The July full-moon fell this morning so my family-hearth will hold a small rite today. This week sees the start of the (English) school holidays which last six weeks before schools restart in Sept. The timing of this school holiday is in fact very old and was meant to free up children who were expected to help bring in the wheat and hay harvests. Todays moon is often called Buck-Moon but our Germanic ancestors called this month Hay-Month, so for us Hay-Moon it is.

Hymn to Woden by William Lisle Bowles (24 September 1762 – 7 April 1850).

God of the battle, hear our prayer!
By the lifted falchion's glare;
By the uncouth fane sublime,
Marked with many a Runic rhyme;
By the 'weird sisters' dread,
That, posting through the battle red,
Choose the slain, and with them go
To Valhalla's halls below,
Where the phantom-chiefs prolong
Their echoing feast, a giant throng,
And their dreadful beverage drain
From the skulls of warriors slain:
God of the battle, hear our prayer;
And may we thy banquet share!
Save us, god, from slow disease;
From pains that the brave spirit freeze;
From the burning fever's rage;
From wailings of unhonoured age,
Drawing painful his last breath;
Give us in the battle death!
Let us lift our glittering shield,
And perish, perish in the field!
Now o'er Cumri's hills of snow
To death, or victory, we go;
Hark! the chiefs their cars prepare;
See! they bind their yellow hair;
Frenzy flashes from their eye,
They fly--our foes before them fly!
Woden, in thy empire drear,
Thou the groans of death dost hear,
And welcome to thy dusky hall
Those that for their country fall!
Hail, all hail the godlike train,
That with thee the goblet drain;
Or with many a huge compeer,
Lift, as erst, the shadowy spear!
Whilst Hela's inmost caverns dread
Echo to their giant tread,
And ten thousand thousand shields
Flash lightning o'er the glimmering fields!
Hark! the battle-shouts begin--
Louder sounds the glorious din:
Louder than the ice's roar,
Bursting on the thawing shore;
Or crashing pines that strew the plain,
When the whirlwinds hurl the main!
Riding through the death-field red,
And singling fast the destined dead,
See the fatal sisters fly!
Now my throbbing breast beats high--
Now I urge my panting steed,
Where the foemen thickest bleed.
Soon exulting I shall go,
Woden, to thy halls below;
Or o'er the victims, as they die,
Chaunt the song of Victory!

Interesting post about the need-fire above. The need-fire can be found in Germanic, Celtic and Slavic cultures.

The OE name nýd-fýr meant need-fire. Whilst nýd came from nied (meaning need) the term was connected with the OE gnídan meaning ‘to rub together’, hence fire by friction. All these terms had cognates in old Swedish. The OSwed word gnida was cognate with gnídan and gave the Swedes the term gnideld, fire-by-friction. This reconstructed in old English would be gnídfýr or gnídál. In Irish Gaelic the need-fire was known as tein' èiginn (modern tein egin) which meant forced-fire.

Sutton Hoo / Wuffinga expert Sam Newton proposed that the East Anglian Wuffing dynasty came from the Swedish Wulfings. Wulfing meant ‘descendants of the Wolf’. The Wuffinga line is traced back to Woden the wolf-god himself. The last Wuffinga king was Edmund of Anglia. He died tied to a tree and pierced with arrows before being decapitated – however his head was protected by wolves until found by English soldiers.

The Sutton Hoo helmet (previous post) shares remarkable similarities with the Swedish/Vendel Valsgärde helmet above, which is no surprise as its believed the Wuffingas (of Anglia) were descendants of Swedish royalty. This may also explain why the heraldic emblems of Sweden and East Anglia are so similar, three golden crowns. The graves found in Valsgärde were said to be identical in nature with those found at Sutton Hoo and are believed to be the burials of Ynglings (recorded in Beowulf as Scylfings) royalty. Ynglinga means ‘descendant of Yngvi-Frey’.

Replica of the helmet found at Sutton Hoo (Seventeen hills/mounds in Swedish-Gothic dialect). The helmet might once have belonged to Anglo-Saxon King Rædwald who belonged to the Wuffingas dynasty.

Most likely the Wuffingas was an offshoot of the Wulfings dynasty (AKA Wylfings or Ylfings in old Norse) of the Eastern Geats/Goths in Sweden. Ylfings was the ruling clan of the Eastern Geats and the similarities between finds there and from the Valsgärde/Vendel era including helmets, swords, broaches and buckles are undeniable.

The English called May Þrimilcemōnaþ (Thrice-Milk-Month). According to Bede -

...Se fīfta mōnaþ is nemned on ūre geðeōde Ðrymylce, for ðon sƿylc genihtsumnesƿæs geō on Brytone and eāc on Germania lande, of ðæm Ongla ðeōd com on ðās Breotone, ðæt hī on ðæm mōnðe þriƿa on dæge mylcedon heora neāt.

'..the fifth month is called Ðrymylce in our language, because before, there was such abundance in Britain and also in Germania, whence the Angle-people came to Britain, would milk their cows thrice a day.

The Maypole is called the Maibaum or May Tree in Germany. In England the Hawthorn is also called the May Tree as the tree is in full bloom right now and it’s the flowers of the hawthorn which were traditionally used to decorate the crown of the May Queen.

Folklorist and author Nigel Pennick makes an interesting claim in saying the AS Ger rune symbolises the May Day garland. I would certainly agree that as a pictogram the Ger rune does resemble one.

Art by Nigel Pennick

Another aspect of Loki’s destructive nature comes from the connection the name Loki has with the ON Logi meaning fire, from the PGmc *lugô or ‘flame’. Logi was the name Wagner used in his operas and he presented Loki as a fire spirit.

Loki has a brother called Býleistr, whose name can mean Storm (from the ON bylur), byl-heistr 'violent storm' or byl-leiptr 'storm-flasher'. Their fathers name Farbauti is again related to the stormy weather, from fár 'hostility, danger, falseness' and bauta 'to strike'.

Loki was Thunors travelling companion when they visited Útgarðar or Outyard. As Thunor is the thunder god it could be Loki embodied the lightning that the thunder storm brings. In a contest again the Eoten, Loki is set against Logi who was the wildfire often started by lightning strikes.

The ‘Lokabrenna’ meaning Loki’s Torch or Loki’s Burning is usually a reference for Sirius but it could also describe the lightning we see before we hear the rolling thunder of Thunor’s chariot.