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The Germanic Lunar CalendarThor:
Alvis:
Tis hight Moon among men,
From the Alvismal, one of the poems in the Poetic Edda (assembled around the 13th century in Iceland), we learn that the moon god Mani was known among elves as "artala", or "Year-Teller". While other translators of Alvismal give this kenning of the moon as "Teller of Time", we see "ar" is clearly "year", and "tala" is as much related to the English "tally" (to count, reckon) as it is to "tell". Some clues as to why the moon would be called "year-counter" are revealed by both archaeological and literary sources. In the beginning, according to the poem Voluspa, also in the Poetic Edda, none of the heavenly bodies had a place or sequence, suggesting a timeless, chaotic state: 5.
Sun cast from south,
Interesting here is the fact that there seems to be divisions of the sun's home ("sali" - the front entrance of a house or hall) and moon's "might" into eighths. The sun's daily course being divided into eighths is corroborated by the Norse "eight daymarks", named in the next stanza, and explained further below. Whether the sun's yearly course around the celestial sphere was likewise divided into eighths is still a matter of debate. The moon's monthly cycle being divided into eighths is unexpected, given other lunar lore, also below, which suggests a twofold or fourfold division of the month. But if the reference here is to the moon's placement in the celestial sphere, not necessarily its phases as such, it would lend credence to the idea that the celestial sphere itself was seen as comprised of eight halls or houses. Both the Prose and the Poetic Edda suggest that it was the gods who set the sun and moon in their courses and gave rise to temporality. Note that four of the eight daymarks are here named ("morning and middle-day", etc.). 6.
Then ganged the gods
The idea of the gods creating sequence and order in the heavens, and therefore time, is also conveyed in the Prose Edda, where it is said that they took some bits of fire from the fiery realm of Muspelheimr and set them in the firmament. Some, the stars, were fixed, and others, the planets, they set wandering about the sky. The exact nature of time in a Germanic context is worthy of further study. Here we will deal with the concept of time only to the extent that it bears on the recording of its passage and predictions made by the calendrical systems being examined. Very telling is the fact that Old English has no future tense, a concept that speakers of Modern English may have some difficulty comprehending. Often said among modern Heathens is that the Germanic conception of time is nonlinear, and at the same time cyclical. Suffice it to say here that "time's arrow" behaves somewhat differently in "Germanic space" than it does in the modern conception of time. We will be expanding on native metaphysical conceptions of time itself in another article, but we will tickle the reader's imagination with the image of "tree-rings". As most well know, tree-rings are the concentric rings of wood grain that are visible when a tree is cut across its trunk. Each pair of dark and light rings represent a single year (dark rings form in the winter, light rings in the summer), and thus it is a good method for determining the age of a tree. As we shall see, like tree-rings, Germanic calendars divide the year into two halves, summer and winter. Perhaps even more significant for our analogy, each new ring, each moment, begins at the centre of the tree and expands, and the older, outer rings limit it, but are also are pushed out and expanded in order to accommodate it. Centuries before the Eddas were written, the 7th century Anglo-Saxon chronicler Bede, in De Tempore Ratione, ("On the Reckoning of Time"), gives us a detailed description of the calendar in use by those English Saxons who were still at that time mostly still pagan. From Bede we learn that the ancient Heathen used the moon's monthly cycle to tell the time of year, (hence "month", from Old English "monath") . Most years were counted as consisting of 12 lunar months. Because 12 lunar months only add up to 360 days, or so, short of the solar year's length of 365.25 days, every few years a 13th intercalary month, called Litha, needed to be added to the year. Among the Anglo-Saxons, at least, this 13th intercalary month was added over summer solstice, during midsummer.
13-12-12-13-12-12-13-12-12-13-12-13-12-12-13-12-12-13-12, or... O o o O o o O o o O o O o o O o o O o So we see why the moon can truly be called the "Year-Teller". Whether the Germanic Heathen of Bede's time were aware of the 19-year Metonic cycle is uncertain, but at least two archaeological discoveries, predating Bede by up to two thousand years, suggest that their proto-Germanic and pre-Germanic ancestors certainly were.
Various fantastic gold cones, recently suggested as being "wizard hats", found in Germany, provide inscriptions of sun and moon patterns which depict the Metonic cycle. The Nebra Sky disk, the oldest known depiction of the heavens, also found in Germany, seems to depict two moon symbols in conjunction with a group of seven stars, which likely represent the Pleiades star cluster, M45, also known as "The Seven Sisters". The disk closely resembles a Babylonian illustration which depicts an observational method of identifying when, in the 19 year Metonic cycle, a 13th intercalary month needed to be added in any given year. A waxing crescent moon will appear to some degree to align with, or even occult the Pleiades star cluster, in the west just after sundown, just as it is featured on the Nebra disk, indicating that a 13th intercalary month is required in that year. As it happens, such an occultation of the Pleiades by the moon occurs this year, in early April, 2006 ce. On subsequent intercalary years, the same phase crescent moon will brush just below the Pleiades, although not as closely as before.
The full moon on the Nebra disk, shown to the left of the Pleiades, also depicts the final lunation of those years when a 13th month is required. It seems the Nebra disk was used by native Germans as an observational aid in keeping a solunar calendar, of much the same type as described in Britain by Bede two thousand years later. Precision analysis reveals why such an observational aid would be necessary. The Metonic cycle, defined as 235 lunations, falls short of exactly 19 solar years by mere hours. That may seem a forgivable error, but as centuries passed, dates kept by the calendar would drift by days and eventually weeks. By comparing the sky to the disk, any accumulating error could be periodically eliminated. Germanic tribes were also known to divide the year into two half-years, winter and summer, whose names survive in modern English, along with the terms "midwinter" for winter solstice, and "midsummer" for summer solstice. Icelanders, descended from the Norse, recorded the two seasons as "Skammdegi", or Short-days for winter, and "Nattleysi" or Nightless for summer, obviously reflecting their northerly location and origin, much closer to the Arctic Circle than the English, but nevertheless retaining the traditional division of the year into halves. Midwinter and midsummer mark the midway points of each season. Midwinter, known as Yule, was universally recognized by Germanic tribes by the same name, as the lunar month in which the winter solstice occurred. If a 13th lunar month was needed, it was inserted over midsummer, or summer solstice.
In the 1st century, the Roman explorer Tacitus encountered the Germanic tribes in NW Europe and recorded various details about them, including brief notes on how they reckoned time. "Nor do they, in their computation of time, reckon, like us, by the number of days, but of nights. In this way they arrange their business; in this way they fix their appointments; so that, with them, the night seems to lead the day." That each new day began at sundown is also suggested more than a thousand years later by the naming of holy days and the nights preceding them, most obviously in Christmas Eve which preceded Christmas Day, as well as May Eve, which preceeds May Day. Further, a single day was divided not by hours, but by eight "daymarks". Terms surviving from this practice include "morning", "midday" (noon), "evening" and "midnight". In addition, a certain daymark was also often associated with a particular feature of local geography. When the sun, in its daily path, was vertically aligned with a particular mountaintop, for example, it was said to have reached a particular daymark.
The eight day marks may well be the same as the eight steads or halls of the sun, moon and stars mentioned in the Voluspa. Daymarks, however, are fixed to the geography, relative to the earth, like the points on a compass. That the celestial sphere itself was also divided into eighths is conjectural, even if suggested by the Voluspa. There seems to be a kind of a parallel logic used in how the Germanic tribes viewed the daily cycles and the seasonal cycles of the sun. It seems intuitive that night was associated with winter, and day with summer. That the night and winter were seen as the beginnings of their respective cycles may not be intuitive to the modern mind, but it is self consistent, as are the associations of midnight with midwinter, midday with midsummer. It could be reasonably supposed, therefore, that the lunar cycle was likewise divided into two, and that the division would have been lateral, like that of the day and the year, at its waxing and waning "quarters". Certainly the trained eye can easily observe the precise day the moon is an exact half-moon. For these reasons it could be argued that the month should, like the day and the year, begin at the waning half-moon. Others argue that either the new moon or the full moon should be the start of the Heathen month, and indeed in the various Hindu calendars both reckonings are still used. Interestingly, the "full-moon starting" tradition is practiced mainly in the north of India, while the "new-moon starting" school is mainly in the south. Considering that northern India was a main centre of the Indo-European migrations, if not their point of origin, it may indicate that Indo-European Germanic tribes were also of the "full-moon starting" tradition. In either case, the Vedic calendars divide the lunar month into two. From new moon, waxing to full moon is called shuklapaksha, or "light half" and from the full moon, waning to the new moon is called krishnapaksha, "dark half". Such a conception is easily translated into Germanic terms, and we see possible vestiges of this belief in the Old Norse poetic phrase "ny and nyd", the light-half and dark-half of the month respectively, the latter of which is named in the Voluspa, as "nydhum", above. Tacitus also reveals,"They assemble, unless upon some sudden emergency, on stated days, either at the new or full moon, which they account the most auspicious season for beginning any enterprise." This passage would seem to support a division of the lunar cycle at the new and full moons, which ever phase marked the "beginning" of the cycle.
At any rate, at or after their exposure to the Roman culture the century before the common era (bce), many the Germanic tribes took up the custom of the 7 day week. Many also began to name each of the seven days after a Germanic God or Goddess, hence the name of the days in the Modern English week. The seven day week, whatever its origin, became an important part of the Heathen lunar calendar by the end of the first millennium c.e., when the Norse evidently dated certain festivals by the certain number of weeks following the start of summer or winter. Also the Old Norse calendar staves, the so-called runic calendar, consisting of long wooden sticks on which the passing of seven-day weeks were recorded using the first 7 runes of the Old Norse alphabet. These practices may reflect a shift from observational calendars (based on the heavenly bodies) to a rule-based calendar (governed by a set of rules). As far as we know, prior to 500 bce most calendars were observational. Around 500 bce ancient Greek, and Indian astronomers first recorded rule-based systems. By 0 bce most lunar calendars had switched to some rule system or other. Exactly when the Germanic tribes made such a transition, whether before or after the coming of Christianity to NW Europe, is unclear. The actual names of the 12 or 13 lunar months varied from one Germanic tribe to the next, and with the introduction of the Christian-Roman calendar, many of the old names were lost. Grimm examined some of the surviving month names in continental folklore in the 1800's, and there are several variants of Old Norse month names that have survived down to us. The Freehold, because its official language is English, has opted for the Old English names left by Bede, which shall be given below.
Considerable variation in the calendars used by various tribes throughout the Germanic world becomes evident, on account of local and tribally specific deities, weather conditions, agricultural and hunting seasons and local observation of the night sky. While there is presently debate amongst some modern Heathen as to whether, for example, Easter, as it was known to the English Heathen, is to be held in March or April, and whether it is really the same festival as May Day, and whether to "dance the summer-pole" in March, May or June, a holistic analysis of the problem reveals that all of these various traditions may have been true at different times for different tribes. So it is simply a natural development that the English dance the summer-pole on May Day, being further south that the sub-arctic Norse, who generally do not dance the summer-pole until late June, at midsummer An exhaustive survey of all known calendars and time keeping customs of the various Germanic tribes, and how customs related to observable celestial events is beyond the scope of this article (let alone a comprehensive comparison of Indo-European calendar and astronomical systems which doubtless would also yield so much). But considering the linguistic data, the gold wizard's hat with the Metonic cycle inscribed upon it, the elder Nebra disk, the Roman explorer Tacitus, The Icelandic Eddas, the Anglo-Saxon Bede, among other sources, we are able to reconstruct a Heathen solunar calendar with a fair degree of certainty. When reconstructing an observational calendar and comparing it to ancient calendrical systems, the precession of the equinoxes should also be taken into account. Because of a slight roll and wobble in the earth's tilt, the sun's position at a certain time of year, such as on the day of spring equinox, changes very slowly with respect to the stars. Over the course of 70 years, the day of equinox will come one day earlier, and after about two thousand years, a whole month earlier. A star once occulted (covered up) by the sun on that same day, will fall farther and farther behind the sun as the centuries unfold. Other celestial cycles need also be considered, in light of the Nebra disk. While it has been shown that a crescent moon will align with the Pleiades every intercalary (13-month) year, on most years it will fall below the Pleiades. Because of the precession of the moon's orbit and nodes, the moon's path will rise and fall in relation to the Pleiades over 18.6 years. The period of the moon's wobble is not a whole number, so the lunar path will rise as high as the Pleiades at different times of year each 18.6 years.
When reckoned with a lunar calendar that uses the 19 year Metonic cycle, the result is a great cycle of 912 years until the Pleiades is occulted by the moon in the same lunar month again. Due to the precession of the sun against the stars over 912 years, however, this will alignment will occur 14 days later, meaning the moon will not be in the same phase as seen on our original base day. But as this 912 year cycle repeats twice, a greater cycle of 1824 years becomes evident, because over this interval the sun will have precessed nearly a full lunar month. This means that only after 1824 years and one month will the moon's path occult the Pleiades at the same lunar phase as our original base day. The Nebra disk, therefore, with its depiction of a high lunar orbit at the particular phase of the crescent moon, marks the height of an 1824 year cycle in a lunar calendar. As mentioned, this year, 2006 ce, the moon is at the height of this cycle, exactly as rendered on the Nebra disk. Given the approximate dating of the disk to 1500 bce, a more accurate estimate can be offered simply by employing the astronomical cycle depicted on the disk itself. The disk was most likely manufactured two 1824-year cycles, or 3648 years, ago, in the year 1642 bce.
The apparent complexity of astronomical observations and calculations may be discouraging, but in practice simple rules are put into place to deal with things like precession of the equinoxes more or less "on the fly". The most complex pattern of the calendar needing to be memorized or written down is the 19 year sequence of years consisting either 12 or 13 months in length, known as the Metonic cycle. We are calling this 19 year cycle a "highweek", mainly because after four highweeks, or 76 years, elapse, a one day error, with respect to the sun, accumulates. This 76 year period we call a "highmonth", after which one day is subtracted. Every 12 "highmonths", or 912 years, an additional day needs to be subtracted as further very small errors accumulate. After 24 "highmonths", the whole 1824 year cycle, which we are calling a "world-age", repeats itself. A speculative analysis of the mathematics involved in carrying a lunar calendar through an entire 1824-year "age", based on the few fragments of evidence presented, seems to hint at a vast astronomical and calendrical system hitherto unimagined, on a scope comparable to the highly advanced systems of sister Indo-European cultures such as the Vedic Indians. Unfortunately, ancient Germanic star-lore is all but lost, save for a few tantalizing clues, meaning any reconstruction must be to a great degree conjectural. One Old Norse kenning, or poetic name, for human beings relates them with the moon, and it is not difficult to see why, given the lunar based fertility cycles of women and the importance of solunar calendars to nomadic, early agricultural and hunting cultures, for just a few examples. Throughout Europe, elaborate and expensive observatories, such as Stone Henge and others, abound, and where such structures may not exist, mountains and hill tops were venerated as sacred perhaps precisely because of they afforded full views of the sky. The importance of knowledge of the stars to the ancestors, and the complexity of their knowledge, continues to amaze us with every new discovery such as the Nebra disk and the gold wizard's hats. We can be sure of the basic mathematical structure of the primordial Germanic calendar, being based as it is upon the movement of the sun and moon among the stars. We can further finely calculate in what season any observation of a cyclical celestial event might be or have been observed at any point in the past or future. What remains purely in the realm of imagination is exactly what such cycles must have meant to the ancient ancestors, although mythology and folklore supply much. Some interesting mathematical coincidences reveal themselves in this grand 1824 year lunar cycle, or "age". The basic unit of the calendar is the 19 year Metonic cycle (highweek). This period is roughly the maturation period of a human infant into an adult, and is the span of a single generation. An ancient human would be lucky to live through two or three such cycles (38 to 57 yrs old) and in exceptional cases perhaps four cycles (76 yrs). The 76 year long highmonth can therefore be viewed as a "man-age". That there are twenty-four "man-ages", of 76 years each, in the greater 1824-year long "world-age", may beg annotations based on the elder "futhark" of 24 runic symbols. While such a correlation may be purely a mathematical artifact of the heavenly cycles, and associating the 24 man-ages in the cycle with the 24 runes is purely speculative, it could form a traditional foundation for the future development of a purely Germanic horary on par with other ancient cultures in terms of sophistication and complexity, but still remaining true to the unique heart of the Germanic mythos. In any event, if such esoteric concerns were known at all (as may be suggested by the evidence), it would surely have been the exclusive responsibility of the specialized priesthood, whose job it was to call the dates of the holy days and keep the ancient calendar which was seen as a gift from the gods. Most folks needed only to know the best time to plant, hunt or fare to the high feasts, and could suffice with the most superficial knowledge of the calendar based mainly on the phases of the moon. Modern Heathen, most of whom do not lead a traditional agricultural lifestyle, can never the less use such a system as a liturgical calendar of sorts, in their quest to come into resonance with the essential spirit of the Germanic ancestors. The system presented is a blend of observational and rule-based approaches, centred primarily around the observation of sundown, winter and summer solstices, and the new and full moons. Today, of course, very precise lunar and solar ephemera are available on the internet, that we can take advantage of, that provide dates for astronomical event for years into the past or future. 1. A new day begins at the observation of sundown. The precise calculation of the time of sundown always varies depending on the season as well as upon the latitude and longitude of the observer. For most folk-calendar uses, rough estimates and simple observations more than suffice. 2. Each day is divided into eight daymarks (of roughly three hours each) according to the sun's apparent position using the terrestrial compass. 3. The Freehold cleaves to the "new moon starting" school which holds a new month begins at the first observation of the lunar crescent after the "new moon". The lunar month is roughly 29.5 days long, but in practice either 29 days (hollow month) or 30 days (full month), from new moon to new moon. 4. The lunar month is divided into halves, the light-half from new to full, and the murky-half from full to new. 5. The lunar month which contains the day of winter solstice will always be called Yule or Ere-Yule. Yule begins the new solar year. 6. The new lunar year begins two lunar months prior to Yule month. 7. The need for a 13th intercalary month can be determined by observation, using the crescent Easter moon and the Pleiades star cluster, or it can be determined with the rule of the highweek, the 19 year Metonic cycle. The 13th month is added so it always contains the day of summer solstice. 8. Every 4 highweeks, known as a highmonth, or a man-age (76 years) one day need be subtracted. 9. Every 12 highmonths (912 years), an additional day need be subtracted. 10. After 24 highmonths (1824 years), the observed alignment of the Pleiades and the lunar crescent has advanced one full lunar month later in the year (due to precession of the equinoxes), marking the beginning of a new world-age. Of course the periods of the orbits and rotations of the moon and earth generally increase, slowing down, and sometimes speeding up again, over millennial time, meaning new observations need to be taken at that time to resynchronize the calendrical cycle to the stars, sun and moon. This calendar rendered through 2020ce: 2001 through 2020 |
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© 2005, Heathen Freehold Society
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