Northern European Myth, Folklore, & History - The Archivist\'s Corner

Heroic History: The Mythic Origins of Greek History

Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:54:33 GMT

A statue of the Greek god, Poseiden

Before history had been firmly established as a field of study, the Greeks used mythology to relay collective memory. Many of these stories were inspired by true events that grew into legend over time.

Just as school children in the United States today learn about the founding fathers, ancient Greeks listened to their Homerian epics. In his book, "Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern," Gerald Schlabach says “to attempt to live without a memory is to attempt to lose one’s humanity,” and, thus, we learn history today to give the individual a place rooted in their wider society.

Mythology served the same purpose to ancient societies. Today we separate theology from history. In fact, Schlabach makes a point to mention this in the essay on his website when he states “to suggest the ways that God may be involved in human history is to move into theology or philosophy of history. Those are different from the documentary study of history.” However, the ancients did not always see it this way.

Early Greek writers such as Homer carried on the tradition of heroic history when they wrote down tales that had been passed down orally.

This early form of history had no need for chronology, it simply sufficed to understand that these events happened in the past.

Herodotus and Thucydides were revolutionary in their attempts to formulate chronological time in their historical writings (Breisach, 11).

These writers also differed from their predecessors in other ways. Instead of focusing on great heroes, these historians discussed the wars of their day in a socio-cultural context, discussing how commoners experienced them (Breisach, 12).

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Unlike Homer who wrote about the Trojan War some two hundred years after it occurred, Thucydides wrote about the Peloponnesian War at the outset.

In fact, he makes a point to tell his reader that Homer did not witness what he recorded, whereas Thucydides himself recognized the importance of the Peloponnesian War from the very beginning and so he began writing about it immediately (Thucydides 431 B.C.E ).

Thucydides seems to take the role of historian very seriously as he conspicuously drops tropes employed by Homer which seem present purely for entertainment value, such as poetic meter and supernatural elements.

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Roman historiography was tied to that of Greece from the beginning due to early Rome’s position beside the western part of Greek domination. Circling back to the notion of heroic history and the function of cultural mytho-history in the solidification of identity, early Romans “remembered” a legendary Greek hero named Aeneas who sailed west as a collective ancestor (Breisach, 42).

Greek Helios turned Roman god Apollo

This is an apt foundation myth because Roman historiography was influenced by their cultural emphasis on the gens and familia, kinship and family (Breisach, 44). Roman historiography differed from Greek in some other ways.

The earliest historical records were kept by priests who had no need for chronological conception outside of the calendar year. Therefore the Romans were adept at keeping a strict lunar calendar to observe religious dates, but lagged behind the Greeks in viewing history in sync with accurate chronology (Breisach, 41) until Rome had expanded to conquer other regions and the need to synchronize multiple cultural histories became apparent (Breisach, 42).

As Roman expansion widened through the Mediterranean, Roman historians broadened their techniques in the field of history.

Just as Herodotus and Thucydides took Greek historiography from the realm of heroic legend into a more factual story of the common man, Polybius took Roman history to the next level and was a pioneer in historical analysis.

Rather than simply relaying events, Polybius asked why events occurred (Breisach, 46).

As evidence of his deep contemplation about history, Polybius developed his “Regular Cycle of Constitutional Revolutions,” based on his observations of great civilizations in the Mediterranean region (Breisach, 47).

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In the opening paragraph to his “The Histories of Polybius” he states “that surest and indeed the only method of learning how to bear bravely the vicissitudes of fortune, is to recall the calamities of others.”

Fresco by Luca Giordano, 1685, Florence

Therefore, by observing “the calamities” of other empires, Polybius detected a pattern that he recognized Rome to be repeating. This may be the first instance of the adage that says “those who do not know history are bound to repeat it.”

We can see that the Greco-Roman era was groundbreaking in the development of historiography.

But, some of the issues that those early historians grappled with still require addressing today.

This is evidenced by Schlabach’s point that “God may indeed intervene in human history, but this is hard to document,” which is likely aimed at those who conflate theology with history.

In 21st Century America, when we see historiography bearing assaults by the likes of religious fundamentalists and “ancient alien theorists,” we can learn a great deal from our Greco-Roman predecessors and their own views on how history ought to be told.

The Lament for Icarus, Herbert Draper, 1898

Works Cited:

Breisach, Ernst. 2007. Historiography: Ancie nt, Medieval, and Modern. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Polybius. n.d. The Histories of Polybius. Accessed 10 2, 2015. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/1*.html.
Schlabach, Gerald W. n.d. A sense of history: some components. Accessed 10 2, 2015. http://www.geraldschlabach.net/about/relationships/benedictine/courses/handouts/sense-of-history/.
Thucydides. 431 B.C.E . The History of the Peloponnesian War. Accessed 10 2, 2015. http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.1.first.html.

My name is Carolyn Emerick, and I write on the history, myth, and folklore of Northwestern Europe.

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Scottish Witch Trials: When Witches Communed with Fairies

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 02:28:00 GMT

*Note: because this article touches on topics that I have expanded on in great detail in other articles, I have linked to related articles throughout the text so you can read more.

Our modern conventions tend to view the realms of fairies and witches separately. Witches have been viewed as evil, while fairies are seen as benevolent, cute, and kind. As scholars reevaluate witch trials and the confessions of those accused, we are coming to new conclusions on accused witches. One subject that has been discussed in the academic field of folklore, but has seemingly not seeped into the popular consciousness, is the connection between fairies and witches.

The Changing View of Fairies

Like so many of our contemporary notions, the image of the fairy is heavily influenced by Victorian representations. The conception of the fairy from previous ages was completely stripped and buried, while the image of childlike, sweet, innocent, and playful sprites was popularized.

As an analogy, consider that many have observed a similar phenomenon with angels. Biblical angels are warriors. They are imposing and intimidating figures.

The Victorian era stripped angels of their image of strength and imposed a soft, dainty, infantile nature to them.

Similarly, fairies had a much different image prior to the Victorian age. They were often seen as dangerous and viewed with suspicion.

They could be beautiful or very ugly. Sometimes fairies were construed with other creatures, such as the trows (hideous trollish creatures) of Orkney.

The three archangels by Marco d'Oggiono

Just as the Victorian era influenced the perceptions of the time, the concept of the fairy was altered by trends and cultural movements of previous eras. To be sure, fairy and other lore did (and indeed still does) continue to thrive in the British Isles, but it is difficult to fully understand the pre-Christian conception of these creatures due to the islands’ very early conversion.

The Origin of Elves and Fairies

In his heavily researched book called Elves, Wights, and Trolls, Kvedulf Gundarsson mentions that Scandinavian alfs (from whence we get the English word elf) and the Celtic sidhe were both initially related to the Neolithic practice of the worship of the dead buried in mounds.

He says that at the time of the late Stone Age “the material cultures [of the Norse and Celts] were virtually identical: it is possible that the sidhe and some of the alfs may once have been related” however as time progressed and they became separate and distinct figures, they developed different connotations within each respective culture.

Within folkloric traditions “Nordic mound-alfs feel welcoming to their kin; the sidhe feel indifferent” (Gundarsson, 2).

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He goes on to say that while “some of the characteristics and dangers of sidhe and alfs may be the same… alfs are much better-disposed towards humankind… they are far less inclined towards casual malice or deliberate entrapment than are the sidhe” (Gundarsson, 3). However “in later texts, the alfs often appear as malicious beings” (Gundarsson, 59).

Detail from August Malmström's "Dancing Fairies"

Christianity Changed Fairies to Demons

The late sagas Gundarsson goes on to mention are written after conversion to Christianity, so we see a shift in the way alfs are viewed by the Norse during pre and post conversion periods. It stands to reason a similar shift would have occurred in the Celtic conception of such beings.

The fact that Christianity came to Britain very early means that beliefs in these spirits would have been altered much earlier than in areas where indigenous beliefs continued to flourish for centuries.

We do know that local folklore and customs were allowed to continue under initial conversion to Catholicism.

In fact, there are records that demonstrate the tactic of the Church was to simply whitewash pagan customs with a Christian veneer.

A letter from Pope Gregory I to Abbot Mellitus in the late 6th century directly instructs English church leaders to keep the pagan houses of worship in their original place, simply remove the idols and replace them with relics of saints:

Tell Augustine that he should be no means destroy the temples of the gods but rather the idols within those temples.

Let him, after he has purified them with holy water, place altars and relics of the saints in them.

For, if those temples are well built, they should be converted from the worship of demons to the service of the true God…

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Note the use of the word “demons” to describe the indigenous European gods, we will circle back to this. Gregory I goes on to explain that pagan holy days and customs should be continued but with minor alterations:

Further, since it has been their custom to slaughter oxen in sacrifice, they should receive some solemnity in exchange. Let them therefore, on the day of the dedication of their churches, or on the feast of the martyrs whose relics are preserved in them, build themselves huts around their one-time temples and celebrate the occasion with religious feasting. They will sacrifice and eat the animals not any more as an offering to the devil, but for the glory of God… (Gregory I)

Conversion of the Slavs by Laurits Tuxen

So here we see two things that are relevant to understanding the connection between fairies and the devil: the old gods are equated with demons in the eyes of the church, and folk religion (a fusion of the old beliefs with the new) has been allowed to carry on under Catholic domination.

Gundarsson also discusses the conflation of elves with demons. He says that “as the English grew further away from their native culture and Latin education spread… the ‘demonic’ terminology came to define the aelf-word to some degree.”

There was no word for or concept of demons to the Anglo-Saxons, so “aelf was probably as close as the Anglo-Saxon language and culture could come to expressing the sense of a supernatural being which could interfere directly with human consciousness” (Gundarsson, 69). Ergo, when the new belief system was placed over the old, the two systems became blurred.

The Reformation's Assault on Folk Belief

When we move forward in time to the Reformation, however, we see another shift in popular belief.

In his paper published in the academic journal “Folklore” in 1921, “Mingling of Fairy and Witch Beliefs,” J.A. MacCulloch (author of the still popular book “The Religion of the Ancient Celts”) discusses the view of fairies held by Scottish witch hunters and demonologists during and after the Reformation.

Although the Inquisition was a decidedly Catholic endeavor, MacCulloch points out that it “never reached Scotland” and that pre-Reformation “trials for sorcery were few in number… Regular trials for witchcraft came in with the Reformation.”

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Sadly, things that “were matters of everyday experience in Europe,” i.e. elements of folk religion, which were “never in question before the beginning of the sixteenth century” were now illegal and doggedly hunted by prosecutors (or persecutors) of witches (pp. 233-234).

A Visit to the Witch by Edward Frederick Brewtnall, 1882

To summarize the notions of fairies held by the new Protestant world view, he says “Fairy-land and its denizens had become a real part of Satan’s kingdom of darkness” (p231).

In other words, common folk beliefs of fairies had become combined with Christian beliefs of Satan, hell, and demons. Therefore, any person found to be communicating with a fairy (a folk occurrence that had been common for centuries if not longer) was suddenly considered Satanic.

Mainland Europe’s Calvinism, called “Calvin’s gloomy creed” by MacCulloch, had been adopted with great zeal in Scotland (p234).

However, Scotland had zealots of her own pushing puritanical ideologies which bordered on obsession.

John Knox was a well-known hunter of witches. Ironically the fervor became so intense that no one was safe, and he himself was accused (McQuiston, 23).

But one of the most adamant of them all was the famous King James. Known as King James I when he inherited the English throne, he was previously titled James VI in Scotland.

When monarchs make religious zealotry a component of their reign, it generally translates into the suffering of their subjects. Thus James VI’s obsession with witches and demons brought the terror of witch hunting to Scotland.

Statue of John Knox

King James' Obsession with Witches and "Demonic" Fairies

Before commissioning his famous King James Bible, James VI literally wrote the book on demons. He read the many other books on demonology available at the time before penning his own “Demonologie.”

His volume very clearly demonstrates “the tendency to make fairyland a province of Satan's kingdom” (MacCulloch, 239).

James apparently had an obsession with witches, as he was known to attend witch trials and made their persecution a hallmark of his reign.

James discusses the evils of fairies (spelled “Phairie” in his text) in Chapter V of his “Demonlogie”:

King James I of England, he was King James VI of Scotland before he took the English throne.

That fourth kinde of spirites, which by the Gentiles was called Diana, and her wandring court, and amongst vs was called the Phairie (as I tould you) or our good neighboures, was one of the sortes of illusiones that was rifest in the time of Papistrie: for although it was holden odious to Prophesie by the devill, yet whome these kinde of Spirites carryed awaie, and informed, they were thought to be sonsiest and of best life.

He writes in question and answer form, and goes on to ask why witches who interact with fairies ought to be put to death:

But how can it be then, that sundrie Witches have gone to death with that confession, that they have been transported with the Phairie to such a hill, which opening, they went in, and there saw a faire Queene, who being now lighter, gave them a stone that had sundrie vertues, which at sundrie times hath bene produced in judgement?

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I say that, even as I said before of that imaginary ravishing of the spirite foorth of the bodie. For may not the devil object to their fantasie, their senses being dulled, and as it were a sleepe, such hilles & houses within them, such glistering courts and traines, and whatsoever such like wherewith he pleaseth to delude them. And in the meane time their bodies being senselesse, to convay in their hande any stone or such like thing, which he makes them to imagine to have received in such a place (James VI, p74).

James insists that any person’s experiences in fairyland are delusions of the devil.

Having willingly entered into an interaction with the devil is grounds for execution.

Ergo, having a conversation with the fairies (albeit in a dream or hallucination, or sometimes even an odd looking stranger could be thought to be a fairy man) was punishable by death.

This is the political climate of the late 16th and early 17th centuries in Scotland, and we can see that it is a complete reversal of the approach taken by the Roman Catholic Church during the previous millennium.

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Fairies and Familiars

Another spirit often entwined with fairies were familiar spirits. Emma Wilby, a modern scholar who has dedicated intensive study to Scottish and English witch trials, explains that fairies were often confused with witch’s familiars in her article “The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland.”

She asserts that “the evidence suggests that for those with a particularly obscure grasp of Christian teaching the cosmos would have been peopled by a medley of supernatural figures, of both Christian and pre-Christian origin, with little or no discrimination being made between them…” (p301).

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In other words, since the general public was largely illiterate and only knew bits and pieces of religion based on what was heard in church, the common people’s folk beliefs were a mixture of the old and new.

But, as Wilby explains, it seems both commoners as well as church leaders and elites had no conception of which beliefs were old and which were new during this period. In effect, it was a confusing mess of pre-Christian religion becoming distorted and misinterpreted by a now Christian population who clearly did not understand either religion very well.

Fairies by John Anster Fitzgerald

Views on Fairies and Witchcraft Today

Today, we see the image of both witches and fairies changing yet again. The neo-pagan and pagan re-constructionist movements are making strives to revive (or re-invent) the indigenous religions of our ancestors. There is a renewed interest in understanding folklore that involves communing with nature spirits. These movements as well as scholarship in the academic arena are re-shaping the conventional view of witches.

We now understand that accused witches were often the innocent victims of political motives or jealous neighbors.

However, there is strong evidence that at least some of the accused were people carrying on traditions of healing, herbalism, and possibly shamanic practices from the pre-Christian era.

Communing with the spirits of the land and ancestors is a practice almost universal in indigenous world cultures.

Fairies and other nature spirits were a remnant from a distant past – a past that threatened the new Protestant worldview.

Protestant reformers were absolutely correct in their assessment that Catholicism had allowed elements of paganism to continue.

Woman with nature spirits - illustration by Frederick Richardson

And from a folklorist’s perspective, thank goodness it did! A puritanical world devoid of imagination, stories of fairies, elves, and brownies seems like a very grim world, indeed.

Works Cited:

Emerick, Carolyn (2013). Orkney’s Terrible Trows. Originally published in Celtic Guide, 2(7), 19-22.
Gundarsson, Kvedulf (2007). Elves, Wights, and Trolls. New York: iUniverse, Inc.
King James VI of Scotland (1597). Daemonologie. Scotland: Printer to the Kings Majestie. – Available online: http://www.gutenberg.org/25929/25929-h/25929-h.html
MacCulloch, J.A. (1921). The Mingling of Fairy and Witch Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Scotland. Folklore, 32(4), 227-244.
McQuiston, James (2013). Villains and Victims. Celtic Guide, 2(7), 23-15.
Pope Gregory I (601 A.D) Letter to Abbot Mellitus. – Available online: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/greg1-mellitus.txt
Wilby, Emma (2000). The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland. Folklore, 111(2), 283-305

Femme Papillon, by Luis Ricardo Falero

Recommended from my own library:

Abkarloo, Bengt - Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Period of the Witch Trials
Hendersen, Luanne - Scottish Fairy Belief: A History
Fletcher, Richard - The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity
MacCulloch, J.A.-The Religion of the Ancient Celts and The Celtic and Scandinavian Religions
Wilby, Emma - Cunning-Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic

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Great Moravia: The Forgotten Kingdom of the Czechs

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 15:36:38 GMT

Great Moravia was an important, if short lived, autonomous state in medieval Central Europe. It is important for many reasons, but among them because it is the first known kingdom of the Western Slavic tribes.

To say it is forgotten is somewhat misleading for Great Moravia is remembered and celebrated with great pride by the Czech and Slovak people. But it is forgotten by conventional Western history books.

Today, many of us who have European ancestry are taking it upon ourselves to discover the hidden histories of our ancestral heritage. Thus we begin this exploration of a medieval kingdom with immense importance to the people of Central Europe

The Central European region experienced a period of flux in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. The Slavic tribes in the region were subjugated by various factions over the years and expected to pay tribute to these foreign rulers.

Between the sixth and ninth centuries, a nomadic warrior tribe from the Eurasian Steppes had moved into the region, dominating the local people. These were the Avars and they were to rule the region virtually unchallenged. That is until Charlemagne entered the picture.

Avars plundering Balkan lands by K. Mandrović (1885).

There was a bit of a tug of war for a period but the long and the short of it is that with the help of his son Pippin and ally Duke Eric of Friuli, the Avars were defeated and eventually acknowledged Charlemagne as ruler. This is the backdrop in which Great Moravia would rise as a political state.

Like much of the history from the lands that the Romans referred to as “barbarians,” the history of Central Europe before Christianization is blurry. Records from the pre-Christian societies either were not kept or were lost. Thus written history often begins with missionary efforts to these lands, and the rest we have to fill in using archaeology. And so it is with Great Moravia.

An example of the Glagolitic script created by Saint Cyril for the mission in Great Moravia

We know tribal leaders in the region organized uprisings against their overlords. But apparently they did not meet with success as the Avars were not ousted until Charlemagne stepped in. With the Avars finally defeated, there was room for leaders to emerge from among the Slavic people in Central Europe.

The principality of Moravia first appears in written history in Royal Frankish Annals of 822 when representatives of the Moravians are recorded paying tribute to Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne.

Europe during the Carolingian Era (Charlemagne)

The first Moravian leader that we know of is Mojmir I. It is unclear whether he united the people himself under his leade rship, or whether the Moravians unified under an unknown predecessor. However, it is clear that Mojmir I was a strong leader who founded a dynasty, the House of Mojmir.

Mojmir I is mentioned in several documents from the mid to late ninth century. We know that his power grew as he strengthened and expanded his territory. There is some debate about the existence of two neighboring principalities, Moravia (roughly in the Czech region) and Nitra (in the neighboring Slovak region).

Mojmir I on a banknote of the modern Slovak state.

Pribina is mentioned as being the ruler of Nitra. It is unclear whether Pribina governed Nitra as a lieutenant under Mojmir, or if he ruled Nitra as an autonomous state in his own right.

A text called “Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum” (The Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians) written in 870 makes mention that Mojmir expelled Pribina across the Danube River. Sources are not clear whether Pribina, as an underling of Mojmir, was attempting to rebel or whether this event represents Mojmir of Moravia conquering Pribina’s kingdom of Nitra.

In any case, the two regions were merged into one state under Mojmir’s rule by the mid-ninth century.

Statue of Pribina in Slovakia. Photo by Martin Hlauka.

This period of foundation, development and growth for Moravia was also a period of religious change.

There are a few early mentions of the religious conversion of the Moravians.

A Christian church in Mikulčice (Czech Republic) dated to the early ninth century has led some historians to believe Mojmir was converted before the year 825 A.D.

And a mass baptism of the Moravian people in 831 was recorded in a document called “History of the Bishops of Passau.”

Icon of St Gorazd, a disciple of St Cyril and Method of Moravian origin

Whereas other “mass baptisms” of many neighboring people during this era were violent and forced (the Saxons, Norse, Balts, and Wends were all converted at the point of a sword), the Moravians may have experienced a transition period where Christians and pagans lived side by side.

The evidence for this in the aforementioned church is dated to the same time that a pagan sanctuary is also known to have existed in the same city of Mikulčice, up through the mid-ninth century. We know that much of the populace was still pagan toward the second half of the ninth century because a missionary effort was organized with the specific intent of converting the Moravian Slavs.

Libuše, mythological founder of Prague, by Alfonse Mucha

As Mojmir’s power grew, Moravia became a threat to the Franks to the West. Mojmir I had no son so a relative, possibly a nephew named Rastislav, would be his successor. The early years of Rastislav are unknown, but it has been speculated that he was given as a hostage in his youth to Louis II the German, ruler of the East Frankish kingdom and grandson of Charlemagne.

The trading of hostages was common at the time. The hostage would be fostered by whomever he was held by. The benefit of the situation for the hostage-taker was twofold. First, the country the hostage belongs to will be apt to behave itself if someone dear to the ruler could be harmed in the event of a revolt.

Coat of arms for the modern region of Moravia, now in the Czech Republic

Second, it’s an opportunity to mold someone who may be of key strategic importance in the future, and instill in them the values of the host country, making them loyal to whomever is holding them instead of to their home country. If Rastislav was indeed a hostage, this may be exactly what occurred.

Great Moravia at its greatest extent during the reign of Svatopluk I with probable location of its capital city by wikimedia user Tankred

When a civil war broke out within the Eastern Frankish Empire, Mojmir I took the opportunity to rebel against Frankish control. It was only a matter of time before the Franks settled their internal disputes and then took revenge upon the Moravians. Mojmir was likely killed in the ensuing battle. However his death is not recorded, so it is possible that he fled and lived out his old age in obscurity.

The Franks then placed Rastislav on the throne to rule Great Moravia in the year 846 A.D.

It appears that the King of East Francia, Louis the German, had planned to use Rastislav as a puppet ruler and vassal.

Louis would be sorely mistaken, as Rastislav would prove to have a mind of his own and steer the future of Great Moravia in a new direction.

Rastislav on a modern icon as an Orthodox saint.

But that, dear friends, is another story! I hope you have enjoyed this introduction to a fascinating medieval kingdom that many of us had never heard of. Please explore this website for more hidden histories and lost beliefs of Old Europe.

Biblography (click title to view books):

The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown by Hugh LeCaine Agnew

Moravia Magna: The Great Moravian Empire – It’s Art and Times by Jan Dekan

East Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages by Florin Curta

Franks, Moravians, and Magyars: The Struggle for the Middle Danube, 788-907 by Charles R. Bowlus

My name is Carolyn Emerick, and I write on the history, myth, and folklore of Northwestern Europe.

More articles are on the Articles section and in the blogs, The Archivist's Corner, and Folkloric Forays.

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Hildegard of Bingen: A Star Shining in Dark Ages

Sun, 09 Apr 2017 20:09:02 GMT

A portrait of Hildegard in stained glass.

In an age where women were more likely to be taught spinning than reading, and were generally thought to be mentally interferer to men, most women not only lacked the desire to speak out - they also lacked the means.

Education was generally restricted to the elite classes, so that took a large portion of women (and men) out of the equation. Within the elite classes, it seems that a woman might have access to an education under certain conditions. If a girl was lucky enough to have a father who believed in her ability, he might provide access to learning. However, abbeys and convents were the institutions most likely to educate girls so they could read the scriptures.

As we can see, pathways to education were available to some women. However, then and now, a well developed mind does not guarantee acceptance by one’s peers. It appears there were women reading in abbeys and working as scribes, and yet so few had a voice that was heard beyond the four walls of their home or cell.

This is what makes Hildegard of Bingen so exceptional. She was fortunate to be handed certain privileges that set her apart and gave her opportunities to cultivate her intellectual talents. Hildegard took full advantage of these privileges, coupled with cunning strategy, to ascend beyond the limitations imposed by her society.

Art by Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen was born in 1098 in the German province of Reinhessen. Eleventh century Germany, under the Ottonian Empire, allowed “great convents… to flourish as places of learning” (Chadwick, p49).

Despite the more advanced social climate of Germany during this period, Gregorian reforms of the 11th and 12th centuries placed restraints on women. Hildegard worked within the system to not only make her voice heard, but to be an influence on other young women.

As a young child, Hildegard began experiencing visions that she felt were spiritual in nature. Because her visions were physically painful episodes, some historians have written them off as migraine headaches. Her family, however, decided to consecrate her to religious life at the young age of eight.

Yet, it was not until the age of forty that Hildegard began to reveal her visions. Like any young child who is different than her peers, Hildegard appears to have felt shame or embarrassment. Perhaps at the age of forty she finally felt the self-consciousness of youth replaced by the confidence of womanhood.

Another major factor may have been her recent promotion to head of her abbey in 1136. Her new title and position of authority may have given her the courage to reveal her visionary side.

Self portrait of Hildegard receiving visions from God.

In any case, Hildegard’s visions were analyzed by the Church and verified as valid. When she began writing her first major work, the Scivias, a section of it was brought to the Pope. He was apparently so impressed by it, that he declared all of her visions must be henceforth recorded.

As abbess, Hildegard already wielded some authority over her own abbey. When her gift was acknowledged by the Church, she was actively sought out by people outside of the convent. Her gift brought her fame, which in turn gave her more authority.

The religious establishment in which she was raised actually originated as a monastery.

When Hildegard entered as a child, it was originally to be enclosed in a cell with a noble woman turned anchoress called Jutta.

Here, Jutta would have been Hildegard’s religious mentor, tutoring her in the ways of the Lord.

Eventually, the monastery grew and was forced to adapt to larger numbers. It soon turned into a co-ed establishment as both a monastery and convent inhabited by monks and nuns.

Jutta and Hildegard’s position of being the first two women on the premises seems to have given them seniority over those who assumed the role upon Jutta’s death.

"Hildegard's Awakening," a self portrait.

Although her appointment was the result of a unanimous vote by her fellow nuns, it is hard to imagine her seniority as well as her close relationship with the former head abbess did not give her a competitive edge over any opponents, if not an uncontested claim.

While this part of Hildegard’s rise could be attributed to dumb luck, it was after her promotion to abbess that she can be clearly seen making executive decisions that directly impact herself and her nuns.

It was only after her promotion that she made her visions known. Whether it was calculated planning or a genuine spiritual urging can be debated. Either way, timing is everything, and her announcement was timed perfectly to work toward her benefit.

Hildegard's own artwork depicting her visions.

Having her visions accredited by the Pope empowered Hildegard in many ways. Again, she was very lucky to receive sanctioning from the Pope, but the way in which she used this power showed cunning on her part.

Her convent was growing steadily, partially due to her own fame, and her nuns needed accommodations suitable for their numbers. As the monastery had been adding on and expanding regularly anyway, plans to build were a non-issue.

What the monks didn’t expect, however, was that Hildegard would announce she had received a “command from God to move her nuns to Rupertsberg… some 30 km from [their monastery] at Disibodenberg” (Flanagan, p5). Again, whether this was a sincere supernatural revelation or Hildegard’s way of manipulating the system in which she lived is open to speculation.

Eibingen Abbey, founded by Hildegard.

When God’s command was rejected by the monks, Hildegard was struck down by a severe illness rendering her bedridden, indicating that God was irritated at being denied.

If God’s message wasn’t clear enough, Hildegard also sought help from an influential noble widow who was able to sort things out with the Archbishop of Mainz who finally approved her request.

Hildegard continued to break gender barriers throughout her life.

She felt confident enough to not only write a congratulatory letter to the new King in 1152, but also give him advice, and also corresponded with other European heads of state.

If the idea of a woman preaching openly to a mixed audience is still controversial in some Christian sects today, then it was undoubtedly more so in 12th century Europe. Yet Hildegard did so openly in 1160 in the city of Trier..

While continuing her writing, Hildegard founded a second convent in 1165 “presumably to cater to nuns who could not be accommodated in” her original convent (Flanagan, p9).

Here we can clearly see her influence was such that she attracted many followers.

Artwork by Hildegard.

Although Hildegard’s decisions, actions, influence, autonomy, and, in essence, her life story in general are enough to make her shining star for femininity of her time, she also left a large body of work that we, in posterity, can dig through and analyze.

In her article entitled “Hildegard of Bingen at 900, The Eye of a Woman,” June Boyce-Tillman argues that Western culture has lost, and therefore must reclaim, our historical femininity. Boyce-Tillman acknowledges the notion that a modern “feminist approach [cannot be applied] to an age that knew nothing of feminist theorists” (Boyce-Tillman, p31).

Yet she goes on to make an analogy between Western history and conventional psychiatry. In the 1970s, she says, female researchers Mary Field Belenky and Carol Gillian noted “that women have been missing… as research subjects at the formative stages of psychological theories”. When women were finally studied it was found that they have “similarities… but also significant differences” from their male counterparts (Boyce, Tillman, p31).

Boyce-Tillman parallels the characteristics in Hildegard’s art, especially in how it differs from her male contemporaries, as inherently influenced by her femininity.

Artwork by Hildegard von Bingen

Because much of Hildegard’s musical compositions differed from the rules followed by her male contemporaries, detractors have “attributed [this] to lack of education” (Boyce-Tillman, p32). Boyce-Tillman, however, believes that Hildegard’s “free-flowing” music echoes “the free-flowing interconnectedness of her thinking” (Boyce-Tillman, p32).

This is an important observation, especially when juxtaposed with Boyce-Tillman’s psychology analogy. If women sometimes think differently than men, it stands to reason that they might express themselves differently than men, which would in turn be reflected within their art. Boyce-Tillman points out that within Hildegard’s visual art “circular and oval shapes [often associated with the feminine] are common” (Boyce, Tillman, p32).

Indeed, Boyce-Tillman discusses aspects of Hildegard’s career that are hard not to consider feminist.

In her musical drama Ordo virtutum, Hildegard melds together all of her many talents, including writing, music, and visual art.

This play was cast almost entirely with women actors, “the only man with a significant part” is the Devil (Boyce-Tillman, p34).

Hildegard wrote music in addition to her many other talents. Click to view this on Amazon.

In another anecdote we find is that unlike the dour dress code typically worn by nuns, Hildegard’s “nuns wore crowns and beautiful robes, which she considered justified because of their high calling as the brides of Christ” (Boyce-Tillman, p34).

Here we see Hildegard elevating the status of the women under her leadership when the trend of the time was to subjugate them.

Ann Storey discusses other ways in which Hildegard promoted the interests of women in her article, The Theophany of the Feminine.

Though Hildegard did suffer from “self-doubt and fear of ridicule” (Storey, p16), it appears she possessed enough boldness to re-word scripture in a way more flattering toward women, changing “the man was not created for the woman but the woman for the man” to “woman is created for the man and man is made for woman” thus placing woman on equal footing as men (Storey, p17).

Storey says that Hildegard “emphasize[d] the female aspects of the divine (Storey, p16 - 17). We can see this in her personification of not only the church, but also the Holy Spirit as female. This approach is astounding considering “the misogyny of the Christian church” (Storey, p16).

Although most scholars marvel at Hildegard’s forward thinking views on her gender, there is one issue that many find puzzling; “her rejection of the ordination of women” (Thompson, p350).

Augustine Thompson, in her article Hildegard of Bingen on Gender and the Priesthood, argues that “Hildegard’s rejection of the ordination of women is not evidence of any inconsistency in her thought” (Thompson, p50). She asserts that although “Hildegard does use the common medieval rational for excluding women priests… she places little stress on it” (Thompson, p351).

Furthermore, Hildegard seems to ascribe both masculine and feminine attributes to God (Thompson, p352). According to Thompson, Hildegard views the roles of men and women as serving two distinctly different functions. As aforementioned, Hildegard thought of the Church as female.

Hildegard's artwork.

This leaves the role of the priesthood as masculine. Thompson asserts that Hildegard viewed the two roles akin to a farmer and the land he tills to bring forth his crop.

The idea of the fertile earth as feminine is not unique to Hildegard, but rather a universal theme in many earlier pagan mythologies. Through this analogy, the priest sows the seeds which cause the “body of the church [to] conceive” (Thompson, p364).

In other words, the priest’s sermons fertilize the church, and the church nurtures his teachings so that the congregation can be fruitful.

Hildegard's artwork.

Hildegard of Bingen’s legacy is not only that she stands out for her exceptional intellectual merits and extensive body of work, but also in that she was an advocate for her entire gender.

Works Cited:

Click to view on Amazon.

Click the above books to view on Amazon. Below are academic journal articles also referenced.

Boyce-Tillman, June (1998). Hildegard of Bingen at 900: The Eye of a Woman. The Musical Times, 139(1865), 31-36.

Storey, Ann (1998). A Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schönau, and Herrad of Landsberg. Woman's Art Journal, 14(1), 16-20.

Thompson, Augustine (1994). Hildegard of Bingen on Gender and the Priesthood. Church History, 63(3), 349-364.

My name is Carolyn Emerick, and I write on the history, myth, and folklore of Northwestern Europe.

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Tristan and Isolde: A Medieval Story of Love and Betrayal

Fri, 07 Apr 2017 19:42:44 GMT

Tristan and Isolde by Herbert James Draper (1863–1920)

Arthurian legend is filled with epic tales of tragic romance. The ménage à trois of Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot is the story most focused on in contemporary film and literature. Merlin and Vivienne have had their fair share of air time, albeit often as a subplot to the Arthur and Guinevere saga.

But, aside from a poorly received 2006 film, recent media has largely ignored the story of Tristan and Isolde. Since it is a legend that the reader may be unfamiliar with, we shall begin with a re-telling of the story, followed by historical analysis. It should be noted that this tale, like all of the legends in Arthuriana, has many variations.

The Legend

In the days of the old Celtic kingdoms, King Anguish of Ireland has attempted to subjugate Cornwall by demanding the country pay tribute or risk invasion. Mark, King of Cornwall, who possesses as much Celtic pride as any Irishman does, cannot accept this.

So, Mark challenges Anguish to a duel of champions. If the Irish champion wins, Cornwall will pay up. But if the Cornish champion wins, Ireland must withdraw their demands. Anguish agrees to the challenge and sends sends his brother-in-law, Morholt, to do battle with Mark’s champion; his nephew, Tristan.

The two great warriors fought to the death.

The two great warriors fight with everything they've got. In the end, Tristan is the victor, killing Morholt. King Mark and Cornwall have won the day and Anguish of Ireland must honor his agreement.

However, our hero, Tristan, has sustained an injury that will be fatal if it doesn’t heal. Because Ireland is renowned the best healers in the land, Tristan assumes a false identity to travel into enemy territory for treatment.

When he arrives in Ireland, as fate would have it, Tristan is taken in and nursed by the daughter of King Anguish, the beautiful Isolde.

Not realizing his true identity as the man who slew her kinsman, Isolde strikes up a friendship while caring for the wounded knight. During his convalescence Tristan returns Isolde’s kindness by teaching her to play the harp.

Woman plays medieval harp, floral surround. From set Femmes art nouveau (1904)

When Tristan has recovered, he learns that a fearsome dragon has been tormenting local villages. Anguish offers his beautiful daughter’s hand in marriage to any knight who can slay this beast. Tristan accepts the challenge. But, hoping for a treaty through marriage to end the feuding between the two kingdoms forever, Tristan secretly accepts the challenge not for himself, but for King Mark. And this is where all the trouble begins.

"The end of the dragon" by H. J. Ford.

Being the hero that he is, Tristan could naught but slay the beast with very little trouble. And so, the hand of Isolde was won for Tristan’s much elder uncle. When the truth is revealed, Isolde is furious and filled with hatred for Tristan. She begs her father not to send her to Cornwall. Being a man with a strong sense of honor, Anguish will not go back on his word. So, Isolde must accept her fate and begin preparations for the voyage immediately.

The marriage of young maidens to much older men was common during this time. But, that did not make the situation any more palatable for women in Isolde’s position.

In an attempt to remedy her fear and the revulsion she might feel on her wedding night, Isolde asks a witch to brew a love potion for herself and her future husband.

The witch obliges and mixes an elixir possessed by a very powerful magic. Isolde is told that in order for the spell to be complete, the mixture must be drunk by the intended lovers together

It is now time for Isolde’s voyage to meet her new lord and king. Mark will allow no one but his trusted nephew, the greatest champion in the land, to escort his young bride.

And so, Tristan and Isolde together board the vessel that will transport them over the sea to Cornwall.

By this time, Isolde’s hatred of Tristan has become overshadowed by the dread of her new circumstance. While at sea, Tristan, being the chivalrous knight that he is, attempts to comfort her, and Isolde is reminded of why she and Tristan had once been fast friends.

As girls do, Isolde discussed this with her friend and servant, Branwen, and the two hatched a scheme. Isolde would trick Tristan into drinking the liquid with her. Meanwhile, Branwen, who bore a striking resemblance to Isolde, didn’t half mind the idea of receiving the treatment of a queen, so she would assume Isolde’s place in the marriage bed.

So, Isolde mixed the elixir into a chalice of wine, and then casually approached Tristan. Pretending to be impressed by the taste of good wine, she urges Tristan to have a sip as she struck up a casual conversation.

Together, the two shared the wine as they talked. By the time the chalice was empty, Tristan and Isolde were thunderstruck by passionate desire for one another.

When they arrived in Cornwall, Branwen was introduced as Isolde and taken in marriage to King Mark.

Their plan went off without a hitch, and the threesome managed to fool King Mark for some time. But, like any deception, the lovers were discovered in their trickery. Being a man of great pride, Mark could not let this treachery go unpunished. He challenged his nephew to a duel.

The End Song by Edmund Leighton, 1902, depicts Tristan and Isolde. King Mark is seen in the background looking on.

This time, Tristan is not victorious. It may be that he could not bring himself to raise a hand against his beloved uncle, who had been like a father to him. Likewise, Mark’s great love for his nephew trumped his wounded pride. But treason cannot go unpunished. So, Tristan is sentenced to banishment, rather than death. Tristan must depart Cornwall forthwith, and he travels to the nearest Celtic kingdom, Brittany, across the sea.

Medieval lovers by Gaston Brussiere

And so, Sir Tristan begins a new life in a new land, but remains faithful to Isolde for some time. Traveling through Brittany, Tristan performs many heroic feats and becomes well known as a knight of great renown.

After a time, he meets a beautiful woman who also bears the name Isolde. She is known as Isolde of the White Hands. Because her beauty reminds him of his own Isolde, Tristan marries this woman. He is happy for a time, but never forgets his true love over the sea.

One day while riding through the Breton forest, Tristan comes across a fair maiden being encircled by six brutes about to do her harm.

Tristan charges to her rescue and singlehandedly defeats the men six to one. However, he is mortally wounded, and the maiden manages to help him onto his horse, who knows the way home.

Upon reaching the castle, Tristan tells his friend, Sir Kahedin, who is his wife’s brother, that he can be cured only by Isolde, the former, if he can get a message to her. Kahedin, loyal as any knight can be, vows to retrieve Isolde from Cornwall. Impatient to receive the news as soon as possible, Tristan asks Kahedin to use white sales upon his return if King Mark agrees to release Isolde for this voyage, and black sales if he does not. Kahedin agrees and sets sail immediately.

The ship returned with white sails.

Despite everything that had occurred between them, King Mark’s affection for Tristan is so great that he allows his wife to journey to the aid of her former lover to once again nurse him back to health. Thus, Sir Kahedin returns to Brittany with white sails raised.

However, Isolde of the White Hands has heard whispers of this other Isolde and her liaisons with Tristan. Not willing to risk losing her husband to his long lost love, Isolde, the latter, lies to Tristan, saying that black sales bedeck Kahedin’s ship.

Tristan on his deathbed with Isolde arriving too late.

Hearing this terrible news, Tristan’s desperation was overwhelming. Believing that he will never see his love again, the only one who can cure him, he has no will to live. Our brave hero dies of a broken heart just before Isolde the former is able to reach him.

Isolde’s heart is crushed to have arrived too late. She collapses in tears over the lifeless body of the love of her life. Isolde, too, dies of her grief. And thus ends a tragic tale of two young lovers who were wrenched apart by family obligations, and reunited only when it was too late.

Tristan and Isolde by Rogelio de Egusquiza 1915

Historical Background of the Tale

Although the story of Tristan and Isolde is not often considered as inspiration for William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” we can see some obvious similarities.

A pair of young lovers who were never supposed to be together, dying young while one waits for the other, falsely thinking all is lost, and the female character collapsing over the body of her dead love.

We cannot know if Shakespeare had Tristan and Isolde in mind when he wrote his masterpiece. But, we can be sure that he would have been well aware of this story.

Romeo and Juliet

T he romance of Tristan and Isolde is speculated to pre-date Shakespeare by approximately one thousand years, and may be based on an historical person. In fact, there is more evidence for an historical Tristan than there is for a real Arthur.

There exists in Cornwall a megalith known as “the Tristan Stone.” The stone is thought to date from the 6th century A.D. Inscribed upon it are the words (in translation) “Here lies Drustan, son of Cynvawr.”

This stone is placed close to Castle Dore, which is thought to have been occupied by local chieftains between the 5th and 7th centuries. Cynvawr was in all strongly considered to be one of these chieftains. Furthermore, monk called Wrmonoc recorded in the 9th century that Cynvawr was the same person as King Mark.

Another early source are the Welsh Triads which discuss “Drystan, son of Tallwch.” There was a Pictish king known as “Drust, son of Tallorcan” who is known to have lived in the late 8th century, giving another plausible historical origin to the figure of Tristan. Triad 71 mentions “Drystan, son of Tallwch, for Essylt, the wife of his uncle March.” Though the details of this early version of the story differ from the version described above, the names are clearly variations of each other.

Like the other Arthurian legends, Tristan and Isolde’s story is probably an amalgam of many influences. Very similar plots are found in the medieval Irish tales, "Diarmaid and Grainne" and "The Wooing of Emer." It is said that despite many differences in the various versions of this story, the fact that Isolde is always depicted as an Irish princess may point to an Irish origin, or at least a strong Irish influence.

Whatever its true origins are, it seems likely that legends of Tristan began independently of those about Arthur.

Perhaps the Irish tales mentioned above were grafted onto legends of a true Cornish prince. Eventually, this tale was merged with Arthurian legend, and Tristan became a knight of the round table.

By the high middle ages, Tristan and Isolde’s love story had become extremely popular. The story first circulated among the Celtic lands mentioned above, as well as in Celtic Brittany.

From there it traveled outward among the Anglo-Normans and over to audiences in France and Germany.

As Arthurian legend evolved over the centuries, tales of Tristan as a knight of the round table continued to be told, as well as his and Isolde’s own independent love story.

Their last medieval mention is in Thomas Malory's famous fifteenth-century masterpiece, “Le Morte d'Arthur.” Afterwards, the story falls off the radar, apart from two minor exceptions, until the 19th century.

CLICK to view on Amazon

Scottish poet Sir Walter Scot reignited interest in our two lovers in a poem about them which was included in his “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,” published in 1802.

Subsequent writers and poets who found inspiration from Tristan and Isolde include Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Thomas Hardy, John Updike, and Diana Paxson.

Perhaps the most famous is Richard Wagner, who featured them in his famous German language opera of the same name.

CLICK to view on Amazon

Most recently, Tristan and Isolde appeared as the main characters in a 2006 film produced by Ridley Scott. Starring James Franco and Sophia Myles, the film sadly received poor reviews by both critics and movie-goers. It may be high time to bring this romance into the 21st century. Perhaps, if he isn’t busy filming another medieval epic, Peter Jackson would be up for the challenge. It doesn’t hurt to ask!

Tristan and Iseult by Antoon Van Welie

Bibliography:

Click to view on Amazon

Click to visit website

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Vikings: The Pretty Boys of the Middle Ages?

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 00:41:28 GMT

For the past millennium or so the Vikings have had quite a reputation. And it hasn’t been for their fabulous taste in fabric textures and color palettes! But lately, much has been written exploring the softer side of the Vikings. It came as a surprise to a lot of us, but we might just say that the Vikings were more refined than we ever imagined.

The reputation given to them by some foreigners, most often the victims of raids, has stuck with the Vikings for well over one thousand years – that they were barbarians. The stereotype of barbarians is that they are ignorant, filthy, and brutish.

However, we live in an age that prides ourselves on breaking down stereotypes and reevaluating how we look at people. And so, as we as a society have reconsidered how we define the many different people we interact with in the contemporary world, the stereotype of the Viking has recently been given a makeover as well.

Far from being filthy brutes, we find that Vikings were actually very well groomed and perhaps even fashion conscious.

Just for the sake of perspective let us consider that for the past century or so Western society has seen a homogenizing of men’s fashion. The business suit as we know it is not that different than its earlier incarnation in the late Victorian Era. Mainstream men’s haircuts tend to be very similar, discounting sub-culture and counter-culture trends.

And while we may sometimes make assumptions about class due to a man’s hairstyle, hair itself does not represent class. In other words, the male mechanic, the school teacher, and the CEO likely all have a very similar haircut as Prince Charles.

Idunn and Bragi by Nils Blommer 1846

Further, many men today feel self-conscious about being overly concerned about style or fashion, and some men shave their hair clean off rather than facing the dilemma of deciding on a style. Indeed, styling the hair at all, beyond a part and quick comb through, can be seen as not masculine and metrosexual in some circles. So, one might assume, based on our contemporary notions, that the Vikings, the epitome of the male archetype, wouldn’t be very interested in hair. Wrong!

Hairstyle was considered important to men of the Viking age. It could denote class status, as very short hair often marked someone as a slave, or it could be an indicator of someone’s profession. A man who engaged in raiding might be cautious of how his hair and beard could be a liability in battle. But, by all accounts it appears that there was much personal choice and variety in hair style and length, as well as in beard style and length.

Personal grooming was also expected from individuals in Norse societies during this period. Grooming tools have been unearthed which verify that Viking age men and women used tweezers, combs, and ear scoops for… erm, scooping out earwax. Ahem.

Another trend that the modern hipster man may embrace, while more a macho modern man often eschews, is coloring the hair. In our society it is predominantly women who dye their hair. There is a growing trend for aging men to consider covering the gray, but it is still done less often by men than women, and men tend to stay close to their original hair color.

And, in our society many women of all ethnicities and complexions ‘go blonde’ whether it looks remotely natural or not. Well, you guessed it, so did the Vikings!

Due to medieval accounts as well as archeological analysis, it is thought that the strong lye soap used by Vikings for washing was also used for bleaching hair. And it was not just the ladies going for that Marilyn Monroe aesthetic – it is recorded that many Viking men bleached their hair and beards blonde.

Frontispiece from Wulnoth The Wanderer

Celtic men, who are reading this and snickering, don’t be so quick to laugh. Apparently Celtic men were caught doing the same thing red handed (pun intended). Yes, Celtic men reddened their hair also with lye soap (I’m imagining a peroxide experiment gone bad wherein the poor teenage girl ends up with orange hair instead of blonde). Pliny the Elder recorded:

Soap is the invention of the Gauls and this is used to redden the hair. It is made from fat and ashes. The best is beech wood ash and goat fat, the two combined, thick and clear.

Now, I can’t help but wonder if the coloring of the hair was the side effect of the washing, and the observers so unaccustomed to soap may have been oblivious to the hygienic properties and simply zeroed in on the more obvious visible results on the hair. Or if hair coloring was the intention and cleanliness was just a pleasant unintended result. Perhaps the lye soap could be made in various strengths so there was one version for regular bathing and a more intense one for bleaching the hair.

Since we’re aiming to break stereotypes here, it should be pointed out that not all Vikings were blonde, just as not all Celts were ginger. Both groups had a good mix of both as well as just as many brunettes.

But it is true that Celtic groups tended to have slightly more redheads on average than others, just as Scandinavians had more blondes. Based on historical accounts about hair coloring, one might speculate that both groups were keenly aware of their respective hair color trends and may have considered it a mark of their tribal identity, attempting to emphasize their tribal stereotype by altering their hair color.

Incidentally, Pliny the Elder’s next sentence regarding lye soap was this:

Many among the Germans use it, the men more than the women.

No comment on German women.

The Norse were so keen on weekly cleaning that their word for Saturday, Lørdag, means “washing day.” This was quite irritating to the Anglo-Saxons because by the time of Viking raids they had long been Christianized; a religion which dissuaded these Germanic cousins of the Vikings from regular bathing.

John of Wallingford, an English chronicler, lamented that the Danish men’s habits of washing and changing their clothes regularly was too strong a temptation for English women. Apparently many a marriage was ruined and more than one nobleman’s daughter lost her virtue to a well groomed Dane.

Not only were they as sparkling fresh as the morning dew, but Viking men were quite the romantics, evidently. When they weren’t marauding or inflicting the blood eagle on some poor English chap, Vikings enjoyed a bit of poetry with love being a popular topic. Professor Judith Jesch’s new book, “Viking Poetry of Love and War,” was recently reviewed by Emma Rayner on Medievalists.net.

She says that, if anything, this book proves that Vikings had a sense of humor. And it seems that love and romance were just as much daily concerns in the Viking age as they are today. Some of the poetry is just plain silly, if not bordering on the bawdy. One great example is this 10th century gem by Viking poet extraordinaire Egill Skallgrimsson entitled “The poet is past it”:

Norse man and woman by Johannes Gehrts 1884

‘I’ve a crick in my neck,
and tend to fall on my head,
my trouser-snake is soft,
and my hearing’s gone away.’

Too bad for Egill, but his contemporary Ingolf had much better luck. As is attributed by the poem “Ingolf is popular with the ladies”:

All the grown girls wanted
to go with Ingolf,
those who were of age;
the wee ones were wretched.

‘I, too,’ said the old woman,
‘want to go with Ingolf,
as long as I have two teeth
still wobbling in my gums.’

The Last Farewell of Wotan and Brunhild, Ferdinand Leeke - 1875

And there we have it. Vikings: neat freaks, heartthrobs, comedians. If that doesn’t make us second guess our stereotypes about Vikings, then I dare say nothing will.

Web bibliography and links for further reading:

“Viking Age Hairstyles, Haircare, and Personal Grooming” by The Viking Answer Lady: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/hairstyl.shtml

“What Vikings Really Looked Like” by Irene Berg Petersen for ScienceNordic: http://sciencenordic.com/what-vikings-really-looked

“Viking History: Facts & Myths” by Ryan Goodrich for LiveScience: http://www.livescience.com/32087-viking-history-facts-myths.html

“Viking poetry of love and war – new book by Judith Jesch” by Emma Rayner for Medievalists: http://www.medievalists.net/2013/03/18/viking-poetry-of-love-and-war-new-book-by-judith-jesch/

“Vikings preferred male grooming to pillaging” by Jonathan Wynne-Jones for The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3256539/Vikings-preferred-male-grooming-to-pillaging.html

The Hidden History of Christmas Carols

Thu, 15 Dec 2016 16:47:39 GMT

A note to the reader: Never has it been so evident that history can sometimes be murky and difficult to wade through than during my quest to discover the roots of Christmas caroling! Different sources give different information, conflicting dates, and varying histories.

Ordinarily I would not open with a disclaimer. But, under the circumstances, if the reader were to look up this information on their own, they might find answers different than what I’ve written here. So, I will endeavor to weed through it all and give my own assessment of the material. And, I will try to be clear about where my information came from by citing all sources. - Carolyn

The story of Christmas caroling is full of unexpected surprises. The practice itself has gone through many changes over the centuries, and our perception of caroling today is based only on very recent history.

We think of Christmas caroling as a wholesome, and even religious, activity. Caroling seems to speak of the beauty, innocence, and magic of the Christmas season.

However, in researching this practice, I have discovered that caroling was not as innocent aswe might think. In fact, the act of caroling was actively combatted by the Church for hundreds of years.

Uncovering the origins of caroling has proven difficult. Some sources give the 14th or 15th centuries as the earliest known date of the practice. I believe the reason for this is because this is the period when caroling began to be adopted by the church, and therefore this is when carols first began to be written down.

However, there is much evidence that caroling was around long before that. We don’t have written carols from the early periods, but what we do have are edicts from the Church and recorded sermons which make reference to caroling.

Caroling's Naughty Past

In his book, The Book of Christmas Folklore,Tristram P. Coffin says that “For seven centuries a formidable series of denunciations and prohibitions was fired forth by Catholic authorities, warning Everyman to ‘flee wicked and lecherous songs, dancings, and leapings’” (p98).

Apparently early carols could be quite lewd, and they were originally associated with dance as well as song. The caroling dancers often went around town in costume, and it is related to the custom of mumming.

Coffin mentions that this revelry was considered so offensive to the Church that they referred to caroling as “sinful traffic” and issued decrees against it in 1209 A.D. and 1435 A.D.

It must have been a good time, for clerics and priests who found themselves caught up in the fun received a stern scolding.

Click to view on Amazon

In one document from 1338 A.D. they are accused of neglecting their clerical duties “while indulging in dances and masques; for prowling the city ‘streetsand lanes’ ‘day and night’; as well as leading a riotous existence” (p99).

The Church viewed these activities as “very remnant of pagan custom” (p99). But, more than that, the street revelry could get out of control. Alcohol was usually flowing during caroling festivities, and drunken singers could get rowdy and even violent.

“When a fellow named Gilbert de Foxlee tried to break up the dancing, he was stabbed in the back with a dagger, cut in the right arm with a sword, and slashed on the left leg with an axe. He died after eight weeks of infection and pain” (Coffin, p 99). Evidently carolers were well armed!

Church Bans on "Pagan" Caroling

Sandra M. Salla is a contributor to a fantastic resource called Medieval Folklore, an encyclopedia of folkloric terms.

In her entry for “Carols,” Salla says that “between 600 and 1500 C.E. the Church formally banned the dancing of carols on church grounds” and that numerous informal “decrees, sermons, and exempla were written condemning the activity” (Salla, p61).

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While some authors attribute caroling to purely Christian origins, and begin the history of caroling with those written down in a Christian context, this is contradicted by the evidence.

We can see that the Church long considered it a pagan practice, as evidenced by the wording in the edicts condemning caroling.

Also, that Salla mentions the edicts against caroling begin in the 6th century is telling. The 6th and 7th centuries were the period of conversion for the Anglo-Saxons in England.

The fact that edicts against caroling begin to appear in the record at the same time as the conversion period is circumstantial evidence hinting that caroling had pagan roots and was in existence long before conversion.

But, those records do not explain why caroling was considered to have pagan connotations.

Jacqueline Simpson, a scholar who specializes in mediaeval English and Scandinavian history, explores this in her wonderful book, European Mythology.

Simpson explains that it can sometimes be difficult to determine which customs actually stem from pagan tradition because Church clerics were quick to condemn almost anything as pagan

She explains that customs involving drunkenness, cross dressing (usually in play acting and carnival type festivities), or elements that expressed sexuality were described as “devilish” even if there was no devil involved (Simpson, p118).

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Door to Door Holiday Customs

One example of a song and dance tradition similar to caroling that has an overt connection to paganism is in Romanian Căluş dance which has survived into modern times. Participants dress in costume, like modern mummers and early carolers, and go around the village singing and dancing.

Weston Mummers who performed at the Packhorse Inn, Southstoke (England), on Boxing Day 2007. Photo in the public domain.

The Căluşari, members of the all-male dance troupe, were once a secret society which appears to have been openly associated with paganism, and their members were exempt from partaking in mass. This group of dancers had another purpose other than entertainment.

They were said to possess secret charms of healing, and were known for banishing evil spirits. The Căluşari went door to door during mid-Winter offering their services and expected to be welcomed and generously compensated. If a home refused them entry, a curse would befall the homeowner (Simpson, pp121-126).

The Christmas Tie to Halloween

If this reminds you of Halloween, there’s a good reason for that! The mid-Winter holiday we now call Christmas, but which was known as Yule in pre-Christian England and various other names in different cultures, was known to be a period of high spiritual activity – just as old Samhain was.

This notion has faded away in our modern perception of Christmas, but it lingered on in Halloween.

European folklore is full of references to spiritual activity during Yule-tide. In fact, it was regarded as a spiritually dangerous time in both Celtic and Germanic cultures.

So, it is not that far of a stretch to wonder if the Romanian Căluşari tradition (which lasted well into the 19th century and perhaps later) gives us a glimpse of the earlier mumming and caroling traditions and we may speculate on the long lost spiritual connotations.

Further, just as the Căluşari expect a reward or threaten a curse (literally trick or treat) early caroling traditions are almost always associated with demanding to be rewarded with food and drink or risk some kind of retribution.

Father Christmas arriving on goatback with wassail in hand.

Vintage Christmas illustration depicting Father Christmas carrying a steaming bowl of wassail.

Contemporary carolers still sing “Here we go a-wassailing” wherein there is a line requesting “now bring us some figgy pudding” and carolers threaten “we won’t go until we get some.” A survey of medieval carols will demonstrate that the request for food and drink is not unique to this song.

Wassailing, a medieval synonym for caroling, is itself a reference to the alcoholic beverage wassail.

The word derives from the Old English term “waes-heal” meaning “good health,” a greeting or toast (Baker, p83). Wassail is a medieval mulled wine (heated with spices) which was commonly served to carolers.

Another reason to consider that there may be some connection between caroling and trick-or-treating is that caroling was done throughout the year, not simply at Christmas.

This is mentioned in numerous sources, and there are accounts of caroling at other holidays in early folklore journals.

One article of particular interest is The Celebration of Candlemas in Wales, by Trefor M. Owen. In this scholarly article about the Candlemas holiday the word “carol” is mentioned seventy-two times, emphasizing the overwhelming evidence of caroling during a holiday other than Christmas.

Candlemas is another holiday with known pagan origins, being the Christianized version of the old Celtic pagan Imbolc.

Vintage Christmas card.

Owen shares one account of Welsh Candlemas caroling wherein the revelers go around town and sing outside of homes. This sounds innocent enough… at first.

What ensues is the carolers sing bawdy songs about the Virgin Mary (no wonder the Church considering caroling sacrilegious!) and hurl insults at the home-owners! The home-owners are then obliged to return the insults to the carolers. Whichever group out-wits the other in verse would be declared the winner.

If the revelers won, they must be allowed inside and given food and beverage (Owen pp242-243). And, interestingly, Owen mentions that wassailing was done at Halloween as well as Christmas and Candlemas and other holidays (p247).

So, we have a caroling tradition that involves costumes and demanding reward in the form of food or a risk threat. And, we also discover that caroling was done on Halloween in Britain. Could modern trick-or-treating and Christmas caroling have evolved from the same root practice many hundreds of years ago?

The Christian Transformation

The practice of caroling went through a transformation between the High Middle Ages (12th and 13th centuries) and the Renaissance period. As explained, the Church categorically rejected the practice due to the “close relationship between ‘heathen dancing’ and witchcraft” (Coffin, p99).

Eventually, church leaders adopted an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach. St. Francis of Assisi was one of the major proponents of replacing the old “riotous carols with ones more appropriate” in Italy, which then spread through Europe (Coffin, pp99-100).

This led to a “great age of carol writing” between the years 1400 to 1650 (Baker, p81).

But, during the same period caroling was actively suppressed by the Puritans (insert joke about Puritans always ruining all the fun here).

A little known fact about the history of witch trials is that caroling came up in trial testimony. Salla says “in witchcraft trials of the sixteenth century and later, accused witches often confessed to caroling” (p62).

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Interestingly, just as witches were accused of inverting Christian practices like the mass and Sabbath rituals, there was apparently some notion of a witch’s carol, which inverted the carol song and dance commonly practiced by the rest of the peasantry (Salla, p62).

Caroling in the Modern Era

Caroling evolved much over the years and seems to have gone through many stages. With the end of one stage came the beginning of another.

The Puritans and their influence faded, and the Victorian Era began. The Victorians had a penchant for romanticizing and idealizing nostalgic customs of the past.

And so, while other aspects of caroling such as its association with dance and other holidays faded away, the Victorians kept it very much alive at Christmas, albeit in a version very tame compared to the original.

It is only in recent years that the popularity of Christmas caroling has become in danger of extinction all together.

Today the custom is mostly seen in shopping malls sung by children or church groups. Will caroling disappear from Western culture all together? Maybe it’s time reintroduce the wassail and liven up the party!

"The Wassail Song," illustration by Arthur C. Behrend, 1894.

Bibliography:

Baker, Margaret (1999). Discovering Christmas Customs and Folklore. Buckinghamshire: Shire Publications.

Coffin, Tristram P. (1973). The Book of Christmas Folklore. New York: The Seabury Press.

Owen, Trefor M. (1973). The Celebration of Candlemas in Wales. Folklore, Vol. 84(3), pp. 238- 251.

Salla, Sandra M. (2002). Carols. In C. Lindahl, J. McNamara, and J. Lindow (Editors), Medieval Folklore (pp61-62). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Simpson, Jacqueline (1987). European Mythology. Middlesex: The Hamlyn Publishing Group.

Nadolig Llawen: Merry Welsh Christmas!

Sat, 10 Dec 2016 02:52:37 GMT

Y Gwyliau - The Midwinter Holiday in Wales

Accounts of Christmas in Wales confirm that, like in other parts of Britain and the wider Europe, Christmas was a full season not just one special day. There were a variety of holy days and customs found throughout the Yuletide season. In a chapter called “Seasonal Festivities” from her book “Welsh Traditional Music,” Phyllis Kinney says:

“Early in the eighteenth century, Wales was almost entirely rural. It was a country on the fringe of Europe without cities or a capital and with a small population – more people lived in London than in the whole of Wales – which was largely dependent on agriculture and ruled by the seasons.”

This means certain seasonal traditions could linger on in Wales while other parts of Britain had moved on, making Wales a window into the past.

Due to the heavily rural nature of Welsh life, most of the festivities still took place in the homes that dotted the countryside. Even the traditional agricultural lifestyle, though it consisted of hard work, still contrived to bring the folk together, and then traditional folk customs, tales, and songs could be shared even while hard at work sheering sheep, reaping harvest, or preparing food stuffs.

This lifestyle meant that tradition was interwoven with the very fabric of Welsh life and worldview.

Farm hands eating with harvesters, by Jacopo Bassano

That time of year that we refer to as “the Christmas Season” today was called “Y Gwyliau” in Welsh, meaning simply “The Holidays.” This encompassed about three weeks of rest and revelry where very little farm work was done.

It was common for farmhouses to have a “table room,” rwˆ m ford in Welsh, where farm hands would be welcomed to drink beer and feast as they roamed from farm to farm.

Farmhands placed their ploughs under the tables as they feasted, and interestingly, they appear to have given an offering of beer to their ploughs before they had a sip themselves.

This is supposed to be in thanks of the ploughs’ service through the year and recognition that though they are still for now, they will be needed again soon.

This act seems to be a remnant from pre-Christian indigenous European worldview which saw the world in a more animistic light. Everything is imbued with a spirit and those spirits must be propitiated if their positive intercession is to be expected.

Trick or Treat at Christmas?

A tradition that struck me as exceptionally noteworthy is called “Thomassing.” This might be passed over with a cursory glance by others, but after reading a great deal on folk customs over the years I have noticed a pattern that no one else seems to be discussing, so first some background information.

This is the custom of going door to door asking for food stuffs at sacred times of the year. It is remembered today in the American custom of Halloween “trick or treating,” which was brought over with Scots-Irish immigrants.

What most people do not realize is that this custom was not relegated only to Halloween. In the December, 2013 issue of Celtic Guide (which you can find on CelticGuide.com) I wrote an article called “The Hidden History of Christmas Carols” which discusses the similarity between Christmas caroling and trick or treating.

Traditionally, Christmas carolers used to ask for food in return for their carols. Just as trick-or-treaters threaten a “trick” if you don’t give them a treat, Christmas carolers historically were quite a quite rowdy, even drunken, lot.

This custom was likely very widespread throughout Europe, a Romanian version is discussed in the article on Christmas carols.

Interestingly, this door to door custom is found very strongly in Wales. While Halloween trick-or-treat is attributed to Scots-Irish tradition, the door to door custom has been recorded in Wales at both Christmas and Candlemas.

In addition to the door to door custom occurring at holidays other than Halloween, it is also noted that caroling occurred at holidays other than Christmas. While this likely happened throughout Britain, and indeed Europe, it was recorded specifically in Wales.

Welsh women in traditional dress standing outside a cottage door.

One article of particular interest is ‘The Celebration of Candlemas in Wales,” by Trefor M. Owen. In this scholarly article about the Candlemas holiday the word “carol” is mentioned seventy-two times, emphasizing the overwhelming evidence of caroling during a holiday other than Christmas. Candlemas is another holiday with known pagan origins, being the Christianized version of the old Celtic pagan Imbolc.

Owen shares one account of Welsh Candlemas caroling wherein the revelers go around town and sing outside of homes. This sounds innocent enough… at first. What ensues is the carolers sing bawdy songs about the Virgin Mary (no wonder the Church considering caroling sacrilegious!) and hurl insults at the home-owners! The homeowners are then obliged to return the insults to the carolers. Whichever group out-wits the other in verse would be declared the winner. If the revelers won, they must be allowed inside and given food and beverage (Owen pp242-243).

And, interestingly, Owen mentions that wassailing was done at Halloween as well as Christmas and Candlemas and other holidays (p247). (Carolyn Emerick, “The Hidden History of Christmas Carols,” 2013).

Jacqueline Simpson discusses Thomassing in her book “The Folklore of the Welsh Border.” The practice was called “Thomassing” because it occurred on St. Thomas’ Day, the 21st of December.

The poor women of the area would go door to door carrying a large sack, or some other receptacle, and ask for food stables such as grains, cheese, etc. The practice was also called “gooding” or “corning.” Those names, I would guess, would have to do with seeking the good will of neighbors to share some corn, which in Britain means grain.

In many regions, poor families would receive free grain and then the local miller would ground it free of charge so that each family could have cakes for Christmas day.

Mari Lwyd –Wassailing with a Hobby Horse

Mari Lwyd is universally considered to have pre-Christian roots, and was adapted to the Christian holiday season.

The word means “Grey Mare” for its association with horses. It was once widespread through Wales but has mainly been seen in recent history in Llangynwyd near Maesteg (although it is being revived elsewhere).

On New Year’s Day another door to door procession occurs, wherein a horse’s skull is propped up on a pole, decorated with streaming ribbons, and draped with a white cloth. The skull is decorated with false eyes and ears.

Mari Lwyd, public domain, circa 1900

At each house the revelers recite rhyming verse at those who dwell inside. Those inside respond in verse and refuse to let the Mari Lwyd enter until a rhyming battle of words (and insults) ensues.

This is remarkably similar to Wassailing and Trick or Treating as discussed above and in more detail in “The Hidden History of Christmas Carols.”

Mari Lwyd in Wales, circa 1910

Plygain – Watching the Dawn

The custom of Plygain is mentioned in both Jacqueline Simpson& rsquo;s book, and in Wirt Sikes’ “British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions.”

Sikes says that it was popular in Wales to gather at church at three in the morning. Everyone would hold small green candles designed specifically for this purpose. Whereas Simpson says that they gathered at 5 or 6am.

Sometimes the meetings occurred at farms or in cottages. But, in any event, the people gathered to sing carols as the dawn arose in the sky.

There are many old attempts to explain this custom. But, it seems tied into the recognition of the importance of the Winter Solstice as a turning point in the year, in my opinion.

Gathering in the wee hours for mass. Painting by Clarence Gagnon.

Music and Song

It would be remiss to discuss Welsh holiday festivities without a mention of Welsh musical tradition. It has been glossed over in each of these other traditions that song was a part of nearly all of the Welsh holiday festivities.

Song and dance at a Welsh folk festival.

When the peasantry gathered for seasonal work, they often sang together.

When they went door to door, whether carrying a decorated horse’s head or to beg for grain, song was often a present element.

And, when the folk gathered early on Christmas morning to watch the sun rise, they sang Christmas carols together.

The Wassail customs found in England had their own counterparts in Wales, to be sure.
At Yuletide, when the Wassail bowl is passed round, people of all European nations imbibe of the jolly nectars of the season.

Welsh Wassail Bowl, dated 1834

So, I should like to leave you with a rhyme that I found while researching this article:

“When an Englishman is drunk he is belligerent;
when a Frenchman is drunk he is amorous;
when an Italian is drunk he is loquacious;
when a Scotchman is drunk he is argumentative;
when a German is drunk he is sleepy;
when an American is drunk he brags;
and when a Welshman is drunk he sings.”

A Welshman celebrating St David’s Day c. 1735, by Philip Mould

Wales, like Scotland, will feature traditions that have influences in both the pagan Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cultures, as well as customs that developed in more recent Christian era.

Most of Britain is a tapestry woven by these shared influences. In parts of the British Isles, Danish and Norse heritage is thrown into the mix, peppered by regional elements that give distinct local flavor.

So whether you carry Welsh ancestry in your family or not, I hope you can find some inspiration for keeping old European folk traditions alive in your household this holiday.

About the author:

Bibliography:

Emerick, Carolyn. "The Hidden History of Christmas Carols." Celtic Guide (2013): 15-19.
Johnson, Ben. Welsh Christmas Traditions. n.d. .
Kinney, Phillys. Welsh Traditional Music. Cardiff: Univ. of Wales Press, 2011.
Owen, Trefor M. "The Celebration of Candlemas in Wales." Folklore 84.3 (1973): 238–251.
Sikes, Wirt. British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions. London: William Clowes and Sons, 1880.
Simpson, Jacqueline. The Folklore of the Welsh Border. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1976.

Æcerbot and Wassail - Blessing the Fields and Orchards

Sun, 27 Nov 2016 02:46:18 GMT

During the autumn season when imagery of the harvest is all around, it can be easy to forget that the cornucopia of produce yielded is the product of year round effort. Thoughwe, most of whom are removed from the production of our own sustenance, may not be consciously aware of the agricultural calendar,it is something that our ancestors were very much aware of. Until very recently in the grand timeline of human history, the vast majority of human beings participated in agriculture, in one way or another, as well as the age old customs and rituals that went along with it.

We know that ancient spirituality was unequivocally bound with agriculture and the turning of the year. It is thought that one main reason the ancients built Neolithic monuments which monitored movements of the sky (ex. the chamber at Newgrange which is flooded with light at sunrise at the Winter Solstice) was to keep track of the passage of time which mark key agricultural dates of the year.

Because spirituality was so inextricably linked to agriculture, it is not difficult to understand how and why ritual became associated with the sowing of seeds and reaping of the harvest.

The Neolithic monument of Newgrange. Public domain photo by Jon Sullivan.

Celtic and Germanic Cultures in Britain

The examples we’re going to explore here are from the Anglo-Saxon culture. But, as this was originally written for a Celtic themed magazine (Celtic Guide), I just want to point out that Celtic and Germanic cultures shared very much in common.

Both language groups are branches in the Indo-European language family. Many scholars have noted similarity in customs and in ancient religion between the two groups. Some academics have stated that it appears that the two cultures were nearly identical at one point in time, and then diverged. Not to mention that the two cultures were not only neighbors, but modern Celtic nations carry much Germanic heritage from not only the Anglo-Saxons, but the Norse as well.

Because the Celts converted so very early, in fact the Irish were the first Europeans to convert to Christianity outside of the Mediterranean, often less is known about ancient Celtic religious practice.

The great Celtic historian J. A. MacCulloch, who penned the popular Religion of the Ancient Celts, also thought that there was enough similarity between Celtic and Germanic culture to author an excellent book titled The Celtic and Scandinavian Religions.
So, what we’re going to explore here likely had a counterpart with some similarity among the Celts. I would venture to say that the Balts and Slavs share in this legacy as well.

A page depicting Jesus Christ from the famous medieval Irish Book of Kells.

Indeed,many of us in the English-speaking world don’t realize that while Halloween (Samhain) comes from the Celts, Yule comes from the Germanics.

Yet, both cultures also had their own counterparts to each holiday, as did the other aforementioned Indo-European peoples. These were simply holidays marking the turning of the year that virtually all of humanity marked, and there was strong similarity in how it was marked by various Indo-European cultures.

The Effect of Conversion on European Folkways

There are a great many folk customs all around Europe which appear to hearken to ancient pagan origins.

However, due to the nature of the history of conversion, oppression of native spirituality by the Church (both Catholic and Protestant, and in many cases even more so by the Protestants), and targeted eradication of ethnic folk practices during Europe’s assimilation to Christianity, there isn’t always a clear verifiable line of progression to trace modern folk practices to their ancient roots.

This is in large extent due to the fact that pre-Christian European cultures were illiterate. That is, in fact, a poor term to use, as it implies a lack of culture. The Germanic people used runes, and the Celts had their ogham. But, they were not used as prolifically as the Latin alphabet was in the Mediterranean.

Northern Europeans were primarily an oral culture, relying on patronymic names(sometimes matronymic, though rarely) to demonstrate relationships and lineage, and memorization of epic poems, tales, charms, and so forth. Theirs was a living religion that evolved with the culture. Their rites and rituals were lived in practice, so there was no need to write them down.

The Catholic Church moved upward through Europe from the Mediterranean, bringing
with it their Latin alphabet and penchant for writing. It is mainly through Church writings, and ancient Roman writers such as Tacitus, that we know anything about the practices of our own ancestors. Sadly though, these writings are sharply skewed by bias, and written during campaigns to oppress these ancient folk customs.

It is precisely for this reason that renowned folklorists Jaqueline Simpson and Steve Roud say in their entry for “wassailing” in their Dictionary of English Folklore:

Amongst all the calendar customs which popular folklore enthusiasts have claimed as remnants of luck-bringing rituals, wassailing is the only one that has a relatively clean and undisputed claim to this lineage (Simpson & Roud, 380)

In my estimation, this does not mean that other folk customs are not derived from ancient ritual necessarily, but rather that it is often difficult to prove that they are (for more on this, please see “The Hidden History of Christmas Carols”).

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As I often say, history is murky. It is murky for all the reasons mentioned above and then some.

Many ancient rituals were altered during the conversion period, and so all we have evidence of is the Christianized version (again, see my article on Christmas Carols), yet we can often speculate with confidence of a pre-Christian origin due to the presence of known pagan elements such as fertility symbols.

The Æcerbot Ritual - “Field Remedy.”

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An example of one such ritual is the old Anglo-Saxon Æcerbot, also known as “field remedy.” It is an early medieval, through probably with roots that go back much further, “luck-bringing” agricultural ritual that is now extinct.

In her short book on Anglo-Saxon spiritual culture, Looking for the Lost Gods of England, scholar Kathleen Herbert explains that historical documents only record the Christianized version of this custom.

Although at the time the account was written this ritual was being practiced with the cooperation of the local parish priests, it contained many pagan elements.

The gist of the ritual was the notion that the fields were of Mother Earth, and she may be barren and in need of virile fertilization. So Father God up above (inserted as a replacement for a previous male sky god) was invoked to impregnate the fields. Herbert describes the ritual thusly:

Mother Earth, in this particular field, was weak and sick, unable to bear. Perhaps she had been deliberately injured by hostile magic. The healer cut a turf from each of the four quarters: east, south, west, and north, noting carefully exactly where each had lain. These turfs for the time being represented – were the whole field.
A mixture was made of vegetable matter from every tree and shrub that grew locally… and all known herbs… These were blended with oil, honey, holy water and milk from all the cattle on the farm. This mixture was dropped three times on the underside of the turfs. Mother Earth was being given healing herbs, mixed with a nourishing porridge to strengthen her (Herbert, 13-14).

Herbert goes on to explain the rest of the ritual involving the turfs being blessed in the parish church before being re-deposited in their original locations with yet more ritual and ceremony. The entire ordeal took the better part of a day to complete.

Herbert speculates that the church building replaced an earlier site which may have been a sacred grove. Part of the Christianized version was to mark the turfs with the cross. Again, Herbert says this may have replaced an earlier Indo-European symbol such as the sun-wheel (swastika), or a Germanic runic symbol (Herbert, 14).

Variations on the Sun Wheel (Swastika), a sacred symbol clear across ancient Europe and beyond. Click image for more info.

Karen Louise Jolly actually uses the Æcerbot ritual transcribed word for word to open the first chapter of her book Popular Religion in Late Saxon England. She uses it as an illustration of the fusion between Anglo-Saxon native religion and Christianity.

I would argue that her observations can also be applied to Celts and other Indo-European groups as well, as their own early versions of Christianity accommodated local folk practices of the common people. She says:

In order to understand popular religious practices of this period [900-1050 A.D], we need to place them in the context of this gradual process of cultural conversion, in which Germanic folklore and Christian belief bled into each other as much or more than they sought to destroy each other (Jolly, 10).

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Jolly reaffirms that the early Catholic Church was often accommodating of local beliefs. People were allowed to keep their customs providing the old switcheroo took place, whereby indigenous deities were replaced by the Christian pantheon of the God Head and Saints. In the case of the Anglo-Saxons, Jolly says it is:

… evidence of the dynamic interaction that takes place between a native culture and an introduced religion. This is Christianity succeeding by way of acculturation and Germanic culture triumphing in transformation. Neither is the passive victim of the other (Jolly, 11).

It should be emphasized, however, that this tolerance applied much more so to the early medieval Church. The Anglo-Saxons in England shared another similarity with the Celts of Ireland in that they were both converted in this gradual and organic way, as opposed to the later conversion campaigns which ravaged the Germanic people on the continent and Scandinavia, as well as the Balts and Slavs (look up the Saxon Wars, Wendis h Crusades, and Northern Crusades). The Church simply did not have that type of muscle in the very early days in the non-Romanized parts of Europe.

Scene from The Bayeux Tapestry illustrating the Battle of Hastings during the Norman invasion of England.

The End of the Anglo-Saxon Era

The temperament of the Church in England would change sharply with the Norman Conquest of 1066, marking an end of Anglo-Saxon England, and the beginning of the oppressive Norman regime which brought with it a stricter interpretation of Christianity; along with their castles and fortresses which sprung up all over Britain and Ireland to keep the native people under the new iron grip of feudalism.

Yet, it seems in many cases of the cultures mentioned above, the initial conversions of each group incorporated their native folkways into their new Christian practices, and then subsequent waves of religious reform in later generations took issue with customs containing clear pagan connotations.

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Historian and historical fiction author Carol McGrath uses the Æcerbot to illustrate this point in her novel set in England in 1066, The Handfasted Wife.

She opens chapter four with a quote by the afore mentioned Karen Louise Jolly, and proceeds to describe a scene wherein King Harold’s first wife, Edith Swan-neck, is asked by local villagers to perform the customary Field Remedy ritual.

McGrath highlights that this was a time of abrupt cultural change for the people of England. There was a strong “Normanization” of the English Church prior to the Conquest. The author depicts this period as the cusp when the afore mentioned leniency of the Church began to wither as it grew in strength and began to exert political pressure on European ruling classes.

This is demonstrated in McGrath’s telling of the historical story of Harold’s first wife who had to be “set aside” so that he could take a new wife that was approved by the Church. The reason given was that they were married under the old Anglo-Saxon marriage custom of “hand-fasting,” which had its roots in pre-Christian practice.

The Church insisted that this was unacceptable for a King of England, so when he inherited the crown he was pressured to make a new political marriage with a suitable woman, and the ceremony would be conducted under the new Church protocol.

McGrath drives home this cultural shift by depicting a scene of tension between an old local parish priest, who was intended to carry out the Æcerbot ritual with Edith, and a new, younger priest, who is adamantly against it. In her story, he is later revealed to be in league with the Normans…

British stamp from the Doomsday Book, 1086 A.D., depicting sowing and reaping of the crops.

Wassailing the Orchards

With this historical backdrop, it is no wonder that most of these practices died out. And, it is more astonishing still that any have survived into modern times. And so, now we circle back to wassailing.

The word “wassail” comes from the Anglo-Saxon wæs hæl, which means “be healthy” or “good health to you.” It was initially used as a greeting or toast, but came to be associated with other meanings as well. The meanings most known by modern readers are the alcoholic beverage and the custom of going door to door “a-wassailing,” which was basically caroling while imbibing wassail the beverage (again, more on this in my article on Christmas Carols).

However, there is a third meaning which is lesser known among audiences outside of England: wassailing the apple trees.

"The Orchard" by William Morris.

Like the other versions of wassail and wassailing, this custom was primarily associated with the Yuletide season. It is speculated that wassailing the orchards occurred widely in Britain, but dwindled until it survived mainly in the cider-making regions of southwest England; and it seems that this custom varied by location.

Tristram P. Coffin, in his The Book of Christmas Folklore, says that wassailing was mainly focused on apple orchards (p34). But, Simpson and Roud explain in their “dictionary” entry that this particular “field-visiting custom” was performed to “usually fruit trees, but also sometimes to other farm crops, animals, and so on” (Simpson & Roud, 380). The general gist of the ritual goes as follows:

Click to view on Amazon.

In some cases it is performed by the farmer who owns the orchard, along with his wife, family, and others (presumably neighbors or field hands), and in other cases it was performed by a large number of villagers in a day-long procession guided by the local priest who lead them around the major orchards of the parish – not unlike the Field Remedy ritual.

In some locales the wassailing was performed on a particular date, such as Christmas Eve or Twelfth Night. In others it could occur any time during the Christmas and New Year’s season.

In any case, the group of people performing the ceremony would enter the orchard and circle about a favored tree.

Usually songs were sung, which seems to hearken back to the notion of charms which would be spoken or sung often in old Anglo-Saxon tradition. There was a strong element of magic in the spoken word in Anglo-Saxon culture.

The group brings with them cider, or a related alcoholic beverage such as wassail made with cider, or ale infused with apples. They bring also bread or cakes, shotguns, sticks, and lanterns, as this is usually performed at nightfall. The trees are whacked with sticks to awaken the good spirits of the trees, while shotguns are fired through the branches to scare off the malicious spirits that would interfere with the upcoming crop.

A modern example of Wassailing the Orchards.

Songs are sung to request the aid of the good spirits and beseech them to do their best to ensure a good crop. In return for their help, offerings are given to the spirits. The beverage is poured about the tree roots, and the bread is soaked in the alcoholic drink and left in the branches.

The unnamed author/editor of the website PIEreligion.org (PIE standing for Proto-Indo-European), which I have found to be scholarly and very well researched, has this to say about this practice:

There are parallels among all the northern Europeans, described as a group in the Golden Bough which gives examples in Germany, Scandinavia and the Slavic countries, and with many additional descriptions in folk lore literature in various countries. The performance of apple tree wassails is perfectly in accord with the Indo-European ritual of offering to a Goddess, in a symbolic way, a small portion of what she has given as an acknowledgment of her gifts and as thanks. Offering cakes and ale, or in this case, cake dipped in cider, for thanks and for future prosperity is exactly typical of the Indo-European ritual of offering (http://piereligion.org).

Ties to Lost Indigenous European Folkways

So, it seems that we can definitely see parallels between the Field Remedy and Wassailing the Orchards. Both contain elements of pre-Christian origin that continued on into the Christian era.

Both have connections to the fertility and spirituality of the Earth. Both hearken back to an Anglo-Saxon heritage, as well as to a broader Indo-European origin that connects with neighboring cultures as well.

Bear in mind that when scholars discuss Celts, Germanics, and so forth, what they are actually referring to is language speakers more than any other affiliation.

So, I would argue that if English is your native tongue, you are an heir of Anglo-Saxon cultural heritage, regardless of other ethnic identifiers. There really is a unity among all people, and especially so among interrelated cultures.

As we in the West have embraced other foreign cultures, it may be time that we Westerners look to our own cultural heritage and find unity in our own indigenous past. Indeed, Christianity was a foreign belief system that replaced our indigenous spirituality. But, there is a fervent renewal of interest in our ancestral folkways today. Perhaps we can look to our past to inspire our present and pave the way toward our future.

Bibligraphy:

Click to view on Amazon, some are available used and very cheap! And these particular books are HIGHLY highly recommended for your folklore library!

Baker, Margaret.Discovering Christmas Customs and Folklore. Shire Publications, Ltd, 1999.
Coffin, Tristram P. The Book of Christmas Folklore. The Seabury Press, 1973.
Herbert, Kathleen. Looking for the Lost Gods of England. Anglo-Saxon Books, 1994.
Jolly, Karen Louise. Popular Religion in Late Saxon England; Elf Charms in Context. The University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Simpson, Jacqueline, and Steve Roud. A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Unnamed author. Apple Tree Wassails. PIEreligion.org: http://piereligion.org/applewassail.html

About the author:

My name is Carolyn Emerick, and I write on the history, myth, and folklore of Northwestern Europe.

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Thanksgiving's Roots in Old World Harvest Feasts

Thu, 24 Nov 2016 20:16:01 GMT

The First Thanksgiving, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.

November hearkens the coming of that great American harvest feast wherein we express our gratitude for Nature’s bounty, and for the indigenous people whose generous support ensured the survival of the progenitors of our nation. However, when we dig a little deeper we discover that the tradition of Thanksgiving extends far beyond the borders of the United States.

Canada celebrates her own Thanksgiving in October, and Germany’s version, called Erntedankfest, is celebrated either at the end of September or in early October. The November harvest festival that the British-American pilgrims would have been familiar with, prior to their emigration, is the Feast of Saint Martin,or Martinmas.

The First American settlers in New England were British separatists and largely Puritan.Recent history had seen the Protestant Reformation and the birth of the Anglican Church. The Puritans believed that the new Church of England’s reforms did not go far enough in breaking from Catholic tradition; hence the journey to settle new lands and form what they hoped would be a religious utopian life in the New World.

Landing of the Pilgrims by Michele Felice Cornè, circa 1805.

We all know the story from here. Things didn’t go as planned, crops failed, and the settlers were nearly starved out when the indigenous Americans stepped in with food as a gesture of goodwill.

Today, hundreds of years later, we honor the memory of this story every year with the ritual of the Thanksgiving feast.

But, many Americans aren’t aware that our own Thanksgiving feast has precedent in the ritual and ceremony of Old Europe.

"Samuel de Champlain's 1605 map of Plymouth Harbor, showing Wampanoag village Patuxet, with some modern place names added for reference. The star is the approximate location of the 1620 English settlement."

An altar piece for Erntedankfest in an Austrian Catholic Church. Image by user "High Contrast" via Wikimedia Commons

It would be misleading not to point out that virtually all cultures around the world whose societies were built around agriculture had (and many still do have) their own harvest feasts wherein thanks is given to whichever gods are honored in that culture. And this was certainly true of Europe.

Virtually all people in all corners of Europe,barring perhaps hunting/herding societies such as the Saami in Lapland, celebrated the feast of the harvest. In fact, they usually celebrated more than one, as they were often stacked between August and November depending on climate,geography, and the crops grown in the area.

August sees the wheat harvest festival of Lammas which has been resurrected as a religious holiday by neo-Pagan groups. The word Lammas comes from the old Anglo-Saxon hlaf-mas, meaning “loaf-mass.” Its Irish counterpart was/is known as Lughnasadh, honoring the Celtic god Lugh.

Many regions around the world still have local festivals to celebrate the harvest of crops grown locally. In my region of Upstate New York, for example, the town of Hilton hosts the Hilton Apple Fest, and Naples hosts a grape festival.

Illustration by William T. Van Dresser for "The Golden Harvest," 1908

In an age when the livelihood of the entire region depended on the success of the crops,one can imagine how important each crop was for the survival of the community, and so much ritual and ceremony built up around these events.

The American Thanksgiving story emphasize show dire it could be when a crop failed. Indeed,the generosity of the indigenous Americans in sharing their own harvest was truly something to give thanks for.

Blod-Monath, The Month of Blood

Martinmas, also called Martlemas, is one of the many harvest feasts described above, but it has the important distinction of being the very last one of the year.

The cult of Saint Martin likely came to Britain during the earliest days of Christianity during Roman times. However, with the Anglo-Saxon migration came another period of active paganism in England.

Preparing for a feast in an old Germanic style long house, typical of the early medieval Norse and Anglo-Saxons.

Even when the Anglo-Saxons converted, it does not appear that they placed a great emphasis on Saint Martin or his holiday. In the old Anglo-Saxon calendar, November was called Blod-Monath, which means Blood Month.

The name is a reference to the final slaughter of the season when the livestock that would not be kept through the winter were killed, and the records indicate oxen were a main animal culled at this time. What could not be preserved was eaten in a great feast.

These feasts and festivals not only celebrated the harvesting of food, but they helped to brace people for the onset of winter. And in the case of Anglo-Saxon Blod-Monath, the feast was also a time of religious sacrifice prior to conversion.

Martinmas - The Feast of Saint Martin

After the Norman Conquest of 1066, churches dedicated to St. Martin began to spring up, and references to the feast of Saint Martin begin to appear again in the record.

The emphasis on the slaughter of cattle in November seems to have continued on through the Norman era and afterward. Just as Americans today reference the ubiquitous Thanksgiving turkey, mediaeval Britons made reference to the Martlemas beef. The term was apparently so common that it became a figure of speech to indicate a full pantry, a reference to the abundance of food after this large scale slaughter.

Medieval Grape Harvest for the Royal Family

As time progressed and farming techniques improved,the need for such a large cattle slaughter at Martinmas seems to have lessened.

By the late Middle Ages, the Martlemas beef enjoyed the company of St. Martin’s wine. This also became a time of a great grape harvest and the celebration of new wine. Hence, Martinmas became a time of revelry and merry-making.

Drunkenness appears to have thus been associated with Martinmas not only in Britain but also on the continent. There are accounts of surprise attacks being planned to take advantage of Martinmas drunkenness. Yet, Martinmas was a special holiday. It was considered the threshold of winter, the last great harvest of the year, and there was food and drink a plenty.

While Martinmas was apparently important enough to be given the suffix “mas” or “mass”
(reserved for only the holiest of holidays, such as Christmas, Christ’s Mass), its celebration dissolved soon after the Protestant Reformation.

Painting by William Holman Hunt - circa 1847 to 1857 - A scene of Medieval drunkeness, while revelryin the street is seen through the window . . . as might have taken place on the Martinmas holiday

Crying the Neck - Honoring the Spirit of the Fields

Other harvest traditions, however, did manage to linger on much longer. The concept of the Corn Spirit was celebrated almost universally across Europe, and certainly in Britain and Ireland.

In this context “corn” refers to kernels of wheat and other grains, not American maize.During wheat and grain harvests, often one sheath would be left remaining standing in the fields.

Traditions varied by location, but it would typically symbolize the spirit of the crop,and many local traditions and rituals sprang up around it. Often, the spirit would be dubbed the Corn King or Queen (or both) who must be killed as a symbolic sacrifice.

‘Crying the Neck’ is still re-enacted at harvest time especially in parts of Cornwall. These ceremonies in Cornwall date back thousands of years, but as farming became mechanized towards the end of the nineteenth century, the tradition died out. It was revived by the Old Cornwall Societies in 1928.

The above image depicts a Cornish farmer carries out the ceremony holding the final stook of corn The religious ceremony traditionally marks the end of the harvest. Normally crowds gather in harvested fields to see the last ‘stook’ of corn or ‘neck’ scythed and everyone prays for a good harvest next year.

Sometimes the corn spirit was seen as amalicious spirit embodying bad luck. This spirithad to be dealt with to ensure the prosperity of the coming season.

The Grain Harvest

The ‘Corn Dollies” pictured here were shared by Pollyanna Jones, fellow folklore writer.

In ancient European cultures it was believed that the spirit of the corn lived amongst the crop and was made homeless by the harvest.

A corn doll was made to house the corn spirit and was often ploughed into the first furrow of the new season.

There are a whole host of traditions associated with the grain harvest. Like with many European folk festivals, role-playing and play-acting was often involved. In some areas two individuals would be chosen to represent the “Harvest Lord and Lady.”

.

Medieval illustration of men harvesting wheat with reaping-hooks

(One wonders if this particular practice bears any connection to the old Germanic sibling gods Frey and Freya, for they were both associated with fertility and their names also mean “Lord” and “Lady”respectively).

Other traditions involve building a life sized figure out of stalks of grain to represent the Harvest Queen. The figure would be placed in the field during while the workers labored, and then paraded through the town on the final day of the harvest with music and celebration

Similar customs continued well into the modern era. John Barleycorn is one example of a folk song that continues on the theme of the Corn Spirit from the Middle Ages well into modern times, and is still sung today.

(Play the song to the right!)

Related to this custom is the art of weaving corn dollies, as mentioned above. Sometimes called harvest dolls or kern babies.They could be modeled after the human form,shaped after animals, or simply decorative and abstract.

If the dollies were made from the last sheaf of grain, they would be hung in the home to bring good luck for the coming year.

Thoughts on these customs...

With our pumpkin pie, zucchini bread, roasted turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet candied yams, minced meat, and so on and so forth; we continue a long tradition of celebrating Nature’s bounty with our families and loved ones.

Our Thanksgiving décor today still places emphasis on the abundance of produce in season at this time of year.

As we partake in our own cornucopia of plenty, lift a glass in remembrance of the celebrations of our forbearers and take pride in knowing we are carrying on traditions that have continued for hundreds of years.

A vintage ad luring immigrants to settle in California as a place of abundance, with the cornucopia as a symbol of plenty.

Bibliography:

Hazelitt, W. C. (1965). Faiths and Folklore of the British Isles : Volume I. New York: Benjamin Blom.
Lindahl, C., Lindow, J., & McNamara, J.(2002). Medieval Folklore. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Simpson, J. (1987). European Mythology. Middlesex: The Hamlyn Publishing Group.
Walsh, M. W. (2000). Medieval English“Martinmesse”: The Archaeology of a Forgotten Festival. Folklore, Vol. 111(2), 231-254.

For further reading:

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My name is Carolyn Emerick, and I write on the history, myth, and folklore of Northwestern Europe.

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A Traditional Tale of Halloween Horror: Lighting the Witches Upon Pendle Hill

Wed, 12 Oct 2016 20:45:18 GMT

Author's note: The following folktale was found in a book called “Goblin Tales from Lancashire” by James Bowker under the simple title “Allhallow's Night." The book is undated but appears to have been published around the turn of the 19th century.
This is my own re-telling, though in trying to remain true to the feel of original I have kept some of the wording close to the original, while altering other areas in order to flow more fluidly to a modern reader. And I have taken only slight artistic liberties, such as giving the farmer's wife a name rather than referring to her as “the wife” throughout.
I would also like to point out that the tone used to discuss witches is in keeping with the original "horror story," and it in no way reflects my personal view of witchcraft (I am a practicing Heathen, myself).

Lighting the Witches upon Pendle Hill

The massive and majestic structure called Pendle Hill adds a mysterious charm to the beautiful landscape surrounding it. Covered with the green furnishings of moss and fern, the hill brings a sense of the fanciful to onlookers for miles around.

A farm house with Pendle Hill in the distance. Photo by Alexander P Kapp, Wikimedia Commons.

But, most today do not realize that Pendle Hill was once the meeting place of witches who met upon its flat summit to perform their wicked acts of devilry.

The antics of some of these witches were recorded during the witch trial era and remembered as the famous Pendle Witches. Their devious trickery was so disruptive that the area was said to have become quite unsafe for the local residents.

One such resident was a farmer called Ralph who lived with his family in a small cottage not too far from Pendle Hill. With the farmer and his wife, Molly, lived their faithful servant, Isaac, who had been with the family for many years.

A peasant family on their homestead, by Abraham Willemsens

The household was quite illiterate, which was common at that time. Living in such a rural area with up to a mile between each household, and not having their imaginations crushed by schooling, such as is the sad case we see today, the family believed wholeheartedly in the legends of boggies and hellish specters that were told in the area, even though they had not had any personal experiences with the supernatural themselves. But, that was soon to change.

On a dark and gloomy evening the wind began to howl in a wickedly ominous way. Before long it seemed that a tempest was brewing as the windows and doors rattled in their frames. The wind moaned and shrieked as huge raindrops smashed against the little diamond shaped window frames.

Painting by Thomas Cole (1801-1848)

Upon the morrow, three of the farmer's cattle were found lying dead in the cowshed. Not a few days after, two of the farmer's children fell ill. As the edge of darkness crept up the side of Pendle Hill that evening, one of the children succumbed to death.

If these misfortunes were not bad enough, the farmer's crops also succumbed to a pestilence, thereby endangering the welfare of the entire household.

At this point, and with great reluctance, the Farmer Ralph had no recourse but to believe that he had somehow offended some wrathful spirit who was enacting revenge upon his household.

Though, he did take precautions against these things with the charms and amulets in common use amongst the peasantry.

But, the horseshoe over his door, the branches of ash placed above the cowshed entryway, and the hag stones hanging above his own and his children's beds were apparently no match for whatever powerful magic was afflicting his homestead.

A typical European peasant family, by Adriaen van Ostade.

The farmer's household held a family council to discuss why they found themselves so vulnerable to these attacks and what could be done to remedy the situation.

The mood around the table was morose, for even their rough old farmhand, Isaac, greatly missed the prattle of the little one whose sudden passing had cast a shadow over the home.

The farmer and his wife lamented the loss of their child and held great trepidation for who in the household might befall the same fate.

Knocking the ashes from his pipe, Farmer Ralph spoke up “Well, Isaac. You may as well take horseshoe and ash branches down for all the good use they seem to be.”

His sadness had turned to frustration as he banged his down-turned pipe on the table to knock out the remaining cinders. “We've naught been able to keep the feeorin away from us, and I expect only more bad luck clear to November!” the farmer exclaimed.

            “Why do you say November, Ralph” asked his wife, Molly, in a terrified voice. She anxiously gazed out the little cottage window where she could see Pendle Hill looming dimly in the distance.

            “Because, my lass, on O'Hallow night I intend to climb Pendle Hill to light the witches,” Ralph said this with all seriousness, setting his jaw firmly.

“Heaven save us all!” cried his wife.

Mist over Pendle Hill. Photo by Peter Barr, Wikimedia Commons

The three sat in silence for several moments. Finally the quiet was broken by old Isaac who said, “whither the master goes, so Isaac goes with him. There will be two of us, at any rate.”

The farmer gratefully accepted Isaac's offer, though Molly tried in vain to make them both abandon their plan. For, it was well known that others in the region had lighted the witches and thereby secured a twelvemonth's immunity from harm. So, why should they not do likewise? If his fortunes did not turn around, Ralph and his entire household were staring ruin in the face. Therefore his determination to light his unseen enemies grew stronger with each passing day.

Ralph and his household carried on with their daily chores until the last day of October finally arrived.

All Hallow's Eve brought with it a weird and misty rain which quite obscured the spooky hill. But, by nig htfall the rain had ceased and the huge silhouette of Pendle Hill was again visible.

All day long Ralph and Isaac tried their best not to think about what awaited them that evening.

But, finally the hour arrived when they had to begin their trudge up the haunted hill to find the dreaded ruins where witches from parts all around gathered in their their mysterious and infernal conclave. Now that the sadness from their recent losses had somewhat abated, the two men were overcome by terror of what they were face when they reached Malkin Tower at the hill's summit.

When the old grandfather clock chimed ten, the men rose and prepared for the lighting. Each man grasped a branch of mountain ash, to which they tied several sprigs of bay as a double protection against both lightening and any fiendish stray spirits who might be lurking about. In their other hand, they each carried an unlit candle.

The tearful goodwife, Molly, cried a blessing upon each one, and the old farm dog crept over from the corner of the farmyard to take his place beside the men. Together, the party headed toward Pendle Hill.

Pendle Hill, in Lancashire, England. Photo by Dr Greg on Wikimedia Commons

The men marched on bravely, stopping only to light their candles with flint, steel, and a box of tinder as they reached the foot of the slope. Presently, with only a few raindrops fallen, the wind died completely casting an ominous ambiance over the place.

As though it, too, were terrified, the old dog uttered a low whine and crept ever closer to his master. Feeling that a storm would soon be upon them, the three began to climb, heading toward the well-known ravine beside the place the witches would gather.

Illustration by Leo H. Grindon, 1882

   “We'll have a storm, I reckon, Isaac,” said the farmer.

            “I'm a'thinkin' myself we'll have nothing less,” the old man replied dryly as he began his climb candle in hand, with his master and the farm dog following just behind.

Illustration by Rosina Emmet, circa 1900.

When they had nearly reached the top of the ravine, a flash of lightening suddenly pierced the darkness and a peal of thunder seemed to shake the earth beneath them!

A weird and unearthly shriek of laughter rang in their ears as a figure shrouded in black flew slowly past them, so close it's garments nearly brushed their faces.

This was too much for the old farm dog who turned his tale and fled down the hillside, howling in terror as he went.

But the men, undaunted, marched on. Each one carefully shading his candle with the hand which held tight to the branch of ash.

At one point, old Isaac stumbled and nearly fell. Frantically Farmer Ralph hollered “do not let the candle go out!”

Thankfully, both men made it within sight of the tower without mishap, each with their lighted candles in hand.

And, they arrived not a moment too soon for the infernal revelry had already commenced within.

While light streamed from the tower windows, shrieks of maniacal laughter could be heard even over the roar of the thunder which had begun to pick up.

Every now and again a dark figure floated over their heads and whirled into one of the windows, and the noise became all the louder by the addition of yet another shrill voice.

Both men eager to get away from the place as quickly as possible readily turned their backs to the tower to start back for the homestead.

Witches flying over the Earth, Morris Meredith Williams, 1910

But no sooner had they turned away when a Satanic face with gleaming red eyes flashed before them and then vanished! Instantly both of their candles went out.

“God's blessing help us now!” both men cried in unison. Before they had even finished their sentence the tower was plunged into total darkness.

The shrieks of unholy laughter were suddenly quiet, and the only sound to be heard was the rapid flight of the hags and their familiars. The men's cry had broken up their gathering.

More frightened than ever by loss of their lights, the men clung tenaciously to their branches as they hurried away.

Illustration by HJ Ford

They had not gone far in the direction they guessed the farm lay when Farmer Ralph, who was just a little ahead of Isaac, let out a cry. He had slipped and fell, vanishing from Isaac's view, falling down the cliff which Isaac was now standing on the edge of.

Isaac trembled as he peered down into the blackness looking for Ralph. But not one sound came up to tell the old man that his master had escaped with his life, despite the shouts that Isaac sent down after him.

Desperately Isaac called for his master, but eventually he turned away thinking the worst must have happened. His goal now was to reach the farm and return with assistance.

However, after wandering for some time in the raging storm which nearly blinded him by the lightening, the weary old fellow pulled himself under a large stone for shelter to wait out the rain. Quite exhausted from the climb in the wet cold, not to mention the fright, old Isaac quickly fell asleep.

Illustration by H. R. Millar, circa 1900

As soon as the first faint rays of sunlight kissed the hillside than Isaac was awoken by the old farm dog licking his face!

Isaac opened his eyes and gazed about in sleepy astonishment as some men appeared climbing the hill in pursuit of the dog.

Poor Molly had been quite terrified when the howling dog appeared at the door alone whilst the “lighters” failed to show. So, she made her way to the nearest farm house and woke up the neighbors.

No sooner had she shared the story than a party of sturdy fellows had assembled to search for the missing men.

Isaac explained where he had last seen Ralph, and soon after the rescuers found him as well, down the gorge nursing a broken leg.

Goodwife Molly let out such great rejoicings when the cavalcade finally returned to the farm. As bad as matters were, she had expected a much worse ending.

Afterwards, the homestead experienced great prosperity and the household was blessed far beyond that which they had ever dreamed.

Every now and again Molly would say to Ralph, “you might have kept those candles to light your own home. For it wasn't even midnight before the Devil blew them out!” A joke that invariably caused both Farmer Ralph and old Isaac to break into a smile that bordered on a grimace.

But, the homestead was happy and prosperous evermore, including the farm dog and his wife.

The farm dog and HIS wife. Illustration by Morrish Meredith Williams, 1910

The original story includes a bit of Lancashire dialect, and those who would like to read it and other spooky Lancashire folktales can download the book for free from Project Gutenberg.

My name is Carolyn Emerick, and I write on the history, myth, and folklore of Northwestern Europe.

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Changeling Tales

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 19:29:42 GMT

Tales of Changelings come up frequently in Celtic folklore. The term “changeling” refers to a human being, usually a child but sometimes an adult, who has been taken by the fairies and replaced by a look-a-like. Technically, the changeling is the look-a-like, while the real person is thought to be held captive by the fairies. This topic is briefly discussed in my article “Ten Reasons Fairies are Scary."

The Changeling by John Bauer, 1913

Changeling stories come up often in folklore. So, for this edition of the Archivist’s Corner, I have decided to let the folklore speak for itself. Here is a selection of some folkloric accounts of changeling tales from books that are in the public domain. Both books are available for free download on ProjectGutenberg.org.

Folk Stories Recorded in “The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries”
by W. Y. Evans Wentz

In the Highlands: We went on to see the postmaster, Mr. John MacDougall, and he told us that in his boyhood the country-folk round Tomatin believed thoroughly in fairies.

He said they thought of them as a race of spirits capable of making themselves visible to mortals, as living in underground places, as taking fine healthy babes and leaving changelings in their place. These changelings would waste away and die in a short time after being left.

A schoolmaster says: ‘The belief in changelings is not now generally prevalent; but in olden times a mother used to place a pair of iron tongs over the cradle before leaving the child alone, in order that the fairies should not change the child for a weakly one of their own.

It was another custom to take a wisp of straw, and, lighting one end of it, make a fiery sign of the cross over a cradle before a babe could be placed in it.” – p58

So firmly did the old people believe in fairies then that they would ridicule a person for not believing. And now quite the reverse state has come about. – p94

Goblin watches the girl from the tree branches. Cover image from from The Princess and the Goblins - by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920

Marian MacLean of Barra says: The Tailor and the Changeling.—‘There was a young wife of a young man who lived in the township of Allasdale, and the pair had just had their first child. One day the mother left her baby in its cradle to go out and do some shearing, and when she returned the child was crying in a most unusual fashion. She fed him as usual on porridge and milk, but he wasn’t satisfied with what seemed to her enough for any one of his age, yet every suspicion escaped her attention.

As it happened, at the time there was a web of home-made cloth in the house waiting for the tailor. The tailor came and began to work up the cloth. As the woman was going out to her customary shearing operation, she warned the tailor if he heard the child continually crying not to pay much attention to it, adding she would attend to it when she came home, for she feared the child would delay him in his work.

‘All went well till about noon, when the tailor observed the child rising up on its elbow and stretching its hand to a sort of shelf above the cradle and taking down from it a yellow chanter [of a bagpipe]. And then the child began to play.

Immediately after the child began to play the chanter, the house filled with young fairy women all clad in long green robes, who began to dance, and the tailor had to dance with them.

About two o’clock that same afternoon the women disappeared unknown to the tailor, and the chanter disappeared from the hands of the child also unknown to the tailor; and the child was in the cradle crying as usual.

Dancing fairy by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

A tailor at work, by Beatrix Potter

‘The wife came home to make the dinner, and observed that the tailor was not so far advanced with his work as he ought to be in that space of time. However, when the fairy women disappeared, the child had enjoined upon the tailor never to tell what he had seen. The tailor promised to be faithful to the child’s injunctions, and so he said nothing to the mother.

‘The second day the wife left for her occupation as usual, and told the tailor to be more attentive to his work than the day before.

A second time at the same hour of the day the child in the cradle, appearing more like an old man than a child, took the chanter and began to play. The same fairy women filled the house again, and repeated their dance, and the tailor had to join them.

Naturally the tailor was as far behind with his work the second day as the first day, and it was very noticeable to the woman of the house when she returned. She thereupon requested him to tell her what the matter might be.

Then he said to her, “I urge upon you after going to bed to-night not to fondle that child, because he is not your child, nor is he a child: he is an old fairy man.

And to-morrow, at dead tide, go down to the shore and wrap him in your plaid and put him upon a rock and begin to pick that shell-fish which is called limpet, and for your life do not leave the shore until such a time as the tide will flow so high that you will scarcely be able to wade in to the main shore.”

Mother and children by the hearth fire. From The Princess and the Goblins - by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920

The woman complied with the tailor’s advice, and when she had waded to the main shore and stood there looking at the child on the rock, it cried to her, “You had a great need to do what you have done. Otherwise you’d have seen another ending of your turn; but blessing be to you and curses on your adviser.” When the wife arrived home her own natural child was in the cradle.’ – p111-112

A Tale from “British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions”
By Wirt Sikes, 1880

‘In the parish of Trefeglwys, near Llanidloes, in the county of Montgomery, there is a little shepherd’s cot that is commonly called the Place of Strife, on account of the extraordinary strife that has been there.

The inhabitants of the cottage were a man and his wife, and they had born to them twins, whom the woman nursed with great care and tenderness.

Some months after, indispensable business called the wife to the house of one of her nearest neighbours, yet notwithstanding that she had not far to go, she did not like to leave her children by themselves in their cradle, even for a minute, as her house was solitary, and there were many tales of goblins, or the Tylwyth Teg, haunting the neighbourhood.

However, she went and returned as soon as she could; but on her way back she was not a little terrified at seeing, though it was midday, some of the old elves of the blue petticoat.

She hastened home in great apprehension; but all was as she had left it, so that her mind was greatly relieved.

Handicap or illness might cause a child to be thought to be a changling. Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith Dickens Children - Ten Drawings, 1912

But after some time had passed by, the good people began to wonder that the twins did not grow at all, but still continued little dwarfs. The man would have it that they were not his children; the woman said they must be their children, and about this arose the great strife between them that gave name to the place.

The Changeling by Johann Heinrich Füssli, 1780

One evening when the woman was very heavy of heart, she determined to go and consult a conjuror, feeling assured that everything was known to him....

Now there was to be a harvest soon of the rye and oats, so the wise man said to her, “When you are preparing dinner for the reapers, empty the shell of a hen’s egg, and boil the shell full of pottage, and take it out through the door as if you meant it for a dinner to the reapers, and then listen what the twins will say;

If you hear the children speaking things above the understanding of children, return into the house, take them and throw them into the waves of Llyn Ebyr, which is very near to you; but if you don’t hear anything remarkable do them no injury.”

Consulting a conjuror - The Three Witches from MacBeth by John Downman 1824

And when the day of the reaping came, the woman did as her adviser had recommended to her; and as she went outside the door to listen she heard one of the children say to the other:

Gwelais fesen cyn gweled derwen;
Gwelais wy cyn gweled iâr;
Erioed ni welais ferwi bwyd i fedel
Mewn plisgyn wy iâr!

Acorns before oak I knew;
An egg before a hen;
Never one hen’s egg-shell stew
Enough for harvest men!

On this the mother returned to her house and took the two children and threw them into the Llyn;

and suddenly the goblins in their blue trousers came to save their dwarfs, and the mother had her own children back again; and thus the strife between her and her husband ended. - p60-61

Bibliography

Sikes, Wirt. 1880. British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions. London: William Clowes and Sons.

Wentz, W. Y. Evans. 1911. The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. London: Oxford University Press.

A boy with goblins from The Princess and the Goblins - by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920

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Orkney's Terrible Trows

Sat, 30 May 2015 20:21:02 GMT

Trows are fascinating creatures found only in the folklore of the Orkney and Shetland islands. But, describing them accurately is difficult because sources are not clear. Folklorists have long insisted that the word “trow” is a corruption of “troll,” and that Orkney’s Trows descend from their Viking ancestors’ stories of Trolls.

Sigurd Towrie, author of the comprehensive website covering all things Orkney, disagrees with this assessment. He believes there may be a connection with a different creature from Norse mythology, the Draugr. This connection stems from both creatures’ affiliation with burial mounds.

The Draugr were undead tomb guardians who harassed any trespassers, whether human or animal, who dared to come too close to his mound. In Orkney folklore, Trows also had an association with mounds. Further, “trow” is pronounced to rhyme with “cow.” Towrie believes “trow” evolved from a now extinct Orcadian word “drow” (also rhymes with cow) which relates to Draugr.

Troll by John Bauer

It gets more confusing still! Apparently, Orkney mythology merges Fairies and Trows, making it unclear if they are the same species, or if they were once separate creatures which merged over hundreds of years of storytelling. Sometimes the words are used interchangeably.

In his book, The Mermaid Bride and Other Orkney Folk Tales, storyteller Tom Muir admits that even he can’t suss it out.

He says “In Orkney the word [Trow] has been mixed up with the fairy, so it is hard to say if we are dealing with one or more type of creature. In the text of this book I have used the name given by the person who told the story” (Muir, xi).

This highlights the huge discrepancy between contemporary and previous conceptions of Fairies.

Most people today would not identify a “trollish” creature as either a fairy or a hideous undead grave-haunting monster! Our cultural conception of fairies does not overlap with, say… zombies for example.

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Supernatural creatures of yester yore have often survived in the contemporary consciousness as either benevolent or malicious with no grey area in between. This is likely due to Christianization. Pre-Christian European supernatural beings ranged on a continuum with varying levels of benevolence or malevolence toward humans.

Often the level of kindness or helpfulness of the spirit to the human depended on the human’s actions toward the spirit world and/or nature. A human who transgressed upon nature in a way that was deemed disrespectful would incur the ire of the protective spirits of that place.

Art by John Bauer

However, with Christianization came the new concept of polarity. Rather than a continuum, wherein both humans and spirits could range from various levels of good and bad, the new worldview was black and white; angels being good, demons being bad.

If one reads a lot of post-conversion folklore, we find that Christian imagery is often laid down directly over pre-Christian myth.

Therefore, we find that trolls, giants, elves, and all manner of supernatural creatures are equated with demons and frightened off by scripture, the sign of the cross, the presence of a Bible, etc. (Read more about frightening fairies in Ten Reasons Fairies are Scary).

The problem is that the original context of these legends becomes blurred. So, where a contemporary person sees fairies as angelic figures and trolls as demonic, our ancestors had a completely different conception. In no other place is this highlighted as much, that I have yet seen, as in the Orcadian Trow.

Mountain Troll by Theodor Kittelsen

Physical descriptions of Trows vary. They could range in size from very small to quite large. On average, Trows were diminutive in stature, standing perhaps four foot tall. Like Trolls, they were known to be very ugly and covered in hair.

Trows wreaked all manner of havoc on humans, and could be responsible for taking the lives of children, women in childbirth, and entire herds of livestock. The term “elf-shot” was used by Anglo-Saxons on the British mainland to refer to an illness that could not be explained. It was assumed that whoever fell ill had been shot with an Elf’s arrow. Strangely enough, the same term was used in Orkney. However, in Orkney the Trows were the culprits shooting the Elf arrows.

Trows were also blamed for the folkloric phenomena known as “changelings.” The Orkney versions are similar to changeling stories found all around Europe, the only difference being that the Trows were the culprits instead of Fairies or Elves.

A Changeling was often a sickly infant or child. Conditions that were not medically understood such as downs syndrome or mental retardation could be attributed to the child being a Changeling. The idea was that the real child, the healthy one, had been kidnapped by Trows who left their own sickly child in its place.

Art by John Bauer

Sometimes adults could be Changelings as well. A woman who died in childbirth might have been taken by the Trows and replaced with an enchanted block of wood that resembled her. Elderly folks afflicted with dementia were also said to be the victims of Trowie magic. An old man or woman with Alzheimer’s disease was said to be taken into the mound with the Trows.

Yet, they also engaged in activities shared by more fanciful creatures known to the folklore of nearby cultures. Like Irish Leprechauns, Trows were known to have a passion for music.

Stories are told of Orcadian musicians being whisked away to play their music for the Trows in the mounds. Often these musicians returned with strange new melodies that were enchanting and otherworldly to the human ear.

But, sometimes, these musicians could be caught up in the dancing and revelry of the Trowie world. What seemed like a few hours in Trow-land translated into many years when they returned to the human world.

Sometimes the unfortunate musician might return to find nearly all his friends and family had grown old or passed away, while he had not aged one day.

Grotesque dancing creatures of lore and legend with their fairy drum. Art by Edmond DuLac

In some cases, Trows could be helpful. There are stories of Trows kept as farmhands. However, the farmer would have to keep a close watch that his Trowie helpers got up to no mischief! In stories depicting this scenario, the farmer would round up the Trows and lock them up at the end of the day lest they cause trouble in the night.

Ernest W. Marwick was a leading scholar and author on Orkney folklore. He wrote, quite literally, the definitive works on Orkney.

His “An Orkney Folklore” was released in two volumes and encompasses only a selection of his full writings on Orkney.

Marwick asserts that Trows do, indeed, stem from Norse Trolls. Marwick believes that the immensely sized Trolls and Giants of Norse lore were scaled down to fit within the confines of the island community.

In other words, the Troll evolved into the Trow due to his new environment.

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What is interesting is that the Trow then split into two distinct subspecies: the land Trows and the water Trows. According to legend, both species were originally one. At some point in time there was a civil war between two factions. The losing side was banished from land and forced to make a new life in the sea, resulting in a new race of Sea Trows.

After reading Marwick’s writings in addition to Sigurd Towrie’s, my own conclusion is that they both must be correct.

There are certainly elements of the Troll andthe Draugr in the Orkney Trow; as well as the Fairy, the Elf, the Leprechaun, the Giant, and probably other fairytale creatures.

Perhaps Marwick’s theory that the island environment was too limited in space for large scale creatures of legend to survive in the imagination of the islanders is correct.

With less land mass, perhaps the local folklore could not make sense of the plethora of fairytale creatures that existed in the wide spaces and diverse topography of larger environments.

So, maybe the many legendary creatures of their ancestors were merged into the singular creature the Orcadians call the Trow.

Illustration by Eivind Nielsen

Whatever the case, Orkney folklore abounds in Trowie tales. In time, I hope to share more with you. So, stayed tuned for more adventures through Northern European folklore!

Works Referenced:

Marwick, Ernest W. An Orkney Anthology; Selected Works, Volume One. Edinburgh: Scottish     Academic Press, 1991. Print.

Marwick, Ernest W. The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1975.       Print.

Muir, Tom. The Mermaid Bride and Other Orkney Folk Tales. Kirkwall, Orkney: Kirkwall            Press, 1998. Print.

Towrie, Sigurd.  Orkneyjar.com.

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Scotland’s Haunted Castles

Sat, 16 May 2015 21:57:49 GMT

Scotland is a nation rich in folkloric tradition. Both the highlands and the lowlands preserved distinct cultural folk tradition with influences from Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences. These cultures, along with the unique landscape and climate of this hilly northern country, fused to give Scottish folklore a unique flavor. Stories of ghosts and spirits are one common feature of Scottish lore.

And old photocrom print of Dunskey Castle, circa 1890-1900.

In fact, in his book Scottish Folklore, author Raymond Lamont-Brown says “When the early Christian missionaries came to Scotland they found a land they deemed full of spirits and demons.

The Irish saint Adamnan (c.625-704), Abbot of Iona, tells us so in his Life of Saint Columba” (Lamont-Brown, 32). Although these missionaries canvased and converted the Celtic people very early in the Middle Ages, much earlier than the rest of Northern Europe, these beliefs in spirits lingered on far into the modern era.

The land is dotted with numerous castles, many of which harbor dark histories. Combine that with the misty atmosphere of a notoriously superstitious culture, and it is no wonder that tales of haunted castles are abundant in Scotland.

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J. Maxwell Wood explores Scotland’s rich folklore tradition in her book “Witchcraft and Superstitious Record in the South-Western District of Scotland,” published in 1911. Since this book is in the public domain, it is available for free online (see link at the end), and we can freely reprint sections. Here is an excerpt in which the author describes the ghostly piper of Dunskey Castle:

Traversing from Western Galloway to Eastern Dumfriesshire, gleaning as we go, the legend connected with Dunskey Castle, which yet in ruined solitude stands sentinel over the rock-bound shore and restless sea at Portpatrick, first calls for mention.

The story goes back to the occupation of the Castle in the fourteenth century by Walter de Curry, a turbulent sea rover, who, becoming much incensed at the outspoken and fearless utterances of an Irish piper whom he had taken prisoner and compelled to his service as minstrel and jester, condemned the unfortunate man to a lingering death from starvation in the Castle dungeons.

Dunskey Castle. Photo by Philip Halling, wikimedia commons

Tradition asserts, however, that the piper found his way into a secret subterranean passage leading from the Castle to a cave on the sea-shore, from which, however, he was unable to find egress, and where he perished miserably.

Along this passage the troubled ghost of the piper was long reputed to march, backwards and forwards, playing the weirdest of pipe music, and so indicating, as was firmly believed, to the awe-stricken listeners above, the line of direction of the secret underground passage (Wood, 244-245).

Returning to Raymond Lamont-Brown’s “Scottish Folklore,” we find more stories of castle hauntings involving music. The first story takes place in Airlie Castle, “the former traditional home of the Earls of Airlie at Cortachy.”

In 1640, Airlie Castle was burned down after it was captured by the Earl of Argyll. The castle’s drummer, from the Cameron clan, was responsible for sounding the alarm to alert the Ogilvie family, the castle’s defenders, of danger.

When he failed to do so, and the castle fell, the drummer was blamed. The others escaped, but apparently locked the drummer inside to burn alive as the flames engulfed Airlie. Ever since his horrible death, the Airlie Drummer returns to warn the Ogilvie family of impending deaths (Lamont-Brown, 70).

When he failed to do so, and the castle fell, the drummer was blamed. The others escaped, but apparently locked the drummer inside to burn alive as the flames engulfed Airlie.

Ever since his horrible death, the Airlie Drummer returns to warn the Ogilvie family of impending deaths (Lamont-Brown, 70).

The Bonnie House O' Airlie - illustration from The Bards of Angus and the Mearns 1897

The second story is brief enough to quote in its entirety. Lamont-Brown says:

Inverary Castle, home of the Dukes of Argyll, is haunted by th e ‘Harper of Inverary.” Heard in the area of the Blue Room the ghost is thought to be that of a man hanged at the time the Marquis of Montrose was hunting down the then lard. (Lamont-Brown, 97)

In her book “Skye: The Island and its Legends,” Otta F. Swire describes several hauntings of Duntulm Castle.

_One story arose from an unfortunate, albeit somewhat humorous, mix-up. Hugh Uisdean MacGillespic Chleirich (we’ll just call him Hugh) was the cousin of Donald Gorm Mor, chief of Clan Macdonald of Clanranald.

Hugh, apparently, was known as murderous bugger. He had previously plotted to murder Donald Gorm Mor, as well as having murdered several other individuals. But, Hugh’s next plot against the life of his cousin would prove to be his undoing.

This plot was quite elaborate. Hugh went through the effort to build a custom castle just to carry out his sinister deed. Castle Uisdean, also called Hugh’s Castle, was constructed on the Isle of Skye. The castle was built with no windows and only one door, to prohibit Donald’s escape.

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When the castle was finished, Hugh planned a house warming party and happily composed his invitations. He wrote a very flowery invite to his cousin Donald to lure him in. Meanwhile, Hugh wrote another letter to a friend called Martin, of East Trotternish, known as “a mean rogue,” giddily laying out his plot to murder Donald which would be completed by Martin.

Well, as fortune would have it, after the letters were sealed in their individual packets, they were accidentally mixed up. Martin received the sugary sweet invitation while Donald received the letter describing the plot on his own life!

Ruins of Duntulm Castle. Photo by Andrew Wood Wikimedia Commons

As you may well imagine, this did not go over well with Donald Gorm Mor. He stormed Hugh’s castle and laid siege to it until it fell.
Hugh tried to escape dressed as a woman. But, apparently, his husky body frame gave him away and he was captured.

Donald hauled his cousin Hugh back to his own castle, Duntulm, where Hugh was slowly killed.

The method of execution was feeding him salted meat and fish without water until he died of dehydration. Hugh’s ghost is said to haunt Duntulm to this day (Swire, 52-53).

Works Cited (Links to books on Amazon):

Lamont-Brown, Ramond. 1996. Scottish Folklore. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited.

Swire, Otta F. 1961. Skye: The Island and its Legends. Glasgow: Blackie & Son Limited.

Wood, J. Maxwell. 1911. Witchcraft and Superstitious Record in the South-Western District of Scotland. Dumfries: J. Maxwell & Son.

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Fairy Lore from the Isle of Skye

Sat, 16 May 2015 01:33:25 GMT

For many hundreds of years Skye remained an island isolated from the rest of Scotland. It did not exist in a complete vacuum, as it was settled by both Celts and Norse, and probably by the Picts before them. There were always comings and goings by way of ships and boats from the mainland and abroad. Due to this sea access, Skye became a Viking hot spot, like so many of the other Scottish Isles.

Its isolation became more pronounced toward the Industrial Revolution. As mechanized farming equipment, rail roads, and eventually motorways became the norm across mainland Britain, residents of Skye continued using traditional farming methods and modes of transport. It is no wonder, then, that fairy lore lingered on after it had begun to erode elsewhere.

Fairies by Edwin Austin Abbey

Life moved at a slower pace in Skye, and stories of fairies continued to be passed on orally. Storytelling is, after all, a form of entertainment hat comes with no technology necessary.

Author Mary Julia MacCulloch recorded some folklore during her time in Skye, which was published in the journal Folklore in 1922. She says that nearly all of her stories were collected from in and around the village of Portree.

Yet, when it comes to Skye, the location of her interviews made little difference. She explains that the island was a tight knit community, and the inhabitants were a hearty breed of folk. It was not uncommon to see an elderly woman walking twenty-six miles just to attend mass.

Many inhabitants belonged to parishes at distances quite far from where they lived. So, it seems that these people, who were so used to hard work, thought nothing of traversing their island on foot. As such, stories would have traveled throughout the island with ease.

Loch Coruisk, Isle of Skye, painted in 1874 by Sidney Richard Percy

It is quite humorous to note that Ms. MacCulloch laments the fact that the youths of the island read nothing but newspapers and novellas. She blames their lack of knowledge of local lore and legend on their reading habits. Today we might dance a jig if we caught our teenagers reading the newspaper!

MacCulloch gives further background on Skye island life when she explains that most inhabitants spoke only Gaelic, so she had difficulty communicating with them. Regular Celtic Guide readers may remember that I wrote several articles on Orkney for our Summer, 2013 issues, as well as an article regarding Scotland’s forgotten Germanic heritage for our June, 2013 issue. In those articles I explored the use of Germanic languages such as Norn and Scots, derivatives of Old Norse and Old English respectively, on the eastern Scottish Isles.

Skye has an element of Norse heritage, just as Orkney and Shetland do. But, as explained in the afore mentioned article, the Scottish Isles in the North Sea retained greater Norse influence, while the isles to the west retained a greater Celtic influence.

Art by John Anster Fitzgerald

Mary Julia MacCulloch mentions that themes in fairy lore tend to be universal regardless of location. This is true in many of the stories she shares. We see many of the usual stories such as a beautiful human child taken by the fairies and replaced by a sickly, ugly changeling.

Also mentioned are stories of people being taken into the mounds for what seems like a few hours, but days or years have passed when then re-emerge.

Another motif recognizable from such stories as Rumpelstiltskin is the fairies doing manual labor for their human counterparts. This is also seen in another famous German fairy tale, The Shoemaker and the Elves. The lowland Scots equivalents to such helpful creatures are the brownies.

Art by John Anster Fitzgerald

As we would have it, the fairies on the island of Skye have a penchant for helping make tweed. Our editor, Jim, discussed Harris Tweed as a local company manufacturing traditional fabrics on Skye in our November, 2013 issue.

Well, tweed making by hand on Skye pre-dates the industrial age and, according to lore, may have been aided by the fairies. MacCulloch’s interviews reveal that some Skye crofters desired to spin and weave the very tweed that their island became so famous for, but they became too tired.

Under the influence of exhaustion, the would-be tweeders made the mistake of wishing aloud, so that the fairies could hear them, that the tweed would just be finished. Overhearing this wish, the fairies appeared and demanded the necessary tools to finish the deed.

Industrious were these fairies, indeed. For, they would not leave when the task was completed. The crofters were forced to seek the help of a wise man.

He advised them to direct the fairies to build a roof, but that the roof must be made of a special kind of wood. There only existed one tree on the entire island that grew the kind of wood needed.

When the fairies began their building, they were unable to complete it. And so, they were had no choice but to leave the crofters to their own devices, as they were before.

Art by Richard Doyle

Sometimes, a human could be called to do a favor for the fairies. One such person was a midwife of Skye. This midwife was also tended her own small herd of cows. One night she went out to call the cows home, when she was approached by a fairy man. He bid her to follow him. She refused, saying she had to tend to her cows. The fairy man insisted that if she helped him, her cows would be well looked after.

When she arrived in his fairy home, she found that his wife was having difficulties in childbirth. The situation was so dire that the delivery and subsequent health concerns of mother and child took several days. By the time her services were no longer needed, eight full days had gone by! When the midwife returned to her own home, however, she found that the fairy man had been true to his word. Her cattle never could have been better cared for.

Another fairy story from Skye comes to us from K.M. Briggs who published a few decades later, also in Folklore magazine. She received the story from the wife of a minister from the Isle of Skye.

As the story goes, a little boy and his sister had been left to stay with their grandmother while their mother went to nurse an ailing friend some distance away. A neighbor boy joined the pair to play.

After a pleasant afternoon of playing in the sunshine, the children began to feel tired and a little ornery. An elderly woman happened to call on the children’s grandmother. Now, this woman was known to be a “wise woman,” and had an idea about how to cheer them up.

Now, this wise woman took a liking to the children and asked if they would like to see something special. They replied that yes, they would, so she beckoned them to follow her. What happened next is reminiscent of Irish poet William Allingham’s most famous poem, The Fairies:

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men;The

Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather!

Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;

Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.

The Enchanted Piper by William Holmes Sullivan

The children followed the old woman down a winding path through a glen and over to a little burn. Following her instructions, the children held hands, the first with the wise woman and so on so that all four were connected. Then, they sat down beside the stream.

Suddenly, on the other side of the brook the children beheld an iridescent fire burning in twilight of the early evening. They couldn’t believe their eyes when fairies appeared around the fire! The fairies were bedecked all in green and danced merrily about the flames. When the children arrived by the very same burn the next day to show their friends, the fairies were nowhere to be seen.< br />
K.M. Briggs reveals that the little boy was the husband of the woman who told her this story. According to his wife, the minister reckoned it was the presence of the wise woman that allowed the children to see the fairies. By holding the hand of the witch, and all children connecting together in a line, the minister thought each child was able to tap into the energy or extra sense that the wise woman carried. For it was said among the villagers that this woman possessed the famous Celtic “second sight.”

The fairies of Skye turn up in the island’s beautiful landscape as well as its lore. There are many landmarks that are associated with tales of stories. And some that seem to have earned their association for their otherworldly appearance rather than any legend.

The fairy pools of Skye are one such example. These are naturally occurring pools typically under waterfalls, usually with very clear water, unique rock formations, and surrounded in vivid color. Since these pools have been an internet sensation, I did make an earnest attempt to find lore associated with them. Sadly, I was unable to. This in no way insinuates that none exists, simply that I could not locate it.

However, these pools are often graced with an abundance of minerals and decorated with beautiful blue-green algae which give them a reputation as places of healing.

An artist's rendition of the Fairy Pools of Skye, drawn by Vasilios Markousis.

This phenomenon is also seen with the holy wells all over Britain, Ireland, and Europe. These were typically fresh water springs with similar properties. In most cases, these wells and springs were sacred to pagans long before the Christianization of Europe. After conversion, however, the Church adopted them as holy wells.

A similar instance is seen in Bath. The famous hot springs of Bath are thought to have been a holy site to British pagans. The Romans, always one with a keen eye for opportunity, harnessed the natural heated mineral water when they built a traditional Roman bath around it.

Art by August Malmström

There are many more fairy stories from Skye, and I will be sure to share them with you in the future.

Please visit my writer’s page on Facebook to read more on the folklore of yester yore.

Works consulted:

Briggs, K. M. (1961). Some Late Accounts of the Fairies. Folklore, 72 (3), 509-519.

MacCulloch, Mary Julia (1922). Folk-Lore of the Isle of Skye. Folklore, 33 (2), 201-214.

Swire, Otta F. (1961). Skye: The Island and its Legends. London: Blackie & Son Limited.

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The Fairies’ Passage: Journeys of the Fae

Wed, 18 Feb 2015 18:16:09 GMT

Celtic folklore is rife with tales of the Fae. According to the lore, to avoid angering the fairies you should always refer to them by a euphemism, such as “the Good People.” The fairies can be friend or foe, though in Celtic folklore they are more often known for their trickery than in neighboring Germanic lore, where elves are quite helpful. Germanic lore did make its way to Lowland Scotland with the Anglo-Saxons. The stories of helpful Scottish brownies, who do chores around the house are analogous with other Germanic domestic elves such as the German kobold and Scandinavian Tomte. Fairies could travel in groups, known as trooping fairies, or be solitary figures, such as the leprechaun.

Common themes found in Celtic fairy lore includes being kidnapped by the fairies. This could happen to infants, typically in changeling stories. Adults could be “taken into the mounds” with the fairies, such as in Orkney’s trow tales, get caught up in a procession of trooping fairies, or stuck in a fairy dance for years. Another way in which Celtic fairies are more sinister than their Germanic counterparts is in the gifts they give.

In Germanic lore, we see many examples of elfin spirits giving gifts that seem worthless, such as a pile of dead leaves, but if the person has a good heart and values the gift, it will turn into something of great value. Celtic fairies tend to do the opposite, as we will see in the first story below.

Here I have for you two stories of fairy travels from Celtic folklore. This first story comes from The Irish Fairy Book, a collection of tales by various authors, edited by Alfred Perceval Graves. The book is undated, but it appears to be late 19th or early 20th century.

The Fairies’ Passage by James Clarence Magnon

Tap, tap, rap, rap! “Get up, gaffer Ferryman.”
“Eh! Who is there?” The clock strikes three.
“Get up, do, gaffer! You are the very man
We have been long, long, longing to see.”

The ferryman rises, growling and grumbling,
And goes fum-fumbling, and stumbling, and tumbling

Over the wares on his way to the door.
But he sees no more
Than he saw before,

Till a voice is heard: “O Ferryman, dear!
Here we are waiting, all of us, here.
We are a wee, wee colony, we;
Some two hundred in all, or three.
Ferry us over the River Lee

Ere dawn of day,
And we will pay
The most we may
In our own wee way!”

Illustration from The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Keightley, 1892

Illustratio by Frank Pape from the Diamond Fairy Book

“Who are you? Whence came you?
What place are you going to?”
“Oh, we have dwelt over-long in this land:
The people get cross, and are growing so knowing, too!
Nothing at all but they now understand.

We are daily vanishing under the thunder
Of some huge engine or iron wonder;
That iron—ah! it has entered our souls.”
“Your souls? O gholes!
You queer little drolls,

Do you mean ——?” “Good gaffer, do aid us with speed,
For our time, like our stature, is short indeed!

And a very long way we have to go:
Eight or ten thousand miles or so,
Hither and thither, and to and fro,

With our pots and pans
And little gold cans;
But our light caravans
Run swifter than man’s.”

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“Well, well, you may come,” said the ferryman affably;
“Patrick, turn out, and get ready the barge.”
Then again to the little folk: “Tho’ you seem laughably
Small, I don’t mind, if your coppers be large.”

Oh, dear! what a rushing, what pushing, what crushing
(The watermen making vain efforts at hushing

The hubbub the while), there followed these words!
What clapping of boards,
What strapping of cords,

What stowing away of children and wives,
And platters, and mugs, and spoons, and knives!

Till all had safely got into the boat,
And the ferryman, clad in his tip-top coat,
And his wee little fairies were safely afloat;

Then ding, ding, ding,
And kling, kling, kling,
How the coppers did ring
In the tin pitcherling!

John Anster Fitzgerald, "The Fairy's Barque"

Off, then, went the boat, at first very pleasantly,
Smoothly, and so forth; but after a while
It swayed and it swagged this and that way, and presently
Chest after chest, and pile after pile

Of the little folk’s goods began tossing and rolling,
And pitching like fun, beyond fairy controlling.
O Mab! if the hubbub were great before,
It was now some two or three million times more.

Crash! went the wee crocks and the clocks; and the locks
Of each little wee box were stove in by hard knocks;
And then there were oaths, and prayers, and cries:
“Take care!”—“See there!”—“Oh, dear, my eyes!”—
“I am killed!”—“I am drowned!”—with groans and sighs,

Till to land they drew.
“Yeo-ho! Pull to!
Tiller-rope, thro’ and thro’!”
And all’s right anew.

John Anster Fitzgerald (1819 – 1906), "The Wounded Squirrel"

“Now jump upon shore, ye queer little oddities.
(Eh, what is this?... Where are they, at all?
Where are they, and where are their tiny commodities?
Well, as I live!”....) He looks blank as a wall,

Poor ferryman! Round him and round him he gazes,
But only gets deeplier lost in the mazes

Of utter bewilderment. All, all are gone,
And he stands alone,
Like a statue of stone,

In a doldrum of wonder. He turns to steer,
And a tinkling laugh salutes his ear,

With other odd sounds: “Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Fol lol! zidzizzle! quee, quee! bah, bah!
Fizzigigiggidy! pshee! sha, sha!”

“O ye thieves, ye thieves, ye rascally thieves!”
The good man cries. He turns to his pitcher,
And there, alas, to his horror perceives
That the little folk’s mode of making him richer
Has been to pay him with withered leaves!

There were other reasons that humans might travel to the fairy world. Sometimes human wet-nurses were needed to nurse orphaned fairy babes. Fairies might travel to the human world for the love of a mortal, and likewise, humans might be lured to the lands of the fae for the same reason. In Celtic folklore it is possible for human/fairy romantic unions to not only occur, but to produce offspring. There are many tales from the Highlands and Islands of families who trace their lineage to a fairy maiden, a selkie, or a mermaid.

Our second tale is of a mortal man who falls in love with a fairy maiden and is beckoned to join her in Fairy Land. This story comes from another undated book called “Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales” edited by Joseph Jacobs.

Connla and the Fairy Maiden

Connla of the Fiery Hair was son of Conn of the Hundred Fights. One day as he stood by the side of his father on the height of Usna, he saw a maiden clad in strange attire towards him coming.

"Whence comest thou, maiden?" said Connla.

"I come from the Plains of the Ever Living," she said, "there where is neither death nor sin. There we keep holiday alway, nor need we help from any in our joy. And in all our pleasure we have no strife. And because we have our homes in the round green hills, men call us the Hill Folk."

The king and all with him wondered much to hear a voice when they saw no one. For save Connla alone, none saw the Fairy Maiden.

"To whom art thou talking, my son?" said Conn the king.

Connla and the Fairy Maiden, illustrated by John D. Batten

Then the maiden answered, "Connla speaks to a young, fair maid, whom neither death nor old age awaits. I love Connla, and now I call him away to the Plain of Pleasure, Moy Mell, where Boadag is king for aye, nor has there been sorrow or complaint in that land since he held the kingship. Oh, come with me, Connla of the Fiery Hair, ruddy as the dawn, with thy tawny skin. A fairy crown awaits thee to grace thy comely face and royal form. Come, and never shall thy comeliness fade, nor thy youth, till the last awful day of judgment."

The king in fear at what the maiden said, which he heard though he could not see her, called aloud to his Druid, Coran by name.

"O Coran of the many spells," he said, "and of the cunning magic, I call upon thy aid. A task is upon me too great for all my skill and wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized the kingship. A maiden unseen has met us, and by her power would take from me my dear, my comely son. If thou help not, he will be taken from thy king by woman's wiles and witchery."

Then Coran the Druid stood forth and chanted his spells towards the spot where the maiden's voice had been heard. And none heard her voice again, nor could Connla see her longer. Only as she vanished before the Druid's mighty spell, she threw an apple to Connla.

Illustration from Legends & Romances of Brittany by Lewis Spence, illustrated by W. Otway Cannell

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For a whole month from that day Connla would take nothing, either to eat or to drink, save only from that apple. But as he ate it grew again and always kept whole. And all the while there grew within him a mighty yearning and longing after the maiden he had seen.

But when the last day of the month of waiting came, Connla stood by the side of the king his father on the Plain of Arcomin, and again he saw the maiden come towards him, and again she spoke to him.

"'Tis a glorious place, forsooth, that Connla holds among shortlived mortals awaiting the day of death. But now the folk of life, the ever-living ones, beg and bid thee come to Moy Mell, the Plain of Pleasure, for they have learnt to know thee, seeing thee in thy home among thy dear ones."

When Conn the king heard the maiden's voice he called to his men aloud and said:

"Summon swift my Druid Coran, for I see she has again this day the power of speech."

Then the maiden said: "O mighty Conn, Fighter of a Hundred Fights, the Druid's power is little loved; it has little honour in the mighty land, peopled with so many of the upright. When the Law comes, it will do away with the Druid's magic spells that issue from the lips of the false black demon."

Then Conn the king observed that since the coming of the maiden Connla his son spoke to none that spake to him. So Conn of the Hundred Fights said to him, "Is it to thy mind what the woman says, my son?"

"'Tis hard upon me," said Connla; "I love my own folk above all things; but yet a longing seizes me for the maiden."

Illustration from Andrew Lang's The Olive Fairy Book, illustrated by H. J. Ford

When the maiden heard this, she answered and said: "The ocean is not so strong as the waves of thy longing. Come with me in my curragh, the gleaming, straight-gliding crystal canoe. Soon can we reach Boadag's realm. I see the bright sun sink, yet far as it is, we can reach it before dark. There is, too, another land worthy of thy journey, a land joyous to all that seek it. Only wives and maidens dwell there. If thou wilt, we can seek it and live there alone together in joy."

When the maiden ceased to speak, Connla of the Fiery Hair rushed away from his kinsmen and sprang into the curragh, the gleaming, straight-gliding crystal canoe. And then they all, king and court, saw it glide away over the bright sea towards the setting sun, away and away, till eye could see it no longer. So Connla and the Fairy Maiden went forth on the sea, and were no more seen, nor did any know whither they came.

The Feast - llustration by E. Stuart Hardy for The Book of Gnomes by Fred. E. Weatherly, 1895

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Riddles from 1778

Sat, 17 Jan 2015 20:37:18 GMT

As you know, I try to match this column to the monthly themes in Celtic Guide. But, given the nature of The Archivist’s Corner, wherein I search through antique and forgotten books, journals, poetry, etc., to bring you forgotten treasures from the past, I felt stumped as to what I could find for this month’s theme of “Mysteries.” Well, I was searching on the internet and I came across a book of riddles which seemed to match the theme, but it didn’t appear “Celtic” at all, so I almost dismissed it. But, then I happened to see the dedication on the title page which reads:

Compiled for the Use of
The Great and the Little
GOOD BOYS and GIRLS
In England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Well, there you have it. This book is for all you good little boys and girls with Celtic heritage. These riddles come from a book called “Food for the Mind: Or a New Riddle-Book,” published in 1778. It is credited to having been written by John-the-Giant-Killer, Esq. How fun! Pictures are provided in the book to help you solve the mysteries within these riddles. Quiz your friends and family and see who can guess these!

Four wings I have,
Which swiftly mount on high
On sturdy pinions,
Yet I never fly;
And tho' my body often moves around,
Upon the self-same spot
I'm always found;
And, like a nurse who chews the infants meat,
I chew for man before that he can eat.

The world I view in little space
I'm restless, ever changing place
Nothing I eat, but by my pow'r,
Procure what all mankind devour.

When mortals are involv'd in ills,
I sing with mournful voice;
If mirth their hearts in gladness fills,
I celebrate their joys.
And as the lark with warbling throat,
Ascends upon the wing;
So I lift up my chearful note,
And as I mount I sing.

A tall and slender shape I bear,
Nor lady's skin's more white or fair:
My life is short, and doth decay
So soon it seldom lasts a day.
If in the evening brought to light,
I make my exit in the night;
Yet to mankind I'm useful ever,
And many hidden things discover;
Which makes all those who round me tend,
Oft with a sigh lament my end.

In courts or cottages we may be found;
Our skirts with fringe of various dyes are bound;
And as we were by providence design'd,
A guard from harm t' a fav'rite applejoin'd.
We ne'er rove long, nor far asunder stray,
But meet and part a thousand times a day:
When dark, like loving couples, we unite,
And cuddle close together every night.

No twins could e'er with us compare,
So like in shape and size;
Our bodies are like ermin fair
As black as jet our eyes:
But tho' so like in ev'ry feature,
We rival brothers be;
Yet so obdurate is our nature,
We often disagree.
Sometimes we play the friendly part,
And sometimes act the foe;
Now transient happiness impart,
Then cause a future woe:
Thousands by us have curs'd their fate,
Plung'd in the gulph of sin;
Happy the youth who shuns the bait,
And dreads the fatal gin.

There was a thing a full month old,
When Adam was no more;
But 'ere that thing was five weeks old,
Adam was years five score.

We dwell in cottages of straw,
And labour much for little gains;
Sweet meat from us our masters draw,
And then with death reward our pains.

It foams without anger,
It flies without wings,
It cuts without edge,
And without tongue it sings.

I hope you enjoyed our little journey back to 1778. Now we know what our great-great-great-grandparents did for fun without T.V., eh? If you enjoyed this and want some more riddles to play with, it is available in full for free on Project Gutenberg.

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Christmas and Auld Lang Syne

Sun, 30 Nov 2014 21:00:04 GMT

What truly makes Christmas special are the traditions that we participate in year after year. Some customs are participated in by the wider culture, and others are unique to individual families.

One unique aspect of the Christmas holiday is that traditions travel. European-American Christmas traditions have been adopted by all corners of the world. And many diverse elements from different European cultures traversed great distances to make their mark in far away places.

Yet, even when a family lights up their German Christmas tree, awaits the jingling of Finnish sleigh bells, and gathers to sing the Scots song Auld Lang Syne, they will incorporate elements of their own cultural background into their Christmas feast.

An Italian-American family I knew well had been in America long enough to forget La Befana, the female witch who is the bringer of gifts in Italy, but not long enough to phase out three kinds of pasta dishes with home-made sauce and meatballs from their Christmas dinner.

My own family enjoyed a raison and cinnamon bread pudding inherited from the British side, and the children always received Advent calendars holding a surprise for each day leading up to Christmas from our German-American grandmother.

These traditions form the memories that are what bond us together within the family and within the wider culture. Auld Lang Syne, by Robert Burns captures this sentiment perfectly. It is a song that is sung by many, but understood by few. According to Merriman Webster’s dictionary, the phrase literally translates as “old long ago,” but the meaning is more accurately expressed by the modern phrase “the good old times” or “for old time’s sake.”

The song is most synonymous with New Year’s Eve, but is also sung at graduations, funerals, or any time we are looking backward with nostalgia. Due to the New Year’s connotation, the song has become a symbol of the holiday season and the joy of togetherness that the holidays bring.

While our modern lives become ever more fragmented and separated from what we once held dear, coming home for Christmas to spend time with loved ones really does evoke the emotion expressed in Robert Burns’ famous song.

As it was written in Lowland Scots dialect, a descent of the Anglo-Saxon language and cousin of English, both the original lyrics and a modern translation are provided below.

Burns’ Original Scots Version

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!
and surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae paidl’d i' the burn,
frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
and gie's a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Modern English Version (provided by Wikipedia)

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
and surely I’ll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give me a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Many customs from days gone by are no longer remembered by those in neither the New World nor the Old Country. By digging through antique folklore accounts, we can glimpse the world of our ancestors, and maybe find inspiration for new family traditions inspired by the old. A Folk-Lore Journal entry from 1886, by M. A. Courtney, describes holiday customs from Cornwall:

In Cornwall, as in the other English counties, the houses are at Christmas "dressed up" with evergreens, sold in small bunches, called " Penn'orths of Christmas"; and two hoops fastened one in the other by nails at the centres are gaily decorated with evergreens, apples, oranges, &c., and suspended from the middle beam in the ceiling of the best kitchen.

This is the "bush," or " kissing bush." At night a lighted candle is put in it, stuck on the bottom nail; but once or twice lately I have seen a Chinese lantern hanging from the top one. This is an innovation.

In a few remote districts on Christmas-eve children may be, after nightfall, occasionally (but rarely) found dancing -around painted lighted candles placed in a box of sand. This custom was very general fifty years ago.

When open chimneys were universal in farmhouses the Christmas stock, mock, or block (the log), on which a rude figure of a man had been chalked, was kindled with great ceremony; in some parts with a piece of a charred wood that had been saved from the last year's "block."

A log in Cornwall is almost always called a "block." "Throw a block on the fire." Candles painted by some member of the family were often lighted at the same time.

At the plentiful supper always provided on this night, egg-hot, or eggy-hot, was the principal drink.

It was made with eggs, hot beer, sugar, and rum, and was poured from one jug into another until it became quite white and covered with froth.

A sweet giblet pie was one of the standing dishes at a Christmas dinner-a kind of mince-pie, into which the giblets of a goose, boiled and finely chopped, were put instead of beef.

Cornwall is noted for its pies, that are eaten on all occasions; some of them are curious mixtures, such as squab-pie, which is made with layers of well-seasoned fat mutton and apples, with onions and raisins.

Mackerel pie: the ingredients of this are mackerel and parsley stewed in milk, then covered with a paste and baked.

When brought to table a hole is cut in the paste, and a basin of clotted cream thrown in it. Muggetty pie, made from sheep's entrails (muggets), parsley, and cream.

" The devil is afraid to come into Cornwall for fear of being baked in a pie."

This holiday season, start a new tradition that can be looked back on in years to come. And, keep your own family traditions alive… for auld lang syne.

*All images used in this article are from a poetry collection called "Christmas Sunshine" published in 1913 by the Hayes Lithographing Co. You can read it online or download here.

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Halloween Traditions From Yesteryore

Sun, 12 Oct 2014 03:20:47 GMT

Hello and welcome to the Archivist's Corner! This is a column dedicated to sharing interesting pieces of history that have buried in the archives of time. This column also runs in Celtic Guide magazine, a free web-based publication celebrating Celtic history and culture.

For this installment I bring you some Halloween related treasures from the past three centuries. I hope you enjoy these antique slices of history as much as I do. ~ Carolyn

Ye Olde Halloween Poetry

"Halloween" by Robert Burns

This is a poem written in 1785 by Scotland's famous poet, Robert Burns, called "Halloween." The version on the right contains notations made by Burns himself, "to enable his readers to understand it, he added valuable notes, explanatory of the charms and spells of this eventful night."

You can read the full poem in original Scots dialect with Burns' notes here on Google Books.

The poem is available in translation to contemporary English here from BBC, where you can also hear an audio recording of the poem.

"A Dream"

by William Allingham (d.1889)

I heard the dogs howl in the moonlight night;
I went to the window to see the sight;
All the Dead that ever I knew
Going one by one and two by two.

On they pass'd, and on they pass'd;
Townsfellows all, from first to last;
Born in the moonlight of the lane,
Quench'd in the heavy shadow again.

Schoolmates, marching as when we play'd
At soldiers once—but now more staid;
Those were the strangest sight to me
Who were drown'd, I knew, in the awful sea.

Straight and handsome folk; bent and weak, too;
Some that I loved, and gasp'd to speak to;
Some but a day in their churchyard bed;
Some that I had not known were dead.

A long, long crowd—where each seem'd lonely,
Yet of them all there was one, one only,
Raised a head or look'd my way.
She linger'd a moment,—she might not stay.

How long since I saw that fair pale face!
Ah! Mother dear! might I only place
My head on thy breast, a moment to rest,
While thy hand on my tearful cheek were prest!

On, on, a moving bridge they made
Across the moon-stream, from shade to shade,
Young and old, women and men;
Many long-forgot, but remember'd then.

And first there came a bitter laughter;
A sound of tears the moment after;
And then a music so lofty and gay,
That every morning, day by day,
I strive to recall it if I may.

One-Hundred Year Old Halloween Games

These games come from a book called "Games for Hallo-we'en" by Mary Blane, printed in 1912. Pay attention to the objects from daily life that are mentioned as props and prizes for the games, it really highlights how life has changed!

GAME OF FATE

Guests take part, seated in a circle. Three Fates are chosen, one of whom whispers to each person in turn name of his (her) future sweetheart.

Second Fate follows, whispering to each where he (she) will next meet his (her) sweetheart; as, "You will meet on a load of hay," or, "at a picnic," or, "at church," or, "on the river," etc.

The third Fate reveals the future; as, "You will marry him (her) next Christmas," or, "You will be separated many years by a quarrel, but will finally marry," or, "Neither of you will ever marry," etc.

Each guest must remember what is said by the Fates; then each in turn repeats aloud what has been told him (her). For example, "My future sweetheart's name is Obednego; I shall meet him next Wednesday on the Moonlight Excursion, and we shall be married in a week."

MELTING LEAD (for divination)

Each person melts some lead and pours it through a wedding-ring or key into a dish of water. The lead will cool in various shapes, supposed to be prophetic.
< br> Any ingenious person will interpret the shapes, and furnish much amusement for the listeners; thus, a bell-shaped drop indicates a wedding within a year; a drop resembling a torch or lamp signifies fame; a pen or ink-bottle, that the future companion is to be an author; a horn of plenty, wealth; a bag or trunk, travel; etc.

This is a game that may not be recommended today unless precautions are taken. However it is still played today in Germany where it is called Bleigiessen. Kits for lead casting for divination can be found on the German version of Amazon. Or, as a safer alternative, lead may be replaced with wax.

SHADOW BUFF

A splendid game, and one specially suitable for a large party. A sheet or white tablecloth is first of all stretched right across the room, and on a table behind it is placed a bright lamp.

All the other lights in the room are then extinguished, and one of the players takes a seat upon a low stool midway between the lamp and the sheet. The other players endeavor to disguise themselves as much as possible, by distorting their features, rumpling their hair, wearing wigs, false noses, etc., and pass one by one behind the player seated on the stool. Their shadows are thus thrown upon the sheet.

The aim of the seated player is to guess the identity of the shadows as they pass before him; and the aim of the others is to endeavor by every means in their power to keep him from recognizing them. As may be imagined, the task of the single player is not an easy one, the distorted shadows being vastly different from the originals as seen before the lights were extinguished.

HALLOW-E'EN SOUVENIR GAME

Suspend apples by means of strings in doorway or from ceiling at proper height to be caught between the teeth. First successful player receives prize.

These prizes should be Hallow-e'en souvenirs, such as emery cushions of silk representing tomatoes, radishes, apples, pears, pickles; or pen-wipers representing brooms, bats, cats, witches, etc.

APPLES AND FLOUR

Suspend horizontally from ceiling a stick three feet long. On one end stick an apple, upon other tie small bag of flour. Set stick whirling. Each guest takes turn in trying to bite apple-end of stick. It is amusing to see guests receive dabs of flour on face. Guest who first succeeds in biting apple gets prize.

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Olde World Accounts of Halloween

Wed, 08 Oct 2014 17:29:02 GMT

Halloween is a fun and festive time of year with roots going back to Old World tradition. While some traditions have faded away, others survived and are still practiced today. In the old days, both October 31s and November 1st were considered special days. Often the eve before a holiday was the time for raucous revelry while the next morning was the time for solemn church going. Thus, All Hallows Eve (or evening) became Hallowe’en, and then simply Halloween. Of course we know that before it was All Hallows, the celebration was called Samhain (pronounced sow-en), a Celtic pagan high day. For this edition of The Archivist’s Corner, your archivist has uncovered some antiquated accounts of Celtic Halloween customs for your reading pleasure.

A vintage Scottish Halloween card

Douglas Holms submitted his observations of Halloween customs in Britain and Ireland to the magazine Irish Monthly in October of 1910:

HALLOWE'EN is the eve of Hallowmas, All Saints' Day, November the First. Much beloved, we know, by the Scots, and provocative of haggis and whiskey, and other things to which no further reference will be made in this article. It used to be regarded as the occasion when witches and devils and other mischief-making beings were abroad on their baneful midnight errands, or (more pleasantly) one on which those aeronautic folk, the fairies, hold a grand anniversary and are unusually active and unusually propitious.

Fire, apples, nuts, loom large as propitiating instruments. In the North of England it was the custom to dive for apples, or catch at them, suspended from a string, with the mouth only, the hands being tied behind the back. In the burning of nuts, common to the North of England, Ireland and Scotland, propitious omens were sought, largely concerning matrimony. The custom is well described by the poet Gay in his spell:

Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame,
Anid to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name.

This with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd,
That in a flame of brightest colour blaz'd;

As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow,
For 'twas thy nut that did so brightly glow!

There was the custom common to Scotland and Wales of lighting fires. In some cases they collected the ashes from the consumed fire in the form of a circle. Then a stone was placed
near the circumference for every person of each family interested, and whatever stone was out of its place upon the next morning the person represented by that stone was said to be devoted of
"fey " and was supposed not to live another year.

And much more you may learn by diligent search among old world customs. " Soul-cakes," too, you ought to make and eat about this time, and perhaps you may lighten the lot of your ancestors in another place. But there, we are getting a little bit out of our depth!

Mary Julia MacCulloch explored Halloween customs on the Isle of Skye and mainland Scotland in an article in the journal Folklore, March 1923:

There are various festivals in the year breaking into the peaceful monotony of the crofters' existence, but the chief of these is Hallowe'en. I do not need to say that this is observed on the 31st of October, the eve of All Saints' Day. I do not also need to say that this Festival coincides with the New Year of the Ancient Celts, the time when the sun dies. It is little wonder that the sun was an object of adoration, for even now, on the broad moors, open and bare, there is little enough of him, and what must it have been when the land was covered with the forests which have helped to form the great peat bogs.

Before Hallowe'en in all the shops there is a great display of masks, or false faces, as they are more usually called in Scotland. This is in the village, for if the country people want them, they have to walk there for them. When the day comes, there is great preparation. All sorts of old garments are produced and there is great dressing up. This is not confined to children, for quite grown-up lads take part in it. On that night no door is closed against the " guisers." They walk into any house without knocking, and penetrate into its recesses.

I am told that in some parts the lads and young men get very riotous. There is great pulling up of cabbage stalks to see if the future partner for life is to be straight in mind and body. After these are pulled up, the youths run through the townships and play many rough pranks, throwing the cabbage stalks in at house doors, or at the windows which are frequently broken. They are even more daring than the town lads in their raids on combustibles to make the bonfires, and byres and stables are watched lest they be stripped of their woodwork.

< span style="">The girls visit the churchyard at midnight to try their fortune whether it is to be good or bad. Their future husband’s wraiths are expected to appear. Samhain (the Celtic New Year) is mainly observed in the Highlands, but echoes of it linger on in the Lowlands. Children, dressed up and with blackened faces, still come round to the doors of the houses. I wonder whether the masks are the survival of the disguising themselves as animals which was practised by the ancient Celts in the orgiastic rites at Samhain.

The children in Fife used to sing:

This is the nicht o' Hallowe'en
A' the witches are to be seen,

Some o' them black, an' some o' them green,
And some o' them like a randy queen!

Halloween Greeting Card featuring divination or scrying with a mirror, 1904

Last but not least, Ruth Edna Kelley published The Book of Hallowe'en in 1919. Unfortunately it presents some outdated misinformation, such as the notion that the Celts honored Middle Eastern god Ba’al on Samhain. Equating Northern European deities with Mediterranean gods was a common practice at the time but is discouraged by scholars today. However, the book describes some interesting Halloween customs from various Celtic regions and presents many traditional tales and poems. So, do I do recommend this book, but read it with a discerning eye. You can find it for free on Project Gutenberg. Without further ado, here is an excerpt featuring Irish Halloween customs:

Ireland has a literature of Hallowe'en, or "Samhain," as it used to be called. Most of it was written between the seventh and the twelfth centuries, but the events were thought to have happened while paganism still ruled in Ireland.

The evil powers that came out at Samhain lived the rest of the time in the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, the province which was given to the wicked Fomor after the battle of Moytura. This cave was called the "hell-gate of Ireland," and was unlocked on November Eve to let out spirits and copper-colored birds which killed the farm animals. They also stole babies, leaving in their place changelings, goblins who were old in wickedness while still in the cradle, possessing superhuman cunning and skill in music. One way of getting rid of these demon children was to ill-treat them so that their people would come for them, bringing the right ones back; or one might boil egg-shells in the sight of the changeling, who would declare his demon nature by saying that in his centuries of life he had never seen such a thing before.

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Even after Christianity was made the vital religion in Ireland, it was believed that places not exorcised by prayers and by the sign of the cross, were still haunted by Druids. As late as the fifth century the Druids kept their skill in fortune-telling. King Dathi got a Druid to foretell what would happen to him from one Hallowe'en to the next, and the prophecy came true. Their religion was now declared evil, and all evil or at any rate suspicious beings were assigned to them or to the devil as followers.

The power of fairy music was so great that St. Patrick himself was put to sleep by a minstrel who appeared to him on the day before Samhain. The Tuatha De Danann, angered at the renegade people who no longer did them honor, sent another minstrel, who after laying the ancient religious seat Tara under a twenty-three years' charm, burnedup the city with his fiery breath.

These infamous spirits dwelt in grassy mounds, called "forts," which were the entrances to underground palaces full of treasure, where was always music and dancing. These treasure-houses were open only on November Eve.

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Celebrating Autumn with Poetry from the Romantic Era

Sun, 21 Sep 2014 19:57:32 GMT

Since the theme for Celtic Guide's September issue is ‘The Harvest,’ I thought it would be fitting to highlight some poems by writers of the British Romantic movement. The Romantic Era had its origins in the early 19th century, but it reached its peak between 1850-1900. It was largely considered to be a reaction to, and to some extent a rejection of, the preceding Enlightenment Era. The Enlightenment brought with it the Scientific Revolution and the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. In a recent article about the discipline of folklore (Celtic Guide, June 2014), I mentioned that one detriment of these movements was the backlash against folk customs. Because the emphasis was on science and progress, country customs were often seen as backward. The Romantic Movement coincided with the birth of folklore as an academic discipline. Both folklorists and Romantic Era writers sought to press the pause button on this fast paced rush into the future.

Moonlit Landscape by Caspar David Friedrich

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While the Romantic Movement was widespread across both Europe and America, there were differences in how it manifested. Gothic literature proliferated during this period. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, published in 1818, is one such example. While it is considered by many to be a horror story, in actuality it was a piece of social commentary about the advancements in science and medicine. Just as we see science fiction exploring our fears about cloning, or about androids with artificial intelligence taking over humanity, Frankenstein expressed the fears of the rapid advancement of science in the 19th century.

A view of Manchester during the Industrial Revolution. By William Wyld, 1852

Another major theme of Romantic writers was the celebration of nature. This was especially true of the British Romanitics, such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake, and John Clare. Industrialization brought changes that were w orrisome. Advancements in farming made agriculture more effective, requiring less man power, so country folk moved to the cities in droves looking for work. Nature and wildlife took a back seat to profit making ventures. The rise in scientific thought had taken away the element of the wonder and magic of nature, as it was viewed in a rational and clinical way.

Just as folklorists took society by the shoulders and reminded it to see the value in the stories and customs of its people, the Romantics reminded the world to see the value in the land where these stories and customs were birthed. So, while this issue celebrates Autumn, the season of the harvest, let us enjoy the poetry of some of History’s greatest bards.

Helmingham Dell by John Constable

All Nature Has a Feeling

By John Clare, 1845

All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal: and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books;
There's nothing mortal in them; their decay
Is the green life of change; to pass away
And come again in blooms revivified.
Its birth was heaven, eternal it its stay,
And with the sun and moon shall still abide
Beneath their day and night and heaven wide.

The Voyage of Life Childhood by Cole Thomas, 1842

On the Grasshopper and Cricket

By John Keats, 1816

The Poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead
In summer luxury,—he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
    Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
    The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

Grasshopper" - painting by Cindy Chinn

To Autumn

By John Keats, 1819

1.

    Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
        Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
    Conspiring with him how to load and bless
        With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
    To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
        And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
            To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
    With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
        And still more, later flowers for the bees,
        Until they think warm days will never cease,
            For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

2.

    Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
        Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
    Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
        Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
    Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound sleep,
        Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
            Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
    And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
        Steady thy laden head across a brook;
        Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
            Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

3.

    Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
        Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
    While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
        And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
    Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
        Among the river sallows, borne aloft
            Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
    And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
        Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
        The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
           And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Autumn, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1573.

To Autumn

By William Blake, 1769

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stainèd
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may'st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.
`The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust'ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather'd clouds strew flowers round her head.

`The spirits of the air live on the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.'
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat;
Then rose, girded himself, and o'er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.

Photo by Jean-Pol Grandmot - Wikimedia Commons

The Solitary Reaper

By William Wordsworth, 1805

Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Vintage postcard of a female reaper in the fields

English Woman with Scythe by Henry_Bacon

Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;—
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

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William Butler Yeats, Irish Poet and Patriot

Thu, 03 Jul 2014 18:04:00 GMT

Since Celtic Guide’s July issue is themed “Heritage,” I have chosen a Celtic poet who really embodies the essence of that word, William Butler Yeats. Hailing from Ireland, Yeats truly embraced his native culture with pride and a strong sense of patriotism.

William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin in 1865 to an Anglo-Irish family. It has been noted that the Anglo-Irish in Ireland at the time were separated from the majority of the Irish due to their English background and Protestant religion. As such, many of the people within this group identified as English people who were born as Ireland. Yeats, however, remained staunchly resolute throughout his life that he was an Irish national by birth, and proud to be one.

William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939), Irish poet and dramatist, in 1920.

As a lawyer, Yeats’ father was able to provide his son with a proper education, and he studied in both Dublin and London. While he reveled in the arts and theatre society in London, young William never forgot his Irish roots. In fact, he was active in Irish literary societies which aimed to bring attention to Ireland’s great literary tradition. Yeats also befriended the famous Lady Gregory, who was one of the earliest folklorists, collecting and publishing Irish folk tales. Together they founded the Irish Theatre (the name was later changed to Abbey Theatre).

In 1917, Yeats married the much younger Georgie Hyde-Lees. It seems to have been a rushed marriage, and one that Yeats had long standing reservations about.

Portrait of Lady Gregory, ca. 1912

W. B. Yeats and his much younger bride, Georgie Hyde-Lees

Yet, he was in his 50s and determined to produce an air. Together, Georgie and William delved into the occult and began experimenting with automatic writing, claiming to be in contact with numerous spirits and guides. Yeats found this to be exceptionally inspirational and said in letters that it had a profound positive impact on his writing.

William Butler Yeats in 1933

Largely considered to be one of the greatest poets of his age, Yeats was rewarded for his efforts with a Nobel Prize for Literature. Ironically, the prize was awarded for his plays, and he would continue on to write his most admired poetry in the years after becoming a Nobel laureate.

In his later years, Yeats achieved yet more status when he was appointed to two terms in the Irish senate. Due to his strong way with words, Yeats delivered many speeches that gave voice to Irish Protestants, particularly on the issue of the legality of divorce. The Catholic Church’s refusal to engage in an honest debate and dig in their heels with the position that divorce should remain difficult to obtain, and that divorce parties are banned from remarriage, incensed Yeats. This was a turning point for him, and he decided to begin addressing religion head on.

William Butler Yeats died in 1939 in a small hotel room in the South of France after dealing with multiple illnesses for many years. He was surrounded by not only his wife, but also a mistress and yet another woman with whom he had a romantic history. These women were his muses who energized his creativity, and they kept constant vigils by his bedside. Before his death he left instructions to be buried nearby without fuss, but that his body should be exhumed quietly when the newspapers have forgotten him, to be placed to rest in County Sligo.

Countryside view of County Sligo, photo by Brian Herrity on Wikimedia Commons

THE FIDDLER OF DOONEY

When I play on my fiddle in Dooney,
Folk dance like a wave of the sea;
My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet,
My brother in Moharabuiee.

I passed my brother and cousin:
They read in their books of prayer;
I read in my book of songs
I bought at the Sligo fair.

When we come at the end of time,
To Peter sitting in state,
He will smile on the three old spirits,
But call me first through the gate;

For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle
And the merry love to dance:

And when the folk there spy me,
They will all come up to me,
With 'Here is the fiddler of Dooney!'
And dance like a wave of the sea.

An Irish fiddler. Art by Martin Driscoll, www.martindriscoll.com.

The New York Times included an excerpt from Yeats "The Shadowy Waters," written in 1900, in his obituary:

Could we but give us wholly to the dreams,
And get into their world that to the sense
Is shadow, and not linger wretchedly
Among substantial things.

Below are four poems by William Butler Yeats, selected for their cultural representation of Ireland, the land he loved so much.

IN THE SEVEN WOODS.

I have heard the pigeons of the Seven Woods
Make their faint thunder, and the garden bees
Hum in the lime tree flowers; and put away
The unavailing outcries and the old bitterness
That empty the heart. I have forgot awhile
Tara uprooted, and new commonness
Upon the throne and crying about the streets
And hanging its paper flowers from post to post,
Because it is alone of all things happy.
I am contented for I know that Quiet
Wanders laughing and eating her wild heart
Among pigeons and bees, while that Great Archer,
Who but awaits His hour to shoot, still hangs
A cloudy quiver over Parc-na-Lee.

- August, 1902.

Lush forest scenery in Killarney Park, Ireland. Photo by Nicolas Raymond.

THE SONG OF RED HANRAHAN

The old brown thorn trees break in two high over Cummen Strand
Under a bitter black wind that blows from the left hand,
Our courage breaks like an old tree in a black wind and dies;
But we have hidden in our hearts the flame out of the eyes
Of Cathleen the daughter of Houlihan.

The wind has bundled up the clouds high over Knocknarea
And thrown the thunder on the stones for all that Maeve can say.
Angers that are like noisy clouds have set our hearts abeat;
But we have all bent low and low and kissed the quiet feet
Of Cathleen the daughter of Houlihan.

The yellow pool has overflowed high up on Clooth-na-Bare,
For the wet winds are blowing out of the clinging air;
Like heavy flooded waters our bodies and our blood;
But purer than a tall candle before the Holy Rood
Is Cathleen the daughter of Houlihan.

Lady Lavery as Cathleen Ni Houlihan, by John Lavery

THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

Golden apple tree, art by Arthur Rackham

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Sacred Wells and Wishing Trees

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 23:25:02 GMT

Trees and wells have been places of wonder, wishes, offerings, and miracles in Britain since time immemorial. In many cases we can only speculate how long folk customs have been occurring. Northern and Central Europeans did not leave written records, apart from pictograms, sparse runic inscriptions or ogham carvings. Add to that, previous generations used materials that erode or decay. The point is that just because there is no record in no way implies something did not occur. But on the same token, it cannot very well be argued that it did occur unless there is hard evidence. This is the conundrum of the historian, but also of the folklorist who studies both lore and folk practices.

A well in Brockweir, in the Wye Valley, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. Photo by Gillian Smith, used with permission.

In some cases we can date a folk practice to “at least as far back as” a certain date because it was mentioned in an historical document. One example of this was explored in my article for Celtic Guide’s December 2013 issue, The Hidden History of Christmas Carols. I explained that dating the origin of Christmas Carols is difficult. Many historians have claimed a 14th century origin because the oldest carols we know of date from this time. However, there are Church edicts denouncing caroling dating to the 7th century A. D. So, although we do not have any examples of carols before the 14th century, we know that they were being sung due to the fact that they were banned by the Church. But, of course, this doesn’t give us a hint as to when they actually originated.

Ribbon tree at St. Nectan's Glen, near Tintagel, Cornwall. Photo by Shane Broderick, used with permission

The same is true with many folk customs in Europe. Sometimes an historian or folklorist may make conjectures about a custom due to its similarities to other customs with known dates. We also know that some customs held significance in the pagan era because the Church mimicked them during the conversion process. This was no coincidence, but a direct order coming straight from the top. In the late 6th century A.D. Pope Gregory I wrote a letter to Abbot Mellitus stating the following:

Tell Augustine that he should be no means destroy the temples of the gods but rather the idols within those temples. Let him, after he has purified them with holy water, place altars and relics of the saints in them. For, if those temples are well built, they should be converted from the worship of demons to the service of the true God…

The healing well Ffynnon Sara, meaning Sara's Well, found in Denbighshire, north-east Wales. Photo by Gillian Smith, used with permission.

Because we know that places in nature were used as places of worship, healing, and divination in pre-Christian Europe, and we know that the Church made a concerted effort to transition pagan holy places into Christian ones, many scholars and folklorists took it as a natural assumption that holy wells were formerly pagan sacred sites. That assumption has been countered by some, however. It has been noted that water holds significant symbolic meaning within the Christian religion independently of any pagan influence. Wells and springs were often places of baptism. And the Bible is full of references to water in both the Old and New Testiments as a symbol of purity and conduit of the Holy Spirit. Professor Ronald Hutton points out in his book Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles that the evidence for pre-Christian use of holy wells is scant. But, as we have already noted above, that does not disprove its occurrence. And, Dr. Hutton has often been criticized for being overly eager to dismiss evidence.

The walkway to St Kenelm's Well, near Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. Photo by Polly Jones, used with permission.

The aim of this column is not to dissect history, but rather to present slices of it. So with that somewhat lengthy introduction, for this edition of The Archivist’s Corner, I’d like to present holy wells and the folk practice of hanging bits of cloth on neighboring trees. To explain this practice, I will share sections from old folklore journals around the turn of the 19th century. To illustrate, I have been given photos from friends who have visited holy wells around Britain. It is interesting to note that in some of these texts written over 100 years ago, the authors marveled that these age old practices were still occurring at the time of writing. And, as we can see by the photos taken 100 years later, they still are!

*note* Ellipses indicate that a portion has been skipped between quoted statements.

From “Pin-Wells and Rag-Bushes” by E. Sidney Hartland, published in Folklore, Dec. 1893:

The customs of throwing pins into sacred wells and of tying rags to bushes, especially to bushes growing about sacred wells, have exercised students of folk-lore ever since folk-lore came to be studied… During the last year or two it has been brought into prominence by the enquiries of Professor Dr. Rhys in Wales and the Isle of Man; and he has discussed it with the Folk-lore Society… I take them from Professor Rhys' paper, read before a joint meeting of the Cymmrodorion and Folk-lore Societies, on the 11th January 1893. He quotes a correspondent as saying of Ffynnon Cae Moch, about halfway between Coychurch and Bridgend in Glamorganshire: "People suffering from rheumatism go there. They bathe the part affected with water, and afterwards tie a piece of rag to the tree which overhangs the well. The rag is not put in the water at all, but is only put on the tree for luck. It is a stunted but very old tree, and is simply covered with rags."

In another case, that of Ffynnon Eilian (Elian's Well), near Abergele in Denbighshire, of which Professor Rhys was informed by Mrs. Evans, the late wife of Canon Silvan Evans, some bushes near the well had once been covered with bits of rag left by those who frequented it. The rags used to be tied to the bushes by means of wool-not woollen yarn, but wool in its natural state. Corks with pins stuck in them were floating in the well when Mrs. Evans visited it, though the rags had apparently disappeared from the bushes. The well in question, it is noted, had once been in great repute as "a well to which people resorted for the kindly purpose of bewitching those whom they hated".

Pin-wells and Rag-bushes are found all over the British Isles. The observances, however, are not confined to the exact form described by Professor Rhys and his correspondents. Sir Arthur Mitchell mentions a well renowned for the cure of insanity on the island of Maelrubha in Loch Maree. Near the well is an oak tree covered with nails, to each of which was formerly attached a portion of the clothing of an afflicted person who had been brought thither; and a few ribbons are said to be still flying from one or two of them. Two gilt buttons and two buckles are also nailed to the tree.

Rag tree next to St Kenelm's Well. Photo by Polly Jones, used with permission.

The well at Brockweir, photo by Gillian Smith, used by permission.

A tree with coins driven into the trunk beside the holy well at St. Nectan's Glen. Photo by Shane Broderick, used with permission.

From “Sacred Wells in Wales” by John Rhys and T. E. Morris, published in Folklore, March 1893:

When I suggested, some time ago, that I did not know that the habit of tying rags and bits of clothing to the branches of a tree growing near a holy well existed in Wales, I was, as I have discovered since, talking in an ignorance for which I can now find no adequate excuse. For I have since then obtained information to the contrary; the first item being a communication received last June from Mr. J. H. Davies of Lincoln College, Oxford, relating to a Glamorganshire holy well, situated near the pathway leading from Coychurch to Bridgend. It is the custom there, he states, for people suffering from any malady to dip a rag in the water, and to bathe the affected part of the body, the rag being then placed on a tree close to the well. When Mr. Davies passed that way, some three years previously, there were, he adds, hundreds of such shreds on the tree, some of which distinctly presented the appearance of having been placed there very recently… It is within twelve or fifteen yards of the high road, just where the pathway begins. People suffering from rheumatism go there. They bathe the part affected with water, and afterwards tie a piece of rag to the tree which overhangs the well. The rag is not put in the water at all, but is only put on the tree for luck. It is a stunted, but very old tree, and is simply covered with rags."

Close up of the coins driven into the tree at St Nectan's Well. Photo by Shane Broderick, used with permission.

From “Water and Well-Worship in Man” by A. W. Moore and John F. Terry, published in Folklore, Sept. 1894:

I have entitled my paper "Water and Well-Worship", as I am persuaded that the superstitious use of wells in Man, which cannot be said to be quite extinct even now, had its origin in the worship of water generally, and I think that I can show that this has been the case from still existing superstitions. Water, like earth and fire, was doubtless once worshipped as an animate being having powers which it might exercise either beneficially or the reverse, and it was therefore considered desirable to propitiate it by adoration…

Let us now inquire what were the objects for which the Manx visited these wells, by what ritual they sought to attain these objects, and what was the meaning of this ritual. The objects were mainly the cure of diseases, but also the acquiring of charms for protection against witches and fairies, and, generally, the securing good luck. The usual ritual was to walk round the wells one or more times sunways, to drink the water, to wet a fragment of their clothing with it, and to attach this fragment to any tree or bush that happened to be near the wells. Then to drop pins, pebbles, beads, or buttons into them, and to repeat a prayer in which they mentioned their ailments. Such was the ritual for the cure of diseases.

When the wells were visited for the other purposes mentioned, the only difference in the ritual was that the rags were dispensed with. As regards its meaning, it may be considered certain that, though the rags were occasionally offerings, they were not so in all cases, but were "vehicles of the diseases which the patients communicate to them when they spit the well-water from their mouths". This view is strengthened by the fact that it was supposed that anyone who was rash enough to take away a rag thus deposited would be sure to catch the disease communicated to it by the person who left it. It was thought that when the rag had rotted away the disease would depart. In fact, the process of reasoning was the same as with regard to many charms… As regards the pins, coins, beads, and buttons, I believe that they also were formerly vehicles of disease, but they are now invariably considered to be offerings.

Berkswell in Warwickshire. Photo by Polly Jones, used with permission.

Another shot of the well at Berkswell, by Polly Jones, used with permission.

The well at Brockweir, by Gillian Smith, used with permission.

Another shot of Ffynnon Sara in Wales, by Gillian Smith, used with permission.

More ribbons in the trees at St Kenelm's Well. Photo by Polly Jones, used with permission.

“Sacred Wells,” a letter to the editor, published in Folklore, Dec. 1908

Nov. 9th, 1908.

SIR,-In Miss Eva Simpson's recently published book on Lowland folk-lore of Scotland there is a reference to the old practice of lovers going to a sacred well on the first of May and cutting their names or initials in the turf near the spring. The particular well quoted by Miss Simpson (from Dr. Gregor, I think) is that of St. Fittick, near the Bay of Nigg, just to the south of Aberdeen. It appears that the same custom was observed in this parish, when, on the first Sunday of May, large contingents of youths made their way up the hill of Craigour to Redbeard's Well, where they first drank of the waters, particularly "the cream of the well" (it is a chalybeate spring), and then cut their "letters" on the turf, at least one old lady of my acquaintance had her name so inscribed 70 years ago. She is now 86. I fail to find much reference to this peculiar observance in the copies of "Folk-lore" accessible here. Perhaps, however, you may have it fully treated of.

A. MACDONALD.

Crossroad School, Durris, by Aberdeen.

I hope you enjoyed these snippets from old folklorists’ observations. What I found very interesting is that in the late 1800s and early 1900s these writers were amazed to see these folk practices still alive. How surprised would they be if we could bring them to our own time and show them that many of these traditions are still alive and well over one hundred years later! With so much talk about the loss of tradition, it really does this folklore writer’s heart good to be able to tell you that some traditions die hard. One thing I especially love about Britain and Ireland is that they hold their folkways dear to their heart. And, that is one reason that their kin living abroad hold them so very dear to our own hearts.

Special thanks to Gillian Smith, Polly Jones, and Shane Broderick!

You can see more of their own work on Gillian's Archaeology Group's Facebook page, Polly's website and the Facebook page for her writing, and Shane's photography Facebook page :-)

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Traditional Clothing of Scottish Women

Wed, 07 May 2014 20:18:03 GMT

Scottish traditional dress is admired the world round. Indeed, Tartan Day celebrates Scottish heritage each year in April in the U.S. and Canada, while Australia and New Zealand celebrate it in July. Individual tartans are identified with different Scottish clans, and we when we hear the word “tartan,” the first image that comes to mind is the famed Scottish kilt. Perhaps it is because the kilt is so unique among modern men’s clothing that it has been the object of such fascination while traditional Scottish women’s clothing is often marginalized as a footnote. Well, this edition of the Archivist’s Corner is turning the tables! Kilt, step aside! Your Archivist has dug through the annals of time to uncover paintings, drawing, and written observations of traditional Scottish women’s apparel from roughly the 18th through the early 20th centuries.

Unlike Scottish men, dress of Scottish women was not much different than the costumes of women in neighboring England and Ireland, as well as on the European continent. But, they did have some distinctive pieces of clothing. So what would the kilt’s equivalent be for women? One traditional item worn by many Highland women is the arisaid, or earasaid. In his book, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, 1703, author Martin Martin described the dress he observed in the western Scottish islands:

"The ancient dress wore by the women… is called arisad, is a white plaid, having a few small stripes of black, blue and red; it reached from the neck to the heels, and was tied before on the breast with a buckle of silver or brass, according to the quality of the person. I have seen some of the former of an hundred marks value; it was broad as any ordinary pewter plate, the whole curiously engraven with various animals etc.

R.R. McIan, The Clans of the Scottish Highlands (1845)

There was a lesser buckle which was wore in the middle of the larger, and above two ounces weight; it had in the centre a large piece of crystal, or some finer stone, and this was set all around with several finer stones of a lesser size. The plaid being pleated all round, was tied with a belt below the breast; the belt was of leather, and several pieces of silver intermixed with the leather like a chain. The lower end of the belt has a piece of plate about eight inches long, and three in breadth, curiously engraven; the end of which was adorned with fine stones, or pieces of red coral. They wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, closed at the end as men's vests, with gold lace round them, having plate buttons with fine stones. The head dress was a fine kerchief of linen strait (tight) about the head, hanging down the back taper-wise; a large lock of hair hangs down their cheeks above their breast, the lower end tied with a knot of ribbands."

R. R. McIan - The Highlanders at Home (1848)

Tartan was not always the pattern worn on the arisaid. Often the cloth was plain or striped, and it seems to have varied by region and by clan. The kertch (in Gaelic - breid caol) was a head dress worn by married women in some regions, while unmarried women often wore a snood, which was a ribbon wrapped about the head which allowed the hair to flow more freely. Regarding tartan patterns on women’s dress, another observer, William Sachceverell, wrote in 1668:

“The usual habit of both sexes is the pladd; the women’s much finer, the colours more lively, and the square much larger than the men’s, and put me in the mind of the ancient Picts. This serves them for a veil and covers both head and body.”

Detail from David Allan's "Scottish Highland Family" (late 18th c) - Note the striped kertch on the head of the woman on the left

In 1754 Edward Burt wrote about the ladies he observed in Inverness:

“The plaid is the undress of the ladies at Inverness and to a genteel woman who adjusts it with a good air, is a becoming veil. But as I am pretty sure you never saw one of them in England, I shall employ a few words to describe it to you. It is made of silk or fine worsted, chequered with various lively colours, two breadths wide, and three yards in length; it is brought over the head, and may hide or discover the face according to the wearer’s fancy or occasion: it reaches to the waist behind; one corner as low as the ancle on one side; and the other part in folds hangs down from the opposite arm.”

“The ordinary girls wear nothing upon their heads until they are married or get a child, except sometimes a fillet of red or blue coarse cloth, of which they are very proud; but often their hair hangs down over the forehead, like that of a wild colt.”

R.R. McIan, The Clans of the Scottish Highlands (1845)

Head coverings, shoulder wrappings, and dresses worn by Scottish women varied by period and by region. Tartan was certainly known as a Scottish trait, but it seems to have grown in popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries during periods of rising interest in national pride of heritage. Surprisingly, the history of the kilt only dates back only to the late 16th century. Tartan, however, was being produced by Celts centuries before that. There is evidence of cloth in a pattern similar to tartan being produced by Celts as far back as the Halstatt Culture in Central Europe as early as the 8th to 6th centuries BC. Yet the tartans of Scotland that we all know and love is not known to have been produced in Scotland until approximately the same era that kilts are thought to have originated.

R. R. McIan - The Highlanders at Home (1848)

Early forms of Scottish tartan could be as simple as stripes or a checkered pattern. Association of tartan with clans grew as Scotland faced rising oppression at the hands of the British monarchy. In 1746 King George II imposed the “dress act” in a move to suppress all forms of Highland dress, which had begun to be associated with the Jacobite movement. This coincided with the rise and growing importance of Scottish clans.

Scottish Peasant Women by James Ward (1759-1869)

Once the Jacobite rebellion was no longer a threat, Highland dress began to be romanticized and the ban was repealed in 1782. Indeed, the Romantic Era had begun, which spawned art, literature, and poetry throughout the West. In Scotland this movement was represented by the likes of Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. So, if adver sity, oppression, and the need to form solidarity and unified national front brought Highland dress to represent Scottish identity, then the Romantic Era solidified it. From that point on, the tartan, for both men and women, was here to stay.

R. R. McIan - The Highlanders at Home (1848)

It seems that from that period forward, the kilt was raised to precedence as the symbol to represent Scottish culture. But where does that leave Scottish women? It was not until the 19th century that women began nudging their way forward to claim their place in representing their country through dress. Their ticket to ride? Scottish Dance.

The sword dance is known to have been practiced in many parts of Europe dating to prehistoric times. It was originally associated with warriors, and therefore primarily associated with men. There is a record of this type of dance in Scotland written in 1440 about an event that occurred in 1285. Mentioned in the account are pipe players and sword dancers.

Early female sword dancers

Margaret Fraser in her role as Stella D'Aubigny in "A Runaway Girl" donning the man's costume of a Gordon Highlander

The Highland Dance proved to be a leveler between the sexes in not only athletic capabilities and dancing talent. It was also an arena that allowed women to assert their right to wear distinctive Scottish dress. Early 19th century women’s dance attire consisted of quite long tartan skirts. As hemlines in general shortened, so did the hemlines in Highland Dance costumes.

Later, in 1573, a band of Scottish warriors are reported to perform a sword dance before the Swedish king. So, while this type of dance may have been performed by many different groups, the evidence shows that the Scots have a long tradition of their own unique brand. The tradition survived into modern times and continues to be practiced at Highland games worldwide.

While men proudly danced about their swords, women were traditionally resigned to “social dancing” until one bold young woman stepped forward to compete against the men. Her name was Lorna Mitchell, and she danced at a time when women’s rights movements were picking up traction in Great Britain and the United States. Since there was no rule explicitly prohibiting women from taking part, she could not be denied entry. From that moment on, women have been competing in ever greater numbers in the Highland Dance portion of the Highland Games wherever they are held.

Jean Reynolds, 1955, dancing in a man's kilt

By the early to mid-20th centuries, a debate began to rage about whether or not women should be allowed to dance in the kilt and jacket. Indeed, the man’s Highland attire was now being worn by some female dancers.

However, a more feminine outfit that emphasizes Scottish identity without denying women their own sphere separate from men was designed.

Hence the “kilted skirt,” which is tartan skirt very similar in length and style to the traditional man’s kilt, began to gain popularity not only among female Highland dancers, but among all women of Scottish descent.

Jean Reynolds in a woman's longer skirt and blouse

Highland Sword Dancing wearing ghillies, photo by JFPerry on Wikimedia Commons

It would be remiss to end this column without mentioning the shoes which are identified traditionally with Scottish Highland Dance: ghillies.

Ghillies are a type shoe used on Irish and Scottish dance. They are made of supple, soft leather, so that they mold to the curvature of the foot. They are quite similar to ballet slippers, with the main difference being in the style of appearance and mode of lacing.

Ghillies look quite reminiscent of early medieval leather shoes, and they are worn by women in both Scottish and Irish dance, as well as by men in Highland dancing.

Marilyn White of Cape Breton Island, dancing competitor at the annual Hightland Gathering

I hope this exploration has been interesting, and I look forward to digging out some more hidden tidbits from the past for you again soon, in the next edition of The Archivist’s Corner.

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Scottish Love Ballads

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 18:09:45 GMT

For this edition, being the month of February, I’d like to share some old Scottish love ballads with you. However, these are not the epitome of what we would consider romantic today! But, they depict true emotion, and maybe a strong dose of heartache, while also giving a glimpse of a world gone by.

The first one I’d like to share is called Barbara Allen. The song originates as far back as the mid-17th century, and possibly much earlier. Its earliest known reference is from the diary of one Samuel Pepys, dated 1666. It was later published in London in 1690 under the name “Barbara Allen’s Cruelty.” Apparently, both the Scots and the English claimed ownership of the song, or at least of different versions of it. However, since the earliest reference calls it a “little Scotch song,” that is good enough for me.

Barbara Allen

In Scarlet town where I was born
There was a fair maid dwelling
And every youth cried well away
For her name was Barbara Allen

Twas in the merry month of May
The green buds were a swelling
Sweet William on his deathbed lay
For the l ove of Barbara Allen

He sent a servant unto her
To the place she was dwelling
Saying you must come to his deathbed now
If your name be Barbara Allen

Slowly slowly she got up
Slowly slowly she came nigh him
And the only words to him she said
Young man I think you're dying

As she was walking oer the fields
She heard the death bell knelling
And every stroke it seemed to say
Hardhearted Barbara Allen

Oh mother mother make my bed
Make it long and make it narrow
Sweet William died for me today
I'll die for him tomorrow

Barbara Allen illustration by Henry Brock, 1934

They buried her in the old churchyard
They buried him in the choir
And from his grave grew a red red rose
From her grave a green briar

They grew and grew to the steeple top
Till they could grow no higher
And there they twined in a true love's knot
Red rose around green briar

This next ballad comes from the Orkney Islands. It was recorded during the great age of folklore in the 19th century, but again is likely far older. There are many variations on this song, and one mentions that the woman in the story is from Norway. It’s about a young Orcadian lass who falls for a Selkie man and bears him a son, only to see the father of her child disappear back into the sea. He later returns as a grey seal and takes her son back to the water with him. The woman later marries a man who happens to be a hunter… of seals. You see where this is going…

The Great Selchie of Sule Skerry

I heard a mother lull her bairn,
and aye she rocked, and aye she sang.
She took so hard upon the verse
that the heart within her body rang.

"O, cradle row, and cradle go,
and aye sleep well, my bairn within;
I ken not who thy father is,
nor yet the land that he dwells in."

And up then spake a grey selchie
as aye he woke her from her sleep,
"I'll tell where thy bairn's father is:
he's sittin' close by thy bed feet.

Faroese stamp, The Seal Woman

"Upon the skerry is thy son;
upon the skerry lieth he.
Sin thou would see thine ain young son,
now is the time tae speak wi' he."

"But how shall I my young son know
when thou ha' ta'en him far frae me?"
"The one who wears the chain o' gowd,
`mang a' the selchies shall be he.

"And thou will get a hunter good,
and a richt fine hunter I'm sure he'll be;
and the first ae shot that e'er he shoots
will kill baith my young son and me."

Selkie stamp issued by the Faroe Islands

"I am a man upon the land;
I am a selchie on the sea,
and when I'm far frae ev'ry strand,
my dwelling is in Sule Skerry.

"And foster well my wee young son,
aye for a twal'month and a day,
and when that twal'month's fairly done,
I'll come and pay the nourice fee."

And when that weary twal'month gaed,
he's come tae pay the nourice fee;
he had ae coffer fu' o' gowd,
and anither fu' o'the white money

Faroese Stamp depicting a Selkie legend

This last ballad is called “Fair Annie.” The synopsis is that a lord tells Annie that he will be travelling abroad and returning with his bride, so she should prepare herself and look like a fair maiden to impress his young wife. Annie replies that how can she look like a maiden when she has born him seven sons? After much ado, and a fair amount of melodrama, it is revealed that the new lady of the house is Annie’s younger sister who was only a child when Annie ran off with the, then, dashing young knight. The young woman, it turns out, brings wealth and many ships with her and promises to gift them to Annie and her oldest son so that she may return home to their family.

Fair Annie

"It's a narrow, narrow make your bed,
And learn to lie your lane;
For I'm ga'n oer the sea, Fair Annie,
A braw bride to bring hame.
Wi her I will get gowd and gear;
Wi you I neer got nane.

"But wha will bake my bridal bread,
Or brew my bridal ale?
And wha will welcome my brisk bride,
That I bring oer the dale?"

"It's I will bake your bridal bread,
And brew your bridal ale,
And I will welcome your brisk bride,
That you bring oer the dale."

Medieval manuscript illumination

"Come up, come up, my eldest son,
And look oer yon sea-strand,
And see your father's new-come bride,
Before she come to land."

"Come down, come down, my mother dear,
Come frae the castle wa!
I fear, if langer ye stand there,
Ye'll let yoursell down fa."

And she gaed down, and farther down,
Her love's ship for to see,
And the topmast and the mainmast
Shone like the silver free.

And she's gane down, and farther down,
The bride's ship to behold,
And the topmast and the mainmast
They shone just like the gold.

She's taen her seven sons in her hand,
I wot she didna fail;
She met Lord Thomas and his bride,
As they came oer the dale.

Queen Guinevere’s Maying, by John Collier, 1900

"There came a knight out oer the sea,
And steald my sister away;
The shame scoup in his company,
And land whereer he gae!"

She hang ae napkin at the door,
Another in the ha,
And a' to wipe the trickling tears,
Sae fast as they did fa.

And aye she served the lang tables,
With white bread and with wine,
And aye she drank the wan water,
To had her colour fine.

Ladies talking, from a medieval tapestry

"Gin my seven sons were seven young hares,
Running oer yon lilly lee,
And I were a grew hound mysell,
Soon worried they a' should be."

And wae and sad Fair Annie sat
And drearie was her sang,
And ever, as she sobbd and grat,
"Wae to the man that did the wrang!"

"My gown is on," said the new-come bride,
"My shoes are on my feet,
And I will to Fair Annie's chamber,
And see what gars her greet.

"What ails ye, what ails ye, Fair Annie,
That ye make sic a moan?
Has your wine barrels cast the girds,
Or is your white bread gone?

"O wha was't was your father, Annie,
Or wha was't was your mother?
And had ye ony sister, Annie,
Or had ye ony brother?"

Medieval manuscript illumination

"But she that welcomes my brisk bride
Maun gang like maiden fair;
She maun lace on her robe sae jimp,
And braid her yellow hair."

"But how can I gang maiden-like,
When maiden I am nane?
Have I not born seven sons to thee,
And am with child again?"

She's taen her young son in her arms,
Another in her hand,
And she's up to the highest tower,
To see him come to land.

Procession of a lord and lady returning to their castle

"You're welcome to your house, Lord Thomas,
You're welcome to your land;
You're welcome with your fair ladye,
That you lead by the hand.

"You're welcome to your ha's, ladye,
You're welcome to your bowers;
You're welcome to your hame, ladye,
For a' that's here is yours."

"I thank thee, Annie; I thank thee, Annie,
Sae dearly as I thank thee;
You're the likest to my sister Annie
That ever I did see.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Sir Frank Dicksee

And he's taen down the silk napkin,
Hung on a silver pin,
And aye he wipes the tear trickling
A' down her cheik and chin.

And aye he turn'd him round about,
And smil'd amang his men;
Says, "Like ye best the old ladye,
Or her that's new come hame?"

When bells were rung, and mass was sung,
And a' men bound to bed,
Lord Thomas and his new-come bride
To their chamber they were gaed.

Annie made her bed a little forbye,
To hear what they might say
"And ever alas!" Fair Annie cried,
"That I should see this day!

"Gin my seven sons were seven young rats,
Running on the castle wa,
And I were a grey cat mysell,
I soon would worry them a'.

"The Earl of Wemyss was my father,
The Countess of Wemyss my mother;
And a' the folk about the house
To me were sister and brother.

"If the Earl of Wemyss was your father,
I wot sae was he mine;
And it shall not be for lack o gowd
That ye your love sall tine.

"For I have seven ships o mine ain,
A' loaded to the brim,
And I will gie them a' to thee,
Wi four to thine eldest son:

But thanks to a' the powers in heaven
That I gae maiden hame!"

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The Fairies’ Passage: Journeys of the Fae

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Mari Lwyd –Wassailing with a Hobby Horse

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Martinmas - The Feast of Saint Martin

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Folk Stories Recorded in “The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries”
by W. Y. Evans Wentz

A Tale from “British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions”
By Wirt Sikes, 1880

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If you enjoy my work, please consider tipping me $1 on Patreon. Your dollar will support the continued positive representation of European cultural heritage, which is, in my view, of crucial importance today.