Chapter 22

Her invisibility lasts only the one night between the disappearance of her last quarter and the appearance of her first, at newmoon (conjunction of sun and moon); in like manner, full-moon lasts from the moment she attains perfect sphericity till she loses it again. But in common parlance that 'nox illunis' is included in the new moon, and similarly the decline is made to begin simultaneously with the full.

The Gothic for panselhnon was fulliþs m., or fulliþ n. (gen. pl. fulliþê), from which we may also infer a niujiþs for noumhnia . Curiously, this last is rendered fulliþ in Col. 2, 16, which to my mind is a mere oversight, and not to be explained by the supposition that the Goths looked upon full-moon as the grander festival. The AS. too must have called full-moon fylleð, to judge by the name of the month 'winterfyllið,' which says Beda (de temp. rat. 13), was so named 'ab hiema et plenilunio'; but the later writers have only niwe môna and full môna. So there may have been an OHG. niuwid and fullid, though we can only lay our finger on the neuters niumâni and folmâni, (25) to which Graff 2, 222 adds a niwilune; MHG. daz niumœne and volmœne, the last in Trist. 9464. 11086. 11513 (see Suppl.).

In ON. the two periods are named by the neuters 'ný ok nið,' habitually alliterating; ný answers to novilunium, it signifies the new light, and nið the declining, dwindling, from the lost root niða nað, from which also come the adv. niðr (deorsum) and the noun nâð (quies, OHG. ginâda). So that ný lasts from the beginning of the first quarter to the full, and nið from the decrease of the full to the extinction of light in the last quarter. The two touch one another at the border-line between the faintest streaks of waxing and of waning brightness. But nið meant especially the absence of moonlight (interlunium), and niðamyrkr total darkness (luna silens). Kind gods created these for men of old to tell the year by: 'ný ok nið skôpo nýt regin öldum at âr-tali,' (26) Sæm. 34ª. 'Mâni stýrir göngu tûngls, oc ræðr nýjum oc niðum,' Sn. 12, Mâni steers the going of the mon, and rules new moons and full. Probably even here personification comes into play, for in Völuspâ 11 (Sæm. 2b) Nýji and Niði are dwarfs, i.e. spirits of the sky, who are connected, we do not exactly know how, with those lunar phases ný ok nið. (27) Of changeful things it is said 'þat gengr eptir nýum ok niðum,' res alternatur et subit lunae vices. O. Swed. laws have the formula 'ny oc niðar,' for 'at all times, under any phase,' Gutalagh, p. 108. So 'i ny ok niða,' Sudh. bygn. 32. Upl. vidh. 28, 1. Vestg. thiuv. 22, 1; but here the second word seems to have given up its neut. form, and passed into a personal and masc. Mod. Swed. has 'ny och nedan'; Dan. 'ny og nœ,' 'det gaaer efter nye og nœe,' 'hverken i nye eller nœ,' i.e. never, 'naar nyet tändes,' quando nova luna incenditur; this næ was in O. Dan. ned, need. To the niðamyrkr above answers a Swed. nedmörk, pitchdark. The Norse terminology differs in so far from the H. Germ., that it expresses the total obscuration of nið, while we designate it by neumond (i.e. ný); with us new-moon is opposed to full-moon, with the Scandinavians nið to ný, each of them standing for one half of the moon's course. Since a mention of the first and last quarters has come into use, full-moon and new-moon signify simply the points of fullness and vacancy that lie between; and now the Swedes and Danes have equally adopted a fullmåne, fuldmaane, as counterpart to nymåne, nymaane, whereby the old 'ned, næ' has become superfluous, and the meaning of 'ny' somewhat modified. (28)

Though the OHG. remains do not offer us a neuter niuwi, (29) such a form may have existed, to match the Norse ný, seeing that the Mülhausen statute of the 13^th cent. (Grasshof p. 252) in granting the stranger that would settle in the town a month's time for the attempt, says 'ein nuwe und ein wedil, daz sint vier wochin;' that Martin von Amberg's Beichtspiegel has 'das vol und das neu,' Dasypodius still later 'das newe, interlunium,' and Tobler 331b 'das neu, der wachsende mond.' For the waning moon, Tobler 404b gives 'nid si gehender (going down),' which reminds one of nið; otherwise 'der schwined mo,' OHG. 'diu suînenta mânin,' N. ps. 88, 38, its opposite being 'diu folla' (see Suppl.).

I have yet to bring forward another expression of wide range and presumably old, which is used by turns for one and another phase of the moon's light, oftenest for plenilunium, but sometimes also for interlunium: MHG. wedel: 'im was unkunt des mânen wedel,' Martina 181c; NHG. wadel, wädel, but more among the common folk and in the chase than in written speech. Pictorius 480, Stald. 2, 456, Tobler 441b have wedel, wädel full-moon, wädeln to become full-moon, when her horns meet, i.e., when she completes her circle. Keisersperg's Postille 138b: 'ietz so ist er nüw, ietz fol, ietz alt, ietz die erst qvart, ietz die ander qvart, ietz ist es wedel'; here full-moon and wedel are not so clearly defined as in another passage of Keisersperg (Oberlin 1957) on March: 'wan es ist sein wedel, sein volmon.' In Dasypodius: 'plenilunium, der volmon, wädel.' (30) The Germans in Bohemia commonly use wädel for full-moon, and Schm. 4, 22 produces other notable authorities. But the word is known in Lower Germany too; Böhmer's Kantzow p. 266 spells it wadel, (31) the Brem. wtb. 5, 166 'waal, vollmond' (like aal for adel, a swamp), and Kilian 'waedel, senium lunae.' From the phraseology of Superst. I, 973 one would take wädel to be a general name for the moon, whether waxing or waning, for 'the bad wädel' [new-moon] surely implies a good wädel favourable to the operation. Now wadel, wedel means that which wags to and fro, and is used of an animal's tail, flabrum, flabellum, cauda; it must either, like zungâ and tûngl, refer to the tip or streak of light in the crescent moon, or imply that the moon cruises about in the sky. (32) The latter explanation fits a passage in the AS. poem on Finnesburg fight, line 14: 'nû scîneð þes môna waðol under wolcnum,' i.e., the moon walking [wading] among the clouds, waðol being taken for the adj. vagus, vagabundus. Probably even the OHG. wadal was applied to the moon, as an adj. vagus (Graff 1, 776), or as a subst. flabellum (1, 662). But, as this subst. not only signifies flabellum [whisk], but fasciculus [wisp], the name may ultimately be connected with the bundle of brushwood that a myth (to be presently noticed) puts in the spots of the full-moon (see Suppl.).

Lith. jáunas menu novilunium, pilnatis plenilunium, puspilis first quarter, pusdylis last qu., delczia luna decrescens, lit. trunca, worn away, tarpijos interlunium (from tarp, inter); puspilis means half-full, pusdylis half-worn, from the same root as delczia truncation, decrease. There is also a 'menu tusczias,' vacant moon; and the sickle-shaped half-moon is called dalgakynos. Lettic: jauns mehnes novilun., pilna mehnes plenilun., mehnes punte luna accrescens, wezza mehnes (33) luna senescens.-----Finnic: uusikuu novil., fäysikuu plenil., ylikuu luna accr., alakuu decr., formed with uusi novus, täysi plenus, yli superus, ala inferus, which supports our explanation of the ON. nið [[the waning moon]].-----The Servians divide thus: miyena novil., mladina luna accr., lit. young, puna plenil., ushtap luna decr. Slovèn mlay, mlad novil., polna plenil., ship plenil., but no doubt also luna decr., from shipati to nip, impair. Pol. now and Boh. nowy novil., Pol. pelnia and Boh. auplnek plenil. Here we see another instance of the ruder races having more various and picturesque names for natural phenomena, which among the more cultivated are replaced by abstract and uniform ones. No doubt Teutonic speech in its various branches once possessed other names beside nið and wadel.

Tacitus merely tells us that the Germani held their assemblies at new moon or full moon, not that the two periods were thought equally favourable to all enterprises without distinction. We may guess that some matters were more suitable to new moon, others to full; the one would inspire by its freshness, the other by its fulness. (34)

Caesar 1, 50 reports to us the declaration of wise women in the camp of Ariovistus: 'non esse fas Germanos superare, si ante novam lunam proelio contendissent.' A happy issue to the battle was expected, at all events in this particular instance, only if it were fought at new moon.

As far as I can make out from later remnants of German superstition, with which that of Scotland should be compared (Chambers 35b. 36ª), new-moon, addressed by way of distinction as 'gracious lord' p. 704, is an auspicious time for commencements properly speaking. Marriages are to be concluded in it, houses to be built: 'novam lunam observasti pro domo facienda aut conjugiis sociandis' (Sup. C, 193b), the latter just the same in Esth. Sup. no. 1. Into a new house you must move at new moon (223), she will increase your store (conf. p. 704); on the other hands, she loves not to look into an empty purse (107). All through, the notion is that money, married bliss and house stores will thrive and grow with the growing light. So the hair and nails are cut at new-moon (French Sup. 5. Schütze's Holst. id. 3, 68), to give them a good chance of growing; cattle are weaned in the waxing light (I, 757), in the waning they would get lean; Lith. Sup. 11 says, let girls be weaned at the wane, boys at the full, probably to give the one a slim elegant figure, and the other a stout and strong. Healing herbs and pure dew are to be gathered at new-moon (tou an des mânen niwi gelesen, N. Cap. 100, conf. 25), for then they are fresh and unalloyed. When it says in I, 764 that weddings should take place at full-moon, and in 238 that a new dwelling should be entered with the waxing or full moon, this full-moon seems to denote simply the utmost of the growing light, without the accessory notion of incipient decline. If our ancestors as a rule fought their battles at new-moon, they must have had in their eye the springing up of victory to themselves, not the defeat and downfall of the enemy. (35)

At full-moon (as opposed to new), i.e. by a waning light, you were to perform operations involving severance or dissolution, cutting down or levelling. Thus, if I understand it rightly, a marriage would have to be annulled, a house pulled down, a pestilence stamped out, when the moon is on the wane. Under this head comes in the rule to cut wood in the forest when it is wadel, apparently that the timber felled may dry. In a Calendar printed by Hupfuff, Strasb. 1511: 'with the moon's wedel 'tis good to begin the hewing of wood.' The same precept is still given in many modern forest-books, and full-moon is therefore called holz-wadel: 'in the bad wädel (crescent moon) fell no timber,' Sup. I, 973. In Keisersperg's Menschl. baum, Strasb. 1521, 19: 'Alway in wedel are trees to be hewn, and game to be shot.' (36) Grass is not to be mown at new, but at full moon (Lith. Sup. 7); that the hay may dry quickly ? and treasures must be lifted at full-moon. If a bed be stuffed when the moon is growing, the feathers will not lie (I, 372. 914); this operation too requires a waning light, as if to kill the new-plucked feathers completely, and bring them to rest. If you open trenches by a waxing moon, they will soon grow together again; if by a waning they keep on getting deeper and wider. To open a vein with the moon declining, makes the blood press downwards and load the legs (Tobler 40b); set about it therefore by the mounting moonlight. Vuk sub v. miyena says, the Servian women will wash never a shirt at new-moon, they declare all the linen would get mooned (omiyeniti) in the water, i.e. bulge and pucker, and soon tear; one might find another reason too for washing by the waning moon, that stains and dirt should disappear with the dwindling light (see Suppl.).

Behind superstitious practices I have tried to discover a meaning, which may possibly come near their original signification. Such symbolical coupling of means and end was at all events not foreign to antiquity anywhere: the holy water floats all misfortune away with it (p. 589), the spray from the millwheel scatters all sickness (p. 593). So the sufferer stands with his face to the waning moon, and prays: 'as thou decreasest, let my pains diminish' (I, 245); he can also go on the other tack, and cry to the new moon: 'may what I see increase, and what I suffer cease' (492). Turning the face toward the luminary I take to be a relic of heathen moon-worship. (37)



ENDNOTES:

25. Also niuwer mâno, N. ps. 80, 4. foller mâno, ps. 88, 38. In Cap. 107-8 he uses vol and wan (empty), and in Cap. 147 hornaht, halbscaftig and fol; conf. Hel. 111, 8 wanod ohtho wahsid. [Back]

26. Acc. to Alvismâl, the âlfar call the moon ârtali (OHG. jârzalo?), Sæm. 49b. [Back]

27. Comp. with 'nið ok ný' the Gr. enh kai nea. [Back]

28. Modern Icel. names are: blâný (black new, interlunium); prím (nova luna), also nýqveikt tûngl (first quarter); fullt tûngl (plenilunium); hâlfþrotid tûngl (last quarter). Here too the old names have gone out of use, 'blâný' replaces nið, and 'prim' ný. [Back]

29. Notker's Capella 100 has 'mânen niwi' fem. [Back]

30. Yet under luna he has 'plenilunium vollmon oder bruch,' and the same under bruch (=abbruch) a breaking off, falling off, defectus; which confirms my view, that we reckon the wane from full-moon itself (Wtb. 2, 408). Acc. to Muchar's Noricum 2, 36 the waxing and waning moon are called the gesunde and the kranke man (well and ill). [Back]

31. Following Tacitus, he says, the Germani always chose either new or full-moon, for after the wadel they thought it unlucky. Wadel then comprehends the two phases of new and full moon, but seems to exclude those of the first and last quarter. [Back]

32. The Engl. waddle, which is the same word, would graphically express the oscillation of the (visible) moon from side to side of her path; and if wedel meant that oscillation, it would apply equally to new and to full moon.----Trans. [Back]

33. Wezza mehnes, the old moon. In a Scotch ballad: 'I saw the new moon late yestreen wi' he auld moon in her arm.' Jamieson 1, 159. Percy 1, 78. Halliwell pp. 167-8. [Back]

34. New-moon was peculiarly holy to ancient peoples, thus to the Greeks the enh kai nea, which was also expressed by enh alone = Sanskr. amâ (new moon). The return of Odysseus was expected at that season, Od. 14, 162: tou men fqinontoj mhnoj, tou d istamenoio. Râmâ's birth is fixed for the new-moon after vernal equinox (Schlegel on Râmây. i. 19, 2). Probably bealteine were lighted at this new-moon of spring. [Back]

35. The Esthonians say to the new-moon: 'Hail moon! may you grow old, and I keep young!' Thom. Hiärne p. 40. [Back]

36. In Demerara grows a tree like the mahogany, called walala; if cut down at new-moon, the wood is tough and hard to split, if at full, it is soft and splits easily. Bamboo planks cut at new-moon last ten years, those cut at full-moon rot within the year. [Back]

37. Whoever at play turns his back to the moon, has bad luck (I, 801). But the seaman in his hammock takes care not to face the full-moon, lest he be struck with blindness. [Back]