Early European History Part 102

FOLK TALES

Many medieval superst.i.tions are preserved in folk tales, or "fairy stories." Every child now reads these tales in books, but until the nineteenth century very few of them had been collected and written down.

[30] They lived on the lips of the people, being told by mothers and nurses to children and by young and old about the firesides during the long winter evenings. Story-telling formed one of the chief amus.e.m.e.nts of the Middle Ages.

FAIRIES

The fairies who appear so commonly in folk tales are known by different names. They are bogies, brownies, goblins, pixies, kobolds (in Germany), trolls (in Denmark), and so on. The Celts, especially, had a lively faith in fairies, and it was from Wales, Scotland, and Ireland that many stories about them became current in Europe after the tenth century. Some students have explained the belief in fairies as due to memories of an ancient pygmy people dwelling in underground homes. But most of these supernatural beings seem to be the descendants of the spirits and demons which in savage fancy haunt the world.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FAIRIES

A comparison of European folk tales shows that fairies have certain characteristics in common. They live in palaces underneath the ground, from which they emerge at twilight to dance in mystic circles. They are ruled by kings and queens and are possessed of great wealth. Though usually invisible, they may sometimes be seen, especially by people who have the faculty of perceiving spirits. To mortals the fairies are generally hostile, leading wanderers astray, often blighting crops and cattle, and shooting arrows which carry disease and death. They are constantly on the watch to carry off human beings to their realm. A prisoner must be released at the end of a certain time, unless he tastes fairy food, in which event he can never return. Children in cradles are frequently s.n.a.t.c.hed away by the fairies, who leave, instead, imps of their own called "changelings." A changeling may always be recognized by its peevishness and backwardness in learning to walk and speak. If well treated, the fairies will sometimes show their grat.i.tude by bestowing on their favorites health, wealth, and long life. Lucky the child who can count on a "fairy G.o.d-mother."

GIANTS AND OGRES

Stories of giants are common in folk tales. Giants are often represented as not only big but also stupid, and as easily overcome by keen-witted human foes like "Jack the Giant-killer." It may be that traditions of pre- historic peoples have sometimes given birth to legends of giants. Another source of stories concerning them has been the discovery of huge fossil bones, such as those of the mammoth or mastodon, which were formerly supposed to be bones of gigantic men. The ogres, who sometimes figure in folk tales, are giants with a taste for human flesh. They recall the cannibals of the savage world.

WEREWOLVES

Werewolves were persons who, by natural gift or magic art, were thought to have the power of turning themselves for a time into wild beasts (generally wolves or bears). In this animal shape they ravaged flocks and devoured young children. A werewolf was said to sleep only two nights in the month and to spend the rest of the time roaming the woods and fields.

Trials of persons accused of being werewolves were held in France as late as the end of the sixteenth century. Even now the belief is found in out- of-the-way parts of Europe.

THE EVIL EYE

Another medieval superst.i.tion was that of the evil eye. According to this belief, certain persons could bewitch, injure, and kill by a glance.

Children and domestic animals were thought to be particularly susceptible to the effects of "fascination." In order to guard against it charms of various sorts, including texts from the Bible, were carried about. The belief in the evil eye came into Europe from pagan antiquity. It survived the Middle Ages and lingers yet among uneducated people.

WITCHCRAFT

The superst.i.tions relating to werewolves and the evil eye are particular forms of the belief in witchcraft, or "black magic." The Middle Ages could not escape this delusion, which was firmly held by the Greeks and Romans and other ancient peoples. Witchcraft had, indeed, a prehistoric origin and the belief in it still prevails in savage society.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WITCHES' SABBATH.]

FEATURES OF EUROPEAN WITCHCRAFT

Witches and wizards were supposed to have sold themselves to the Devil, receiving in return the power to work magic. They could change themselves or others into animals, they had charms against the hurt of weapons, they could raise storms and destroy crops, and they could convey thorns, pins, and other objects into their victims' bodies, thus causing sickness and death. At night they rode on broomsticks through the air and a.s.sembled in some lonely place for feasts, dances, and wild revels. At these "Witches'

Sabbaths," as they were called, the Devil himself attended and taught his followers their diabolic arts. There were various tests for the discovery of witches and wizards, the most usual being the ordeal by water. [31]

WITCHCRAFT PERSECUTIONS

The numerous trials and executions for witchcraft form a dark page in history. Thousands of harmless old men and women were put to death on the charge of being leagued with the Devil. Even the most intelligent and humane people believed in the reality of witchcraft and found a justification for its punishment in the Scriptural command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." [32] The witch epidemic which broke out in America during the seventeenth century, reaching its height at Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts, was simply a reflection of the European fear and hatred of witches.

UNLUCKY DAYS

The Middle Ages inherited from antiquity the observance of unlucky days.

They went under the name of "Egyptian days," so called because it was held that on one of them the plagues had been sent to devastate the land of Egypt and on another Pharaoh and his host had been swallowed up in the Red Sea. At least twenty-four days in the year were regarded as very unlucky.

At such times one ought not to buy and sell, to build a house, to plant a field, to travel or, in fact, to undertake anything at all important.

After the sixteenth century the belief in unlucky days declined, but there still exists a prejudice against fishermen starting out to fish, or seamen to take a voyage, or landsmen a journey, or domestic servants to enter a new place, on a Friday.

207. POPULAR AMUs.e.m.e.nTS AND FESTIVALS

INDOOR GAMES

It is pleasant to turn from the superst.i.tions of the Middle Ages to the games, sports, and festivals which helped to make life agreeable alike for rich and poor, for n.o.bles and peasants. Some indoor games are of eastern origin. Thus chess, with which European peoples seem to have become acquainted as early as the tenth century [33] arose in India as a war game. On each side a king and his general, with chariots, cavalry, elephants, and infantry, met in battle array. These survive in the rooks, knights, bishops, and p.a.w.ns of the modern game. Checkers is a sort of simplified chess, in which the pieces are all p.a.w.ns, till they get across the board and become kings. Playing cards are another Oriental invention.

They were introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century, either by the Arabs or the gypsies. Their first use seems to have been for telling fortunes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHESS PIECES OF CHARLEMAGNE Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. The figures are carved in ivory.]

OUTDOOR GAMES

Many outdoor games are derived from those played in medieval times. How one kind of game may become the parent of many others is seen in the case of the ball-play. The ancients tossed and caught b.a.l.l.s as children do now.

They also had a game in which each side tried to secure the ball and throw it over the adversary's goal line. This game lasted on into the Middle Ages, and from it football has descended. The ancients seem never to have used a stick or bat in their ball-play. The Persians, however, began to play ball on horseback, using a long mallet for the purpose, and introduced their new sport throughout Asia. Under the Tibetan name of _pulu_ ("ball") it found its way into Europe. When once the mallet had been invented for use on horseback, it could be easily used on foot, and so polo gave rise to the various games in which b.a.l.l.s are hit with bats, including tennis, hockey, golf, cricket, and croquet.

BAITING

The difference between our ideas of what const.i.tutes "sport" and those of our ancestors is shown by the popularity of baiting. In the twelfth century bulls, bears, and even horses were baited. c.o.c.k-fighting formed another common amus.e.m.e.nt. It was not till the nineteenth century that an English society for the prevention of cruelty to animals succeeded in getting a law pa.s.sed which forbade these cruel sports. Most other European countries have now followed England's example.

FESTIVALS

No account of life in the Middle Ages can well omit some reference to the celebration of festivals. For the peasant and artisan they provided relief from physical exertion, and for all cla.s.ses of society the pageants, processions, sports, feasts, and merry-makings which accompanied them furnished welcome diversion. Medieval festivals included not only those of the Christian Year, [34] but also others which had come down from pre- Christian times.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BEAR BAITING.

From the Luttrell Psalter.]

SEASONAL FESTIVALS

Many festivals not of Christian origin were derived from the ceremonies with which the heathen peoples of Europe had been accustomed to mark the changes of the seasons. Thus, April Fool's Day formed a relic of festivities held at the vernal equinox. May Day, another festival of spring, honored the spirits of trees and of all budding vegetation. The persons who acted as May kings and May queens represented these spirits.

According to the original custom a new May tree was cut down in the forest every year, but later a permanent May pole was set up on the village common. On Midsummer Eve (June 23), which marked the summer solstice, came the fire festival, when people built bonfires and leaped over them, walked in procession with torches round the fields, and rolled burning wheels down the hillsides. These curious rites may have been once connected with sun worship. Hallow Eve, so called from being the eve of All Saints' Day (November 1), also seems to have been a survival of a heathen celebration.

On this night witches and fairies were supposed to a.s.semble. Hallow Eve does not appear to have been a season for pranks and jokes, as is its present degenerate form. Even the festival of Christmas, coming at the winter solstice, kept some heathen features, such as the use of mistletoe with which Celtic priests once decked the altars of their G.o.ds. The Christmas tree, however, is not a relic of heathenism. It seems to have come into use as late as the seventeenth century.

THE MORRIS DANCE

Young and old took part in the dances which accompanied village festivals.

Very popular in medieval England was the Morris dance. The name, a corruption of Moorish, refers to its origin in Spain. The Morris dance was especially a.s.sociated with May Day and was danced round a May pole to a lively and capering step. The performers represented Robin Hood, Maid Marian, his wife, Tom the Piper, and other traditional characters. On their garments they wore bells tuned to different notes, so as to sound in harmony.

MUMMING

Mumming had a particular a.s.sociation with Christmas. Mummers were bands of men and women who disguised themselves in masks and skins of animals and then serenaded people outside their houses. Oftentimes the mummers acted out little plays in which Father Christmas, Old King Cole, and St. George were familiar figures.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MUMMERS From a ma.n.u.script now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was written and illuminated in the reign of Edward III.]

MIRACLE PLAYS

Besides these village amus.e.m.e.nts, many plays of a religious character came into vogue during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The earliest were the miracle plays. They presented in dramatic form scenes from the Bible and stories of the saints or martyrs. The actors at first were priests, and the stage was the church itself or the churchyard. This religious setting did not prevent the introduction of clowns and buffoons. After a time the miracle play pa.s.sed from the clergy to the guilds. All the guilds of a town usually gave an exhibition once a year. Each guild presented a single scene in the story. An exhibition might last for several days and have as many as fifty scenes, beginning at Creation and ending with Doomsday. [35]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MIRACLE PLAY AT COVENTRY, ENGLAND The rude platform on wheels which served as a stage, was drawn by apprentices to the market place. Each guild had its own stage.]

MORALITY PLAYS