Old Scandinavian calendar

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The old Scandinavian calendars are those calendars that were in use in the Viking Age (800-1050 AD) until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar .

In Scandinavia, before the introduction of Christianity, several calendars were in use side by side: the lunisolar calendar , the solar weekly year with quarterly division , the solar weekly year with shifted quarterly division and the Julian calendar . There were also local variants of the lunisolar calendar and the weekly calendar with the different quarterly divisions.

The lunar year

There are virtually no contemporary sources for the pre-Christian calendar. But for the time after that there are date designations that indicate a great age and allow conclusions to be drawn about the pre-Christian calendar. These date designations prove that the year was divided into lunar months. The most common was the "Jul moon", followed by the "Dis moon" or "Distings moon". It was only common in central Sweden. The Distings moon is often mentioned in Upplandslag , Sweden , but neither Snorri nor Adam von Bremen mention it.

The July moon was later the month in which the moon shone on Epiphany . In Norway it was said: “Julemaanen” was the moon that survived the Epiphany. Otherwise the July moon was the next moon. The month after the July moon was called "Torre", and it was followed by the lunar month "Gjø" ("gói" in Iceland). In the sources from Dalarna , "Torre" is often replaced by Distingsmond. Ole Worm tells of a Danish "julemaen" who is the moon that shines on the Julian New Year. The oldest evidence of the Nordic Jul Moon is found in Iceland. In a copy of the Icelandic computist work Rím II , which was written in the second half of the 13th century, it says:

"Þat shall iola tungl telia, þem þrettanda dag he a himne, hvort sem þat he ungt eda gamallt ..."

"The moon that is in the sky on King's Day should be regarded as the July moon, whether it is young or old"

- Rím II in Rimtǫl 1914–1916. P. 140 Note 5.

It is possible that this definition has spread across Scandinavia. But it is also possible that a pre-Christian calculation has been integrated into the Christian calendar.

The Dis month was also linked to this Epiphany. The oldest evidence for the connection between Disting and Epiphany Day can be found in Olaus Magnus Historia om de nordiska folken (1555; 2001 p. 183) IV. 6 .: Disting is held in memory of Queen Disa and takes place on the full moon that follows the first new moon after Three Kings (midnight). In the Middle Ages, the choice of king in Gamla Uppsala was made in connection with disting. Epiphany was a church festival , but the calculation of the Disting has pre-Christian forerunners and survived Christianization by adapting it to the Christian calendar. Erich Lassota von Steblau specified 1591–1593. Two market days are mentioned there: The first is the Eriksmesse. The second

“You have the Distings Mark, by which Er has been instituted by the Khunigin Disa, always fell on the full moon of the First New Light, after the heyday three kings dayk. And if the new light comes on the same day of the Holy Three Kings at noon, it will not be held on the first, but on the next coming full moon. But if the new light comes on the same day after noon, it will be kept on the first full month "

- Erich Lassota (1556) Diary of Erich Lassota von Steblau. Ed. R. Schottin. Hall 1886 p. 165.

The reference to Queen Disa is a folk etymological explanation that was customary at the time. Lassota apparently misunderstood midnight with Olaus Magnus. Disting moon and July moon belonged together in Sweden from the beginning, whereby the sources for the disting moon in Sweden are older than all sources for July moon and Epiphany. The reason for the connection to the Three Kings Day is assumed that in the Middle Ages the Christmas season and the associated Christmas peace ended on this day. In addition, Lent and Easter were calculated according to the phases of the moon after the three kings day.

In the Middle Ages, the astronomical new moon was shifted by a few days compared to the calculation based on the golden number . The Icelandic July moon has now been integrated into the church calendar in such a way that it retained the old name of the month, but now after the calculation according to the golden number and no longer coincided with the old moon phases of the months. In Sweden and Norway, however, the astronomical phases of the moon continued to be used.

The Christian Christmas season is always between December 15th and January 6th. But if there was a new moon on Epiphany, the July moon was between January 6th and February 4th. This great deviation cannot be reconciled with the church calendar. It is therefore assumed that the setting of the disting and July moon has been preserved from pre-Christian times.

The lunar month bill and the bound lunar year (bundna månår)

There is much to suggest that the weekly calculation goes back to a time long before Christian times and that many remnants relating to the working year have been preserved. After the introduction of the Julian calendar, the weekly calculation was continued in parallel. So there were time calculations based on the lunar cycle and on the solar cycle side by side.

In pre-Christian Scandinavia there was a calculation of time that, like elsewhere in the world, was based on the phases of the moon. It is astonishing, however, that no lunar calendar has survived from this time in Scandinavia. Therefore one has to be content with fragmentary older information together with later relics and comparative studies. First of all, there are two variants of the month: the sidereal month and the synodic month . The sidereal month is 27 days and 8 hours long, the synodic month is 29 days and 12 hours long. That is the time between two identical moon phases. The sidereal month hardly appeared in the popular calendar. In pre-ecclesiastical Scandinavia, everything that is known was based on the synodic month, which was sometimes assumed to be 29, sometimes 30 days. Since the synodic lunar month (it will only be mentioned in the following) is about 29½ days long, 12 lunar months extend over 354 days and are thus 11 days shorter than the solar year. In areas with clear seasonal differences, this shifting of the lunar year compared to the solar year interfered, and the lunar year had to be linked to the solar year by means of a correction. This was usually done by inserting a leap month as the 13th month approximately every third year. The lunar months thus roughly coincided with the solar year, but did not prevent the beginning of a lunar month from varying up to 30 days in different years. This calendar system, in which the lunar year was linked to the solar year, is called “bundna månår” (linked lunar year).

There are indications that prior to the introduction of the Julian calendar in Scandinavia, the "bound lunar year" was used. The question remains whether the beginning of the lunar month was linked to the new moon or to the first appearance of the crescent moon a few days later. It was popularly believed that the first crescent moon would become visible, but the astronomical new moon was used for official events such as the thing assemblies.

The bound lunar year in Anglo-Saxon England and its Scandinavian parallels

In De Temporum Ratione Beda Venerabilis mainly deals with ecclesiastical computistics, but also touched on other calendar issues, in particular the calculation of the time of the immigrant Germanic tribes. He expressly describes the calendar as that of the Angles, which probably included the Saxons and Jutlanders. He expressly emphasizes that this time calculation was in use by them until Christianization and the introduction of the Julian calendar, i.e. before the 5th or 6th century. The calendar he handed down is a clear example of a bound lunar year. The months are calculated according to the course of the moon, but anchored in the solar year in that the four quarters are based on the position of the sun and the equinoxes.

In 1703 George Hickes published in De antiquae litteraturae septentrionalis utilitate sive de linguarum veterum septentrionalium usu Dissertatio epistolaris in which he passed on the names of the months from the English manuscript Biblia Cattoniensis of 1031:

De Temp. Council. Bibl. Cattoniensis Antiqu. Lit. Sept.
giuli - æftera geola
solmonath solmonath solmonath
hesmonath hlytha hlyda, hlydmonath
eosturmonath aprelis month eosturmonath
thrimilchi maius May month
lida ærra litha ærra litha, seremonath, mithsumormonath, juniusmonath
lida julius month æftera litha, mæth-monath, juliusmonath
weodmonath weodmonath weodmonath, augustusmonath
halegmonath haligmonath haligmonath, harvetsmonath
winterfilleth winterfylleth se teothamonath, haligmonath
blodmonad blotmonath blotmonath
giuli ærra jula ærre geola

In his explanations Bede repeatedly refers to pre-Christian conditions. His explanations are now doubted, and it has been thought that these were his own considerations to explain the old dark month names. But there are indications to at least partially reevaluate Beda's information. Of course, he had sources that are lost today, so that not every information can be checked. But that doesn't mean the explanations are unhistorical.

One took z. For example, assume that the goddesses Hertha and Eostre, who named the months "hredmonath" and "eosturmonath" after Beda, were only Beda's own explanations. Instead, it was said that "hredmonath" was derived from the stormy weather and meant the "rough month". Likewise, the word “eostur” has been an old, meanwhile lost term for spring, which was only associated with the Christian Easter secondarily. But it is noticeable that neither “hredmonath” nor “eosturmonath” are mentioned in the Biblia Cattoniensis of 1031. One possible explanation would be that the two month names were eradicated because of their undesirable associations with pagan goddesses in the 11th century.

His statement that the “solmonath” was also called “brödkakornars month”, although there was no connection between sun and bread baking, was questioned. But across Europe, the custom of offering bread and butter on the return of the sun was widespread, as can be seen from sources from the 11th century. Bede probably alluded to this custom.

The most important, however, is the similarity of Beda's Anglic calendar description and the corresponding calendars in Scandinavia. Both had a six-month division and a quarter division, which was based on the position of the sun. The leap month before midsummer was also inserted for fishing. The double month "giuli – giuli" corresponds to the monthly pair ýlir – jólmánaðr in the Icelandic calendar. Both the old English “blodmonath” and the Icelandic “gormónanuðr” refer to the autumnal slaughter of animals. The old English "thrimilchi", on which, according to Beda, the cows were milked three times a day, has parallels in some Scandinavian dialects, where tremjölksgräs and tremjölksblomster were used for the marsh marigold. However, an important difference between the Anglo-Saxon thrimilci and the Scandinavian tri-mjölkingen is that the latter is about a month later due to the different climatological conditions. Both months of July are at the same time, which is due to the same astronomical phenomenon.

The July months, the winter solstice and the switching rule of the bound lunar year

After Bede, the Anglic calendar began with "Winterfilleth", the winter full moon, which corresponded to October in the Julian calendar. According to him, the winter half-year began with the autumn equinox and "winterfilleth" began with the first appearance of the crescent moon after the autumn equinox. That was an average of one month after the autumn equinox, which is very close to the Scandinavian winter nights. It is possible that there is a very ancient calendar structure here, when the winter nights were not yet fixed on a fixed date in the weekly bill.

The relationship between “winterfilleth” and the autumn equinox is similar to the relationship between the two months “giuli” and the astronomical winter solstice. Beda sets the winter solstice on December 25th and calls this day "modranect". The statement that the Anglic year begins on December 25th is due to the fact that this was the official date of the winter solstice in the Julian calendar, although he was aware that in his time the astronomical winter solstice was on December 18th.

The term “modranect” means “The night of the mothers”. These mothers were evidently goddesses of fertility who were called “Disen” in Norrn literature and “matrones” in Roman literature about the Germanic peoples.

Bede reports that the “modranect” was a time of religious ceremonies and discusses whether these ceremonies found their way into the pre-Christian Yule festival. At least the time of the “modranect” in the middle of the two-month period “giuli” supports this assumption. It could have been the night before the winter solstice. In this case the “modranect” would have been tied to a fixed point in the solar year. But according to Bede the two months were "giuli" lunar months. Its middle shifted in relation to the solar year and fell on the first crescent of the second giuli month.

According to Bede, the Anglic year began with the winter solstice and the two months giuli were named after the fact that one month preceded this day and the other followed it. However, since these were lunar months, this fixation on the winter solstice cannot be correct. According to Icelandic sources, the point in time between ýlir and jólmánuðr in the middle of the 12th century was in the period between December 10th and 17th of the Julian calendar. The winter solstice took place at this time on 14./15. December. Possibly this is a holdover from an older calendar structure that survived the great Icelandic calendar reform.

Here Bede was accused of errors, since the fixed connection between the lunar year and the solar year on which he was based did not exist. It is most likely that the relationship between winter solstice and the point between giuli – giuli resp. ýlir – jólmánuðr was meant as the starting point of a longer astronomical period of eight or 19 years, after which the winter solstice again fell almost exactly in the middle between the two months. The winter solstice was therefore a fixed point in the solar year and at the same time the starting point for calculating when a leap month should be inserted. Since not only the winter solstice but also the summer solstice were decisive, it stands to reason that not only the winter solstice, but also the summer solstice were enclosed by two months of the same name. Since the leap month was set before the summer solstice, which was enclosed by two "litha", this month was also called "litha" and the year "thrilithi", year with three "litha". There are no sources for the exact switching rule, but it can be deduced:

  • A solar year was 11 days longer than a lunar year. A certain lunar month had the first crescent moon on a date X, which was shifted by 11 days after the beginning of the month. The first crescent moon came back to date X in cyclical intervals.
  • However, so that this shift did not lead to the lunar months of the winter half year getting into the summer half year, a leap month had to be inserted every three years according to a certain rule.
  • According to Scandinavian and Old English sources, the winter solstice was the connection point between the solar year and the bound lunar year.

This results in the following switching rule:

  1. The first crescent moon of the first month of July was not allowed to be visible in any year after the winter solstice and the crescent moon of the second month of July was not allowed to be visible before the winter solstice.
  2. For the beginning of a calendar cycle, the second July moon is allowed to begin immediately after the winter solstice.
  3. Every year in which the first crescent moon can be seen less than 11 days after the winter solstice, a leap month must be inserted so that the beginning of the second July month in the following year does not slip before the winter solstice.
  4. The time of insertion depends on the summer solstice.

There is no evidence for the first rule, it is a guess. The matter is further complicated by the fact that the days of the Julian solar calendar are counted from midnight to midnight, but the days of the older lunar year are counted from sunset to sunset. It is not possible to say for sure which day the first crescent moon in the first half of the night was assigned.

The lunar month calculation and the bound lunar year in pre-Christian Scandinavia

There is no source in Scandinavia that is as detailed as Bede. But there are scattered references in the Edda literature, such as the term “ártali” (year counter) for moon in Alvísmál 14 and in Vafþrúðnismál 23. There, “Mundilfœri” is referred to as the father of the moon and the sun. This is where the word “mouth” = time, point in time. "Mundilfœri" is one who moves at certain times. It was therefore often identified with the moon itself. But it is also possible that “mundill” is the personification of time as such and “Mundilfœri” is the one who moves time forward, transports it. That would correspond to the old idea that the sun and moon move across the sky on a ship, in a carriage or on horseback. This supports the view that Vafþrúðnismál assumes a bound lunar year and that the calculation of time had a cosmological dimension. In the Völuspá the creation of the world is described in Strofen five and six, in which the sun and moon are assigned their orbits so that people can determine the time. In vafþrúðnismál 25 states that "full moon and new moon, the peoples of the measure of time, created benevolent gods once." The term "ný oc nid" (increasing and decreasing) was synonymous a name for the "moon". In the older Gulathingslov , too , the expression “um ny hit nesta oc niðar” occurs synonymously with “manaðe” in connection with the sale of slaves. The old Swedish laws also use it, albeit all without further explanation, probably because it was still in use at the time of writing and therefore did not require any explanation.

The later bound lunar year in Scandinavia

In Dalarna, the terms “jultungel” and “distingstungel” were still in use at the beginning of the 20th century. “Jultungel” introduced the calendar year and assumed that the moon would shine over Epiphany. It was followed by the "distungel". This connection with the Epiphany is often found. For Denmark, the bound lunar year is documented as early as 1626. It was calculated with 12 lunar months and at certain times a leap month was inserted, which was called "sildemaen" (the last month). This lunar year was already linked to the Julian calendar, and the lunar year began with the first new moon after the Julian New Year.

In the Faroe Islands, the lunar year has been documented since the 17th century, but only texts from the second half of the 19th century confirm this about a proper lunar month calendar. This calendar was also used in the Hebrides and Orkneys , and sometimes also in Iceland. Only in the Faroe Islands did the insertion periods consist of half a lunar months, by calculating the months from new moon to new moon, sometimes from full moon to full moon. This reduced the annual shift compared to the solar year by half. The lunar month "vetrasól" (night sun) always shone beyond the winter solstice, and it was followed by "Jólasól". The lunar month "sommersól" always extended beyond the summer solstice. The Finnish bound lunar year had 12 lunar months, 13 in certain years. The last month was called “hjärtmånad”, in parts of Karelia also “Joulukuu” (July moon), and this moon always shone beyond Epiphany. If that was not the case, another “hjärtmånad” was inserted. In contrast to the other lunar years, Epiphany replaces the winter solstice as a starting point in Finland

The seeds also had a bound lunar year. In the 18th century, an otherwise unknown clergyman described the Sami calendar in his work Astrophysia Lapponica . The months were counted from the first crescent moon to the next. They divided the month into four quarters, namely from the first crescent moon the first quarter, from there to the full moon, from there to the third quarter and from there to the next crescent moon or the new moon. The year began with the winter solstice and was divided into four seasons, from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, from there to the summer solstice and then to the autumn equinox.

Introduction of the Christian calendar

The introduction of the Christian calendar dragged on over several centuries. The process didn't end until between the 19th and 20th centuries. At this time there are still records of old people who determined the months and years after the moon's course in the sky.

Immediately after the introduction of Christianity, the church implemented the ecclesiastical calendar for its area of ​​responsibility. For the secular area of ​​the people, the old lunar calendar was tolerated as long as the church festivals were observed on the correct date. The local clergy were responsible for announcing the feast days for the congregation. In the Upplandslag canon law of 1296 it says:

“Now the farmer has to come to church. The priest has to proclaim the feast days and the days of fasting. If the priest fails and the farmer does not keep the day, the priest is guilty and not the farmer. If the priest announces it and if the farmer misses the day and does not keep it, the farmer owes three marks "

- Upplandslag, kirkjubalker XIII § 1

The introduction of the Julian calendar for ecclesiastical festivals is assumed to be in the middle of the 12th century, when the papal legate Nikolaus Breakspear (later Pope Hadrian IV ) visited Norway and Sweden to organize church affairs. For Iceland, the Julian calendar is set to be around 1150, and the lunar year continued to be used for larger official events such as gatherings and markets.

Easter was based on the Julian calendar. The Easter rule was that Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This full moon was not the astronomical full moon, but a calculated full moon date. The ecclesiastical spring equinox was set for March 21st on the Julian calendar. This equinox no longer coincided with the astronomical equinox. Easter could be in the period from March 22nd to April 25th of the Julian calendar.

The solar year

Annual schedule and weekly bill

In pre-Christian times the year was divided into a winter and a summer half-year. These half-years were divided into quarters. This year division was retained when switching to the Julian calendar. The quarterly division seems to have been integrated into a kind of weekly calculation that ran parallel to the lunar calendar. The relationship between the weekly calculation and the lunar year is not entirely clear, and the two divisions may never quite go together. There is evidence that the weekly calculation was more important than the lunar year division for the work year.

The pre-church weekly bill

The Icelandic year at the time the Althing was founded in Iceland in 930 consisted of 52 weeks of seven days. This classification came with the immigrants from Norway. But in contrast to Norway, the weekly division became of central importance for political and social life. Therefore, after the introduction of Christianity in 999 or 1000, attempts were made several times to adapt it to the Julian calendar.

The solar year is one, in the leap year two days longer than the weekly year of 52 weeks. In the old weekly calculation one tried to harmonize the weekly year with the solar year. In the 12th century, the solar year was made to consist of 364 days and this was compensated for by adding another week after certain times. Another, probably older, method seems to have been to combine two days into one. In this way, the solar year also received 52 weeks of seven days, i.e. 364 days. This is how the problem was solved in Finland , Estonia and the Sami countries and probably also in Sweden. Most researchers are of the opinion that the weekly calculation is older than the Christian calendar and was only adapted to it later. Most likely it was developed on the continent and spread to Scandinavia. When this happened cannot be determined. It used to be said that this happened in the Viking Age . But it is also possible to take over several centuries earlier. The Germanic weekday names have been adopted from the Roman weekdays by way of the "interpretatio germana". So "dies lunae" became mánadagr , "Martis dies" by replacing Mars with the Germanic god Tiwaz týsdagr , "Mercurii dies" Onsdag after Odin etc. There is much to suggest that the day names in the 3rd century were changed through contact with the Roman Empire among the Teutons. But it is not plausible that the Teutons should have adopted the day names without any calendar system. So there must already have been a predecessor to the weekly bill. Nordberg suspects that the weekly calculation had its origin in the Younger Roman Iron Age (the "Roman Iron Age" in Scandinavia corresponds to the Roman Empire 0–375). During this and the migration period , the weekly bill may also have come to Scandinavia.

In the middle of the 12th century, the weekly calculation was adapted to the church calendar of the solar year and the Sunday letters. Even in the later Middle Ages, the weekly calculation was used in Iceland for profane business, while the Julian calendar was used in parallel for church affairs. In Norway and the rest of Scandinavia, where the week division existed, it seems to have receded into the background in favor of the church's Julian calendar and was only relevant for certain activities, such as sowing and harvesting, which were tied to certain weeks. In addition to the Icelandic sources, the week division is best preserved in the landscapes of southern Sweden and Dalarna, but remnants can also be found in other areas of Sweden, in Norway and Zealand . Very early evidence from the 16th century can be found in Silesia. The weekly calculation was used for the Sami until the 19th century. It is also attested in the old Swedish cities in Estonia and Karelia .

Quarter in the weekly bill

Like this, the quarterly division in the weekly calculation was based on the solar year. The sources about the weekly accounts of various parts of Scandinavia indicate two different quarterly divisions that existed in parallel.

What is certain is that the weekly year was divided into four quarters of 13 weeks each, the names of which vary. In Iceland they were called “mál”, in Dalarna “mässor” or “täljor” and in Götaland “räppar” or “trettingar”. There is a lot of different information in the Swedish sources about how the quarters were embedded in the weekly year. The evidence is late and it seems that Götaland is influenced by continental traditions. There the quarters often coincide with the official, arithmetical, but incorrect position of the sun and the equinoxes according to the Julian calendar. This year division can also be found in Estonia and Finland. In this case, the weekly year seems to have started on December 25th, the official winter solstice according to the Julian calendar. Accordingly, the first quarter extended to March 25, the feast of the Annunciation . The second quarter lasted until June 24th, St. John's Day . The third quarter often seems to have lasted until September 29th, St. Michaelmas Day , although according to the Julian calendar it should only have lasted until September 24th.

In France, the year began with Christmas as early as the 8th century. This also spread to Scandinavia. It was not until the middle of the 13th century that the year started on January 1st in Germany. The fact that the beginning of the quarter of the weekly bill coincides with the date of the winter solstice according to the Julian calendar shows that this bill was only created with the introduction of the Julian calendar by Christianity, but not that the weekly bill as such originates from this time. Probably the Christian feast days, which were determined according to the Julian calendar, superimposed the astronomical quarterly division. In the case of the Sami, the astronomical quarterly division was apparently retained. It is still described in the 18th century in the book Astrophysika Lapponica by an unknown pastor in the Lappmark. Snorri was also guided by the astronomical year ( Skáldskaparmál chap. 63). During his lifetime, however, the Julian calendar was in use in Iceland.

The shifted Scandinavian quarterly division

In addition to the quarterly division, which followed the quarterly division of the Julian calendar and may have coincided with the astronomical position of the sun and the equinoxes of the pre-church calendar, there are also reminiscences of a further quarterly system in the Nordic countries. It seems to have been important to the legislative and festive organization.

The quarterly division in pre-Christian Iceland (after Nordberg p. 36)

In the medieval Icelandic weekly calculation neither the astronomical position of the sun nor the shifted equivalent of the Julian calendar were used for the boundaries of the quarters. Rather, the quarterly limits were some time after these days, even if they were also based on the Julian calendar. The Icelandic weekly year began in the 12th century with the so-called winter nights (vetrnǽtr), which began on the third Saturday after the religious festival of Cosmas and Damian on September 26th. The winter nights could therefore be in a period from 11th to 17th Moving (sometimes by October 18th) of the Julian calendar. The second quarter began with midwinter or midwinter night (miðvetr, miðvetrarsnótt), which was on Friday in the period between January 9th and 16th. The third quarter, and thus the beginning of the summer half-year, was the "beginning of summer" (sumarmál), the third Thursday after the Annunciation, i.e. in the period between April 9th ​​and 15th of the Julian calendar. The fourth quarter began with midsummer's day (miðsumar), which was usually between July 13th and 20th. In the leap year, however, the first quarter of summer was lengthened by one week by inserting the leap week just before midsummer, which postponed midsummer by one week that year.

Midwinter night and the beginning of summer were postponed to about three weeks after the church feasts, i.e. three weeks after the church Christmas feast on December 25th and three weeks after the feast of John the Baptist on June 24th. In the pre-ecclesiastical period, midwinter and the beginning of summer referred to days that lay a time span after the astronomical winter and summer sun position.

In contrast to Iceland, the weekly bill in Norway was abandoned in favor of the church Julian calendar. That is why the weekly bill is rarely handed down there. In contrast, the pre-ecclesiastical half-year division is also well documented in Norway. In contrast to Iceland, however, in Norway the starting days were not determined by the church Sunday letters, but by fixed dates from the Julian calendar. One of the oldest documents is Rím II . Darts are indicated:

"Calixtus messa kemur vetur at norrenu tali, enn Tiburcius messo sumar"

"With the Calixtus fair [14. October] according to Norwegian calculations, winter begins and with the Tiburtius fair [14. April] the summer "

- Rimtǫl

The connection of the beginning of the six months to Calixtus and Tiburtius can also be found on early continental church calendars. But many have pointed out that these two saints played such a minor role in the Scandinavian church year that church influence can hardly have led to the winter night and the beginning of summer being related to this date.

It is more likely that the connection to October 14th and April 14th was in the foreground. Most Norwegian calendar sticks only show the dates, not the two saints. As in Iceland, the Norwegian summer and winter half-year was divided into four equal quarters. However, these are less well documented than the first days of the half-year. Midwinter is also occupied for January 12th and 14th. Midsummer is badly occupied and is given for both July 13th and 14th. On the Sami calendar sticks (the oldest surviving date from the 17th century), which were influenced by Norway, the winter night was usually October 14, but October 15 is also mentioned. The beginning of summer was on April 14th. Midwinter was given as January 13th or 14th and midsummer as July 14th or 15th. However, on the Sámi calendar in Piteå from 1672, midsummer is July 13th.

In the Swedish area the situation is not as clear as in Norway and Iceland. It is therefore assumed that the six-month division originally originated in western Scandinavia and only spread to eastern Scandinavia in the Middle Ages. Others point out that the annual division has also been documented for parts of Finland and the Baltic States and that the occurrences are very ancient. This suggests that it was also developed in eastern Scandinavia, but has been forgotten in the Swedish area.

Some popular sources also refer to the annual rhythm of the Great Bear. In an old-west Norse Kenning , winter is referred to as the “nights of the bear” (biarna nǫtt), and many later texts from Central Scandinavia say that the bear goes into hibernation on October 14th, turns in its winter quarters on January 13th and comes emerged from winter storage on April 14th. There is similar information in Sweden's Finland and Estonia. The old quarterly divisions have probably been preserved here.

The dates for the beginning of the quarter in Swedish law are used there to determine the hunting season, especially for squirrel hunting. The age of these provisions cannot be determined with certainty, because they were written in the 13th century, but there it expressly states that certain provisions go back to the lagman "Viger the Wise, Heide in pagan times". Since the age of the individual provisions of the Swedish landscape laws is unclear, one must be careful not to draw conclusions. Nonetheless, one can assume that pagan dates have taken place on Christian holy days.

The annual division can also be found in Estonia and Finland, where it is better and more clearly documented than in the scattered Swedish specimens. In Estonia, the weekly year was divided into four quarters : Künnipäev (plowing day; April 14th), karuse-päev (day of the bear, July 13th), kolletamise-päev (day of yellowing; October 14th) and krjuse-päev (day of which the bear turns in winter camp, January 13). The same annual classification can be found in Finland: suvipäive (summer day; around April 14), keskikesä (midsummer; 13 or 14 July), talvipäive (winter day; around October 14) and talvenapa ( mid- winter, actually winter label ; January 13 or 14). A group of Finnish calendar staffs have three consecutive days from 13th to 15th for the beginning and the end of the winter half-year. October and 13-15. April on. This division can also be found on Swedish calendar sticks from Norrland , so that the thesis was made that the three-day markings are original and were later normalized to a day. This is also expressed in the plural “winter nights” (vetrnǽtr). But this three-day period also occurs for all four quarters. In the saga of Håkon the Good, Snorri reports that the pre-Christian midwinter festivals lasted three days. The Dalalag speaks of winter nights and summer nights . The Västmannalag, on the other hand, uses the singular. The different dates may be based on the fact that in pre-Christian times, unlike in the Julian calendar, the day did not start at midnight, but was calculated from sunset to the next sunset. This can already be found in Germania 11 of Tacitus and also in Völuspá 6, which is also suggested by the expressions "winter nights" and "summer nights".

Reasons for shifting the quarters

The shift in the quarters compared to the astronomical position of the sun is due to the natural economic and climatological conditions in Scandinavia. Lithberg said that the dates were due to the adoption from a lunar calendar. Nordberg believes this is unlikely, as the lunar year, which is 11 days shorter, required a leap month every three years, which had to lead to large shifts in fixed dates. He assumes that the weekly calculation of the solar calendar was decisive here. Since the weekly calculation was based on the position of the sun like the Gregorian calendar, the dates of both calendars can be placed side by side:

Julian calendar Gregorian calendar
Winter nights 13-15 October 20.-22. October
Midwinter 12-14 January 19. – 21. January
the beginning of summer 13-15 April 20.-22. April
Midsummer 13-15 July 20.-22. July

Now the astronomical dates are compared with the starting days of the quarters:

  • Autumn equinox September 21st → 28 days → October 20th, start of winter nights
  • Winter solstice December 21st → 28 days → January 19th, beginning of midwinter
  • Spring equinox March 20 → 30 days → April 20, beginning of summer
  • Summer solstice June 21st → 28 days → July 20th, beginning of midsummer.

The lunisolar year in Iceland

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Iceland undertook to harmonize the different calendars in use. There are also calendar texts in Íslendingabók , Grágás and Rímtöl . This shows that the monthly bill and the weekly bill were used in parallel. Both were reformed in the middle of the 12th century and linked to the ecclesiastical calendar: the Icelandic month was stipulated that it should begin on a certain day of a certain week, as in ecclesiastical computistics the Sunday letter and the 28-year cycle , so according to the same system as the Icelandic weekly calculation in the Middle Ages. As a result, many of the fundamentals of how the monthly statement was organized in pre-Christian times in Iceland have been preserved.

The Icelandic monthly year was divided into a winter and a summer half-year (“misseri”), each of which was six months long and followed the annual division according to the weekly calculation. Each month was usually 30 days long. After 12 months = 360 days, the third month of summer was extended by four days immediately before midsummer. This four-day period was called “auk-nǽtr”. So the normal year came to 364 days. Then there was the leap year system, where a week was added to the year every seven years. This particular week was called “sumarauki” and was inserted in the leap year just before midsummer. The leap year thus also coincided with the weekly calculation.

These 30-day months were a learned product with no anchoring in the Icelandic population. The Icelandic monthly bill is well documented for the winter half-year. On the other hand, it is doubtful how widely it was used in the summer half-year. Because the working year, which was based on economic and ecological needs, was decisive. Therefore, the names of the summer months, in contrast to those of the winter months, were regionally different and sometimes inexplicable, which speaks for old age. Because of their relative continuity, which could be attributed to the lack of ecological and economic constraints as well as Christian influences with their festive dates, the names of the winter months in Iceland are of greater interest.

First week Month name translation
11-18 October gormánuðr gor = half-digested stomach contents; Slaughter month
10-17 November ýlir, frermánuðr ýlir unclear possibly related to él = snowstorm; Frost month
10-17 December jólmánuðr, mǫrsúgr, Hrútmánuðr July month ; Liposuction; Aries month
9-16 January þorri, miðvinter Dry month or "Winter is decreasing"; Midwinter
8-15 February gói Snow month? gjö = track snow
10-16 March einmánuðr Derivation unclear

Ýlir could also be a derivative of Júl , but its meaning has not yet been determined with certainty. The interpretation of the words "þorri" and "gói" is also uncertain and speculative. But they are the older Icelandic month names and are best documented along with their Scandinavian parallels. This indicates a use in very old pre-Christian calendar calculations.

Sami calendar

Sami calendar from the 13th century
The complete rune calendar, only four pages of which are shown above

The Sami calendars differ fundamentally from the calendars used in Germanic Scandinavia. Only calendars from the time after the introduction of Christianity have survived. So far, 26 calendars are known. The Sami name for it is “rim”, “rima”, “rime” or “rīmu”, which is said to come from the Scandinavian word “Primstaf” = runic calendar.

The calendars are all different. Twelve are made of reindeer horn or bone, six are made of birch wood panels and one is made of beech wood. You have six, seven or eight plates with six, ten, twelve, thirteen or fourteen sides labeled. Four are square wooden sticks that are labeled on all four sides. The rest of the material is unknown because it has since been lost or is in private hands or is inaccessible for other reasons.

They also don't start on the same date. The start date is between November 27th and January 18th. Most of them start at the winter solstice, none on December 25th and the leap day that may be required is inserted at different points. The rune symbols used for the festive season are also different and have nothing in common with the Old Norse runes. They are also not yet fully deciphered.

The calendars count on the seven-day week, some insert an eight-day week. The Sami calendar was a weekly calendar. There were no month names. Rather, months were named after the festival of saints, which is within the month. Instead, the weeks had names. Four calendars have eight boards with 13 pages each with four weeks. Since the four weeks stand for one month, these calendars have thirteen months.

An example of this is the calendar shown. It is the first Sámi calendar to be scientifically described. Eiríkr Magnússon published the research in On a Runic Calendar Found in Lapland in 1866 . The calendar was in the Pitt Rivers Museum (Farnham-Blandford, Dorset ) but was inaccessible at the time the book Lapska ben- och Träkalendar was being written. The collection is now in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford .

The calendar consists of 5 panels with 10 pages and a cover panel. It is read from bottom to top. At the bottom of the photo is one side of plate 1, above it the 2nd side of plate 1, above one side of plate 2 and above that one side of plate 5. It is a so-called line calendar, that is, the days are marked by a line that is below the center line. Every seven days there is the rune ᚼ , which marks the weekly limits. It can also be the rune ᚷ that was scratched on the day line. It may be Saturday. Because the following rune ᚨ is “A”, and this letter was used on the continent for Sunday. Above the lines, the holidays are marked with special symbols, the meaning of which has not yet been fully deciphered. The calendar starts with December 23rd, has 52 weeks with 364 daily runes. Granlund thinks that January 6th and 7th was made a double day, so that 365 days came about.

Magnússon then tried to connect the 50 highlighted days with holy feasts, for example January 11th St. Hyginus , January 14th St. Hilary (whose feast day is January 13th), but he did not succeed.

The runic calendars fell out of use at the end of the 17th century and began to be replaced by almanacs .

See also

literature

  • John Granlund: Väckoräkning och veckoår. Uppsala 1955.
  • John Granlund: Første winter day, summer day. Sverige. In: Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder. Volume 5, Copenhagen 1960. Sp 140-141.
  • Ingalill and John Granlund: Lapska ben- och träkalendrar. Stockholm 1973.
  • Jonathan Lindström: Påsk, Höstblot och Jul . (PDF; 2.5 MB) Sambandet mellan årliga Högtider och forntida gravars orientering.
  • Sam Owen Jansson: Tideräkning. In: Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder. Volume 18, Copenhagen 1974. Col. 270-277. (Scandinavia without Finland, Iceland)
  • Nils Lithberg: Första vinterdag. Etnologiska studier tillägnade NE Hammerstedt. Stockholm 1921.
  • Andreas Nordberg: Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning. (PDF) Kalendrar och kalendarisk riter i det förkristna north. Uppsala 2006.
  • Kustaa Vilkuna: Tideräkning. (Finland) In: Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder. Volume 18, Copenhagen 1974. Col. 277-280.
  • Andreas E. Zautner: The bound lunar calendar of the Germanic peoples: Reconstruction of a lunisolar calendar according to ancient, medieval and early modern sources. Bookra-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-943150-08-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az Andreas Nordberg: Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning. Kalendrar och kalendarisk riter i det förkristna north. ( Memento of December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Uppsala 2006
  2. ↑ Ivar Aasen : Norsk Ordbok. Ordbok over det norske Folkesprog. Christiania 1871. pp. 224, 334, 826.
  3. ↑ Ole Worm: Fasti Danici. Copenhagen 1626. p. 31.
  4. ↑ De Temporum Ratione, chap. 15: In ancient times the anglers calculated (because it seems incorrect to me to speak of the annual accounts of other peoples and to keep silent about mine) the months after the course of the moon. According to Greek and Roman custom, the month was named after the moon by naming the moon "mona" and the month "monath". The first month, which is Latin for "ianuariarum", is "giuli", the "februarius" means "solmonath", the "martius" "hredmonath", the "aprilis" "eosturmonath", the "maius" "thrimilci", the "Junius" "lida", the "julius" also "lida", the "augustus" "vveodmonath", the "september" "halegmonath", the "october" "vvinterfilleth", the "november" "blodmonath", the " december ”“ giuli ”, just like January. They start the year on the eighth day before the beginning of January [25. December] when we celebrate the birth of the Lord. Especially for the night that we keep holy, they use a pagan word and call it “modranecht”, which means “night of the mothers” because, we assume, the ceremonies that they perform that night. Whenever it was a normal year, each season had three months. But if it was a leap year, a year with 13 lunar months, they put the special month in summer, so that three months together were called "litha". That is why they called the leap year "trilithi", and this had four summer months, while the other seasons had the usual three. But from the beginning they divided the year into two seasons, summer and winter, with summer being made up of six months with days longer than nights. The other six months were winter. This is why they called the month the winter half year begins "vvinterfilleth", a name consisting of "winter" and "full moon" because winter begins with a full moon in that month. The translation of the other month names is as follows: The month “giuli” takes its name from the day on which the sun turns and begins to grow and one of them precedes and another follows. “Solmonath” can also mean “month of loaves of bread” because they offer them to the gods in this month. The "hredmonath" is named after their goddess Hreda, to whom they sacrifice during this time. The "eosturmonath", which today means Easter month, takes its name from a goddess who is called Eostre by them and for whom they celebrate festivals. Now they call Easter with their name and they call the new festival with the name that has been venerable for ages. The "thrimilci" is so called because during this month the cattle are milked alternately three times a day; Britain and Germania were once so fertile, from where the Angling people had once come to Britain. "Lida" means "mild" or "navigable" because the mild breezes calmed down in these two months and one was used to sailing on the calm sea. “Vveodmonath” means “weed month” because a lot of weeds grow then. "Halegmonath" means "month of sacred rites". “Vvinterfilleth” can be renamed “Winter full moon”. "Blodmonath" is the "month of sacrifice" because it is where the animals are slaughtered and sacrificed to the gods. Thank you, good Jesus, who saved us from these delusions and gave us the sacrifices of praise [see also OS Reuter: Germanic Himmelskunde. Studies on the history of the mind. Munich 1934.]
  5. ↑ Nordberg writes in 1705. But that relates to the 5th sub-volume: 'Numismata anglo-saxonica & anglo-danica'.
  6. ↑ See especially Jonathan Lindström: Påsk, Höstblot och jul . (PDF; 2.5 MB) p. 23 f.
  7. ↑ See also Klaus von See u. a .: Commentary on the songs of the Edda. Volume 3. Winter, Heidelberg 2000, p. 355.
  8. ↑

    Mundilfœri means
    hann er Mána faðir
    oc svá Sólar iþ sama;
    himin hverfa
    þau scolo hverian dag,
    öldom at ártali.

    His name is Mundilfari;
    he is to be the father of the moon
    and the sun;
    they draw
    man
    across the sky daily at the measure of time .

    Translation by Felix Genzmer: The Edda II god poem. Thule Volume 2, Diederichs 1963.
  9. ↑ ný oc nid scópo nýt regin, öldom at ártali. "
  10. ↑ Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, Volume 1, p. 29
  11. ↑ Ole Worm: Fasti Danici. Copenhagen 1626. p. 32 ff.
  12. ^ Translation by Claudius Freiherr von Schwerin: Swedish rights . Weimar 1935. pp. 81 f.
  13. ↑ Jonathan Lindström: Påsk, Höstblot och jul . (PDF; 2.5 MB) p. 19.
  14. ↑ In the Hákonar saga Snorri Sturlusons in chap. 13 reports that the Jól was celebrated in the "Hökunótt". The spelling of "hökunott" is different (also "Höggunott") and the exact meaning is disputed. Alexander Jóhannesson: Icelandic Etymological Lexicon. P. 696, considers it probable that it is related to the New Icelandic expression “vera á hakanum” = “to be superfluous”, that is to say, a superfluous or superfluous night. This hypothesis also mentions Nordberg footnote 76, which would fit two days to one.
  15. ^ So in the account books of the Nyköpings slottslän for the years 1365-1367. Jansson Sp. 275.
  16. ↑ John Granlund: Väckoräkning och veckoår. Uppsala 1955, p. 30 ff.
  17. ↑ Nordberg also refers to Granlund (1955) and (1960). In (1960) there is nothing about this. Granlund 1955 could not be tested yet.
  18. ↑ Upplandslag, Praefatio: “Viger the Wise was a legal practitioner, a pagan in pagan times. What we find in his legal lecture and is useful for all people, we put in this book. ” Germanic Rights Vol. 7: Swedish Rights . Translated by Claudius Freiherr von Schwerin. Weimar 1935. p. 67 f. In Upplandslag chap. 15 3 1 it is determined that the hunt for squirrels must not start before All Saints Day . (P. 210).
  19. ↑ Nils Lithberg: Första Vinterdag. Etnologiska studier tillägnade NE Hammerstedt. Stockholm 1921, p. 166.
  20. ↑ Interpretation p. 57.
  21. ↑ Ingalill and John Granlund: Lapska gasoline-och träkalendrar. Stockholm 1973, pp. 7-11.
  22. ↑ Ingalill and John Granlund: Lapska gasoline-och träkalendrar. Stockholm 1973, p. 161 cites a letter from Auvo Hirsjärvi to Captain Virgin, owner of a Sami calendar, from 1953, from which it emerges that he had examined around 200 runic calendars in Finland. The entry 26 can only refer to Sweden.
  23. ↑ Ingalill and John Granlund: Lapska gasoline-och träkalendrar. Stockholm 1973, p. 16.
  24. ↑ Ingalill and John Granlund: Lapska gasoline-och träkalendrar. Stockholm 1973, p. 18.
  25. ↑ a b Ingalill and John Granlund: Lapska ben- och träkalendrar. Stockholm 1973, p. 23.
  26. ^ Eiríkr Magnússon: On a Runic Calendar Found in Lapland in 1866. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1877 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  27. ↑ Ingalill and John Granlund: Lapska gasoline-och träkalendrar. Stockholm 1973, p. 155 f.
  28. ↑ Ingalill and John Granlund: Lapska gasoline-och träkalendrar. Stockholm 1973, p. 161.