Part 11 (2/2)

286-288. Compare pp. 8, 34, 264. Balder's story is told in a professedly historical form by the old Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in his third book. See below, p. 103. In English the story is told at length by Professor (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and Edinburgh, 1888), pp. 529 _sqq._ It is elaborately discussed by Professor F.

Knuffmann in a learned monograph, _Balder, Mythus und Sage_ (Strasburg, 1902).

[257] Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell, _Corpus Poetic.u.m Boreale_, i. (Oxford, 1883) p. 197. Compare _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) pp. 39 _sq._; _Die Edda_, ubersetzt von K. Simrock*[8] (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 8; K.

Mullenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, v. Zweite Abteilung (Berlin, 1891), pp. 78 _sq._; Fr. Kauffmann, _Balder, Mythus und Sage_, pp. 20 _sq._ In this pa.s.sage the words translated ”b.l.o.o.d.y victim” (_blaupom tivor_) and ”fate looming” (_rlog folgen_) are somewhat uncertain and have been variously interpreted. The word _tivor_, usually understood to mean ”G.o.d,” seems to be found nowhere else. Professor H.M. Chadwick has kindly furnished me with the following literal translation of the pa.s.sage: ”I saw (or 'have seen') held in safe keeping the life of Balder, the b.l.o.o.d.y G.o.d, Othin's son. High above the fields (i.e. the surface of the earth) grew a mistletoe, slender and very beautiful. From a shaft (or 'stem') which appeared slender, came a dangerous sorrow-bringing missile (i.e. the shaft became a ... missile); Hodr proceeded to shoot. Soon was a brother of Balder born. He, Othin's son, proceeded to do battle when one day old. He did not wash his hands or comb his head before he brought Balder's antagonist on to the pyre. But Frigg in Fen-salir (i.e. the Fen-abode) lamented the trouble of Val-holl.” In translating the words _rlog folgen_ ”held in safe keeping the life” Professor Chadwick follows Professor F. Kauffmann's rendering (”_das Leben verwahrt_”); but he writes to me that he is not quite confident about it, as the word _rlog_ usually means ”fate” rather than ”life.” Several sentences translated by Professor Chadwick (”Soon was a brother of Balder born ... he brought Balder's antagonist on the pyre”) are omitted by some editors and translators of the _Edda_.

[258] G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell, _Corpus Poetic.u.m Boreale_, i. 200 _sq._; _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii.

pp. 51-54; _Die Edda_, ubersetzt von K. Simrock,*[8] p. 10 _sq._; K.

Mullenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, v. Zweite Abteilung, pp. 84 _sq._

[259] Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, ed. P.E. Muller (Copenhagen, 1839-1858), _lib._ iii. vol. i. pp. 110 _sqq._; _The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus_, translated by Oliver Elton (London, 1894), pp. 83-93.

[260] _Fridthjofs Saga, aus dem Alt-islandischen_, von J.C. Poestion, (Vienna, 1879), pp. 3 _sq._, 14-17, 45-52.

[261] _The Epic of Kings, Stories retold from Firdusi_, by Helen Zimmern (London, 1883), pp. 325-331. The parallel between Balder and Isfendiyar was pointed out in the ”Lexicon Mythologic.u.m” appended to the _Edda Rhythmifa seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) p. 513 note, with a reference to _Schah Namech, verdeutscht von Gorres_, ii. 324, 327 _sq._ It is briefly mentioned by Dr. P. Wagler, _Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit_, ii. Teil (Berlin, 1891), p. 40.

CHAPTER IV

THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE

-- 1. _The Lenten Fires_

[European custom of kindling bonfires on certain days of the year, dancing round them and leaping over them. Effigies are sometimes burnt in the fires.]

All over Europe the peasants have been accustomed from time immemorial to kindle bonfires on certain days of the year, and to dance round or leap over them. Customs of this kind can be traced back on historical evidence to the Middle Ages,[262] and their a.n.a.logy to similar customs observed in antiquity goes with strong internal evidence to prove that their origin must be sought in a period long prior to the spread of Christianity. Indeed the earliest proof of their observance in Northern Europe is furnished by the attempts made by Christian synods in the eighth century to put them down as heathenish rites.[263] Not uncommonly effigies are burned in these fires, or a pretence is made of burning a living person in them; and there are grounds for believing that anciently human beings were actually burned on these occasions. A general survey of the customs in question will bring out the traces of human sacrifice, and will serve at the same time to throw light on their meaning.[264]

[Seasons of the year at which the bonfires are lit.]

The seasons of the year when these bonfires are most commonly lit are spring and midsummer; but in some places they are kindled also at the end of autumn or during the course of the winter, particularly on Hallow E'en (the thirty-first of October), Christmas Day, and the Eve of Twelfth Day. We shall consider them in the order in which they occur in the calendar year. The earliest of them is the winter festival of the Eve of Twelfth Day (the fifth of January); but as it has been already described in an earlier part of this work[265] we shall pa.s.s it over here and begin with the fire-festivals of spring, which usually fall on the first Sunday of Lent (_Quadragesima_ or _Invocavit_),[266] Easter Eve, and May Day.

[Custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in the Belgian Ardennes.]

The custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent has prevailed in Belgium, the north of France, and many parts of Germany.

Thus in the Belgian Ardennes for a week or a fortnight before the ”day of the great fire,” as it is called, children go about from farm to farm collecting fuel. At Grand Halleux any one who refuses their request is pursued next day by the children, who try to blacken his face with the ashes of the extinct fire. When the day has come, they cut down bushes, especially juniper and broom, and in the evening great bonfires blaze on all the heights. It is a common saying that seven bonfires should be seen if the village is to be safe from conflagrations. If the Meuse happens to be frozen hard at the time, bonfires are lit also on the ice.

At Grand Halleux they set up a pole called _makral_ or ”the witch,” in the midst of the pile, and the fire is kindled by the man who was last married in the village. In the neighbourhood of Morlanwelz a straw man is burnt in the fire. Young people and children dance and sing round the bonfires, and leap over the embers to secure good crops or a happy marriage within the year, or as a means of guarding themselves against colic. In Brabant on the same Sunday, down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, women and men disguised in female attire used to go with burning torches to the fields, where they danced and sang comic songs for the purpose, as they alleged, of driving away ”the wicked sower,” who is mentioned in the Gospel for the day. At Maeseyck and in many villages of Limburg, on the evening of the day children run through the streets carrying lighted torches; then they kindle little fires of straw in the fields and dance round them. At Ensival old folks tell young folks that they will have as many Easter eggs as they see bonfires on this day.[267] At Paturages, in the province of Hainaut, down to about 1840 the custom was observed under the name of _Escouvion_ or _Scouvion_. Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, which was called the Day of the Little Scouvion, young folks and children used to run with lighted torches through the gardens and orchards. As they ran they cried at the pitch of their voices,

”_Bear apples, bear pears And cherries all black To Scouvion!_”

At these words the torch-bearer whirled his blazing brand and hurled it among the branches of the apple-trees, the pear-trees, and the cherry-trees. The next Sunday was called the Day of the Great Scouvion, and the same race with lighted torches among the trees of the orchards was repeated in the afternoon till darkness fell. The same custom was observed on the same two days at Wasmes.[268] In the neighbourhood of Liege, where the Lenten fires were put down by the police about the middle of the nineteenth century, girls thought that by leaping over the fires without being smirched they made sure of a happy marriage.

Elsewhere in order to get a good husband it was necessary to see seven of the bonfires from one spot. In Famenne, a district of Namur, men and cattle who traversed the Lenten fires were thought to be safe from sickness and witchcraft. Anybody who saw seven such fires at once had nothing to fear from sorcerers. An old saying ran, that if you do not light ”the great fire,” G.o.d will light it for you; which seems to imply that the kindling of the bonfires was deemed a protection against conflagrations throughout the year.[269]

[Bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in the French department of the Ardennes.]

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