The Early History of English

By Annie Whitehead

Here’s a little test: Torpenhow. Know how to pronounce it? Know its derivation? If it helps at all, it’s in Cumbria, and it’s a hill… and its name means hill hill hill. That’s English for you. But why? How did our language become so, well, strange? Or should that be weird? Why do we have so many different words for the same thing, and why does our spelling not even abide by its own rules?

I think the first clue might be that, as historian Ann Williams remarked, “We have little idea about what ‘spoken’ English was like before 1100 - virtually all the surviving texts are written in the literary standard (Standard West Saxon in modern scholarship) which was never a spoken language. The abrupt change in the Peterborough Chronicle in 1121 (pictured below) marks the moment when the scribe ceased to write in Standard West Saxon, and began to write in something like the local spoken dialect.”

And in reply, historian Stephanie Evans Mooers Christelow had this to add: “There is also the fact that people speak the language of their mothers: French men who married English women had bicultural children who most likely spoke English. French soldiers stationed in English towns had to learn English, and the French who resided in English villages did as well. According to the Cambridge History of the English Language, French vocabulary and syntax did not begin to significantly affect the English language until about 1300.”

So, there are two intriguing pieces of information here: a hint at the marked differences between written and spoken language, and the fact that it’s too easy, and inaccurate, to blame all our language anomalies on the Norman Conquest. So where did they come from?

Two thirds of England’s rivers take their names from ‘Celtic’ words, for example, Avon. We have place names which are a mixture - in the case of Much Wenlock, Much is from Anglo-Saxon mycel, meaning great, Wenlock comes from Celtic wininicas, white area, and the Anglo-Saxon loca, (place.) We have Roman influence, too, with castra (fort), seen in places such as Chester, and Manchester. Of course, the Anglo-Saxons did build forts of their own - burhs, which give Britain all the burgh and borough place names. But the Anglo-Saxons didn’t just come to fight, and/or defend, they also came to stay. They cleared places, to make space for their settlements, and gave us word endings like ley, ly, leay and leigh, which all mean 'clearing'. The Scandinavians followed suit and also added place names - by, booth, and thwaite.

The Normans did add a few of their own - Ashby was given to the de la Zuche family, (giving us Ashby de la Zouche) and Bewdley came from Beau Lieu (beautiful place).

But the Norman-French did not settle in with the same comfort as the Anglo-Saxons and the Scandinavians, nor in the same number. As we saw above, the commoners kept speaking English, which was still evolving, nevertheless, and came to add many French words.

There is a wealth of information to be gleaned from the study of our place names, and as Margaret Gelling says in her Signposts to the Past, “The linguistic agility which enables modern English speakers to accept Salop as a form of Shropshire is paralleled by the ease with which Keighley is an accepted spelling form of a name pronounced Keethley.” (If you can, get a copy of her book and marvel at her enlightening discourse on the ‘correct’ pronunciation of Shrewsbury!)

Of course, places names have different pronunciations not just because of language development, as in the case of Shrewsbury (Shrowsbury/Shroosberry.) So what can regional dialect tell us?

What Fettle Mun is a book on Cumbrian dialect by Tim Barker. Remember Torpenhow? Well, it is pronounced Tra’penner, or Truhpenner. The Tor bit is from an ancient British word, meaning hill. The Pen is from Celtic (Welsh) and it means hill. How is Old Norse, and it means… hill. Yes, Barker confirms that our language is definitely a hybrid.

Cumbria has the same root as the Welsh word for Wales - Cymru. The shepherds’ counting system, Yan, T’yar, tethera, methera, pimp, is very close to the Welsh for 1-5 (Un, dai, tri, pedwar, pimp).

The Lakeland dialect contains lots of thees and thous, similar to older English - Dost thou is still in evidence is phrases like Duster, as in "Duster want a cup o’tea?"

English development is not unique, but it is unusual. Other languages have remained more pure; Canadian French, for example, is much closer to medieval French, and American English bears traces of that spoken by those on the Mayflower who, being English, would nevertheless have talked of fall coming after summer, and of having ‘gotten’ things.

But here in England we can find even earlier traces. Staying in Cumbria, The Dictionary of Cumberland Dialect (Ed. Richard LM Biers) tells us that gang means go, remarkably similar to the Old English (OE) for 'going' : gangan.

At the other end of the country, In Broad Norfolk, Jonathan Mardle tells us that in the ninth century the Danes invaded the East coast and martyred the Christian king, Edmund. People in East Norfolk used to call the carrion-crow ‘Harra the Denchman’ (Harold the Danishman) which suggests a very long folk-memory of the Anglo-Saxon terror of the heathen vikings.

Norfolk shepherds also have a counting system which sounds rather familiar - Ina, tina, tether, wether, pink.

They still call a song thrush a Mavis, the OE name, and they retain OE plurals - childr, housen. There is much of what we would term biblical language:  "Go ye into the village."

East Anglia became part of the Danelaw. The Danes inter-mingled and Danish became part of the East Anglian dialect. Then came the Flemish weavers in the 14th century. Then an influx of Dutch and Walloon weavers in the 16th century - the ‘strangers’ - brought the word ‘lucum’ (attic window) from the French ‘lucarne’. So not all of our French words come necessarily from Norman French. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Those who came to England early on spoke a Germanic language (Indo-European). The word for father in a document of AD800 is faeder. In Old High German it’s Fater and in Old Frisian fadar or feder. Modern German gives us Vater. We can see the connection. The Story of English (McCrum, Cran & MacNeil) adds that other Frisian words, ko (cow) lam (lamb) goes (goose) boat (boat) dong  (dung) and rein (rain) suggest that had the Conquest not happened, we might all be speaking something akin to modern Dutch.

We should therefore expect some hybrids (as we’ve seen in the place names) and some alternatives with the arrival of the Normans eg wedding/marriage. Although why we don’t have Lapin for rabbit, when it was the French who introduced rabbits to England - can anyone tell me?? (Seriously, I would love to know!)

But leaving aside hybrids, dialect and alternatives, why the different spellings of seemingly similar words?

OE contains barely a dozen Celtic words, and most of them, as we have seen, are geographical. And most place names are English or Danish. OE was not uniform, it had local varieties which as we’ve seen are still discernible today, and also regional accents as diverse as 'Geordie' in the north-east, Dorset with its soft ‘burrs’ and Kent, with speech patterns that go back to Jutish origins. The impact of Old Norse (ON) is harder to gauge because words were so similar to OE. But it has given us beck, laithe, garth - all generally found in areas of Viking settlement in the north, as is riding, a word for an administrative unit, which as an interesting aside, is also used in Canada for a parliamentary constituency.

Certain developments affected vocabulary: the coming of Christianity brought biblical words - Greek and Latin - and gave OE the ability to speak of concepts (frumweorc: from fruma, beginning, and weorc, work, which gives OE for creation), and the Conquest brought a linguistic ‘apartheid’ in areas of religion and law, with the introduction of words like felony, perjury, attorney, bailiff and nobility.

But many of our unusual spellings simply boil down to phonetics. The English had two letters for the th sound (þ and  ð) which became virtually interchangeable. They had no silent letters; every letter was pronounced. But there were weaknesses in the system - the same letter, c, was used for cold and child (cild) and king (cyning).

G was both hard and soft, and was also used for a sound similar to the ending of Scottish ‘loch’, as well as the j sound in hedge, which was written with a cg spelling (hecg). The sh sound was written sc - (scip = ship).

So h, c and g were being used for several sounds.

There were similar problems with vowels; with no clue given in the spelling as to the length of the vowels. The scribes experimented with double letters and accents, but it wasn’t ideal. They had no silent letters, remember, so vowels couldn’t be used as clues to pronunciation.  But post-1066, double vowels came to be used (sweet, queen).

The Normans might not have had everyone speaking French, but they introduced new ways of hinting at pronunciation of English - sc became sh, cw became qu, and cg became dg, as in hedge.

They brought in the letter w, but this looked too much like v v (havving), so doubling up went out and the silent e was added to aid pronunciation (have, live). And suddenly it starts to become clear why we have all our spelling anomalies.

For anyone wondering about  through, trough, throw, threw, thorough, bough, and tough, I recommend David Crystal’s book, Spell it Out, for it would seem that a lot of our peculiar spellings were born of a need to show how words should be pronounced.

So, whilst the Normans might not have altered the way we spoke, they certainly altered the way our words were spelled.

It is my intention to revisit this subject, and in a future post I will look at how Old English and Anglo-Norman turned into what we call Middle English, and how, why and when even the nobility stopped speaking French.

See Part II of the Story of English Here
[all the above images are in the public domain, via Wikipedia]

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Annie Whitehead is a history graduate and prize-winning author. Her first novel, To Be A Queen, is the story of Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great, who came to be known as the Lady of the Mercians. It was long-listed for the Historical Novel Society’s Indie Book of the Year 2016, and it has been awarded a B.R.A.G. Gold Medallion.

Her second novel, Alvar the Kingmaker, is a tale of intrigue, deceit, politics, love, and murder in tenth-century Mercia. It charts the career of the earl who sacrificed personal happiness to secure the throne of England for King Edgar, and, later, Aethelred the Unready. It too has just been awarded a B.R.A.G. Gold Medallion.

Most recently, she has contributed to the anthology of short stories, 1066 Turned Upside Down, in which nine authors re-imagine the events of 1066, and which has just been awarded HNS Editors’ choice and long-listed for Book of the Year 2017.

Author Page
Alvar the Kingmaker
To Be A Queen
Website
Blog
1066 Turned Upside Down

Who Were the Celts?

By Annie Whitehead

I had cause, a few years ago, to try to find out about the slightly mythical Celts. Who were they, where did they really come from, what do we actually know about them and how they lived? In this, the first of a series, I will attempt to answer the first question - Who were they?

The Celts in Europe
The origin of these peoples seems to lie partially in the inhabitants of north-Alpine Europe. The people here are known to archaeologists as the 'Urnfield People' because of their burial rites. They cremated their dead, and buried the ashes in cemeteries known as 'Urnfields'. Their culture is spread from about 1300-700 BC and there is evidence to suggest that they spoke a recognisably Celtic language.

Between 700 and 600 BC, there seems to have been a partial change in burial rite in central Europe, connected with the iron-using 'Halstatt' culture. The graves which gave their name to this phase were found at Halstatt in the Salzkammergut in Austria. (Painting of grave goods shown above - image Public Domain) Much of the wealth of these people came from salt mines and saline springs; salt was a much valued commodity, and could be traded for rich articles associated with burials. The burial rite changed in that the bodies were laid out un-burnt on four-wheeled chariots, and covered by an earthen mound.

Model of a Halstatt Grave Barrow - image under Commons Licence- author Wolfgang Sauber

In about 500 BC, further changes apparently took pace. The centre of Celtic power moved to the Middle Rhine. At burials, the bodies were now laid out in the light, two-wheeled chariots which were to become typical Celtic vehicles of war. This second, and most typically Celtic phase, is known as 'La Tène'. The name was taken from the discovery of a (presumably ritual) deposit of metalwork in the lake at  La Tène (The Shallows) on  Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland. The La Tène culture brought with it a glorious new art style.

Bronze fitting - image reproduced under Commons Licence - author BastienM

From about 450 BC, movement and expansion of these barbarian people can be traced. It seems that bands of these people made their way down into the Italic peninsula, over-running Etruria, [1] settling there and further south, and, in 390 BC, pushing into Rome. Others went further east, into Asia Minor (Turkey), and in 279 BC they made an unsuccessful attack on Delphi.

The Classics tell us that the Celts were organised into tribes. The Greeks and Romans make comments on their social organisation, and some of their habits and customs, and much of this information can be regarded as genuine.

After the fatal attack on Delphi, it would seem that the Celtic retreat commenced, although a few Celts remained in the east for many centuries.

The Celts in Britain
There is archaeological evidence to suggest that there were Celts of Halstatt ancestry in north-eastern Scotland as early as 600 BC and settlements of people of Halstatt origin from France and the Low Countries would appear to have taken place about 500-450 BC. The initial settlement of these people occurred on the east coast of Yorkshire, and in the south and east. These Halstatt derived cultures are grouped by archaeologists under Britain Iron Age A. [2] *

Bronze Halstatt tool, possibly a razor - image Public Domain

Although elements of the La Tène culture were present from the first, the next movement into Britain seems to have taken place about 250 BC. These settlers came across to the east and south coasts, and spread to the south and west. It was these people who introduced the two-wheeled war chariots and, of course, the La Tène art style. It is not known however whether it was these people or their Halstatt predecessors who introduced the Druidic priesthood to preside over religious rites. These, and other bearers of  La Tène derived cultures, are contained within the British Iron Age B.

The third phase of Celtic settlements is contained within British Iron Age C. It consists of the influx of Belgic peoples who settled in southern Britain. This movement can be dated to around 100 BC. These people may have introduced the art of enamelling, and brought over the gods and cult symbols from Gaul. It would appear that it was the hostility of this group of people towards the Romans, that was the main reason for Caesar's invasion in 55 BC. Between this date and Claudius' conquest in AD 43, further Belgic settlements took place.

The famous Snettisham (Norfolk) Great Torc, 1st C BC - Under Commons Licence- author Ealdgyth

The south soon settled down to Roman rule, although the north put up opposition, and in the years between the two Roman invasions there was a great deal of movement to the north by those anxious to escape the Roman domination.

Scottish versions of the Iron Age A cultures of England were present, and trade relations show some connection between southern Scotland and the Iron Age C (Belgic) area of southern England. After the establishment of Roman rule, restless tribes beyond Hadrian's Wall put up resistance, especially the Maeatae, and the Caledonii, who were the fore-runners of the historical Picts. [3] (Information on Celtic settlement in Scotland was and remains, for the time being, somewhat confused.)

Certain Celtic Peoples
Information about which Celtic tribes settled where is confused, because for much of the Celtic era, the results of archaeology and history cannot be made to coincide. More is known about certain tribes than others. The La Tène culture was certainly important and, as we have seen, was known for its art. Yet these people were masters of many other techniques. Not only could they inlay metals, but long before the invention of the necessary rolling equipment, they were also capable of producing the finest iron. They even seem to have mastered the art of casting soft iron, a technique once thought to have been perfected only in the nineteenth-century. They could boil ornamental glass, coloured and white, and they knew how to enamel. They could cover copper objects with tin, and may have been the first people in the world to silver them with mercury. They devoted much care to the manufacture of weapons. the chain-mail of Celtic princes could have stood comparison with those of the high middle ages, if stone representations have been correctly interpreted.

Ornamental gold mounts on bowl - Commons Licence - author Rosemania

The Celts of Gaul were apparently most hospitable people, never locking their doors, and always welcoming passers-by. The Gauls were known to  Caesar as 'Galli' and to the Greeks as 'Galatae'.

On the other hand, the Cisalpine (on this side, i.e. the Roman side of the Alps) and Transalpine Gauls (across the Alps, i.e. the other side) used to cut off the heads of defeated enemies and hang them up, like trophies, outside their houses. [4] The Gauls were described by Diodorus [5] thus:

"They are very tall in stature. Their hair is blond, but not naturally so; they bleach it, washing it in lime and combing it back from the foreheads. Some of them are clean-shaven, but others, especially those of high rank, shave their cheeks but leave a moustache that covers the whole mouth."

According also to Diodorus, the Transalpine Gauls were men of few words who spoke in riddles, leaving most of their meaning hidden, and he thought them intelligent and capable of learning. Yet Strabo [6] found these same Transalpines simple-minded and limited. Much of what we can learn about the Celts is, of course, subject to such opinion.

Overview map of the Hallstatt (yellow) and La Tène (green) cultures. After Atlas of the Celtic World, by John Haywood; London Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2001, pp. 30-37.

By Dbachmann, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4003285

Next time: How the Celts Lived.

[1] Etruria - a former region of Italy between the Tiber, the Apennines, and the River Magra. The Etruscans were a superior intellectual Aryan race originating from Asia Minor. Although they settled in Italy, they were different from and far more advanced than their Italian neighbours. They spoke a strange language, all traces of which have unfortunately been lost.
[2] More on these groupings can be found in Pagan Celtic Britain - Anne Ross p39
[3] Generally regarded to be Celts - they could merely have been Picti - the painted people (more of which in the next part of this series) or they could have been Pictones, a conquering aristocracy from Pictavia, or Poitou. Anne Ross believes they originated form the Caledonii Op cit p41
[4] Diodorus says that they preserved the heads in wooden boxes.
[5] Diodorus (Sicilus) of Sicily was a Greek historian. His 40 books were a universal history from mythical beginnings to the time of Caesar. He used varied literary sources with little judgement of his own, and often without regard to exact chronology. For certain periods, though, he provides the best evidence available.
[6] Strabo was a Greek geographer. He lived from about 58 BC-25 AD. He spent his life in travel and study. His Geographica in 17 books included in Book 4 a study of Gaul, Britain and Ireland, although the countries he travelled through were not described with equal accuracy and fullness. (Below - Strabo's map of Europe - Public Domain)

Further reading:
The Celts - Gerhard Herm
Celtic Britain - Lloyd Laing
The World of the Celts - G Dottin
*The classification of the Iron Age is, according to archaeologist and author Louise Turner, in a state of 'flux' at the moment. For more information visit Here

Annie Whitehead is a history graduate and prize-winning author. Her novel, To Be A Queen, is the story of Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great, who came to be known as the Lady of the Mercians. It was long-listed for the Historical Novel Society’s Indie Book of the Year 2016 and has been awarded an indieBRAG medallion. Her new release, Alvar the Kingmaker, which tells the story of Aelfhere of Mercia, a nobleman in the time of King Edgar, is available now.
Annie's Author Page
Buy Alvar the Kingmaker
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Celtic Time-keeping

Time. Date. Minutes and Days. Modern life is plagued by the obsession of many who run their lives by logging minutes rather than living moments. Were we to deposit these people into the 5^th Century how would they survive without clock-watching? At the time my novels are set (mid 5^th Century AD) there were no clocks, watches, laptops, television, radios – no devices from which to discern the time of day. You looked at the arc of the sun or moon, the respective orb in the sky denoting day or night. The world around you - plants and weather - told you in which season you lived.

Celtic farmstead, North Wales c. 3rdC AD via timetrips.co.uk

For the Celts, their calendar was pastoral and linked to the turning wheel of the year, its repeated cycles of birth-growth-death as foliage sprang forth, bloomed and died back. Rural farming communities are slaves to these changes even today. The first ploughing begins at the start of February when the ground is warmer and softer following ‘cold-time’ (December/January) and lambs are born, which perhaps is why January-February was known by the Celts as ‘Anagantios’ (stay-home time). No point jetting off on that late winter-sun holiday when all the pregnant sheep are about to drop!

Celtic coin showing image of wheat, via resourcesforhistory.com

Every stage of the year was mapped by the events of nature and requirements of the farming community. To glean how important it was to the Celts, we need only look at archaeology. Farming was central to the lives of farmers and as such, made it onto coins of the time as can be seen from the cunobelinus coin shown above. We know the Celts kept calendars, though they are not as recognisable as the Roman Julian calendars we take for granted today, with numbered days of weeks, fortnights and 30 or 31 day months (with the obvious exception of February!). They were, however, sectioned into twelve segments throughout the pastoral year as follows:-

Jan/Feb            Anagantios                  Stay-home time

Feb/Mar           Ogronios                     Ice time

Mar/Apr          Cutios                          Windy time

Apr/May          Giamonios                   Shoots-show

May/Jun          Simivisonios                Bright time

Jun/Jul             Equos                          Horse time

Jul/Aug            Elembiuos                   Claim-time

Aug/Sep          Edrinios                       Arbitration-time

Sep/Oct           Cantlos                        Song-time

Oct/Nov          Samonios                     Seed-fall

Nov/Dec          Dummanios                 Darkest depths

It is evident from the Celtic meanings how our ancestors viewed the world around them and how entrenched in the natural sways of the earth their lives were. If we consider these unfamiliar-sounding names such as ‘Samonios’, the name itself does not immediately provide us with any understanding of that ‘month’. If we look at its meaning, however, we can identify with ‘Seed-fall’ around October/November, as we see it ourselves at this time of year. Trees and plants shed leaves and seeds and gardeners store tubers for the following spring. This makes sense to our modern minds. What may not make sense would be how the Celts noted down their calendars. As well as using their own language, they used their own text, known as ‘ogham’. The ‘ogham’ alphabet is based upon the woods of different trees connected with the various times of the year. Similar to runes, they appeared as vertical and horizontal bars of varying numbers.

Celtic tree calendar, via ogham.thewahzone.com

So, I’m staying home this Anagantios, at least until Ogronios is over. By then, as they say in Breton, Nevez-amzer will be here (new season/spring). Then just as I plan to do some serious gardening the winds arrive, darn that Cutios!

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Elaine writes historical fiction as 'E S Moxon'. Her debut Wulfsuna was published January 21st, 2015 and is the first in her Wolf Spear Saga series of Saxon adventures, where a Seer and one named 'Wolf Spear' are destined to meet. She is currently writing her second novel, set once again in the Dark Ages of 5th Century Britain. You can find out more about Book 2 from Elaine's website where she has a video diary charting her writing progress. She also runs a blog. Elaine lives in the Midlands with her family and their chocolate Labrador.

The Ancient Cult of the Wagon-Goddess

by Elaine Moxon

In my Dark Ages novel ‘Wulfsuna’ the legendary ‘Wolf Spear Saga’ decides the fates of a Seer and one named ‘Wolf Spear’. Travelling across Britain in wagons built from the wood of their ship the Hildwaeg, the Saxon tribe of the Wulfsuna discover a female Seer. Named Morwyneth, she lives mostly aboard one of the wagons, biding her time conversing with Mother Earth, her dead mother’s spirit and her Britonic deities. Until the book’s publication, little did I realise I had tapped into an ancient cult, thousands of years old.

Known as wagon-gods or goddesses, the ‘Vanir’ were mainly female, wagon-borne deities who traversed the countryside foretelling the success (or not) of harvests. At their journey’s end, these goddesses or priestesses were ritualistically cleansed by slaves. This already ancient Norse theme resonates with several other legendary figures of Celtic origin. Known by many names (Nicneven, Glaistig, Bride, Morrigan, Valkyrje, Hel, Frau Holda, Cailleach) the ‘Woman of the Mist’ or ‘Hag of the Mist’ would never carry the dirt of one place beyond that of another, without washing her feet. Perhaps this is the root of the ritualistic cleansing, which exists in many cultures and religions even today? These goddesses are earth-shapers, benevolent giantesses, battle goddesses, well guardians, winter goddesses and foretellers of doom, often possessing magical powers. In fact ‘Sulis’, a Celtic water goddess revered at the spring we now know as the city of Bath, was deemed to be so powerful even the Roman Empire feared eradicating her from the location. Instead they named their famous baths ‘Aquae Sulis’ in honour of her.

In the writings of Tacitus, he speaks of the Anglii and other tribes worshipping ‘Nerthus’ or ‘Mother Earth’. This goddess lived in a wagon on an island sat amid a lake, accompanied by a single priest who alone knew when she resided within. When she toured the countryside each local town would declare a time of peace and rejoicing. Having foretold the fate of the region for future seasons, the goddess would return to her island where slaves would cleanse her body. These slaves were then drowned in the lake to preserve the virtue of the goddess. In his works, Tacitus also hints at the death of these slaves, so as to preserve the deity’s virtue:-

“...there is as a result a mysterious fear and a sacred ignorance about something seen only by those doomed to die.”

So were ritual killings the bodies of wagon-goddess slaves, killed once they had cleansed the deity, so they could never reveal her naked beauty? It is interesting to find several references to ritual sacrifices connected to these fertility deities. In the Ynglinga Saga, Snorri mentions ‘Domaldi of the Swedes’ was sacrificed due to other ritual sacrifices being unsuccessful in restoring crops. In The Heimskringla, Snorri tells how the fertility goddess ‘Freyja’ was the first to teach the magical ritual language of ‘Seiðr’ to the Æsir. This magic, commonly used by female Vanir, had the ability to regenerate life and foretell the future. Seiðr was practised on a platform or naturally high area. The Seer conducting the ritual would become entranced by the spells cast in the form of songs. Following these moments of magical ecstasy she would be able to foresee the future. Travelling the countryside (probably by wagon from where they could sing their Seiðr) they would impart information to the locals about what the future seasons held in store for them. They were notorious for sexual deviance and bringing bad luck.

‘Vanr goddess Freyja flanked by her boar Hildisvini’ Lorenz Frølich (1895), public domain

Indeed, lust forms a large part of the Vanir culture. For instance, in Egil’s Saga ‘Queen Gunnhildr’ cast a spell so Egill would never enjoy a moment’s rest until she had seen him. What anguish! And then there is the tale of ‘Gunnar’ mentioned in the Icelandic manuscript ‘Flateyjarbōk’. Gunnar is on the run from King Olafr Tryggvason of Norway after having rejected Christianity. Hiding in a remote Swedish sanctuary, where the god ‘Frejr’ is idolised, Gunnar has the fortune of being invited on an annual tour of the countryside by Frejr’s priestess/wife. While stuck in a snowstorm it says the idol Frejr came to life and fought with Gunnar, who pledged to the Christian god he would return to Christianity if he could vanquish the idol. Well, Gunnar had his wish, overcame Frejr and spent the rest of the tour posing as the idol and impregnating the accompanying priestess.

Another discovery I made that alludes to the wagon-god as consort to the mother goddess (Earth) was within the ‘Ing’ verse of the Old English rune poem. ‘Inguz’ is the divine hero, a vegetation spirit or ‘Green Man’, such as ‘Cernunnos’ of Celtic belief:-

“Ing was first among the East Danes

Seen by men until he later eastwards

Went across the waves, the wagon sped behind

Thus the hard man named the hero.”

Stephen Pollington suggests such references may recall cult processions of Nerthus where a female representing the Earth Mother would be wooed by the Green Man, as she spent her time visiting men’s homes in a ritual wagon accompanied by a priest. Evidence of this ritual procession may perhaps be found in archaeological sites gathered mostly around Denmark and Jutland: the Trundholm Sun Chariot, a pair of ritual wagons in Dejbjerg, a wagon in the 9^th Century Oseberg boat, wagon parts in a lake at Rappendam and a copper alloy model wagon in Strettweg, Austria.

courtesy of Malene Thyssen, solvogn.jpg via Wikimedia

Dating from the Nordic Bronze Age, The Trundholm Sun Chariot’s spoked wheels support a bronze horse and gold leaf disc. It is thought it was used in religious rituals to demonstrate the motion of the sun in the heavens. Each side of the disc is decorated with curved lines showing the east-to-west and west-to-east arcs of the sun through the day and night skies. In Norse mythology ‘Sól’ is a personified sun goddess who each day rides through the sky on her chariot, though this is not the only culture who worshipped a chariot sun-god. The Celtic sky god ‘Taranis’ is depicted by a spoked wheel and it was believed the sound of thunder was his chariot riding across the sky, and the ancient Indian texts of the ‘Rigveda’ allude to a sun chariot in which the sun’s bride was pulled by two steeds.

courtesy of www.tollundman.dk

As for evidence of ritual slave sacrifices to protect these wagon-goddesses, there could be a connection to the many bog bodies that have been found in both Ireland and Denmark. Some have suggested, through the nature of these people’s deaths, that they were sacrificed kings or priests. If harvests were poor and other sacrifices had not brought about improvement, many would look to their kings. These royal leaders, often hailed as gods themselves, were imagined to have power over such things and so crop failure was seen as a king’s failure and his death would be sure to bring recovery to the region. ‘Cashel Man’ found in Cúl na Móna bog, County Laois, Ireland is one such king.

However, ‘Grauballe Man’ and ‘Tollund Man’, both from the Jutland peninsula, are considered ritual sacrifices of another sort. Found naked and having received a final meal, these men had smooth hands showing no signs of hard labour through their lives. Grauballe Man had his throat slit and Tollund Man was hanged by a plaited leather rope. Are these priests or slaves who washed the bodies of wagon-goddesses? We may never know, although their stories will forever intrigue us. Seamus Heaney puts it best in his poem about Tollund Man, published in ‘Wintering Out’ of which the following is a segment:-

“In the flat country near by

Where they dug him out,

His last gruel of winter seeds

Caked in his stomach,

Naked except for

The cap, noose and girdle,

I will stand a long time,

Bridegroom to the goddess,

She tightened her torc on him

And opened her fen,

Those dark juices working

Him to a saint’s kept body,”

With special thanks to Stephen Pollington (The Rudiments of Runelore), Paul Mortimer (Woden's Warriors), Sonita d'Este & David Rankine (Visions of the Cailleach) and the Tollund Man exhibition, Denmark.

Elaine has always loved writing and history. When she decided to combine the two, she wrote ‘Wulfsuna’, which was published in January 2015 through SilverWood Books. She enjoys baking, knitting and gardening and lives in the Midlands with her family and their mad Labrador. She is currently writing the second book in her ‘Wolf Spear Saga’ series. Her dark ages debut 'Wulfsuna' can be obtained here.