Misummer As It Was and Was Not

The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was Not, Observed in Pagan Germany, Scandinavia
and Anglo-Saxon England

Author(s): Sandra Billington
Source: Folklore, Vol. 119, No. 1 (Apr., 2008), pp. 41-57
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
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Folklore 119 (April 2008): 41-57
RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was No

Observed in Pagan Germany, Scandinavia
and Anglo-Saxon England
Sandra Billington
Abstract
From records of pagan Scandinavia, Germany, Anglo-Saxon England, the

Mediterranean countries and early Christian influence, the attempt is made
here to assess why it could be that ancient sun-worshipping communities in
north-western Europe did not commemorate the summer solstice. The paper
addresses the following questions: What were the survival needs of these early
societies? How did they perceive and use the summer season? What is the
significance of midsummer as historically recorded? What effects did calendar
changes have on the observance of seasons? What effects have nineteenth-century
mythologists had on our perception?
Where We Are Today

Pick up any work on Scandinavian mythology, theology or folk customs and it is
fairly certain that J. G. Frazer's thinking will have sown a belief that needs to be
put under scrutiny: that is, that ancient pagan customs in Germany and
Scandinavia included a ritual at the summer solstice from which medieval
midsummer traditions in northern Europe descended. The idea, inspired by
Wilhelm Mannhardt, sprang from Frazer's mind as follows:
The best general explanation of [medieval midsummer fires] seems to be the one given by
Mannhardt, namely they are sun charms or magical ceremonies intended to ensure a proper
supply of sunshine for men, animals, and plants (Frazer 1900, book III, 300).
A faint tinge of Christianity has been given to them by naming Midsummer Day after St. John the
Baptist, but we cannot doubt that the celebration dates from a long time before the beginning of
our era. [The sun's fall in the sky] could not but be regarded with anxiety by primitive man [and]
he fancied that he might help the sun in his seeming decline (Frazer 1900, book III, 266-7).
The belief has been repeated throughout the twentieth century with greater or
lesser degrees of certainty. For example:
[F]ire festivals ... are probably relics of the magical rites performed at this season to assist the
sun at the critical turning-point in its annual course (James 1957, 226).
[A]mong peasants and all the simpler members of the [church] many of the practices of sun
cults long remained, most of them clustering round May Day, midsummer and Christmas
(Hawkes 1962, 204).
The midsummer bonfire-rituals ... at the summer solstice, magically assisted the sun at its
critical and high point at the turn of the annual celestial cycle (Aldhouse-Green 1991, 108).
ISSN 0015-587X print; 1469-8315 online/08/010041-17; Routledge Journals; Taylor & Francis
c 2008 The Folklore Society
DOI: 10.1080/00155870701806167
42 Sandra Billington
In 1969, Hilda Ellis Davidson

of his material on fire festiv
his core belief:
Frazer's evidence is partial and arranged uncritically, but it is sufficient to show that the sun-
wheel formed an important part of ceremonies connected with the midwinter and midsummer
solstice [in the Middle Ages] ... The symbol of the sun-wheel survived the pagan period and
continued to be used in folk customs [in the] practice of rolling a [burning] cartwheel ... down
a hill. ... the purpose of the rite [was] to maintain the existing order and ensure a good year,
warding off disease, hail, thunder and other calamities. ... Thus it would seem that the sun-
disk symbolism of the Bronze Age did not pass wholly out of use (Gelling and Davidson 1969,
143-5).
Frazer's opinion that the medieval tradition of midsummer fires was residual sun-
worship, inherited from pagan German and Scandinavian tribes, looked plausible.
In the absence of counter-information it was far more plausible than that the
midsummer solstice could have been totally ignored by ancient sun-worshipping
societies.
What is surprising, however, is that an Anglo-Scandinavian work-the highly
reputable translation of Heimskringla by Monsen and Smith-was also affected:
"iii bl6t hvern vetr, eitt at vetrnottum, en annat at miajum vetri, iii.at sumri" was
interpreted as "he was wont to hold three blood offerings every winter, one on
Winter's Night, a second at midsummer and the third towards summer" (1932,
336; Finnur 1966, 289), instead of as "... one on Winter's Night, a second at
midwinter and the third towards summer." The slip was not corrected in the 1990
edition despite correct summaries of the three winter festivals on pages 6 and
326. It seems that deep in our psyche is a need for midsummer traditions to
have originated from our indigenous northern tribes, in the same way that
midwinter Yule traditions did. For after Nerys Patterson in 1994 (119-35) and
Helmut Birkhan in 1999 revealed that pre-Christian Ireland could not have
been the source of "modern-day 'Celtic festivals' at midsummer" (1999, 94),
Brian Day, in his popular Chronicle of Celtic Folk Custom, turned to Britain's
eastern seaboard, assuming that it was Scandinavians and early Germans who
brought midsummer traditions to Britain and Ireland during their invasions
(2000, 104).
I, too, began work on midsummer customs in Britain in the hopes that they were
of north-west European origin and found myself swimming upstream against a
strong current of negative evidence. This paper has resulted as an attempt to make
sense of the material found and to consider reasons why the summer solstice
would not have been a time for sun-worshippers to venerate the solar deity.
Finally, I hope to illustrate what the rationale behind midsummer rituals was, and
to suggest how they reached Scandinavia.
Records
The nineteenth-century work that was not taken seriously enough by Mannhardt
and Frazer was Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie. Out of a collection of data, he
discovered two distinct seasons in summer for the lighting of fires: those in the
north took place at Easter; midsummer fires with their sunnenwende games took
place only in the south of Germany (Stallybrass 1883, book II, 615). The evidence
The Midsummer Solstice 43
led Grimm to conclude that

to welcome the beginning
native heathenism" (ibid
church and she had picked
Nordic and Saxon literat
traditions had not been co
Yule-figure or J61nir wa
other one hundred and fi
with summer nor with it
any significance given
literature. The sole seaso
early summer in a brief
bosom of the earth beaut
courts" (Swanton, trans. 19
Fundode wrecca, / gist of
to Grimm's findings th
summer moment for pag
Similar findings for Nor
Sturlason tells of her ancie
King, Odin:
Near winter's day [mid-October
winter for a good crop, and ne
(Monsen and Smith 1932, 6).
The triad of winter pagan

apology given to Norway's
in Inner Trondheim almost all the folk are heathen ... And it is their custom to hold a blood
offering in the autumn and then bid winter welcome, another at midwinter, and the third on
Summer's Day when they bid summer welcome (Monsen and Smith 1932, 326).
In neither saga does Snorre say anything about high summer despite interest in
the northern summer from Mediterranean geographers. As early as the fourth
century B.C.E., the Greek Pythias of Massalia undertook an epic voyage into
Scandinavia's icebound seas after hearing from the Scots that Thule was a place
where, at one season, "the sun goes to sleep" and, at the other, it "shone all night
long" (Frost 1997, 147). Sharp debate arose among Greek and Latin thinkers,
fascinated by his reports of the northern cold and the region's extreme variations
in day length. The name Ultima Thule alternated with that of Scandia in
arguments regarding its existence, habitability, and the length of its solstices that
raged between Pomponius Mela, Strabo, Polybios, and Pliny during the first and
second centuries C.E. (Roseman 1994; Cunliffe 2001).
In the sixth century another Greek, the historian Procopius-living in Rome
during Gothic incursions into the Roman Empire-gave the following description
of Thule's high arctic summer. He regretted not having been able to visit, so was,
instead, repeating what "those who come to us from [Thule]" had told him
(Dewing 1914, 415-17). [2]
[There] a very wonderful thing

solstice [turning point] [3] neve
time above the earth (Dewing
Procopius was interested e

very wonderful thing," ye
in contrast to his subsequ
of men gathering in the d
returning light in Januar
once light had again pen
would Procopius refrain f
appears very interested b
to happen at midwinter?
with some enthusiasm, s
midsummer celebration?
In fact, we have no record of customs at the summer solstice in Germany until
the seventh century C.E., and none from Scandinavia until the end of the first
millennium when St John's Eve became one of the Christian feast days on which
Olav Trygvason, after his conversion, allowed drinking festivals (Finnur 1929, 22;
see below p. 47). The absence of recorded pagan activity at this solstice is in
marked contrast to substantial material for Yule.
Social Context
The return of the sun after forty days of darkness was, of course, a crucial moment
each year for the survival of northern peoples. Total dependency on it made th
sun one of their most important deities, and it is important to know what the
relationship to it at its zenith was. The closest event in the Norse year was the Ju
opening of the Icelandic General Assembly, to which I shall return.
Firstly, there are other aspects to consider: one being that of the Icelandi
Calendar, which was divided into two six-month seasons. As Monsen and Smith
show, summer began after the spring equinox. In the old Calendar the first day
was the Thursday before 16 April and the season lasted until the Saturday betwe
10 and 16 October. (Since 1700 these dates have been 26 April and 21-27 October
[Gudbrand 1957, 603-4; Gunnell 2000, 127].) The halfway point in the Nord
summer quite clearly was not June, but July, and since the midpoint was after th
sun's turning no solsticial meanings were, nor could be, built into the Icelandic
Calendrical system. It is remotely possible that, as Gudbrand wrote, a day called
miasumar was instituted a month after the solstice, on 28 July (1957, 604). Yet, h
this been a festive day, one would have expected its inclusion by writers such a
Snorre. This lack, plus Snorre's silence on activity at the summer solstice an
similar silence from the earlier Procopius, leads to the strong probability that there
were no ancient pagan festivals at all in Scandinavia at high summer.
Procopius' Greek origins are themselves interesting, for no ancient peopl
except the Greeks:
show any evidence of having conceived time ... as a frame of reference for events. [Other
pagan societies] did not separate time from its contents ... Time was its own contents. Events
were not in time, they were times (Ariotti 1975, 70).
In Scandinavia, events them

rather than metaphysics the
"belief system" based on
cosmic system reflecting on
illustrate this, and N. S. P
religion as a set of social co
"at the end of the heathe
conversion to Christianity a
(Price 2002, 74).
It is not surprising, theref
Scandinavia is its practical v
Finnmark, another Arctic ter
From the twenty-fifth of March

uninterrupted by darkness, and th
August with no intervention of n
peril, in the gloom, a voyage to
rocks (Fisher and Higgins 1996, v
For the Vikings, the well-lit m

they provided the opport
resources by overseas trade
was given to such adventur
Somerton, to villages in A
victory" could well have be
Practicality is also central t
months of June and July w
[because] in both these mon
navigated." [4] "Pleasant or
high-summer months: they
word Lida in fact obscures th
although Bede names the win
mentioned. Similarly, the se
contain numerous references
point, but no festivals are m
Sun-worship
Yet it is well known from the
Bronze and Iron Age sun-dis
from Bohusliin in which a la
(Figure 1). Such carvings appea
life-giving power. Olaus Ma
had not only given thanks
would seem to refer to Yule
immeasurable cold" (Fisher a
does not return with the lig
have come later in the year. T
of the pagan festivals and ex
Figure 1. Petroglyph from Stora B
The obvious complication

sunlight-Procopius called al
Inevitably, continuous sun
Instead of the drama lyin
the whole nine hundred
"a wonderful thing."
Bohuslin, however, is on
experiencing close to six ho
the turning point three d
creating a dawn on which t
of Bohuslin followed the
observance would have been at odds with this. One has also to consider the
question of men-folk away at sea.
Another possibility for where the second festival of thanks was placed is the first
day that the sun stayed above the horizon in those areas where it did, and no suc
custom was reported to Procopius.
The season to which one inexorably returns (because there is information about it)
is that of early summer when increasing warmth was first felt; which of course is in
Snorre's phrase: "celebrate the coming of summer." According to Olaus Magnus,
people in the Arctic region:
welcome the returning radiance of the sun with special dances. Dwellers in the higher
mountainous regions redouble their revelries by feasting one another, rejoicing because more
abundant hunting and more plentiful fishing are again at hand (Fisher and Higgins 1996-8,
vol. 2, 733).
The emphasis in this description is again on the practical, rather than on an

abstract, significance-it is the point in the year when life becomes easier. It also
comes at the time when men would be getting ready to leave, rather than already
being away. Grimm's later data for Germany indicated that the beginning of
summer was not fixed to any one day but was "determined by signs, the opening
of flowers, the arrival of

time, they were times," an
until the event actually h
Grimm's material on com
of the warm season one o
defeat of the people's grea
Terry Gunnell's work o
gling them from later Ge
that it was at various st
Scandinavia acquired win
marriages (1995, 128-41)
which by 1700 was held on
Gunnell writes that since 1700 this:
is more commonly associated with Jonsok, or St John's Eve (24 June), the date to which Olafr
Tryggvason deliberately moved the original midsummer festival at the end of the tenth century
(1995,136; cf. Gunnell 2000, 126).
The evidence, however, is contrary. The Agrip states that Olav Trygvasson
"removed [bl6tdrykkior] heathen sacrifices" and the carousing connected with
them and "instead got the common people to take up festive drinking,"
h6tiaadrykkior, at Yule, "and Easter, St John's Eve, and ... Michaelsmasse" (Finnur
1929, 22; Gunnell 2000, 126). Pre-Christian Yule continued, without its sacrifice, as
the end of Christmas; the pagan beginning of summer was moved to Easter, and
Michaelmass is two weeks before the start of the pagan winter. But there was no
pagan festival at the summer solstice to be converted. The evidence points to Olav
instituting a new festival on 23/24 June for the people of Norway, in line with the
Christianised summer elsewhere in Europe, and the summer bride festival could
only be included in the Jonsok once that festival had been created.
The Althing
The Icelandic General Assembly, or Althing, was the means of constituting

Iceland's laws, based on those of western Norway, although Iceland was ruled
independently and without a king until 1262 (Dennis, Foote, and Perkins 1980,
vol. 1, 1). The annual Assembly was established by 930, and from then to the end
of the millennium (999) a two-week meeting was held from the Thursday of the
ninth week after the beginning of summer. Therefore, it was a mid-June gathering
that was traditional before Iceland's conversion to Christianity. After 999 the
General Assembly was moved so as to begin on the Thursday of the tenth week of
summer-the week around the solstice (Hermansson 1930, 64-5; Foote and
Wilson 1970, 57; Njardvik and Porter 1978, 28-9). What cannot be ignored is that
the week of midsummer was not the original pagan choice: it was only chosen
when Christianity reached Scandinavia. Olav Trygvason's conversion happened
in 994 (DeVries 1999, 18), and Olav is generally credited with the changing of the
date for holding the General Assembly. Therefore, the creation of a midsummer-
week event came after the arrival of Christianity. [7]
After the first millennium some details of the Althing's opening ceremony were
written down.
All chieftains are to come to t

when ten weeks of summer
Perkins 1980, vol. 1, 57).
Both before and after 9

element as the group of ch
and with the sun setting,
midnight, of course, after
Yet, holding law courts at
England and France. Such
they often accrued fairs a
be called seasonal festivit
festivals operate under lic
rest of Europe is concerne
they themselves became d
of the order they were m
midsummer is no great sc
was rife. But it has led me
which, with its strong A
summer festivity until th
Scandinavia; especially Ic
libel (Dennis, Foote, and
social control was strong a
to have expressed the will
opening of the Althing s
mathematical understandi
ritual, but it was not a pe
held on Thor's Day even af
fell on a different date eac
mid-June for the pagan op
from Norway time to com
Iceland and back during th
trips on the return voyage
The Origins of Midsumm

Clues as to when pagan ga
peoples of north-west Eur
against cults in southern
this tradition. Eligius ban
nullus in festivitate sancti Joa
[b]allationes, vel saltationes, au
[On the feast day of Saint Joh

holiness, do not practice dan
Duquesne 1985, 164; author's tr
The prohibition came from

been brought by the Churc
Christian Rome is the mos
or from the armies of Ju

However, the most probable
the country, who had serve
they had finished their ser
Scandinavia. Although the
Nordic pagans defended the
By contrast, in the secon
resulted in its absorption o
frame of reference for even
Latin translations of Greek
And the most famous desc
Fors Fortuna, is that of Ov
traced back through Cicero
contains any suggestion of
show the Romans commemo
Tempora labuntur, tactisque sene
cito venerunt Fortunae Fortis ho
378-80).
[Time slips away and we grow old

flying days. How quickly has com
will be over] (Frazer, ed. 1931, 3
The custom was for young m

city down to the three tem
[F]erte coronatae iuvenum conviv
ed. 1931, 380).
[Ye flower-crowned skiffs, bear

wine on the bosom of the stream
Ovid is silent about what pa

although he does recount th
was right in surmising that
Records from the ninth cent
and derision, either of one's
powerful in society (Billing
force could fall, no human
possible. In Florence, midsu
images of patron saints on 2
Their Arrival in Scandinavia
One of the most arresting moments in this historical exploration came on reading
an account claiming that the Christianised Olav Trygvasson knew the tradition
and implemented it in his own political struggles. Between 995 and 999 he is said
to have confronted the stubborn pagan society of Trondheim and tricked them
into temporary conversion with the promise of "midsummer sacrifice"
(miasumarsbl6t). As the story goes, Olav had landed intending to speak fiercely
to the bonders but, seeing that he and his men were outnumbered, he spoke
"mildly" and "softened"

ensured that his men outn
instead of animals, he wou
not convert (Monsen and
never appears in the lists
Scandinavia. The only cred
writing about him, were a
point. If it were Olav, he u
power without shedding
demonstrations. If the s
biography in Latin, then
been familiar with. The e
would not have been imm
Generic Differences betwe
The evidence on the typ

consistent. So much so tha
and spring festivals wer
pagan societies, games at t
seen as a separate entity. G
of rise and fall to reflect
power, law and order; ther
abstract concept of time
German name, sunnenwen
position, and sunnenwende
An iconoclastic midsumm
sixteenth century. Olaus M
Baptist" when "whole com
songs honouring the "glo
(probably taken from Sca
genre of satire: songs and
and in current leaders. On
ballads. Olaus wrote that t
unfold the actions of idle, dege
cast out virtue. Besides this gir
vices that married men indulg
drunkenness and hangovers. O
songs about how sluggish, dec
treacherous women are ... Nex
wily craftsmen, roving traders,
sweet-tongued flatterers, and
1998, vol. 2, 735).
No one escapes and the de

1276 (Billington 2000a, 14
The Falling Sun

Because the period between
than strength it is very unl
the sun's strength for surv
god. The summer solstice d
Birkhan that the Celts did not. Grimm found no evidence that German tribes did.
And, in Rome, worship of Sol Indiges also did not happen at the summer solstice
and this cult "appears to have been old" (Scullard 1981, 171). Instead, we know
from Ovid that the day of the sun's crisis reminded Romans of vulnerability and
mutability. In about 460 C.E., St Patrick set about the conversion of Ireland and he
may have misunderstood the nature of Bealtaine fires on 1 May, judging them to
be sun-worship similar to the April fires of north German tribes (see Mac Cana
1970, 32). However, he attacked all worship of the sun specifically on the grounds
that its power was mutable.
Nam sol iste quem uidemus. ipso iubente propter nos cotidie 6ritur./ sed numquam regnabit
neque permandbit splendor eius (Howlett, ed. 1994, 90).
[For that sun which we behold, by the command of God, rises daily for our sake; but it will
never reign, nor will its splendour endure] (French 1912, 76). [10]
For the Church, the sun's "crisis" provided a demonstration that all powers save
that of God were subject to falls and, although Jacob Grimm was not correct in
saying that Christianity brought sunnenwende traditions to southern Germany, it
did learn to live with them. The fact that they were not sun-worship-in fact the
opposite-was probably the main point in their favour and, in Roman Catholic
areas, sunnenwende games flourished until superceded by other entertainments at
the end of the nineteenth century
The difference between sun-worship and commemoration of the crisis has a
visual aspect. On St John's Eve in the south of Germany-recorded in the
nineteenth century-there was the custom for village boys to make:
circular wooden discs [then when] darkness had fallen ... they [lit them at the bonfire, swung
them] to and fro at the end of a stout and supple hazel-wand, [and] hurled them one after the
other, whizzing and flaming, into the air, where they described great arcs of fire, to fall at length
like shooting stars, at the foot of the mountain" (Frazer 1900, 271 and 278).
This action plays out the drama of a great cosmic rise and fall, in visual contrast to
the holding up of a wheel in triumph, and one has to regret that, in recording such
events, J. G. Frazer did not seek out interpretations of them by medieval
churchmen such as John Beleth and William Durand. Beleth wrote in 1162 that
rolling a burning wheel down a hill was customary on St John's eve because:
John was a burning light who prepared the way of the Lord. But as the wheel is turned thus,
[the people] think it is like the Sun in its orbit which will descend when it can progress no
further, so that little by little it will descend. In the same way common belief has it that the
blessed John came before Christ and arrived at the summit, for he was thought the Christ; and
afterwards he descended and was diminished, as his own words say: "I will decrease but he
will become great (Billington 2000a, 19-20).
The life of John the Baptist provided the greatest example of a rise and fall in
fortune: the promise of fame at a celestial level, only to be followed by death and
dependence on Christ fo
burning wheel in the sky
with the reminder that th
games been sun-worship,
And when, in the thirteen
rolling was taken "from t
before him-Italian paga
Holford-Strevens 1999, 25
Disengaging from J. G. Fr
Customs become subject
upheaval, and perhaps th
provided by E. K. Chamber
in the ancient and origi
His conclusion was that it
about an understanding of
that it was once pagan soc
probable that they would
which would help explain
customs.) The Julian Calen
midsummer, and the effec
a process of dislocation of the o
vital, which was afterwards ex
1903, vol. I, 112-13).
One thing that can be don

is to disentangle sun-wors
worship, this was not pra
festival, it was either whe
few centuries earlier amon
Chambers' analysis support
in the perception of time
seasonal rite: from "event
based on pragmatic needs,
is measured: a concept f
Europe. By the Middle Ag
that had become dominant
seasons. And a fresh analy
reveals that some events h
There is, for example, his
century Germany. "[I]n al
sexes, gathered about them
1900, 267-8). One wonders
mind the challenging Scan
be discovered from Frazer'
(1541, 225ff.). Frazer also s
nineteenth century, it was
hand, and the way in whic

jest [.]" (Frazer 1900, 270). J
seriousness of mystic rites
private relationships, possi
looked the more dominan
of "sun-charms or magica
sunshine" (Frazer 1900, 300
dislocated probabilities an
makes on the nineteenth-c
In some places the people showed
past which the [Corpus Christi]
(Frazer 1900, 269).
There is, of course, a simp

Peasants who depended on
to trees when broken bra
even goes so far as to confu
worship.
On the other hand, social change did not end with the arrival of Christianity.
Developments in the Middle Ages included an interchangeability between
summer and winter solsticial games (Billington 1991, 3-4). Then, in England in
particular, the Reformation began a process of transforming the ethos behind
midsummer fires, which, in towns, became Midsummer Watches. John Stow
called them:
Bonefiers ... of good amitie amongst neighbours that, being before at controversie, were there
by the labour of others, reconciled, and made of bitter enemies, louing friends (Billington 2000a,
202-3).
Instead of games of satire and scandal, serious dissension was said to have been
healed by the sixteenth-century re-interpretation. Similar reformation seems to
have helped create the Morris dance out of previous wilder dances (Billington
1978, 195-6). It also changed riotous university Christmas customs into something
more sedate (Billington 1991, 33-40).
Therefore when, at the end of the seventeenth century, John Aubrey wrote that
"in Herefordshire and also in Somersetshire, on Midsommer-eve, they make fires
in the fields ... to Blesse the Apples" (Blackburn and Holford-Strevens 1999, 259),
it is highly likely that this benevolent, semi-magical, semi-superstitious custom
had become the people's tradition, and the same will be true for some of Frazer's
post-Reformation continental material.
But other of Frazer's examples show that midsummer in remote mountainous
regions remained more challenging: mocking jests were far from forgotten. As late
as the 1930s in the mountains of Dauphine, a full midsummer charivari was still
being played (Billington 2000a, 24, note 24). One can also observe that some
customs, such as walking cattle through the embers of midsummer fires to
help their fertility, were attempts by their owners to improve their good fortune,
and Chance Fortune had presided over 24 June prior to 312 C.E. This seems
especially relevant to the custom of people jumping over fires. An upward
leap that dropped clear of the hot embers onto the other side could suggest good
luck in the year ahead, w

bad luck.
Disentangling sun-worship from the summer solstice may make it possible
to trace other varieties of skeptical games in Europe. One can ask whether, in
Scandinavia, there is evidence of satirical songs and dances at midsummer
bonfires before the sixteenth century. Were the laws against slander relaxed during
the Middle Ages, or were they kept strong because of constant breeches? And are
there traces of mockery in the Norwegian summer bride festival? For one cannot
help wondering why-in neighbouring Sweden-August Strindberg placed the
tragedy of Miss Julie during the night of 23/24 June, with the fall of Julie and rise
and fall of Jean-not to mention the threat of their humiliation by dancing, singing
servants.
Finally, one has to acknowledge that J. G. Frazer did himself achieve a

substantial dislocation in the actual development of midsummer customs. It is
thanks to his writings and to other like-minded Victorians that, today, some
neo-pagans who claim to be reviving ancient Celtic or Germanic agrarian rites
have added a ritual at midsummer. For scholars, however, concerned with
understanding the past, we need to be more clear-sighted than to equate post-
Reformation traditions with the rituals for survival of 2000 B.C.E.
Notes
[1] The Anglo-Saxon word "springe" is not used as it did not develop a seasonal meaning until the
fourteenth century (Oxford English Dictionary).
[2] "[T]he Romans maintained contact with Germanic peoples lying beyond their (German)
enemies ... this means that there were states in Denmark and Sweden strong enough to justify
Roman diplomatic effort" (Rausing 1994, 5).
[3] Procopius uses the word "tropai"-literally turnings. Its use for describing the solstice goes
back as far as Hesiod in the seventh century B.C.E. (pers. comm. Greg Giesekem, University
of Glasgow). The Latin, Solstitium, originally meant the moment the sun appeared to stand
still. J. G. Frazer, however, wrote that the term "solstice" meant the turning point on 24 June
(Frazer 1931, 380, note a).
[4] "Junius [dicitur] Lida: Julius similiter Lida ... Lida dicitur blandus, sive navigabilis, quod in utroque
mense et blanda sit serenitas aurarum, et navigari soleant aequora" (Giles 1844, vol. VI, 179).
(Translation courtesy of Dr Betty Knott-Sharpe, University of Glasgow.)
[5] Dependency on the sun for survival so far north was much the same in 1000 C.E. as it had been
in 2000 B.C.E.
[6] The downward turn of the sun would not have been apparent to the naked eye, but
mathematical deductions can be made to determine the correct day, as Pliny made clear for the
Romans (Rackham, trans. 1950, vol. V, paras 264-8) and as shown by the alignment of Bronze
Age stones at Stonehenge (Darvill 1997, 179 and 186-9; Ruggles 1997, 206-8). This alignment
shows that, two thousand years before the Anglo-Saxons, the sun's rising on the longest and
shortest days of the year had had relevance to Bronze Age society; whether mathematical or
ritualistic is not known. For reasons discussed at the end of this paper, I would conclude that
knowing when midsummer fell was again needed for practical reasons-to know, for example,
when the season was too advanced for further sowing, rather than for ritualistic purposes.
[7] So, too, for the holding of the "thing" on the Isle of Man (Cubbon 1983, 23-4).
[8] Svein "Forkbeard"'s relentle

Olav began the conversion of
culture that was destroying his
[9] This was written seven months before Julius Caesar's assassination: and also describes the
Tiberina Descensio in terms of Fortune's mutability. Therefore, this interpretation of Rome's
midsummer custom was established at least early in the last century B.C.E., if not in the second
century B.C.E., along with other Hellenic influences. (See Rackham, trans. 1914, 473.)
[10] D. R. Howlett's translation of permanebit reads "remain forever" (1994, 91). "Endure" better
conveys cosmic failure, and "endure forever" would be even better.
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Biographical Note
Sandra Billington was a Reader in Medieval and Renaissance Theatre, University of

Glasgow from 1991 to 2003, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1997 to
2003. She is now an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow.

Misummer As It Was and Was Not

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The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was Not, Observed in Pagan Germany, Scandinavia

and Anglo-Saxon England

The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was No

From records of pagan Scandinavia, Germany, Anglo-Saxon England, the

Where We Are Today

In 1969, Hilda Ellis Davidson

led Grimm to conclude that

The triad of winter pagan

[There] a very wonderful thing

Procopius was interested e

In Scandinavia, events them

From the twenty-fifth of March

For the Vikings, the well-lit m

Figure 1. Petroglyph from Stora B

The obvious complication

The emphasis in this description is again on the practical, rather than on an

of flowers, the arrival of

The Icelandic General Assembly, or Althing, was the means of constituting

All chieftains are to come to t

Both before and after 9

The Origins of Midsumm

[On the feast day of Saint Joh

The prohibition came from

or from the armies of Ju

[Time slips away and we grow old

The custom was for young m

[Ye flower-crowned skiffs, bear

Ovid is silent about what pa

Their Arrival in Scandinavia

"mildly" and "softened"

Generic Differences betwe

The evidence on the typ

No one escapes and the de

The Falling Sun

One thing that can be don

hand, and the way in whic

There is, of course, a simp

luck in the year ahead, w

Finally, one has to acknowledge that J. G. Frazer did himself achieve a

[8] Svein "Forkbeard"'s relentle

Birkhan, Helmut. The Celts. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Science, 1999.

Duquesne, Jacques. Saint Floi. Paris: Fayard, 1985.

Finnur J6nson, ed. Agrip af No

, trans. and ed. The Fasti of

Frost, Frank J. Greek Society. N

Gelling, Peter, and Hilda Ellis D

Gudbrand, Vigfusson, edited by

Gunnell, Terry. The Origins of

Hawkes, Jacquetta. Man and the

Hermansson, Halld6r, trans. and

Scullard, Howard Hayes. Festiv

Stallybrass, James Steven, trans

Sandra Billington was a Reader in Medieval and Renaissance Theatre, University of

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