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Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I. by Sir James George Frazer

S >> Sir James George Frazer >> Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.




[The Midsummer fires in Bavaria; Cattle driven through the fire; the new
fire; omens of the harvest drawn from the fires; burning discs thrown
into the air.]

Down at least to the middle of the nineteenth century the midsummer
fires used to blaze all over Upper Bavaria. They were kindled especially
on the mountains, but also far and wide in the lowlands, and we are told
that in the darkness and stillness of night the moving groups, lit up by
the flickering glow of the flames, presented an impressive spectacle. In
some places the people shewed their sense of the sanctity of the fires
by using for fuel the trees past which the gay procession had defiled,
with fluttering banners, on Corpus Christi Day. In others the children
collected the firewood from door to door on the eve of the festival,
singing their request for fuel at every house in doggerel verse. Cattle
were driven through the fire to cure the sick animals and to guard such
as were sound against plague and harm of every kind throughout the year.
Many a householder on that day put out the fire on the domestic hearth
and rekindled it by means of a brand taken from the midsummer bonfire.
The people judged of the height to which the flax would grow in the year
by the height to which the flames of the bonfire rose; and whoever
leaped over the burning pile was sure not to suffer from backache in
reaping the corn at harvest. But it was especially the practice for
lovers to spring over the fire hand in hand, and the way in which each
couple made the leap was the subject of many a jest and many a
superstition. In one district the custom of kindling the bonfires was
combined with that of lighting wooden discs and hurling them in the air
after the manner which prevails at some of the spring festivals.[400] In
many parts of Bavaria it was believed that the flax would grow as high
as the young people leaped over the fire.[401] In others the old folk
used to plant three charred sticks from the bonfire in the fields,
believing that this would make the flax grow tall.[402] Elsewhere an
extinguished brand was put in the roof of the house to protect it
against fire. In the towns about Wuerzburg the bonfires used to be
kindled in the market-places, and the young people who jumped over them
wore garlands of flowers, especially of mugwort and vervain, and carried
sprigs of larkspur in their hands. They thought that such as looked at
the fire holding a bit of larkspur before their face would be troubled
by no malady of the eyes throughout the year.[403] Further, it was
customary at Wuerzburg, in the sixteenth century, for the bishop's
followers to throw burning discs of wood into the air from a mountain
which overhangs the town. The discs were discharged by means of flexible
rods, and in their flight through the darkness presented the appearance
of fiery dragons.[404]

[The Midsummer fires in Swabia; omens drawn from the leaps over the
fires; burning wheels rolled down hill; burning the Angel-Man at
Rottenburg.]

In the valley of the Lech, which divides Upper Bavaria from Swabia, the
midsummer customs and beliefs are, or used to be, very similar. Bonfires
are kindled on the mountains on Midsummer Day; and besides the bonfire a
tall beam, thickly wrapt in straw and surmounted by a cross-piece, is
burned in many places. Round this cross as it burns the lads dance with
loud shouts; and when the flames have subsided, the young people leap
over the fire in pairs, a young man and a young woman together. If they
escape unsmirched, the man will not suffer from fever, and the girl will
not become a mother within the year. Further, it is believed that the
flax will grow that year as high as they leap over the fire; and that if
a charred billet be taken from the fire and stuck in a flax-field it
will promote the growth of the flax.[405] Similarly in Swabia, lads and
lasses, hand in hand, leap over the midsummer bonfire, praying that the
hemp may grow three ells high, and they set fire to wheels of straw and
send them rolling down the hill. Among the places where burning wheels
were thus bowled down hill at Midsummer were the Hohenstaufen mountains
in Wurtemberg and the Frauenberg near Gerhausen.[406] At Deffingen, in
Swabia, as the people sprang over the midsummer bonfire they cried out,
"Flax, flax! may the flax this year grow seven ells high!"[407] At
Rottenburg in Swabia, down to the year 1807 or 1808, the festival was
marked by some special features. About mid-day troops of boys went about
the town begging for firewood at the houses. In each troop there were
three leaders, one of whom carried a dagger, a second a paper banner,
and a third a white plate covered with a white cloth. These three
entered each house and recited verses, in which they expressed an
intention of roasting Martin Luther and sending him to the devil; and
for this meritorious service they expected to be paid, the contributions
being received in the cloth-covered plate. In the evening they counted
up their money and proceeded to "behead the Angel-man." For this
ceremony an open space was chosen, sometimes in the middle of the town.
Here a stake was thrust into the ground and straw wrapt about it, so as
to make a rude effigy of human form with arms, head, and face. Every boy
brought a handful of nosegays and fastened them to the straw-man, who
was thus enveloped in flowers. Fuel was heaped about the stake and set
on fire. When the Angel-man, as the straw-effigy was called, blazed up,
all the boys of the neighbourhood, who had gathered expectantly around,
fell upon him with their wooden swords and hewed him to pieces. As soon
as he had vanished in smoke and flame, the lads leaped backward and
forward over the glowing embers, and later in the evening they feasted
on the proceeds of their collection.[408] Here the Angel-man burnt in
the fire appears to be identified with Martin Luther, to whom, as we
have seen, allusion was made during the house-to-house visitation. The
identification was probably modern, for we may assume that the custom of
burning an effigy in the Midsummer bonfire is far older than the time of
Luther.

[The Midsummer fires in Baden; omens drawn from leaps over the fires;
burning discs thrown into the air; Midsummer fires in Alsace, Lorraine,
the Eifel, the Harz districts and Thuringia; burning barrel swung round
a pole.]

In Baden the children used to collect fuel from house to house for the
Midsummer bonfire on St. John's Day; and lads and lasses leaped over the
fire in couples. Here, as elsewhere, a close connexion was traced
between these bonfires and the harvest. In some places it was thought
that those who leaped over the fires would not suffer from backache at
reaping. Sometimes, as the young folk sprang over the flames, they
cried, "Grow, that the hemp may be three ells high!" This notion that
the hemp or the corn would grow as high as the flames blazed or as the
people jumped over them, seems to have been widespread in Baden. It was
held that the parents of the young people who bounded highest over the
fire would have the most abundant harvest; and on the other hand, if a
man contributed nothing to the bonfire, it was imagined that there would
be no blessing on his crops, and that his hemp in particular would never
grow.[409] In the neighbourhood of Buehl and Achern the St. John's fires
were kindled on the tops of hills; only the unmarried lads of the
village brought the fuel, and only the unmarried young men and women
sprang through the flames. But most of the villagers, old and young,
gathered round the bonfires, leaving a clear space for the leapers to
take their run. One of the bystanders would call out the names of a pair
of sweethearts; on which the two would step out from the throng, take
each other by the hand, and leap high and lightly through the swirling
smoke and flames, while the spectators watched them critically and drew
omens of their married life from the height to which each of them
bounded. Such an invitation to jump together over the bonfire was
regarded as tantamount to a public betrothal.[410] Near Offenburg, in
the Black Forest, on Midsummer Day the village boys used to collect
faggots and straw on some steep and conspicuous height, and they spent
some time in making circular wooden discs by slicing the trunk of a
pine-tree across. When darkness had fallen, they kindled the bonfire,
and then, as it blazed up, they lighted the discs at it, and, after
swinging them to and fro at the end of a stout and supple hazel-wand,
they 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.[411] In many parts of
Alsace and Lorraine the midsummer fires still blaze annually or did so
not very many years ago.[412] At Speicher in the Eifel, a district which
lies on the middle Rhine, to the west of Coblentz, a bonfire used to be
kindled in front of the village on St. John's Day, and all the young
people had to jump over it. Those who failed to do so were not allowed
to join the rest in begging for eggs from house to house. Where no eggs
were given, they drove a wedge into the keyhole of the door. On this day
children in the Eifel used also to gather flowers in the fields, weave
them into garlands, and throw the garlands on the roofs or hang them on
the doors of the houses. So long as the flowers remained there, they
were supposed to guard the house from fire and lightning.[413] In the
southern Harz district and in Thuringia the Midsummer or St. John's
fires used to be commonly lighted down to about the middle of the
nineteenth century, and the custom has probably not died out. At
Edersleben, near Sangerhausen, a high pole was planted in the ground and
a tar-barrel was hung from it by a chain which reached to the ground.
The barrel was then set on fire and swung round the pole amid shouts of
joy.[414]

[Midsummer fires kindled by the friction of wood in Germany and
Switzerland; driving away demons and witches.]

According to one account, German tradition required that the midsummer
fire should be lighted, not from a common hearth, but by the friction of
two sorts of wood, namely oak and fir.[415] In some old farm-houses of
the Surenthal and Winenthal, in Switzerland, a couple of holes or a
whole row of them may be seen facing each other in the door-posts of the
barn or stable. Sometimes the holes are smooth and round; sometimes they
are deeply burnt and blackened. The explanation of them is this. About
midsummer, but especially on Midsummer Day, two such holes are bored
opposite each other, into which the extremities of a strong pole are
fixed. The holes are then stuffed with tow steeped in resin and oil; a
rope is looped round the pole, and two young men, who must be brothers
or must have the same baptismal name, and must be of the same age, pull
the ends of the rope backwards and forwards so as to make the pole
revolve rapidly, till smoke and sparks issue from the two holes in the
door-posts. The sparks are caught and blown up with tinder, and this is
the new and pure fire, the appearance of which is greeted with cries of
joy. Heaps of combustible materials are now ignited with the new fire,
and blazing bundles are placed on boards and sent floating down the
brook. The boys light torches at the new fire and run to fumigate the
pastures. This is believed to drive away all the demons and witches that
molest the cattle. Finally the torches are thrown in a heap on the
meadow and allowed to burn out. On their way back the boys strew the
ashes over the fields, which is supposed to make them fertile. If a
farmer has taken possession of a new house, or if servants have changed
masters, the boys fumigate the new abode and are rewarded by the farmer
with a supper.[416]

[Midsummer fires in Silesia; scaring away the witches.]

In Silesia, from the south-eastern part of the Sudeten range and
north-westward as far as Lausitz, the mountains are ablaze with bonfires
on Midsummer Eve; and from the valleys and the plains round about
Leobschuetz, Neustadt, Zuelz, Oels, and other places answering fires
twinkle through the deepening gloom. While they are smouldering and
sending forth volumes of smoke across the fields, young men kindle
broom-stumps, soaked in pitch, at the bonfires and then, brandishing the
stumps, which emit showers of sparks, they chase one another or dance
with the girls round the burning pile. Shots, too, are fired, and shouts
raised. The fire, the smoke, the shots, and the shouts are all intended
to scare away the witches, who are let loose on this witching day, and
who would certainly work harm to the crops and the cattle, if they were
not deterred by these salutary measures. Mere contact with the fire
brings all sorts of blessings. Hence when the bonfire is burning low,
the lads leap over it, and the higher they bound, the better is the luck
in store for them. He who surpasses his fellows is the hero of the day
and is much admired by the village girls. It is also thought to be very
good for the eyes to stare steadily at the bonfire without blinking;
moreover he who does so will not drowse and fall asleep betimes in the
long winter evenings. On Midsummer Eve the windows and doors of houses
in Silesia are crowned with flowers, especially with the blue
cornflowers and the bright corn-cockles; in some villages long strings
of garlands and nosegays are stretched across the streets. The people
believe that on that night St. John comes down from heaven to bless the
flowers and to keep all evil things from house and home.[417]

[The Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway; keeping off the witches; the
Midsummer fires in Sweden.]

In Denmark and Norway also Midsummer fires were kindled on St. John's
Eve on roads, open spaces, and hills. People in Norway thought that the
fires banished sickness from among the cattle.[418] Even yet the fires
are said to be lighted all over Norway on the night of June the
twenty-third, Midsummer Eve, Old Style. As many as fifty or sixty
bonfires may often be counted burning on the hills round Bergen.
Sometimes fuel is piled on rafts, ignited, and allowed to drift blazing
across the fiords in the darkness of night. The fires are thought to be
kindled in order to keep off the witches, who are said to be flying from
all parts that night to the Blocksberg, where the big witch lives.[419]
In Sweden the Eve of St. John (St. Hans) is the most joyous night of the
whole year. Throughout some parts of the country, especially in the
provinces of Bohus and Scania and in districts bordering on Norway, it
is celebrated by the frequent discharge of firearms and by huge
bonfires, formerly called Balder's Balefires (_Balder's Balar_), which
are kindled at dusk on hills and eminences and throw a glare of light
over the surrounding landscape. The people dance round the fires and
leap over or through them. In parts of Norrland on St. John's Eve the
bonfires are lit at the cross-roads. The fuel consists of nine different
sorts of wood, and the spectators cast into the flames a kind of
toad-stool (_Baeran_) in order to counteract the power of the Trolls and
other evil spirits, who are believed to be abroad that night; for at
that mystic season the mountains open and from their cavernous depths
the uncanny crew pours forth to dance and disport themselves for a time.
The peasants believe that should any of the Trolls be in the vicinity
they will shew themselves; and if an animal, for example a he or she
goat, happens to be seen near the blazing, crackling pile, the peasants
are firmly persuaded that it is no other than the Evil One in
person.[420] Further, it deserves to be remarked that in Sweden St.
John's Eve is a festival of water as well as of fire; for certain holy
springs are then supposed to be endowed with wonderful medicinal
virtues, and many sick people resort to them for the healing of their
infirmities.[421]

[The Midsummer fires in Switzerland and Austria; effigies burnt in the
fires; burning wheels rolled down hill.]

In Switzerland on Midsummer Eve fires are, or used to be, kindled on
high places in the cantons of Bern, Neuchatel, Valais, and Geneva.[422]
In Austria the midsummer customs and superstitions resemble those of
Germany. Thus in some parts of the Tyrol bonfires are kindled and
burning discs hurled into the air.[423] In the lower valley of the Inn a
taterdemalian effigy is carted about the village on Midsummer Day and
then burned. He is called the _Lotter_, which has been corrupted into
Luther. At Ambras, one of the villages where Martin Luther is thus
burned in effigy, they say that if you go through the village between
eleven and twelve on St. John's Night and wash yourself in three wells,
you will see all who are to die in the following year.[424] At Gratz on
St. John's Eve (the twenty-third of June) the common people used to make
a puppet called the _Tatermann_, which they dragged to the bleaching
ground, and pelted with burning besoms till it took fire.[425] At
Reutte, in the Tyrol, people believed that the flax would grow as high
as they leaped over the midsummer bonfire, and they took pieces of
charred wood from the fire and stuck them in their flax-fields the same
night, leaving them there till the flax harvest had been got in.[426] In
Lower Austria fires are lit in the fields, commonly in front of a cross,
and the people dance and sing round them and throw flowers into the
flames. Before each handful of flowers is tossed into the fire, a set
speech is made; then the dance is resumed and the dancers sing in chorus
the last words of the speech. At evening bonfires are kindled on the
heights, and the boys caper round them, brandishing lighted torches
drenched in pitch. Whoever jumps thrice across the fire will not suffer
from fever within the year. Cart-wheels are often smeared with pitch,
ignited, and sent rolling and blazing down the hillsides.[427]

[Midsummer fires in Bohemia; wreaths thrown across the fire; uses made
of the singed wreaths; burning wheels rolled down hill; embers of the
fire stuck in fields, gardens, and houses as a talisman against
lightning and conflagration; use of mugwort; cattle protected against
witchcraft.]

All over Bohemia bonfires still burn on Midsummer Eve. In the afternoon
boys go about with handcarts from house to house collecting fuel, such
as sticks, brushwood, old besoms, and so forth. They make their request
at each house in rhyming verses, threatening with evil consequences the
curmudgeons who refuse them a dole. Sometimes the young men fell a tall
straight fir in the woods and set it up on a height, where the girls
deck it with nosegays, wreaths of leaves, and red ribbons. Then
brushwood is piled about it, and at nightfall the whole is set on fire.
While the flames break out, the young men climb the tree and fetch down
the wreaths which the girls had placed on it. After that, lads and
lasses stand on opposite sides of the fire and look at one another
through the wreaths to see whether they will be true to each other and
marry within the year. Also the girls throw the wreaths across the
flames to the men, and woe to the awkward swain who fails to catch the
wreath thrown him by his sweetheart. When the blaze has died down, each
couple takes hands, and leaps thrice across the fire. He or she who does
so will be free from ague throughout the year, and the flax will grow as
high as the young folks leap. A girl who sees nine bonfires on Midsummer
Eve will marry before the year is out. The singed wreaths are carried
home and carefully preserved throughout the year. During thunderstorms a
bit of the wreath is burned on the hearth with a prayer; some of it is
given to kine that are sick or calving, and some of it serves to
fumigate house and cattle-stall, that man and beast may keep hale and
well. Sometimes an old cartwheel is smeared with resin, ignited, and
sent rolling down the hill. Often the boys collect all the worn-out
besoms they can get hold of, dip them in pitch, and having set them on
fire wave them about or throw them high into the air. Or they rush down
the hillside in troops, brandishing the flaming brooms and shouting,
only however to return to the bonfire on the summit when the brooms have
burnt out. The stumps of the brooms and embers from the fire are
preserved and stuck in cabbage gardens to protect the cabbages from
caterpillars and gnats. Some people insert charred sticks and ashes from
the bonfire in their sown fields and meadows, in their gardens and the
roofs of their houses, as a talisman against lightning and foul weather;
or they fancy that the ashes placed in the roof will prevent any fire
from breaking out in the house. In some districts they crown or gird
themselves with mugwort while the midsummer fire is burning, for this is
supposed to be a protection against ghosts, witches, and sickness; in
particular, a wreath of mugwort is a sure preventive of sore eyes.
Sometimes the girls look at the bonfires through garlands of wild
flowers, praying the fire to strengthen their eyes and eyelids. She who
does this thrice will have no sore eyes all that year. In some parts of
Bohemia they used to drive the cows through the midsummer fire to guard
them against witchcraft.[428]

[The Midsummer fires in Moravia, Austrian Silesia, and the district of
Cracow; fire kindled by the friction of wood.]

The Germans of Moravia in like manner still light bonfires on open
grounds and high places on Midsummer Eve; and they kindle besoms in the
flames and then stick the charred stumps in the cabbage-fields as a
powerful protection against caterpillars. On the same mystic evening
Moravian girls gather flowers of nine sorts and lay them under their
pillow when they go to sleep; then they dream every one of him who is to
be her partner for life. For in Moravia maidens in their beds as well as
poets by haunted streams have their Midsummer Night's dreams.[429] In
Austrian Silesia the custom also prevails of lighting great bonfires on
hilltops on Midsummer Eve, and here too the boys swing blazing besoms or
hurl them high in the air, while they shout and leap and dance wildly.
Next morning every door is decked with flowers and birchen
saplings.[430] In the district of Cracow, especially towards the
Carpathian Mountains, great fires are kindled by the peasants in the
fields or on the heights at nightfall on Midsummer Eve, which among them
goes by the name of Kupalo's Night. The fire must be kindled by the
friction of two sticks. The young people dance round or leap over it;
and a band of sturdy fellows run a race with lighted torches, the winner
being rewarded with a peacock's feather, which he keeps throughout the
year as a distinction. Cattle also are driven round the fire in the
belief that this is a charm against pestilence and disease of every
sort.[431]

[The Midsummer fires among the Slavs of Russia; cattle protected against
witchcraft; the fires lighted by the friction of wood.]

The name of Kupalo's Night, applied in this part of Galicia to Midsummer
Eve, reminds us that we have now passed from German to Slavonic ground;
even in Bohemia the midsummer celebration is common to Slavs and
Germans. We have already seen that in Russia the summer solstice or Eve
of St. John is celebrated by young men and maidens, who jump over a
bonfire in couples carrying a straw effigy of Kupalo in their arms.[432]
In some parts of Russia an image of Kupalo is burnt or thrown into a
stream on St. John's Night.[433] Again, in some districts of Russia the
young folk wear garlands of flowers and girdles of holy herbs when they
spring through the smoke or flames; and sometimes they drive the cattle
also through the fire in order to protect the animals against wizards
and witches, who are then ravenous after milk.[434] In Little Russia a
stake is driven into the ground on St. John's Night, wrapt in straw, and
set on fire. As the flames rise the peasant women throw birchen boughs
into them, saying, "May my flax be as tall as this bough!"[435] In
Ruthenia the bonfires are lighted by a flame procured by the friction of
wood. While the elders of the party are engaged in thus "churning" the
fire, the rest maintain a respectful silence; but when the flame bursts
from the wood, they break forth into joyous songs. As soon as the
bonfires are kindled, the young people take hands and leap in pairs
through the smoke, if not through the flames; and after that the cattle
in their turn are driven through the fire.[436]

[The Midsummer fires in Prussia and Lithuania thought to protect against
witchcraft, thunder, hail, and cattle disease; the fire kindled by the
friction of wood.]

In many parts of Prussia and Lithuania great fires are kindled on
Midsummer Eve. All the heights are ablaze with them, as far as the eye
can see. The fires are supposed to be a protection against witchcraft,
thunder, hail, and cattle disease, especially if next morning the cattle
are driven over the places where the fires burned. Above all, the
bonfires ensure the farmer against the arts of witches, who try to steal
the milk from his cows by charms and spells. That is why next morning
you may see the young fellows who lit the bonfire going from house to
house and receiving jugfuls of milk. And for the same reason they stick
burs and mugwort on the gate or the hedge through which the cows go to
pasture, because that is supposed to be a preservative against
witchcraft.[437] In Masuren, a district of Eastern Prussia inhabited by
a branch of the Polish family, it is the custom on the evening of
Midsummer Day to put out all the fires in the village. Then an oaken
stake is driven into the ground and a wheel is fixed on it as on an
axle. This wheel the villagers, working by relays, cause to revolve with
great rapidity till fire is produced by friction. Every one takes home a
lighted brand from the new fire and with it rekindles the fire on the
domestic hearth.[438] In the sixteenth century Martin of Urzedow, a
Polish priest, denounced the heathen practices of the women who on St.
John's Eve (Midsummer Eve) kindled fires by the friction of wood,
danced, and sang songs in honour of the devil.[439]