Balder the Beautiful Part 32

See _The Works of Robert Herrick_ (Edinburgh, 1823), vol. ii. pp. 91, 124. From these latter verses it seems that the Yule log was replaced on the fire on Candlemas (the second of February).

[659] Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_ (London, 1883), p. 398 note 2. See also below, pp. 257, 258, as to the Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, and Welsh practice.

[660] Francis Grose, _Provincial Glossary_, Second Edition (London, 1811), pp. 141 _sq._; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p. 466.

[661] _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C.

Balfour and edited by Northcote W. Thomas (London, 1904), p. 79.

[662] _County Folk-lore,_ vol. ii. _North Riding of Yorkshire, York and the Ainsty,_ collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1901), pp. 273, 274, 275 _sq_.

[663] _County Folk-lore_, vol. vi. _East Riding of Yorkshire_, collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1912), pp. 23, 118, compare p. 114.

[664] John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (London, 1881), p. 5.

[665] _County Folk-lore_, vol. v. _Lincolnshire_, collected by Mrs.

Gutch and Mabel Peac.o.c.k (London, 1908), p. 219. Elsewhere in Lincolnshire the Yule-log seems to have been called the Yule-clog (_op.

cit_. pp. 215, 216).

[666] Mrs. Samuel Chandler (Sarah Whateley), quoted in _The Folk-lore Journal_, i. (1883) pp. 351 _sq_.

[667] Miss C.S. Burne and Miss G.F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_ (London, 1883), pp. 397 _sq_. One of the informants of these writers says (_op. cit._ p. 399): "In 1845 I was at the Vessons farmhouse, near the Eastbridge Coppice (at the northern end of the Stiperstones). The floor was of flags, an unusual thing in this part. Observing a sort of roadway through the kitchen, and the flags much broken, I enquired what caused it, and was told it was from the horses' hoofs drawing in the 'Christmas Brund.'"

[668] Mrs. Ella Mary Leather, _The Folklore of Herefordshire_ (Hereford and London, 1912), p. 109. Compare Miss C.S. Burne, "Herefordshire Notes," _The Folk-lore Journal_, iv. (1886) p. 167.

[669] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), p. 28.

[670] "In earlier ages, and even so late as towards the middle of the nineteenth century, the Servian village organisation and the Servian agriculture had yet another distinguishing feature. The dangers from wild beasts in old time, the want of security for life and property during the Turkish rule, or rather misrule, the natural difficulties of the agriculture, more especially the lack in agricultural labourers, induced the Servian peasants not to leave the parental house but to remain together on the family's property. In the same yard, within the same fence, one could see around the ancestral house a number of wooden huts which contained one or two rooms, and were used as sleeping places for the sons, nephews and grandsons and their wives. Men and women of three generations could be often seen living in that way together, and working together the land which was considered as common property of the whole family. This expanded family, remaining with all its branches together, and, so to say, under the same roof, working together, dividing the fruits of their joint labours together, this family and an agricultural a.s.sociation in one, was called _Zadrooga_ (The a.s.sociation). This combination of family and agricultural a.s.sociation has morally, economically, socially, and politically rendered very important services to the Servians. The headman or chief (called _Stareshina_) of such family a.s.sociation is generally the oldest male member of the family. He is the administrator of the common property and director of work. He is the executive chairman of the a.s.sociation.

Generally he does not give any order without having consulted all the grown-up male members of the _Zadroega_" (Chedo Mijatovich, _Servia and the Servians_, London, 1908, pp. 237 _sq._). As to the house-communities of the South Slavs see further Og. M. Utiesenovic, _Die Hauskommunionen der Sudslaven_ (Vienna, 1859); F. Demelic, _Le Droit Coutumier des Slaves Meridionaux_ (Paris, 1876), pp. 23 _sqq._; F.S. Krauss, _Sitte und Brauch der Sudslaven_ (Vienna, 1885), pp. 64 _sqq._ Since Servia, freed from Turkish oppression, has become a well-regulated European state, with laws borrowed from the codes of France and Germany, the old house-communities have been rapidly disappearing (Chedo Mijatovich, _op.

cit._ p. 240).

[671] Chedo Mijatovich, _Servia and the Servians_ (London, 1908), pp.

98-105.

[672] Baron Rajacsich, _Das Leben, die Sitten und Gebrauche der im Kaiserthume Oesterreich lebenden Sudslaven_ (Vienna, 1873), pp. 122-128.

[673] Baron Rajacsich, _Das Leben, die Sitten und Gebrauche der im Kaiserthume Oesterreich lebenden Sudslaven_ (Vienna, 1873), pp. 129-131.

The Yule log (_badnyak_) is also known in Bulgaria, where the women place it on the hearth on Christmas Eve. See A. Strausz, _Die Bulgaren_ (Leipsic, 1898), p. 361.

[674] M. Edith Durham, _High Albania_ (London, 1909), p. 129.

[675] R.F. Kaindl, _Die Huzulen_ (Vienna, 1894) p. 71.

[676] See above, pp. 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 258.

Similarly at Candlemas people lighted candles in the churches, then took them home and kept them, and thought that by lighting them at any time they could keep off thunder, storm, and tempest. See Barnabe Googe, _The Popish Kingdom_ (reprinted London, 1880), p. 48 _verso_.

[677] See above, pp. 248, 250, 251, 257, 258, 263.

[678] See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 356 _sqq._

[679] See above, pp. 248, 249, 250, 251, 264.

[680] August Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebrauche aus Thuringen_ (Vienna, 1878), pp. 171 _sq._

[681] Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Conde-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 289 _sq._

[682] Joseph Train, _Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man_ (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 124, referring to Cregeen's _Manx Dictionary_, p. 67.

[683] R. Chambers, _The Book of Days_ (London and Edinburgh, 1886), ii.

789-791, quoting _The Banffshire Journal_; Miss C.F. Gordon c.u.mming, _In the Hebrides_ (London, 1883), p. 226; Miss E.J. Guthrie, _Old Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow, 1885), pp. 223-225; Ch. Rogers, _Social Life in Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1884-1886), iii. 244 _sq_.; _The Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) pp. 11-14, 46. Miss Gordon Gumming and Miss Guthrie say that the burning of the Clavie took place upon Yule Night; but this seems to be a mistake.

[684] Caesar, _De bello Gallico_, vii. 23.

[685] Hugh W. Young, F.S.A. Scot., _Notes on the Ramparts of Burghead as revealed by recent Excavations_ (Edinburgh, 1892), pp. 3 _sqq_.; _Notes on further Excavations at Burghead_ (Edinburgh, 1893), pp. 7 _sqq_.

These papers are reprinted from the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vols. xxv., xxvii. Mr. Young concludes as follows: "It is proved that the fort at Burghead was raised by a people skilled in engineering, who used axes and chisels of iron; who shot balista stones over 20 lbs. in weight; and whose daily food was the _bos longifrons_. A people who made paved roads, and sunk artesian wells, and used Roman beads and pins. The riddle of Burghead should not now be very difficult to read." (_Notes on further Excavations at Burghead_, pp. 14 _sq_.). For a loan of Mr. Young's pamphlets I am indebted to the kindness of Sheriff-Subst.i.tute David.

[686] Robert Cowie, M.A., M.D., _Shetland, Descriptive and Historical_ (Aberdeen, 1871), pp. 127 _sq._; _County Folk-lore_, vol. iii. _Orkney and Shetland Islands_, collected by G.F. Black and edited by Northcote W. Thomas (London, 1903), pp. 203 _sq._ A similar celebration, known as Up-h.e.l.ly-a, takes place at Lerwick on the 29th of January, twenty-four days after Old Christmas. See _The Scapegoat_, pp. 167-169. Perhaps the popular festival of Up-h.e.l.ly-a has absorbed some of the features of the Christmas Eve celebration.

[687] Thomas Hyde, _Historia Religionis veterum Persarum_ (Oxford, 1700), pp. 255-257.

[688] On the need-fire see Jacob Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_*[4] i. 501 _sqq._; J.W. Wolf, _Beitrage zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Gottingen and Leipsic, 1852-1857), i. 116 _sq._, ii. 378 _sqq._; Adalbert Kuhn, _Die Herabkunjt des Feuers und des Gottertranks_*[2] (Gutersloh, 1886), pp.

41 _sqq._; Walter K. Kelly, _Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore_ (London, 1863), pp. 48 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstamme_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 518 _sqq._; Charles Elton, _Origins of English History_ (London, 1882), pp. 293 _sqq._; Ulrich Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebrauche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht_ (Breslau, 1884), pp. 26 _sqq._ Grimm would derive the name _need-_fire (German, _niedfyr, nodfyr, nodfeur, nothfeur_) from _need_ (German, _noth_), "necessity," so that the phrase need-fire would mean "a forced fire." This is the sense attached to it in Lindenbrog's glossary on the capitularies, quoted by Grimm, _op. cit._ i. p. 502: "_Eum ergo ignem_ nodfeur _et_ nodfyr, _quasi necessarium ignem vocant_"

C.L. Rochholz would connect _need_ with a verb _nieten_ "to churn," so that need-fire would mean "churned fire." See C.L. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_ (Berlin, 1867), ii. 149 _sq._ This interpretion is confirmed by the name _ankenmilch bohren_, which is given to the need-fire in some parts of Switzerland. See E. Hoffmann-Krayer, "Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen Volksbrauch," _Schweizerisches Archiv fur Volkskunde_, xi. (1907) p. 245.

[689] "_Illos sacrilegos ignes, quos_ niedfyr _vocant_," quoted by J.

Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 502; R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), p. 312.

[690] _Indiculus Superst.i.tionum et Paganiarum_, No. XV., "_De igne fricato de ligno i.e._ nodfyr." A convenient edition of the _Indiculus_ has been published with a commentary by H.A. Saupe (Leipsic, 1891). As to the date of the work, see the editor's introduction, pp. 4 _sq_.

[691] Karl Lynker, _Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen_,*[2]

(Ca.s.sel and Gottingen, 1860), pp. 252 _sq._, quoting a letter of the mayor (_Schultheiss_) of Neustadt to the mayor of Marburg dated 12th December 1605.

[692] Bartholomaus Carrichter, _Der Teutschen Speisskammer_ (Strasburg, 1614), Fol. pag. 17 and 18, quoted by C.L. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_ (Berlin, 1867), ii. 148 _sq._

[693] Joh. Reiskius, _Untersuchung des Notfeuers_ (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1696), p. 51, quoted by J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i.

502 _sq._; R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), p.

313.

[694] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_, *[4] i. 503 _sq._

[695] J. Grimm, _op. cit._ i. 504.

[696] Adalbert Kuhn, _Markische Sagen und Marchen_ (Berlin, 1843), p.

369.

[697] Karl Bartsch, _Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche aus Mecklenburg_ (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 149-151.

[698] Carl und Theodor Colshorn, _Marchen und Sagen_ (Hanover, 1854), pp. 234-236, from the description of an eye-witness.