Chapter 24

England too had May-games or Mayings down to the 16-17th century. On Mayday morning the lads and lasses set out soon after midnight, with horns and other music, to a neighbouring wood, broke boughs off the trees, and decked them out with wreaths and posies; then turned homeward, and at sunrise set these May-bushes in the doors and windows of their houses. Above all, they brought with them a tall birch tree which had been cut down; it was named maiepole, maipoll, and was drawn by 20 to 40 yoke of oxen, each with a nosegay betwixt his horns; this tree was set up in the village, and the people danced round it. The whole festival was presided over by a lord of the May elected for the purpose, and with him was associated a lady of the May. (53) In England also a fight between Summer and Winter was exhibited (Hone's Daybook 1, 359); the Maypole exactly answers to the May-waggon of L. Saxony, and the lord of the May to the May-grave. (54) And here and there a district in France too has undoubtedly similar May-sports. Champollion (Rech. sur les patois, p. 183) reports of the Isère Dept.: 'maïe, fête que les enfans célèbrent aux premiers jours du mois de mai, en parant un d'entre eux et lui donnant le titre de roi.' A lawsuit on the 'jus eundi prima die mensis maji ad majum colligendum in nemora' is preserved in a record of 1262, Guérard cart. de N.D. 2, 117 (see Suppl.). In narrative poems of the Mid. Ages, both French and German, the grand occasions on which kings hold their court are Whitsuntide and the blooming Maytime, Rein. 41 seq. Iw. 33 seq., and Wolfram calls King Arthur 'der meienbœre man,' Parz. 281, 16; conf. 'pfingestlîcher (pentecostal) küniges name,' MS. 2, 128ª.

On the whole then, there are four different ways of welcoming Summer, that we have learnt to know. In Sweden and Gothland a battle of Winter and Summer, a triumphal entry of the latter. In Schonen, Denmark, L. Saxony and England simply May-riding, or fetching of the May-waggon. On the Rhine merely a battle of Winter and Summer, without immersion, (55) without the pomp of an entry. In Franconia, Thuringia, Meissen, Silesia and Bohemia only the carrying-out of wintry Death; no battle, no formal introduction of Summer. (56) Of these festivals the first and second fall in May, the third and fourth in March. In the first two, the whole population takes part with unabated enthusiasm; in the last two, only the lower poorer class. It is however the first and third modes that have retained the full idea of the performance, the struggle between the two powers of the year, whilst in the second and fourth the antithesis is wanting. The May-riding has no Winter in it, the farewell to Death no Summer; one is all joy, the other all sadness. But in all the first three modes, the higher being to whom honour is done is represented by living persons, in the fourth by a puppet, yet both the one an the other are fantastically dressed up.

Now we can take a look in one or two other directions.

On the battle between Vetr and Sumar ON. tradition is silent, (57) as on much else, that nevertheless lived on among the people. The oldest vestige known to me of a duel between the seasons amongst us is that 'Conflictus hiemis et veris' over the cuckoo (p. 675-6). The idea of a Summer-god marching in, bringing blessings, putting new life into everything, is quite in the spirit of our earliest ages: it is just how Nerthus comes into the land (p. 251); also Freyr (p. 213), Isis (p. 258), Hulda (p. 268), Berhta (p. 273), Fricg (p. 304), and other deities besides, whose car or ship an exulting people goes forth to meet, as they do the waggon of May, who, over and above mere personification, has from of old his êre and strâze (p. 670 n.): in heathen times he must have had an actual worship of his own. All these gods and goddesses appeared at their appointed times in the year, bestowing their several boons; deified Summer or May can fairly claim identity with one of the highest divinities to whom the gift of fertility belonged, with Frô, Wuotan, Nerthus. But if we admit goddesses, then, in addition to Nerthus, Ostara has the strongest claim to consideration. To what was said on p. 290 I can add some significant facts. The heathen Easter had much in common with the May-feast and the reception of spring, particularly in the matter of bonfires. Then, through long ages there seem to have lingered among the people Easter-games so-called, which the church itself had to tolerate: I allude especially to the custom of Easter eggs, and to the Easter tale which preachers told from the pulpit for the people's amusement, connecting it with Christian reminiscences. In the MHG. poets, 'mînes herzen ôsterspil, ôstertac,' my heart's Easter play or day, is a complimentary phrase for lady love, expressing the height of bliss (MS. 2, 52b. 37b. Iw. 8120. Frib. Trist. 804); Conr. Troj. 19802 makes the 'ôsterlîchen tac mit lebender wunne spiln' out of the fair one's eye. Later still, there were dramatic shows named ôsterspile, Wackern. lb. 1014, 30. One of the strongest proofs is the summer and dance song of lord Goeli, MS. 2, 57ª (Haupt's Neidh. xxv): at the season when ea and eyot are grown green, Fridebolt and his companions enter with long swords and offer to play the ôsterspil, which seems to have been a sword-dance for twelve performers, one of whom apparently was leader, and represented Summer beating Winter out of the land:

Fridebolt setze ûf den huot

F., put on thy hat,

wolgefriunt, und gang ez vor,

well backed, and go before,

bint daz ôstersahs zer linken sîten

bind o. to thy left side,

bis dur Künzen hôchgemuot,

be for K.'s sake merry,

leite uns vür daz Tinkûftor,

lead us outside to T. gate,

lâ den tanz al ûf den wasen rîten!

let dance on turf be rid.
This binding on of the 'Easter seax,' or sword-knife, leads us to infer that a sword of peculiar antique shape was retained; as the Easter scones, ôsterstuopha (RA. 298) and moonshaped ôstermâne (Brem. wtb.) indicate pastry of heathenish form. The sword may have been brandished in honour of Ostara, as it was for Fricka (p. 304). Or is Ôstersahs to be understood like Beiersahs (Haupt's Neidh. xxv. 17, note) ?

May we then identify Ostara with the Slav goddess of spring Vesna, the Lith. vasara (aestas), Lett. vassara, and with ver and ear in the forms ascribed to them on p. 754? True, there is no counterpart, no goddess answering to Marzana; but with our ancestors the notion of a conflict between two male antagonists, the giants Summer and Winter, must have carried the day at a very early time [to the exclusion of the goddesses].

The subject was no stranger to the Greeks and Romans: in one of Aesop's fables (Cor. 422. Fur. 380) ceimwn and ear have a quarrel. (58) The Roman ver began on Feb. 7, the first swallow came in about Feb. 26, though she does not reach us till near the end of March, nor Sweden till the beginning of May (Tiedemann's Zool. 3, 624). The Florealia were kept from Apr. 28 till May 1: there were songs, dances and games, they wore flowers and garlands on their heads, but the contrast, Winter, seems not to have been represented. I am not informed what spring customs have lasted to this day in Italy. Polydore Vergil, of Urbino in Umbria, tells us (de invent. rer. 5, 2): 'Est consuetudinis, ut juventus promiscui sexus laetabunda Cal. Maji exeat in agros, et cantitans inde virides reportet arborum ramos, eosque ante domorum fores ponat, et denique unusquisque eo die aliquid viridis ramusculi vel herbae ferat; quod non fecisse poena est, praesertim apud Italos, ut madefiat.' Here then is a ducking too; this May-feast cannot have meant there a fetching-in of spring, for that comes earlier, in March (see Suppl.).

Much more remarkable is the Italian and Spanish custom of tying together at Mid Lent, on that very Dominica Lætare, a puppet to represent the oldest woman in the village, which is carried out by the people, especially children, and sawn through the middle. This is called segara la vecchia. At Barcelona the boys on that day, in thirties or forties, run through all the streets, some with saws, some with billets of wood, and some with napkins in which people deposit their gifts. They declare in a song, that they are looking for the very oldest woman in the town, to saw her through the body; at last they pretend to have found her, and begin sawing something, and afterwards burn it. (59) But the same custom is also found among the South Slavs. In Lent time the Croats tell their children, that at the hour of noon an old woman is sawn in pieces outside the gates; (60) in Carniola it is at Mid Lent again that the old wife is led out of the village and sawn through the middle. (61) The North Slavs call it bábu rézati, sawing old granny, i.e. keeping Mid Lent (Jungm. 1, 56). Now this sawing up and burning of the old wife (as of the devil, p. 606) seems identical with the carrying out and drowning of Death, and if this represented Winter, a giant, may not the Romance and South Slav nations have pictured their hiems, their zima, as a goddess or old woman (Sl. bába)? (62) Add to this, that in villages even of Meissen and Silesia the straw figure that is borne out is sometimes in the shape of an old woman (p. 768), which may perhaps have meant Marzana (p. 773)? I should not be surprised if some districts of Bavaria, Tyrol and Switzerland were yet to reveal a similar sawing of the old wife. (63) The Scotch Highlanders throw the auld wife into the fire at Christmas (Stewart's Pop. superst. p. 236 seq.).

But Lower Germany itself presents an approximation no less worthy of attention. On p. 190 we mentioned that it was the custom at Hildesheim, on the Saturday after Laetare, to set forth the triumph of christianity over the heathen gods by knocking down logs of wood. The agreement in point of time would of itself invite a comparison of this solemnity with that Old-Polish one, and further with the carrying out of Death; one need not even connect the expulsion of the old gods with the banishment of Winter at all. In Geo. Torquatus's (unpublished) Annal. Magdeb. et Halberst. part 3 lib. 1 cap. 9 we are told that at Halberstadt (as at Hildesheim above) they used once a year to set up a log in the marketplace, and throw at it till its head come off. The log has not a name of its own, like Jupiter at Hildesheim; it is not unlikely that the same practice prevailed at other places in the direction of these two cities. At Halberstadt it lasted till markgraf Johan Albrecht's time; the oldest account of it is by the so-called 'monk of Pirna,' Joh. Lindner (Tilianus, d. ab. 1530) in his Onomasticon: 'In the stead of the idol's temple pulled in pieces at Halberstadt, there was a dome-church (cathedral) edified in honour of God and St. Stephen; in memory thereof the dome-lords (dean and chapter) young and old shall on Letare Monday every year set up a wooden skittle in the idol's stead, and throw thereat, every one; moreover the dome-provost shall in public procession and lordly state let lead a bear (barz, l. baren) beside him, else shall his customary dues be denied him; likewise a boy beareth after him a sheathed sword under his arm.' Leading a bear about and delivering a bear's loaf was a custom prevalent in the Mid. Ages, e.g. at Mainz (Weisth. 1, 533) and Strassburg (Schilter's Gloss. 102).

This Low Saxon rejection, and that Polish dismissal, of the ancient gods has therefore no necessary connexion with a bringing in of summer, however apt the comparison of the new religion to summer's genial warmth. In the Polish custom at all events I find no such connection hinted at. At the same time, the notion of bringing summer in was not unknown to the Poles. A Cracow legend speaks of Lel and Po-lel (after-lel), two divine beings of heathen times, chasing each other round the field, and bringing Summer; they are the cause of 'flying summer,' i.e. gossamer. (64) Until we know the whole tradition more exactly, we cannot assign it its right place. Lel and Polel are usually likened to Castor and Pollux (Linde i. 2, 1250b), to whom they bear at least this resemblance, that their names, even in old folk-songs, make a simple interjection, (65) as the Romans used the twin demigods to swear by. Fliegender sommer, flugsommer, sommerflug, graswebe, are our names for the white threads that cover the fields at the beginning of spring, and still more of autumn; the spring tissue is also called maidensummer, Mary's yarn, Mary's thread (p. 471), that of autumn aftersummer, autumn yarn, old-wive's summer; but generally both kinds are covered by the one name or the other. Nethl. slammetje (draggletail? Brem. wtb. 4, 799); Engl. gossamer (God's train, trailing garment), also samar, simar (train); Swed. dvärgsnät (dwarf's net), p. 471. Boh. wlacka (harrow, because the threads rake the ground ?); Pol. lato swieto marcinskie, Mary's holy summer. Here again the Virgin's name seems to have been chosen as a substitute or antidote for heathen notions: the ancient Slavs might easily believe the gauzy web to have been spread over the earth by one of their gods. But the autumn gossamer has another Slavic name: Pol. babie lato, old wives' summer, Boh. babské lèto, or simply babj, which puts us in mind once more of that antithesis between summer and the old wife (p. 782). She rules in winter, and the god in summer (see Suppl.). Can the words of the Wendish ditty, quoted p. 771, be possibly interpreted of the film as it floats in the air?

I hope I have proved the antiquity and significance of the conceptions of Summer and Winter; but there is one point I wish to dwell upon more minutely. The dressing-up of the two champions in foliage and flowers, in straw and moss, the dialogue that probably passed between them, the accompanying chorus of spectators, all exhibit the first rude shifts of dramatic art, and a history of the German stage ought to begin with such performances. The wrappage of leaves represents the stage-dress and masks of a later time. Once before (p. 594), in the solemn procession for rain, we saw such leafy garb. Popular custom exhibits a number of variations, having preserved one fragment here, and another there, of the original whole. Near Willingshausen, county Ziegenhain, Lower Hesse, a boy is covered over and over with leaves, green branches are fastened to his body: other boys lead him by a rope, and make him dance as a bear, for doing which a present is bestowed; the girls carry a hoop decked out with flowers and ribbons. Take note, that at the knocking down of logs at Halberstadt (p. 783), there was also a bear and a boy with a sword (conf. supra p. 304 n.) in the procession; that Vildifer, a hero disguised in a bearskin, is led about by a musician, and dances to the harp. (66) Doubtless a dramatic performance of ancient date, which we could have judged better, had the M. Nethl. poem of bere Wislau (67) been preserved; but the name Vildifer seems to be founded on an OS. Wild-efor, which originated in a misapprehension of the OHG. Wildpero ('pero' ursus being confounded with 'pêr' aper), as only a dancing bear can be meant here, not a boar. Now this bear fits well with the gadebasse of the Danish May feast (p. 776). Schmid's Schwäb. wtb. 518b mentions the Augsburg waterbird: at Whitsuntide a lad wrapt from head to foot in reeds is led through the town by two others holding birch-boughs in their hands: once more a festival in May, not March. The name of this 'waterfowl' shows he is meant to be ducked in the brook or river; but whether Summer here is a mistake for Winter, whether the boy in reeds represents Winter, while perhaps another boy in leaves played Summer, or the mummery was a device to bring on rain, I leave undetermined. Thuringian customs also point to Whitsuntide: the villagers there on Whit-Tuesday choose their green man or lettuce-king; a young peasant is escorted into the woods, is there enveloped in green bushes and boughs, set on a horse, and conducted home in triumph. In the village the community stands assembled: the bailiff is allowed three guesses to find out who is hidden in the green disguise; if he fails, he must pay ransom in beer. (68) In other places it is on Whit-Sunday itself that the man who was the last to drive his cattle to pasture, is wrapt in fir and birch boughs, and whipt through the village amidst loud cries of 'Whitsun-sleeper!' At night comes beer-drinking and dancing. In the Erzegebirge the shepherd who drives out earliest on Whit-Sunday may crack his whip, the last comer is laughed at and saluted Whitsun-looby: so with the latest riser in every house. The sleeping away of sacred festive hours (conf. p. 590 n.), and the penalty attached to it, of acting the butze and being ducked, I look upon as mere accessories, kept alive long after the substance of the festival had perished (see Suppl.).




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