibendum est omnibus ebrietatis malum et istas conjurationes, quas faciunt per sanctum Stephanum, aut per nos, aut per filios nostros, prohibemus et praecipimus ut episcopi vel abbates non vadant per casam miscendo." *In his book. Die deuischen Opfergebrduche bei Ackerbau und Viekzucht, Breslau, 1884,
;
P-
273-
176
ecclesiastical custom.^
is
the
memory
December
25.
From
the fifteenth
that
John
the Apostle destroyed the poison contained in a cup by making the sign
it,
The
means
at that opportunity
for
it.^
Johannes Hebe
In the marvellous night on which the Saviour was born, the most extraordinary things happened, according to the Christian legend.
rejoiced
in
The animals
in the rivers
the
salvation that
and the
began to bud
and bloom
fields
all
in
one night
in
spite of the
ice
were covered.
Ecclesiastical fancy
some
ness
sermons, so that at
became a popular
year, at the
hour when Christ was born, the same miracles happened again.^
Fischart,
Bienenkorb,
I.,
chap,
ii.,
p.
63:
"Zu
Freuburg
in
Preiszgau
bey den
darmit S.
man
jahrlich
an
Wein
dariiber, gibt
dem
^
S.
wein,
more important
^ei
Ackerbau uttd
"Seb.
Strigenitius
Nicolaus
Petrus Mosellanus
III.,
Fibiger,
1675."
is I.,
it
149;
XL,
673.
Rarely
transferred to
June
24.
Wiener Sitzungsberichte, XL., 180; Grotefend, Zeitrechnung, Nebenarbeiten, mentions a foundation from the year 1484:
schike und bestell wein doselbst
99;
Spiess, Archivalische
dem
^
" Daz man davon alle jar zum goczhausz an sandt Johannstag zu weynachten so man dem kelch sandt Johanns mynn zu geben " Grotefend, Ibid.^ I.,
;
100; Birlinger,
Aus Schwaben,
II.,
158,
and
II.,
122.
tained in
example for the evolution of a Christmas legend into a popular belief is conDie Pilgerfahrt des Ritters Arnold von Harff, ed. by Dr. G. v. Groote, Koln, i860 (a description of a journey to the Orient, A.D. 1496-99), p. 26, where a church at Rome is mentioned: "Item beneven deser kirchen is ein pallais zo broecken den der
lies
A fine
keyser Octavianus
bouwen.
He
AND CHRISTMAS
is
jyi
An
the
first
that,
December 24 and
and
Britain. ^
St.
25,
On German
"
ground
it
appears
in a saint's
life,
the
life
of
Hadwigis,
:
in
Franken.
The
story tells
of her
who was born about 1180 Once, when she was young, on
sitting
Christmas day somebody entered the room, saying, while she was
the table, that a cherry tree in the garden stood in
full
on
blossom.
She, on
hearing
this,
sent
him back
tree
in order to see
He
blossomed
at
its
lower branches.
'That
is
Many poor
And
as she foretold, so
happened."^
Do
dem
maget
keiser Octavianus
in des tempels
neit moegelich.
Teviplum eternitatis, ein tempel der Maria der reiner maget geboren waert, doe veil des tempels vil dar neder ind noch all jairs zo cristmissen veldt ein stuck der muyren van dem tempel." ^ Georg Jacob, Studien in arabischen Geographen, Heft I,, 5, pp. 8, 9, and Heft IV., 5,
Cristus unser herre van
muire hauwen
the
Christ Himself as a child sitting on a tree covered all over with candles appears in Old French epic, "Durmars le galois," of the thirteenth century, 151, 2 ss. ; 155,
;
60
ss.
158, 17
p.
ss.
(Alwin Schulz,
Das
hofische
Leben
Minnesinger, Leipzig,
5th ed., Bonn,
1889,
p.
I.,
364;
1878,
572: "Durmars sees a tree whose branches are covered from top to bottom with lit candles, of which some stand properly and some upside down. But still more shining than these, a resplendent child is sitting on the top. Terrified and wondering what this means, Durmars asks the Pope, and receives the answer The lit tree is humanity, the
:
'
upright
lights
are
the
good men,
the
reversed
lights
the
is
the
Saviour.'"
Kunde
Niimberg,
"Quoniam
eo tempore,
in
dum adhuc
coram ea sedente
Quod
aut in
Qui
est,
At
ilia,
signum
sic,
Et
ut prae-
dixerat
omnino
evenit."
172
legend.
But a century
later
we
find the
same thing
tells,
as a
letter
by the Church.^
bishop
in a
to
ripened.
nobleman
testifies
to
affair,
describing the
colour of the apples, and stating that he had held them in his
own
hands.
story
is
told of
He
.
reports
" Not
far
from Nurnberg
Every year
in the wildest
and most
disagreeable time of the year, invariably and only on the night of Christ's
birth,
it
when
bore
size of
a thumb.
Therefore every
year, trustworthy
there
regions
thing.
night
this
tree
similar
to
one
every
respect
is
found
in
the
the
diocese of Bamberg."
belief spread over all
From
the beginning
of the fifteenth
century,
in various
so
that
it
became
of
popular
parts
of
the
story
German
after
Christmas
creed
later,
modern
times.^
In
England
the
tells
appears somewhat
Christ's
Legend
that
England and
settled
at Glastonbury.
There he was,
was said to
be,
and there
was shown.
Although
Letter
in
of the the
Bishop of Bamberg to
Library of Vienna,
Nicolaus von
Dinkelsbiihl
1426,
Court
No.
p.
4899,
57.
fol.
312
Pflanzensagen, Stuttgart
"^
F.
A.
Reuss,
Kleine
the Jahresbericht
fur den
that
historischen
Verein
fur
8
An
extensive sketch
of
belief
is
found
in
my
viii.,
Die bliihenden
AND CHRISTMAS
saint. ^
173
He
in
was
the
him
his walking-stick,
which he planted
ground of
his
new home.
it
Like Aaron's
thirteenth century legend (from a mixture with which the story of Joseph
further
it
November when
the weather
is
mild,
the
legend connects
An
on
following account:
officers of the
civill
Earle
of Pembroke, did
yeares or more), a
warres (ten
house, at
Wilton, which
My
several Christmasses,
have seen.
Elias Ashmole,
Esq.,
his
Chymicum,
tree
saies that in
the churchyard
at
of Glastonbury grew
that did
in
putt
Christmas,
in
as
Oak
is
the
New
In
Parham Park,
Suffolk
on Christmas Day.
is
But
mile long
or more,
that
blossoms about
Christmas-day,
for
a
in
week or more
did cutt
together.
Dr. Ezerel
Tong sayd
that about
Rumly-Marsh,
Glastonbury.
The
14,
Soldiers
downe
stump remaines."^
September
When,
in
1752, September
was
by
law
turned
into
Christmas
earlier
thorns,
and
Records of
are preserved in
Skeat
2
The Legend of Joseph of Arimathea (709 verses) has been edited by ; and by Frederick Furnivall, 1862, for the Roxburgh Club.
Prof.
W. W.
^Ashton,
174
the
Historical
Gentleman^s
Magazine
for
December
24.
and candles,
which grows
neighbourhood,
year only) to be a
24th,
was
full
blown
went
all
night;
but
the
people,
finding
25,
no
appearance
a bud,
'twas
agreed
by
all,
that
December
N.S.,
and,
accordingly,
refused going
:
Church and
treating
their
friends
at
length
the affair
became so
Day
" Glastonbury,
A
its
on Christmas Eve,
New
was
no appearance of
5th
blowing, which
of Jan., the
Christmas day,
made them watch it narrowly the Old Style, when it blow'd as usual."
to the
From Roman
when Christmas
^c year,
Germanics
and
Roman
beginning of the
Beside
many
Then
others,
the conifers, laurel and evergreen, bay and box, holly and
mistletoe were
used
Christmas night reached the Germanics, and before long turned into a
popular
belief,
to every night
between December
developed, appears
the
the
time in
^^4.
fir
at
Strassburg,
adorning
of.
houses with
branches at
New
Year
is
of the fifteenth
Fir trees
Compare
which
edited
in
Sprache
und
Literatur
Elsass-Lotkringens,
VI.,
1890,
62,
ss.
"Auft
AND CHRISTMAS
175
apples,
tres,
sweets,
etc.,
and and
These
with their
artificial
flowers
clearly of
me
And
even
and by preference
such as bore
with
its
fruits of
white ones
and hawthorn
place, so that
New
warm
New
as an oracle.
they meant luck; were they scarce and crippled, or not apparent at
they were considered unlucky. In
all
trees at the
Roman
Calends of January.
Nay,
this
was
trees,
bushes were put into water in order to be kept fresh for some time.
The
Roman
the Church would scarcely have taken the trouble to forbid their application
to festive purposes.
forests,
of 1755, forbids
i.e.,
bushes
not trees
so
that
the custom
of putting
up bushes
to
at
Christmas must
Christbescherens
Das
is
costumes, has to be
gifts
shown.
In the
Weihenachten
richtett
man Dannenbaum
man
pflegt
^
papier geschnitten,
Zucker,
etc.
Man
darum
ein viereckent
ramen zu machen."
tree
is
The
further evolution
elaborately treated in
my
35I-355'
I.,
p.
271.
The probable
etymological connection
1
between "^aV^/boschen" and the '^baadus episcopalis" was pointed out on pp. 100 and
10.
176
corner of the room stands a fresh green tree in foUage, which bears three
lit
Albrecht
in
1786 at NdrdUngen,
fir
tells
that,
in
his
youth
at
tree
was
in
use at Christmas
eve,
but months before Christmas, a cherry or agriot tree was put into a big
pot in the corner of the room, so that at Christmas
it
stood in
full
bloom
ceiling.
as a great ornament,
One
family
competed with
house which
as
late
members of
that
as 1858 with cherry boughs, elder boughs, and lime boughs, near Coburg.^
is
simply an
artificial
bloom.
Calends-of-January
customs
had
belief.
in
themselves
not
the
by the Christian
religion
and
a
its
which
a great product of
the
popularisation
nations.
of
the
religion
of
the
cross
My
'^Albrecht
3
Adam's
Selbstbiographie, herausgegeben
A. Schleicher,
CHAPTER
XIII.
there
is
a continuous
stream
in
of literary
the
tradition
between the
Roman and
political
the
Germanic periods
west
of
by the medium
of historical documents,
to
Germanics
in Gaul,
culture,
Germany,
and
Britain,
but
also
how Roman
civilisation
and
Roman
habits
and customs,
the
of
there
exist
no such connective
links
Roman and
all
that might
to the eighth
relations.
We
have
no
literary
documents
the
tenth,
and eleventh centuries which could stand by the side of our oldest
Even the
history
introduction
about A.D.
Roman
characters,
in
part
very
uncertain,
very
few fragments having come down to us written before the year 1250
time when for
many
centuries Western
civilisation
numbers of North-Eastern
Britain,
Germanics
had
on
the
coasts
of Germany,
Gaul,
Spain,
Italy,
and
Asia
Minor
brought
these
men
into
178
close contact
and even
partly of
on a Scandinavian
circumstances, must
When
in the sixth
had been
to the
thirty-five
When
he had
been
seen,
it
was
announced
everywhere that
valleys.
in
five
Then
was celebrated.
year, the
might happen
would not
return.^
In
the
sixth
century,
Procopius, Bellum
Gothicum,
avrov
II.,
15:
Me^' o6j
es
r/
St?
Aavwi' rh
?6vr)
irapiSpafiov
oi
pap^dpuv.
i/Meivav.
ivOivde
^ari 8i
elvat.
ry
ij
vfjffip
GoiJXt;
es ^70;/.
Bperraviai ykp
irpbs iv
avTT}v
Avefiov.
wKiov
SeKairXaffiav
vTrja-q)
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yrj fiiv
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iirl
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TroXXy
dirodev
odcra,
oppav
^^
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elcri
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dfjL<f)i
depivhs
rpoiras
fxdXicrTa
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di-rjveKW
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avrov
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dvlax^vros
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iraptpxvi^^^^''
SiapiO/xovvrai.
fUvroi
rdv vvktuv
r]/j,ipwv
xP^''^
d(piK7)rai,
T^s ye aeX-^vrjs
oirrjvlKa
rQ
ruv
rairig
Xoyi^ovrai
vvKrl,
ijXiov
ifXios
fiirpov.
di
is
rrivre
Kal
'''V
P'O-xpq.
diabpdfioi
(xriXXovral
dfiriyiiTT)
rives
rbv re
Stj
ivdivbe
bpQvres
01
Kdroi
dvOpwirois,
irivre iv
i]fj.epQv
<tk6tij}.
oi
avroiis
KaraXdpiipoi.
ij
Si iravSruiel iravrjpvpl^ovaiv
aihrj
re QovXlrais
oZroi, Kaiirep
fieylcrrr)
ruv iopruv
<T(pl<nv
i<Tri.
Sokovcti
iros,
ydp
TrepiSeeis dei
yiveadai
vyjaiwrai
ravrb ^vfi^aivov
dvd irav
fi-q
napdirav 6 ^Xios.
179
it,
solstice
November 29
earlier,
January
8.
The
festival at the
end of
it
the
in
lived,
and the
later,
more
northerly.
That
is
northerly
it
almost as natural as
is
impossible that
we have
rather to regard
link
it
as
by the
But
of
tradition
common
peculiar
be
purest
among
Northern Germanics.
probably
it
was
only the
beautiful
clear
and
prose
attained
of Iceland
in
the
twelfth
and
why
the literature
of the
Northcircles,
Eastern
Germanics,
from
its
first
becoming
known
to
wider
especially in
as
so
many
scholars
the
time,
true
There was
of late
and
not
so
very
distant,
when
the
products
to
call
is
fiction
by the
not an
name
of the
Older
Edda
(although
collection
of songs
composing poetry as
the
Edda
of Snorri Sturluson)
common
the basis
Germanic
nations,
and,
therefore,
had to be taken
will
as
of Germanic
this
mythology.
No
serious
scholar
now-a-days
maintain
minds
have
by
no
still
of the
half
of
the thirteenth century in Iceland, instead of taking as his basis for such
to
"
i8o
the
century in
Gaul,
Germany, and
that
Britain.
He makes
his
task
very
easy
of fulfilment,
viii.
by declaring
the
report
given by Snorri
Sturluson in chapter
to
their
the
in his
He
fails,
however, to
elaborately dealt with the problems connected with the Germanic year
a chapter of his
Old North
LifeP-
Whilst the
their
year
according
tribes
in
to
solstices
and equinoxes
little
(of
which
the
early
Germanic
reality
starts
knew
so
that they
second
German names
show
all,
in
of
the
months and
it
their
names among
he arrives
pure chance
the
at
the various
German
tribes,
of calendar-denominations.
the
by
the very
same
division
of
the
that
reached by
Romans
Germanics began
viz.,
Romans,
on October
instead of January
life,^
i.
Professor Weinhold
has tried
1894, Heft I., p. 100: "Die Nordgermanen (Weinhold confuses here the winter solstice with the middle of January, on which the offerings previously to the time about 940 were made, according Morris and Magniisson's to Heimskringla, Story of Hakon the Good, chap, xv.,
^
brachten
zu
dieser
Translation, Vol.
I.,
p.
til
grodhrar, d.
erst
i.
fiir
die
Fruchtbarkeit
{Ynglingasaga,
c.
viii.),
wenn auch
im
13.
THE SCANDINAVIAN
V'EAR
It is true
i8i
he has leamt
than of
are, rather
Roman and
Christian origin
in
upon the
dajrs,^
although
it
is
an established
Phoenician
to the
Germanic
tribes
clearly
shown
Roman Grimm assigns to the fourth or fifth century a.d. the introduction of Roman week among the Germanics, but I should rather be inclined to
it
assign
to the
first
Professor VVein-
book can
any longer.
moon, and so on
but
it is
Weinhold
in Caesar's
thirty
days.^
In one
stars,
and
in
Roman
civilisation
knew next
to
nothing.
He
known
of it
He
astronomy
confined
at
himself,
at
first
and
likenesses,
and
chiefly the
division of time.'*'
fix
He
ftirther
Uber das Alter der RunenkaUfuUr^ Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie der Wissen*
*
xviii.
7
Germanta^ chap. xL
8
P. 374. 372.
375.
P. 383. P. 372-
Pp. 371-372-
9 P.
P. 372.
"
152
the
sky,
that
the
it,
whilst in certainly
reahty this
one of the
we
find
Roman
that,
influence.
among the Scandinavians, there existed a two parts. As has been shown already, etymology proves this conclusively.^ The names of winter and summer are common Germanic expressions, doubtless much older than any definite denomiThere
is
no doubt
much
at variance with
each other.
As
little
true
is
it
an assertion which
not reconcilable with his other affirmation (in 1894) that the Germanic
This statement,
if it
implies
In
late.
The
Weinhold
had
tri-partition
as
much
at discord
six
He
months
is
Vaarmoaner, Sumarmoaner,
This suggestion has
and Haustmoaner
fact which,
by
its
itself
to
his
that
He
life
moon
not overlook the fact that the Scandinavians celebrated three great annual
festivals.
But he
tries
to
explain
that
fact
quite
Professor Weinhold
winter,
that the
and
that
the
Scandinavian year
olden
times
began between
October 9 and
^
14,
and
Compare
iii.
*?.
378.
^Weinhold,
Altnordisches
Saemundar,
ed.
376; Deutsche Monatnamen, Finn Magnussen, Havniae, 1828, III., 1013, 1015.
Leben,
p.
22;
Edda
183
on
came again ever more strongly into April 9 and 14. But when he goes on the preceding page he had maintained that the
quartering of the year never took root in Scandinavia) these two seasons
of about
solstice
on July
14,
and
calling January
when he maintains
festivals,
that these
incisive days
when he
of
that
the
the
course
nature,
whilst
he
into
and jumps
And he
quite
fails to
knew of a
Roman
civilisation.
Nobody
is
able to point
out twelve names of months which can, with any probability, be assumed
to
In
truth,
even the later Scandinavians have not twelve names which, in a proper
sense,
which
is
*'hay"
list
are
not month-names.
According
to
Professor
Weinhold's
own
of
Roman months
October:
gortnanudhr,
called
thus
after
gor,
excrementa intestinorunif
cattle (?) \^
New
Icelandic
after
(?)
climate of Denmark, which allows work on the field so late in the year,
formerly,
besides
Ridemaaned,
after
the
(Not of swine?)
frost
;
November
frermdnudhr, month of
New
Northern, winter-month.
Modern
Northic,
'Jul-'
month
^
New
On
p.
372.
Pp. 376-378.
The
interrogation
184
yanuary
name.
February
Thorri
Norwegian
Torre,
Swedish
Thoree
unexplained
Goie
Goi;
Norwegian
Gjd,
Swedish Gdja,
Danish
unex(?)
plained name.
March
sAdhtidh,
sowing-time
(!)
einmdnudhr, important
month
New
unexplained.
Icelandic,
April
sieckiidh,
New
month of
unexplained
;
May
sdlmcLnudhr, sun-month
:
New
yum
yuly
:
selmdnudhr,
from
sel,
arbour;
Swedish,
midsummer;
Danish,
New
Icelandic selmdnudhr.
:
August
kornkurdharmdnudhr, month
skortant,
of
reaping;
skorde-
maaned
or
the
same
Danish
Homaaned^
Icelandic
hay-month,
and
Hostmaaned,
harvest-month.
The
New
name tvtmdnudhr,
double-month, cannot, as
Grimm supposed and Professor Weinhold holds, be many places shared its name with a (which feature August has in common with almost every
year),i but is of the
month of the
same
origin as
Anglo-Saxon Thrilidi.
in
Roman
calendar.
;
September
haustmdnudhr,
harvest-month
Danish
Ftskemaaned,
fish-
month.
Nobody
even
will
regard
this
conglomerate of
mutually inconsistent
root,
and
contradictory
names
and being
genuinely Germanic.
native
names
to the
new
Romans.
Even
Compare
185
for that
common Germanic
Scandinavia
a
name
from November ii
14,
January
liuleis,
11, or in
Gothic
as
monthly name
is
Modern
Northic,
and
there,
of course,
of
artificial
We know
Roman
little
we know something about it. As long as the preJulian Roman calendar prevailed among Scandinavians, an intercalary month was put in every fourth year by the doubling of the month of August.
influence, but
When
the Julian Calendar, however, was adopted, the year was taken as
It
it
was wrong,
Roman
custom,
slowly shifting
this
backwards. ^
insufficiency.
of seven
days had (as was remarked above) been introduced to the Germanics very
early,
and was
in
Scandinavia rooted
12
full
the
Roman
far
year of 365
days and
months.
weeks, and
Now
it
the
Northern year so
in
seemed
interfere with
week without a fraction remaining behind. Thornstein found the proper way to escape the difficulty by keeping the year of 364 days and adding
a leap week every seventh year, and in those periods of seven years which
contained two leap years after the
Roman
long before, had had leap months, would naturally become more easily
familiar with leap
of 52 weeks
repeated
that
As
it
p. 379.
The
Islen-
An
86
was the
fact at
14,
was identical
and had,
"
as
its
In the face of
Weinhold maintains
is
Among
it
all
feasts
of heathendom, the
and
originally
was celebrated
its
at Yule.
When
heathen.
The Yule
by law
at
had
King Hakon
least for
harfagrs, fixed
Norway
understood to
this
mean
it
December
21
and
January 13."*
it,
From
passage
The same term {Jot) must at one time have meant in Scandinavia the time from December 14 to February 12. For we know that the Scandinavian year began at October 14; and if we will not make the year begin in the middle of such a three-score-day tide, I fail to see we must allow one to pass before we come to Yule-tide.
but three-score-day tides in winter time.
festival
to
14.
187
his text
its
December
14.
It is
in
why
proper
December
it
"anticipation" of
festival
on December
14,
14.
on December
where
is
how
on December 25 ; he moved one back. So the festival, the date of which he shifted, was not celebrated at all in the middle of December,
but a considerable time
after
the
date
of
Christian
Christmas.
It
is
Norway counts Yule till January 13. Whilst Jbl extended from December 14 to February 14,
which
13.
period Jbl^
to
December 14
and
at the
January
is
Professor Weinhold
festival^
and
victory.^
As regards
celebration,
as
his
it
saying
is
that
entirely
erroneous,
and
all
March
or April.
Norway
it
seems
to have fallen
in the
somewhat
it
was preserved
that,
in.
in Iceland
it
shape of an Allthing
in reality,
is
the great
Thing of Iceland
:
in the
Now, Weinhold
;
himself says
"
The Scandinavian
in historical
^Page 380.
helga, chap, civ., "hit thridhja at sumri, tha fagna their sumari,"
viii.,
The
sketch of the calendar of the Icelandic summer, according to the rules laid
down
in 999, given
II.,
same lack
in historical insight.
88
apparently
a tri-partition
to be
assumed
for the
and
being
p. 22.
CHAPTER
XIV.
needless
to
Scandinavian year, which are found alongside each other, are in the same
partition
six
Aryan
tides as
among
the Western
Germanics, the
tides, as well
tides
allowing a combination of
decisive
traces
of
three-score-day
tides
are
found
in
Scandinavia than in
time there
Germany and England. But whilst had been three seasons was remembered well
Scandinavia
exactly, so that a number of mutually contradictory made about them. In the time when King Odin ruled on earth, Snorri Sturluson tells us about 1230 in the Heimskringla that "all over Sweden men paid Odin scat,
more remembered
statements were
to. wit
bound
:
to
ward
their land
from
war,
and
them
for a
good year
"
against the
coming of
winter, for a
good
year, in
of the earth,
victory."
^
and a
third in the
summer
that
was an
and
'^Heimskringla, Vol.
I., p.
:
Ynglingasaga, chap.
biota
til
viii.
" Tha
20 (^Saga Library, ed. by Morris and Magmisson, Vol. III.), skylldi biota f moti vetri til ars, enn at midhjum vetri
grodhrar
Um
menn
Odni skattpenning
theim
til
nef hvert
theirra fyrir
this
lifridi,
oc bl6ta
ixs,"
added, paraphrases
way; "Sacrificia
I90
Olaf
fuller
the
Holy
account,
" Later
on
in multitudes at
;
at
midwinter
made
king
deemed he knew
up
into
among them.
So
now
the bonders had a parley and talked over this message between
all
them
who had
fared the
But
to the town,
he went straightway to
it
to
talk.
The
king laid
on hand to the
Olvir
answered
and
*We
The
left
over
this
is
it
men were
it
a-drinking
At Mere there
houses,
deem
good
little,
'But
The know
king
and
told of their
was
(jussit
Othinus)
institui,
pro
;
felicis
anni adventu
his proxima,
media
in
felicitate et
ubere glebae
tertia,
nummo
omnem
felicitate
curaret" {Heimskringla af Snorra Sturlusyni, Historia Kegum Norwegicortim conscripta a Snorrio Sturlae filio, Ha%Tiiae, 1777, Ynglingasaga, i., 13).
191
The
truth
is
by
Thorald:^ "This
are, that
is
the truth to
king,
if
am
all
in their faith,
though some
men be
there
who
are christened.
Now
it
is
their
wont
to
summer
for the
welcoming of summer.^
and
to carry
it
is
Olvir's
turn
to
uphold
and now he
in
much ado
at
brought
all
sailing there,
hindered the
taking
other
festival
by means of
force,
slaying Olvir
rest.
and
many
others,
is
fining
the
Another
account
the following:*
lesser state.
"But
at
home
at his
way a man of
t'n]
And when he
took christening,
In autumn, then, he
and
in winter a Yule-bidding,
and bade
yet
many men
to
him
and a
to this
third feast
he had
at Easter,
also a multitude.
And
as
he
Sigurd
died of sickness.
heritage
after
of eighteen winters.
to
He
wont,
it
took the
his
the
old
and had
was but a
Now
short while after Asbiorn took the heritage of his father, that the year's
folk failed.
But Asbiorn
^Saa Library, by Morris and Magniissen, Vol. IV. The Story of Olaf the Holy, chap. cxiv. *Chap. cxv., p. 196.
^
Heimskringla, Vol.
II., p. 194,
their at
vetri,
en
eitt
at
vetmottum, en annat
at
midhjum
thridhja at sumri,"
ig2
stood him
that
there was
this
old corn
stores
that
were needed.
But when
season wore and the next came round, the corn was no
it
had been
afore.
Then would
this
done
so in
away
with,
some
or all of them.
But
harvest-time
friends,
and
so
he
And
in
came
all
When,
to
him
in the south,
by Thorir,
who, however, then invited him to the Yule-feast, with his mother and
such of their
men
as
and
when
eyes.
Thorir
after
slandered
him,
slew
him
before
King
Olaf's
to the
Roman
assumed
own
time,
may
well be
be
historical
truth,
made
doubt.
state of things
much
of these three festive times adorned with blood-offerings, as Snorri contradicts himself
There can be no
the
good year"
century
of such a festival agrees with the statement of Tacitus of the of our era,
it
times regarded the preceding night as part of a day, and the preceding
winter part of a year's circle,
so
that
their
year
The Goths
with
November
new
About the
offerings
"against the
193
not merely brought to the gods for " a good year " in general, but also for
the bettering of the " earth's increase," which
///
grbdhrar
It
he
mentioned
in
was apparently
autumn
also,
Traetelia of
Sweden was
offered
These autumn
offerings were
to him the heritage of Visbur, his father, and ruled the lands ; and in Then the Swedes set up on the Swedes great hunger and famine. great blood-offerings at Upsala the first autumn they offered up oxen, but none the more was the earth's increase bettered ; the next autumn they offered up men, and the increase of the year was the same, or worse it might be ; but the third autumn came the Then held the great Swedes flockmeal to Upsala, whenas the sacrifices should be. men counsel together, and were of one accord that this scarcity was because of Domald,
^
and withal that they should sacrifice him for the plenty of the year; yea, set on him and slay him, and redden the seats of the gods with the blood of him ; and even so they did" {Ibid., Vol. I., p. 29, Ynglingasaga, chap, xviii.). " The next autumn fared King Granmar and King Hiorvard, his son-in-law, to guesting in the isle called Sili at their own manor therein" {Ibid., Vol. I., p. 62, Ynglingasaga,
their king,
chap,
*
xliii.).
" Now, King Olaf was a man but little given to blood-offering, and the Swedes were So they drew together ill content therewith, and deemed that thence came the scarcity. a great host, and fell on King Olaf, and took the house over him and burned him therein, and gave him to Odin, offering him up for the plenty of the year" (Ibid,, Vol. I., p. 66,
Ynglingasaga, chap,
3 '
xlvii.).
But when Halfdan was one winter old, in the autumn-tide fared King Gudrod a-guesting, and lay on his ship in Stifla-sound, and great drinkings there were, and the
king was very merry with drink
" (a.d. 784), (Ibid.,
Vol.
I., p.
liii.);
" King Halfdan went in the autumn out to Vingulmark ; and so on a night whenas King Halfdan was a-feasting, there came to him at midnight the man," etc. (Ibid., Vol. I., p. 80, An exact description of the festivities of these Stoty of Halfdan the Black, chap. iv.).
blood-offerings
p.
is
Hakon
I.,
was the olden custom that, when a blood-offering should be, all the bonders should come to the place where was the Temple, bringing with them all the victuals they had need of while the feast should last ; and at that feast should all men have ale with them. There also was slain cattle of every kind, and horses withal ; and all the blood that came from them was called hlaut, but ^/a/-bowls were they called wherein the blood stood, and the hlaut-tein a rod made in the fashion of a sprinkler. With all the hlaut should the stalls of the gods be reddened, and the walls of the temple within and without, and the men-folk also besprinkled ; but the flesh was to be sodden for the feasting of men. Fires were to be made in the midst of the floor of the temple, with caldrons thereover,
165
s.)
:
"
It
194
All through
Ynglingasaga,
tells
which stands
of the
oldest
at
Heimskringla, and
A.D.
the story
kings
in
Norway up
to
frequently used
to slay the
men when
to the year
at the
Up
up
to that year.
among the three annual festive tides, made to it, there is not a single mention Then for some time, until, indeed, about
after
1000,
autumn
St.
decays,
If
and
finally is
merged
entirely in
late as
a simple Christian
Michaelmas.
among
the
and the health-cups should be borne over the fire. But he who made the feast, and was the lord thereof, should sign the cups and all the meat ; and first should be drunken Odin's cup for the victory and dominion of the king, and then the cup of Niord and the cup of Frey for plentiful seasons and peace. Thereafter were many men wont to drink the Bragi-cup ; and men drank also a cup to their kinsmen dead who had been noble, and that was called the cup of Memory. Now, Earl Sigurd was the most bounteous of men, and he did a deed that was great of fame, whereas he made great feast of sacrifice at Ladir, and alone sustained all the costs thereof."
eighth century.
Thus King Granmar and his son-in-law, King Hiorvard, were slaughtered in the "The next autumn fared King Granmar and King Hiorvard, his son-in-law, to guesting in the isle called Sili at their own manor therein and so while they were at this feasting, thither came King Ingiald with his army on a night, and took the house over them, and burned them therein with all their folk," Ynglingasaga, chap, xliii., HeitJiskri7igla. Vol. I., 62. Thus King Pudrod was murdered about 784; thus King Halfdan was surprised and forced to flee into the woods about 830, Ynglingasaga, chap, liii., and Story of Halfdan the Black, chap. iv. ; thus Earl Sigurd was surprised during the autumn festival at Oglo, fire set to his house, and the stead burned and the earl therein, and all his folk with him, about A.D, 970, Heimskringla, Vol. I., p. 205, Story of Harald
^
;
Grey-cloak, chap. v.
^
germanischen
Philologie,
Strassburg, 1891,
p.
1127.
Paul's
^Mythologie,
1891, Vol.
I.,
in
p.
Hermann
1125.
195
iooo.
among
festival
Somewhat
later
the
autumn
northern
monk^
give
told how,
him
up drinking
This can
in
his
honour
in future.
in later
Summer
it
Festival.
In chapter
in
of
the
Yngltngasaga,
Snorri
states
that
was
celebrated
the
it
summer
at sumri
and
in
is
referred to as
"the midsummer
and
as clearly heathen
^ This is the date of the Eyrbyggjasaga, the story of which is laid about the year lOCX). Saga Library, II., p. 173: "So in the autumn Thorod was minded to slaughter the cow, but when men went after her, she was nowhere to be found. Thorod sent after her often that autumn, but found her not, and men deemed no otherwise than that the cow was dead or stolen away. But a little short of Yule, early on a morning at Karstead, as the herdsman went to the b)Te according to his wont, he saw a neat before the byredoor, and knew that thither was come the broken-legged cow which had been missing. So he led the cow into the boose and bound her, and then told Thorod. Thorod went
to the byre
calf,
for
and saw the cow, and laid his hand on her, and now finds that she is with and thinks good not to kill her ; and withal he had by then done all the slaughtering his household whereof need was."
in
^Odo monachus
schmid,
Vita
Olafi filii
Tryggwii, chap,
Schiller,
*
: '
xxiv.,
according
III.,
to
Keissler,
Krduterbuch,
12;
Pfannen-
Germanische
Erntefate,
p.
499
Ex Eoo
mari
veniens
S.
Olaus ad insulam
Martinus episcopus
Hie noctu
innotuit ipsi
moris in his
Odini
^
et
cum convivia celebrentur, in memoriam Thoreri, Hunc ut mutes volo atque in mei memoriam in
ilia
Vetus autem
I., p.
softly to the bonders, their fierce mind was appeased, and went hopefully and peacefully, and at the last it was determined that the midsummer feast of offering should be holden in at Mere, and thither should come all lords and mighty bonders, as the wont was ; and King Olaf also should be there."
ig6
in
midwinter
the
meant
in
Snorri's
thirteenth
century
i.e.,
language
midsummer
9
festival
approximately between
June
and
14.^
The
offering
was made "for peace and the plenty of the year," ^ and
admits that at that time of the year the great Thing
Professor
Mogk
He
is
of opinion
at
that
the offering
places,
in
various
were
at
comparatively
midwinter.
after
festive
tide
This
a.d.,
again, in
some degree
to
be admitted
1000
but before that time the very contrary was the case, as the
have
lost
its
old consequence at a
ships, so that
in
to the
It
well
^Mogk, Mythologie,
p. 1127, in Paul's
I.,
who
:
Germanic
in June.
So does Willibald
Leo, in his notes to his translation of the Hovard Isfjordingssaga, Heilbronn, 1878, p. 129 " 1st kurzweg von Thing die Rede, so ist dabei auf Island gewohnlich das fiir das ganze
' '
Land geltende Allthing gemeint, welches alljahrlich einmal in der elften Woche des Sommers (Auf Island wurde das Jahr namlich in Sommer und Winter geteilt, und der Beginn des Sommers fiel auf den Donnerstag zwischen dem 9 und 15 April) ungefahr um die St. Johanniszeit (gegen Ende Juni) abgehalten wurde und 14 Tage wahrte." His note is
a passage of the Hovardsaga (p. 19 of his translation), which runs "Thorbjorn, Thjodrek's son, rode every summer with his folk to the Thing;" p. 20: "In the same summer in which Hovard and his son went away, Thorbjorn rode to the Thing;" p. 21 "Thorbjorn rode home from the Thing with Gest to Bardastrand, where, ; " But in in the very same summer, the wedding was held with a splendid dinner " p. 32
explanatory of
to the
Thing."
The
story of the
Hovardsaga
is
^Heimskringla, Vol.
^Mythologie, p. 1127.
*
I., p.
des norwegischen
I97
are
the
feast,
it,
although the
of a
midsummer
festival
is
men-
Beside
there
the
Summer
the
Festival
or
feast
at sumri,
i.e.^
June 9
to
14,
was, in
eighth
century, a
himself that we
owe
" In Sweden," he
the
us in the Heimskringlay
that
the chief
\
month of Gbi (February) then should be done blood-offering for peace and victory to their king. Thither folk should seek from the whole realm of Sweden, and there at the same
blood-offering should be at Uppsala in the
all
the Swedes.
market and a
fair
was
But now,
Uppsala,
all
christened,
to
flitted,
it
and held
and now
is
There
is
of the Swedes,
and
from
all
very strange that this Gbiblbt should not have been recognised as one of
the three old offering
in
tides,
that sense,
it
'"The
was
at the
next spring went King Granmar to Uppsala to the blood-offering, as the wont
coming of summer, for good peace ; and suchwise the lot fell to him thereat would not live long so he went home to his realm " {Heimskringla, Vol. I., p. 62, Ynglingasaga, chap. xlii.). This festival must not be confused with the feast at Hadaland {Heimskringla, Vol. I., p. 86, Story of Half dan the Black, chap, ix.), riding home from which King Halfdan the Black was, in A.D, 863, drowned in the river through the ice breaking under him, just as King Hring, when he drove with his queen, Ingibiorg, to a great guesting, was in danger of being drowned, because the ice of the lake broke over which he drove (Fridhthjdfssaga, chap. xiii.).
that he
:
^Heimskringla, Vol.
II., p. ill.
Ixxvii.
'Maurer, Bekehrung
II., 236.
des norwegischen
Stammes
zufit
Christentum, Miinchen,
1855-56,
198
Mogk
before
enough, that at
sky,
this chief-offering at
Uppsala,
Freyr, the
god of the
feel
in those
days the
this
Scandinavians began to
the
return
and
the
air
that
feast
was
returning.^
When
he
continues
celebrate
"About
festivities.
same
time
at
it
is
that
up
till
to-day
folk
fires
Then,
Shrove-tide, outside, in
the open
are
part,
lit;
sun plays
not
he
is
not Shrove-Tuesday, a
rule,
but Mittfasten,
the
is,
as
it
about one
Easter
putting
month
within
later
about the
of
March
although
is
varies with
right
in
considerable
the
But
Mogk
clearly
German
sun-wheel-festivities,
the
characteristic
of
which
set
is
that a
is
wooden wheel
tied
on
fire,
rolled
down from
a hill-top to
corresponding Anglo-German
later,
spring festivity
since
the
Anglo-German winter
about Martinmas.
tells
make the fields fertile. The bound to be one month begins one month later than the
is
Scandinavian,
i.e.,
Snorri himself
us^
how
a Thing and a market, was shifted back from about the middle of February
to the very beginning of the
month (February
2), its
i.
Thus
the feast
came
tide
called
which among
Mogk, Mythologie,
gefeiert.
in
Paul's
(J 61)
I.,
1126-27:
im Februar im Norden
...
In diese Zeit
wo
namentlich
An
Tagen beginnen
Ich glaube daher, dass vielmehr dieses Fest das Fest der
ist."
ist
es auch,
wo noch
das Volk in Deutschland Feste feiert ; an im Freien Feuer entziindet, an diesen Tagen spielt
Rolle, nicht zur Zeit der zwolf Nachte."
Ixxvii.
Wagenrad
^
als
Heimskringla, Vol.
OF THE
"^^
UNIVERSITY
199
At the
before.
and
14,
i.
now
i.e.,
January
CHAPTER
XV.
SCANDINAVIAN YULE.
The Autumn
celebrated
Festival, held
Festival,
Summer
to
Festival,
kept
are without
doubt, according
Snorri's
own
up
Even the dates of them can be fixed very exactly. It is Eugen Mogk rejects the assumption of fixed Germanic festive days altogether, and is of opinion that there existed only festive tides, which
were not dependent on the position of the sun, but rather on the
fluence
in-
of the
sun
'^
upon the
earth,
i.e.,
economic existence
festive
and, of course, in a
little
the
fixing of these
tides
different
various
parts
of
the
country.
tides
On
the other hand, the division of the year into six three-score-day
was
taken
by
the
Germanics
in
prehistoric
times.
It
is
tantamount to a counting
even
tribe
of three
sixty-six
hundred and
days,
sixty days, or
will
perhaps
of three
hundred and
and nobody
according
its
deny that a
established
to
an
standard
It is
absolutely
in
a position to
fix
remark on Scandinavian
different
" Sun and day were, in the minds of our ancestors, things thoroughly The Germanics cared little for the increasing of days. It was only when they noticed that the days grew warmer through the resplendent star of
^
He
says
felt
sun
drawing nearer
I.,
to
them."
Paul's
p.
1126.
SCANDINAVIAN YULE
festive tides in chapter
viii.
261
not
of the
Ynglifigasaga, does
mention these
Festival,
is
and mentioning
strange, as
and
14,
This
the
more
Roman Autumn
Equinox.
April
t.
Roman
i.
October
Spring Equinox.
they
fulfil
all
three-score-day tides.
is
when he maintains
tides
had
three
great
offering
only.
He
being
not
only
acquainted
202
with
Christian
saints'
days,
Roman
for
him
to look
questions connected with the division of the year from the standquartering
of the
point of a
mind appears
his for
to
have
in
been
his
free
from
any prejudice
that conditions
prevailing
away past of
live
ancestors.
unchanged
centuries in the
memory
life
every older
it
such
We
status
is
memory
to
soon as
disappears
from
reality.
difficult
own
too
ancestors, a
life
lived
much
inclined
to
of things
own
time.
Snorri has no knowledge of the fact that, four hundred years previous
to his
own
lifetime,
December and January; and although for him the word Jbl never means a single day, but in various places a shorter or longer festive period,
over
festival
for
an old Germanic
On
the
conditions
of
the
more
especially
if
And
it
to
give
his
instance
of a
Yule celebration
spring
festivals,
to
840, while
fell
records
of autumn
festivals,
on Wednesday the fourth of the Calends of August (Heimskringla, on the Nones of January {Ibid., p. 157, The Story of Harald the Hard-redy, chap. Ixxix.); on the ninth of the Calends of January {Ibid., p. 227, The Story of Sigurd Jerusalemfarer, chap, xxiii.).
King Olaf
SCANDINAVIAN YULE
and summer
festivals
203
festival
made
debut.
These,
however,
is
are
serious
facts,
to
that,
in his time,
which
had
arisen
under
that
the
it
Roman
calendar and
old.
last historical
is
Gbiblbt
it
about the
spoken
him
as
Is
it
too daring a
And
it
had
its
name from
month
name than
month
in
which
? ^
In
some
days,'
and
its
celebration
began between January 9 and 14. It was Hakon the Good, King of Norway from 940 to 963, who changed,
or tried to change, this state of affairs, ordering that the holy tide should
in future begin with
December 25
and be kept
in a festive
Snorri's
report
on
this
important episode
Heimskringla, Vol.
I.,
p.
62,
Ynglingasaga, chap.
xlii.
is
The
oj
first
Vol.
I. ,
p. 82,
Story
dan Half
"But
all
at Yule-tide
guesting in
these
tidings."
almost immediately
and
telling
how
all
p. 85,
story
is
in fact, the
German
fairy tale of
Schneewittchen,
Snow-white.
feast
his Yule-feast at
first
Thrandheim, which
Earl Sigurd
There, on the
night of Yule,
Story of
and the next day King Hakon sprinkled the lad with water, Hakon the Good, chap xii.).
2o4
runs thus
'*
:
to
and
folk
much
given to
and
that he
deemed he lacked
fast,
men
sorely
all
and
he made a law that Yule should be holden the same time as Christian
men
hold
it,
and
that every
man
or pay
money
else,
Yule
But aforetime
that
to say,
Heimskringla, Vol.
I., p.
Hakon
" Hann
setti
that
Ibgum
at hefja jolahald
thann
sem
kristnir
medhan
En
hokunott, that var midhsvetrar nott, ok haldin thriggja natta jol," Heimskringla eller Norges Kongesagaer af Snorre Sturlasson, ed. by C. R. Unger, Christiania, 1868, p. 92.
i.e.,
December 31
but however
would
I
suit
my own
illustrating
January
the
i,
a stage at which, according to Roman Calends custom, Yule was kept on do not think there is any reason to identify hokunott with Hogmanay ; and
is
more caution
or
requisite
since
is
entirely uncertain.
Hogmanay
Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish has denoted, at least since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the last day of that
Lambe (Notes to the Battle of Floddon, p. 67) derives it from ^710 ii.rivi\, common Northumbrian form being at his time Hagmana, but he gives no proof that December was ever called fiyta ii.i\vr\ in Scotland, If, among the Scandinavian nations, a name slaughter-month for December could be shown to have existed, it would not be impossible to assume for the north country a name consisting of hoggva, to hew (hogg is stroke), and month. But an explanation would have to be given why the word
month
only.
been
felt to
hew, and mondth. For although there exists a word more a g. Nevertheless hedvan and hoggva must have There remain two other ijossibilities of derivation, namely,
to
pig. And until it has been shown what witches have to do with December, I should rather be inclined to take hogmanay as pig-month, i.e., month in which pigs were killed. It is strange that the ultimate bearing of the name would thus be almost identical with what it would have been if it consisted of hoggva and month. But apart from all that, I do not see how, among a people which counts the winter from
October 9 to 14 to April 9 to 14, as the Scandinavians always did in historical times, midwinter's night can mean anything but a night between January 9 and 14. When Eric Gustave Geijer, in his History of the Swedes (translated by Turner, London, without year.
SCANDINAVIAN YULE
However
folk
his
205
the
serious
attempts were
made by Hakon
Good
to win his
over
to
Christianity,
An
the
victuals
and
ale,
so
that
not quite
at
but
it
is
to
withhold
himself from
an
all
too
festivities
still
"took place
in the
autumn-
tide at winter-nights,"
which
at
far
that time
January
festivity.
While so
festival, in his
opinion,
February (between February 9 and 14), then about Candlemas, then about midwinter (January 14), then about January i, and finally on December 25. He only confuses February 9 to 14, and midwintersnatten. The time at the beginning or about the middle of February can never have been called midwinter, but was simply the end
was
originally kept in
Geijer's note
is
"
It is
Norwegian, that he had the custom, while heathenism every year one at the commencement of winter, the
second
and the third towards summer. But after he had embraced Christianity, he preserved the custom of giving entertainments. In harvest he kept with his friends a harvest-home, in winter a Christmas revel, and the third feast he held at Easter and many guests were gathered at his board" (,Saga of St. Olave, chap, cxxiii. ). Hacon the Good of Norway had removed the Pagan Yule, formerly observed as midwinter's
in
midwinter,
night (niidwintersnatten)^ called also hawk's night {hokettaiten), and kept at the beginning
of February, according to the Harvarar Saga, to the Catholic Christmas (Saga of Haco, Candlemas, celebrated at the time of the old winter sacrifice, is still called in chap. XV.).
some provinces Little Yule. In full accordance with this report Eugen Mogk says "There is no foundation whatever for taking ... the great winter festival, called Yule-festival by
:
the Scandinavians, for the feast of the sun returning " (in Paul's Grundriss der germanischen
Philologie, Strassburg, 1891,
its
I., p.
1126).
end of January, and Professor Elard Hugo Meyer at the beginning of February, but I do not see how we can help (according to the beginning of winter between October 9 and 14 and the beginning of summer between April 9 and 14) fixing it
original date at the
at
February 9 to
^
14.
I.,
Hfimskrtngla, Vol.
p.
i66-i68, Stor)/
0*^
Hakon
2o6
privately
in
take
it
publicly
the
hall
and
to
grudge them.
Snorri
thus:
at winter-nights
was
there
a blood-offering held at
thereto.
he were abiding
was a
with
feast
of blood-offering
folk,
house
but
few
but
now
the bonders
feast
murmured
at
it,
in his
own
the
high-seat,
where the
of
men was
greatest;
and the
earl
said
to
So
first
it
was therefore
then spake Earl Sigurd thereover, and signed the cup to Odin, and drank
off the
Then
it,
sign of
the
cross
'
Why
:
doeth
'
all
do who trow
the
cup
to Thor.
The own might and main, and he For he made the sign of the hammer over it
Earl
Sigurd
answers
in their
before he drank.'
So
all
eve.
men went
flesh,
him
eat horse-
and
Then
they bade
Then would
it
him
them
went nigh
falling
on him.
lay the
Then
;
strove
Sigurd to appease
them, and
bade
storm
the reek of seething had gone up from the horse-flesh, so that the kettle-
bow was
cloth
all
greasy.
Then went
the
king thereto,
thereover,
and gaped
and
went
back
to the high-seat;
This was
"The
next
for
the
king
in
Mere.
dealing
But when
in blood-
"bound themselves
^
that
the four
Heimskrinsla, Vol.
I.,
p.
170, Story of
Hakon
SCANDINAVIAN YULE
make an end
of the
Christian faith in
207
the
four
Norway, and
to
of
Inner
blood-offering.
So the Outer
slew
three
in
four
ships
south to
Mere, and
there
But
there
feast
Mere with
his
The
very
first
day of the
him
offer,
and threatening
him with
all
things
ill
if
he would
not.
it
Earl
Sigurd strove to
make
the cups of
feast
memory
that the
and the
earl
went out
to Ladir.
Of
full
little
straightway he arrayed
court,
him
for departing
his
prayed the king not to hold them of Thrandheim for his foes for this;
and
were
said that
against
the
folk
own
land,
his
realm,
as
the
folk
of Thrandheim.
But
king
He
went south to Mere, and abode there that winter and on into spring
and
as
it
summered he drew
fall
together an
host,
^
and
rumour
ran
that
he would
he preferred to lead his army against him, and was supported therein by Earl
Sigurd and the Thrandheimers (about 955 a.d.).^
to establish Christianity in
to
He died in
Norway having
utterly failed.
come
the
new
England,
offering
came
to
abolished
Earl
the
festivals,
When
f.,
Heimskringla, Vol.
Ibid., pp.
I.,
p.
170
Story of
Hakon
2o8
the
land,
he
bade
restore
the
all
his dominions.^
And
although
some
and
men
took
christening,
they
turned
back to
blood-offering;
Christianity
and
force
even when
King
Olaf
I.
Tryggvison
established
by
cruelty in
Norway about
some
by no means
Christian.^
Just
as,
Autumn
Festival
at
had been
feast
enemy
and
drunk,
now from
the
Heimskringla, Vol.
I.,
p.
Under
was
his
reign the
first
:
Easter
is
I.,
p.
313, Story
in Kormt-isle.
I.,
And
336,
first
Michaelmas,
p.
"And now was Michaelmas come, and the Story of Olaf Tryggvison, chap. Ixxxix. king let hold high-tide, and sing mass full gloriously ; and thither went the Icelanders,
In the Stories that follow in and hearken the fair song, and the voice of the bells." the Heimskringla the names of Christian festivals get ever more numerous: "It befell on Ascension day that King Olaf went to high mass," Heimskringla, II., p. 131, "at Candlemas," Ibid., p. 152, Story Story of Olaf the Holy, chap. Ixxxv. ; of Olaf the Holy, chap, xciii. ; "King Olaf had a great feast at Easter, and had
many men
chap, cxxiv.
many bonders
it
withal," Ibid., p.
195, Story of
Olaf
"After Candlemas,"
:
Ibid., p.
221, Story of
King Olaf
if
the Holy,
"The
king says
p.
'
Is
man
break the
"the day before Michaelmas," Ibid., p. 325, chap, clxii. ; "On Thomas-mass before Yule in the very first dawn," Ibid., "The next day was Michaelmas Eve," Ibid., III., p. 35. p. 354, chap, clxxxvi. ; The Story of Magnus the Good, chap, xxviii. ; "ere Michaelmas," Ibid., p. 50, "the battle was on the Wednesday next before Matthewmass," Ibid,, chap, xxxvi.
Easter
peace?'"
Ibid.,
223,
chap.
"about candlemas," Ibid:, p. 207, The Story of King Magnus "the day before Bartholomewmas," Ibid., p. 240, chap. xxvi. "a high"one night after Marymass in autumn," tide, Whitsunday to wit," Ibid., p. 288, chap. xxx. "on Whitsunday," Ibid., p. 325, Story of Magnus the Blind and Ibid., p. 310, chap. xlii. Harald Gilli, chap. ix. ; "and this was Michaelmass," Ibid., p. 458, Story of King Magnus,
p.
Barefoot, chap.
fast was wearing," Ibid., p. 467, Story of King "to Rogation-days' Thing," Ibid., p. 467; "on Tuesday in Rogation-days," Ibid., p. 468; "in the night before Ascension day," Ibid., p. 468 ; " The priest who sang at Rydiokul, which is on the water, bade the earl and his to a feast, to come there at Candlemas," Ibid., p. 475, Story of King Magnus, son of Erling, "That was the latter Marymass," Ibid., p. 481, Story of King Magnus, son of chap, xxxii.
xviii.
;
"when Lenten
;
;; :
SCANDINAVIAN YULE
was used
to
feast
for the
209
same purpose
while
at
the
first
half of Yule-tide
among friends it became a custom the home of the one and the
the two
parts
second half
earlier
at
the
latter
home
Yule.
of the other,
"
and the
Yule-feast
drank
together
the
little
way thence;
a wealthy.
dwelt a
man and
He
at
had a son
each
other's,
grown.
to drink half
Yule
beginning at Thorar's.
The
Thorod
against
the
bonder's
in
the evening was mickle masterful talk and man-pairing betwixt the
Norway
men and
the Swedes."
Little
means Candlemas, and which presupposes a corresponding "Great Yule," and in the terms "earlier Yule" and "latter Yule," there are contained
reminiscences of a halving of the older Yule-tide of three scores of days,
which on A.S. ground was divided into cerra Geola and among the Goths in fruma liuleis and * aftuma liuleis.
ceftera
Geola,
and
The days
calendar,
month
in the
Roman
and grows.
^ Heimskringla, II., p. 48, The Story of Olaf the Holy (1012-1030), chap, xxxix. " Earl Svein was then up Thrandheim at Steinker, and let array there a Yule feast ; " Even at that nick of time came the host of there was a cheaping-stead " p. 53, chap. xlii. the earl into the town, and they took all the Yule victuals and burnt all the houses." The same is evident from the Eyrbyggjasaga written about 1250, but telling a story
:
:
icxx)
{Saga
Library,
II.,
p.
79),
which
contains
the
following
"That
to his
winter at Yultide had Thorolf a great drinking, and put the drink round briskly
thralls
;
to
go up to
Ulfar's-fell
and
bum Ulfar his house, and promised to give them "Then Steinthor and his men misdoubted them,
before
147:
and
^
Yule;" p. 148: " Kiartan and Thurid bade their neighbours to the arvale, Yule ale was taken and used for the arvale." Heimskringla, Vol. II., p. 296, Story of Olaf the Holy, chap. cli. : ". Now
their
. .
all
2IO
was celebrated
but when
it
took
its
new
became a celebration of
day (January
i)
gifts
of friendship, according to
Roman
Calends-of-
January custom.
much
King
that
stress
he
laid
Even King Olaf the Good stuck to that custom, however on Christian rites. ^ King Olaf was expelled from his
remarkable
for the fact
it
As
it
is
he made
By
this act a
new
Roman
calendar, which
rites
made
It
as quick
and
all
of Christianity.
Bye
became
festivities
December was
it
Neither was
habit, as
preceding Yule-day.*
The
vouched by another
Hakon
Yule-feast, at
it fell
men.
him.
On
which there was gathered to him a many great that the king went a-walking, and a few men with
Sigvat followed the king day and night, and at this time he was with him.
to a certain house, wherein
went
So they He had
then had great store arrayed, as his wont was, and fetched together his precious things for on the eighth eve of Yule" (Heimskringla, Vol. II.,
Story of Olaf the Holy, chap, clxxii.). " King Svein (1030- 1035) brought new laws
after the
many
Denmark, but some mickle harder. ... At Yule every man was to bring the king a measure of malt for every hearth, and a thigh of a threewinter ox, that was called pasture-tod, and a keg of butter withal ; and every housewife was
framed
manner
of the laws of
is
to say, so
much
the biggest finger and the longest" {Heimskringla, Vol. II., p. 450, Story of Olaf the Holy,
chap,
*
ccliii.).
294, The Story of Sigurd Jerusalem farer, Eystein and Olaf, on a time on Yule-eve, as the king (Sigurd Jerusalem-farer, 1103-1130) sat in the hall and the boards were set, that the King said: 'Fetch me flesh'Lord,' said they, 'it is not wont in Norway to eat flesh-meat on Yule-eve.' He meat.' So they came and had in If it be not the wont, then will I have it the wont.' answered
Heimskringla, III.,
:
p.
chap, xxxiii.
" So
befell
'
" ;
SCANDINAVIAN YULE
Saga.
211
a story of about
The Eyrbyggjasaga,
1000.
Its
tells
the year
Yule
is
by an Advent-fast or
Yule-fast,^
After
it
to fight
on Yule-day,
and
it
became a
fight
specially
memorable
which a
would
arise in a
still
killed.^
The
Yule-tide grew
a celebration
From
is
mentioned
Saga
literature
its
become
no
ever
more
frequent.^
So
origin
porpoise.
The king
a
Then
'Fetch
me
:
woman
They came
The king laid his she was coifed wide and side. and said 'An ill-favoured woman is this, yet not so that one may not endure her.' Then he looked at her hand and said 'An ungoodly hand and ill- waxen, yet one must endure it.' A foot monstrous and Then he bade her reach forth her foot ; he looked thereon, and said mickle much ; but one may give no heed thereto; such must be put up with.' Then he bade them lift up the kirtle, and now he saw the leg, and said ' Fie on thy leg it is both blue and thick, and a mere whore must thou be.' And he bade them take her out, 'for I
: :
and had a woman with them, and hand to her head, and looked on her,
'
will not
^
have her.' William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson, The Story of the Ere-Dwellers, London, 1892, p. "And by then it was hard on the Yule-fast, though at that time there was no fasting 146
:
"
in Iceland."
^Ihid., p. 79.
^ " King Harald came to Biorgvin on Yule-eve, and laid his host into Feoru-bights, and would not fight for its holiness' sake" {Heimskringla, III., p. 321, Story of Magnus the Blind and Harald Gilli); and III., p. 322: "Only three days in the Yule-tide were holden holy from smith's work. But on the out-going day of Yule, King Harald let blow In Yule-tide nine hundreds of men had gathered to King Harald. the host to give way. " King Hakon was in Cheaping through the Yule ; and one evening, early in the Yule-tide, his men got to blows in the Court Hall, and eight men came by their death, and many were
Wounded.
*
But
day of Yule there fared into Elda these fellows of Hakon "
" He
to
of Hakon Shoulder-Broad, chap. xi.). went out of King's Rock on the latter part of Yule-tide with
much
folk,
and they
came
He
him
thereafter
this
was on
^Heimskringla, Vol.
will sit
dovm
" may be that he Story of Olaf the Holy, chap, xxxix. Yule," Ibid., p. 50, Story of Olaf the Holy, chap. xl.
02
212
earlier
is
laid
festive time.^
" and he
let
flit
and the
victuals,
being minded to
sit
there
51;
"The
the countrysides," Ibid., p. 79, Sto7y of Olaf the Holy, chap, lix.;
gifts
of him.
There was
for a Yule-gift
gold-wrought sword and therewithal the manor called Vettland, the greateSfof chiefsteads,"
Ibid., p. 79, Story of
Olaf the Holy, chap. Ix.; "a little before Yule," Ibid., p. 149, Stoiy oj Olaf the Holy, chap, xcii.; "After Yule," Ibid., p. 151, Story of Olaf the Holy, chap, xciii.; "after Yule," Ibid., p. 285, Story of Olaf the Holy, chap, cxlviii. "after Yule," Ibid., p. 296, chap. cli. ; "after Yule," Ibid., p. 337, chap, clxxii.; " Good store for Yule," Ibid., p.
;
361, chap, clxxxvii.; "Forthwith on the back of Yule," Ibid., p. 386, chap,
cciii.;
"after
p. i.
i.;
"after Yule,"/3/a?.,
266;
"When
it
"A
little
wont to sit and take Yule-feasts," Ibid., p. "the earl should let set market for meat-cheaping for Sigurd all the winter, but this went on no longer than to Yule, and then meat grew hard to get, for the land is barren and an ill meat-land," Ibid., p, 250, Story of Sigurd Jerusalem farer, chap, iv, "close after Yule," Ibid., p. 349, Story of Ingi, son of Harald, chap, ii.; "this folk went on as if nothing was so needful as this Yule-drinking, and that might in no wise be given up," " Erling arrayed there for a Ibid., p. 422, Story of Hakon Shoulder- Broad, chap. xv.
lord, are
of Magnus the Good, chap, xxxi.; "Those cheapingsteads where ye, 183, Story of Harald the Hard-redy,
chap,
cii.;
had a
xix.
'
guild-ale,
and held
their fellowship
through YuleStory of
The
fifth
and feasted there through Yule," Ibid., p. "and the King feasted there through the Yule-tide," Story of King Magnus, son of Erling, chap. xlii.
son of Erling, chap, xxxi.;
Ibid., p. 484,
^The Saga Library, edited by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson, Vol. I., London, " Said Hermund 'This is like the rest of thy lying, like as thou saidest in p. 114 the winter-tide, Egil, when thou camest to me at my bidding from thy wreck of a house at Burg in Yule-tide and right glad wert thou thereat, as was like to be ; and when Yule was spent, thou grewest sad, as was like to be, thinking it hard to have to go home to that misery but I, when I saw that, bade thee abide still, thou and another with thee ; and thou tookest that, and wert fain thereof: but in spring-tide after Easter, when thou wert come home to Burg, thou saidst that thirty ice-horses had died, and had all been eaten
1
89 1,
by us.'"
SCANDINAVIAN YULE
There
is
2,3
no statement
Thing
was no old
offering-
for
both
in
being merely two different sides of the three annual assemblies of the
of the individual
men
announcements,
for
which
it
no doubt
by the
fact
that
men
stayed either at
home
then or met in
larger
companies
The customs
and
in
of
Norway were
transferred to Iceland
in
and
to
Greenland
that the Vblva or prophetess could within the holy tide visit several farms,
Christianity
had
at last
it
half a
millennium before,
had
won
it
Roman
civilisation,
forced
upon
all
its
subjects a uniform
also of rite
and custom.
life
At the dawn of
all
history
of intellectual
had embraced
Germanic
tribes,
the early Middle Ages that inheritance of the East was irrevocably
for the
It
Germanic
A
:
is
contained in the
two words
^When,
in
1262,
King Hacon
of
Norway heard
committed
all
kinds
of hostilities in the Hebrides, he resolved in council to issue in winter about J61 an edict through all Norway, and order out both what troops and provisions he thought his dominions
The Norwegian Account of King Haco's Expedition against Scotland, A.D. 1263. Literally translated from the original Icelandic of the Flateyan and Frisian Mss. By the Rev. James Johnstone, A.M., and edited with additional notes by Edmund Goldsmid, Edinburgh, 1885, p. 19). Eirikssaga raudha, ed. by G. Storm, p. 14 ss., Eugen Mc^k, Ueber Los, Zauber utui
could possibly supply for an expedition {Ribliotheca Curiosa
:
"^
IVeissagung bet den Gernianen in Kleinere Beitrdge zur Geschichte, von Doztnten der Leipziger
ss.
"In
woman named
Thorbjorg.
called
in winter-tide to fare
everywhere to ask
new
year," etc.
CHAPTER
XVI.
RESULTS.
I.
tri-
partition of
etymology
is
winter
and summer
only,
they early took over a year of oriental origin, which consisted of six tides
of three-score days each.
Two
is
ample evidence
It originally
to
mid-January
among
covered November
seventh century,
and
December;
December and January. II. The Beginning of the Anglo-German Year doubtless was not
wholly dependent
climatic conditions.
on
tradition,
all
but was
to
Whilst
Germanic
tribes
somewhat
later
latter
The
reckoned
their
annual
circle as
com-
theirs
towards
Germany and
and December
in
point likewise
RESULTS
III.
215
festival
in
the
first
half of
November as early as a.d. 14, we have good reason to regard The Feast OF Martinmas on November 11 as the successor of an ancient Germanic
festive
New
The
feasting about
Martinmas
even
in the later
New
Year,
is
and appears
on German
Mid-Lent
The
three
constituted a
closely
Martinmas and the Dual Division of the Year were no less connected. As late as the sixteenth century, Martinmas and Mid-May were German terms, and they are still the prevalent terms in The Frankish May fields and the corresponding celebrations Scotland.
V.
instituted
the
same
direction.
It
was
not before a.d. 755 that the latter two terms were superseded by March
I i.
autumn
festivities
But
in
Michaelmas
Michael on
a.d.
fact
which
clearly
origin to the
Roman
quartering
of the year.
Even when
the centre of the slaughtering time of domestic animals, for ages outshone
Michaelmas
in
popular splendour,
till
2i6
cultivation
much
when
killed.
of
Solstices
and Equinoxes
formed
to
that they
for
them.
These
conceptions they got from the Romans, and the different words which the
various
tribes
Roman
denominations.
25, the
solstice celebration,
festive
day
the
contact of the
Germanic
tribes
The
first
severe
from the
Roman
year.
as
well
as
in
the
of the world.
in
The Calends
hides
gifts,
the
Calends
fires,
the
Calends
mummery
the
IX.
On
the
basis
of a
number
of
instances
of
sacrifices
tables
it
December and
were
has
festival
But these
offerings
mere
transformations
Tabula
our
Rome
The same
X.
holds
for
the
New
as
Egyptio-Roman custom.
an anniversary owed
its
origin to
Rome
oldest
and
The Dodekaits
products.
December 25
Rome, and
New
RESULTS
XL One
division
of the
De Mensibus Anglorum,
Ratione.
It contains
De Temporum
the
some
names of two Germanic threefacts of great antiquity, among them Some of Beda's other A.S. month-names score-day tides, Geola and Lida. Etymology was not his strong point, were of comparatively late growth.
and no great weight can be attached to his interpretations of A.S. words. What he describes is not the Germanic year, but the Romano-Christian
year,
He
contradictions
assertion that
which
his
short
statement
Notwithstanding
his
December 25 was
it
and
that
December
December
time
to
its
received their
names
as the earlier
and
later
Yulemonth,
in his
rise
had given
means
from a
deity, to
which he
supposed
to
'^ XII. Nativity, Christes M^ess, and Christmas are terms which show
the growth of a regular ecclesiastical celebration of
centuries that followed Beda.
A.D.
strict
for
state ceremonies.
Church
holiday.
Up
to the
make
Christ's
twelfth
hymn Rorate
Coeli,
the
dew of
had
2i8
that
trees
This
trees
up
Christmas
began
and
14.
When
the
Roman
dividing days lay between January 9 and 14 and June 9 and 14.
These
days alone, and under no circumstance December 25 and June 24, could
properly have been called midwinter and midsummer.
XIV. The
visible in the
Scandinavian
Offering Tides.
that,
The author
originally, there
up
to a.d.
in
autumn
at
winter's
one of the
Gbiblbt,
three.
The
third,
and the
14,
in the
Subsequently
it
rapidly grew in
St.
Michael-
mas, and Gbiblbt disappeared altogether. XV. The Scandinavian Yule festival was a product of the ninthcentury.
It arose
month
it
of
Gbi (October 9
to 14
and February 9
to 14).
For
at least a century
was
celebrated about
Roman
Norway
in
(a.d.
940-963)
who
first
ordered
its
By
Scandinavians joined,
ritual
recovered part of that intellectual unity with the other Germanic tribes which
had been
lost
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