Æcerbot and Wassail - Blessing the Fields and Orchards

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, Wendish 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:

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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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