Reckoning Time in Axenthof

by Gerd Forsta Axenthowes

Bede in his work On the Reckoning of Time devotes a fairly short chapter to the English months, which were brought form Germany to England by the Anglo-Saxons. Since there is little information on the calendar of the heathen Germanic peoples on the continent1, we must rely on Bede to help us understand the original Germanic calendar. Axenthof thiad relies on its own interpretation of Bede’s work on the calendar, which is described below. Our belief is that there have been numerous misunderstandings in some other people’s attempts to make sense of this information. Thus, pretty much all that I am going to rely on here is the original text (in Faith Wallace’s translation).

To start, it is important to understand that the Germanic month was not simply a subdivision of a Germanic year. The Romans eventually rationalized the months and made them subdivisions of the year and this was carried into Northern Europe with the conversion. Thus, every year starts on the same day of the same month and every holiday has a particular date that is always associated with the earth’s position in relation to the sun (originally understood as the sun’s position in relation to the stars, of course, since the Romans had not yet come to understand that the earth revolves around the sun). Months originally had to do with the moon. This was true at one point in Rome as well as in Germania. Our months no longer have to do with the moon because we adopted Roman months after the conversion. Thus, Bede says “In olden times the English people…calculated their months according to the course of the moon.” (Faith Wallis’s translation)

The year, unlike the months, is a solar phenomenon. It follows from this that the year does not start with the beginning, end or middle of any particular month. Bede indicates that “the 8th Kalends of January [25 December]” was regarded as the New Year among his English ancestors. This was the date of the Winter Solstice (although of course because of deficiencies in the Julian calendar, it did not remain the date of the winter solstice). Obviously the ancient, pre-conversion English did not reckon the beginning of the new year by “the 8th Kalenda of January,” since this is a Roman date. Instead, the English would have used simply referred to the solstice. Bede continues “That very night, which we hold so sacred [Dec. 25 – Christmas] they used to call by the heathen word Modraneht, that is, ‘mother’s night’, because (we suspect) of the ceremonies they enacted all that night.” Unfortunately, there is apparently an error in the translation here. I have it on the authority of Ben Waggoner, who was nice enough to look it up for me, that the Latin actually says Mothers’ Night, not Mother’s Night. This makes more sense, since I take modra to represent the genitive plural of the Old English word for mother. Garman, the founder of Theodism, had the view that Bede got this completely wrong and the name was really Mother of Nights. I am sorry to say I see no compelling reason to agree with him on this.

I assume, then, that the Winter Solstice was considered the beginning of the solar year. Since the solstice is a solar event in no way tied to the phase of the moon, this would not have taken place on a particular day of a particular month. Although Bede does not specifically say this, our assumption is that the month began with the New Moon (originally understood as the first crescent after the moon’s darkness, not as the time when the moon was completely dark and not visible). Some have suggested that the Full Moon was the beginning of the Germanic month, but again I see little reason for this. It seems logical to regard the course of the moon from its appearance as a crescent through its fullness and back to its disappearance as a single continuous event. Starting from the Full Moon seems strange, like beginning day at noon or a life at middle age.

Bede informs us that there were 12 months, and some years thirteen. He associates them with Latin months, but of course such an association can only be approximate, since as he himself says the English months were reckoned according to the moon while the Roman ones no longer were. The English months, then, are as follows:

  • January = Giuli
  • February = Solmonath
  • March = Hrethmonath
  • April = Eosturmonath
  • May = Thrimilchi
  • June = Litha
  • July = Litha
  • August = Weodmonath
  • September = Halegmonath
  • October = Winterfilleth
  • November = Blodmonath
  • December = Giuli

You will note that there are two Lithas and two Giulis (Giuli = Yule in Bede’s Old English – in West Saxon the word is Geola). Bede also says that occasionally they added a third Litha, and that such years were called “thrilithi” (three lithas). The repeating months, importantly, occur around the time of the solstices. Since the lunar months will move around you need to have this sort of repetition in order for the solstice to always occur during a month named for it. The third Litha that is occasionally added in is necessary to keep everything up to date with the solar calendar. The solar year and the lunar months do not perfectly correspond, and I don’t think they need to, but you don’t want “Winterfilleth” (winter full moon – when winter was thought to begin) to start occurring in summer.

These doubled months have caused, it seems, a bit of confusion as well because of alternate names recorded for them elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon England. In other sources the first Yule (December) is referred to as “æra geola” and the first Litha as “æra litha.” Similarly, the second of each pair is recorded as “æftera geola” and “æftera litha.” Some have mistakenly taken “æra” to mean “before.” This is true of the preposition “ær,” but the adjective “æra” according to Bosworth-Toller and Clark Hall means “early” or “former.” Thus, æra geola does not mean, as a fair number of people seem to think, “Before Yule” but means “Early Yule.” Similarly, the adjective æftera does not mean “after,” but according to Bosworth-Toller “hinder, next, second” or according to Clark Hall, “second, following, next, latter, lower.” This misunderstanding has led people to attempt to create calendars where ærra litha and ærra geola preceded the holiday they are named for, and then æfterra geola and æfterra litha followed the holiday. Of course, in order to make that work, either you have to take the holiday away from the solar event it is supposed to mark (the solstices in these cases) or you have to reckon the month separately from the moon to which it is supposed to correspond. In either case you are forced into some very strange things, especially if you assume that between ærra geola and æfterra geola is a separate 12 nights of geola.

To my mind, not only are all of these acrobatics inelegant, they are unnecessary. There is nothing wrong with the 12 night holy tide of Yule falling in the “Early Yule” month one year, the “Latter Yule” Month another year, and bridging the two months on yet another year. It is sort of the opposite of the situation most Christians are in today with Easter, where they celebrate a holiday the time of which is determined based on lunar reckoning, despite the modern calendar being completely solar. Thus, the holiday seems to move about each year. For our ancestors it may have seemed that Yule and Midsummer moved around each year as well, at least in relation to the lunar months, although they of course were always the same in relation to the solstices. This hardly means they were unable to determine when they were and plan for them.

Speaking of Easter, it seems to me that the proper heathen time to celebrate Easter (Eostre/Ostara) is not on the equinox itself but on the full moon of Eosturmonath, which apparently is the first full moon after the spring equinox. Bede specifically says that the month is so named because of the celebration. Similarly, we may assume that the coming of winter, which Bede says was thought to be on the full moon of the month called Winterfilleth (Winter Full Moon) was probably marked with some sort of celebration, maybe something similar to the Winter Nights of the Norse.

The only problem, then, that remains is how to determine what years are thrilithi years. My solution is simple, but admittedly has little other than its simplicity and its accommodating pretty much everything Bede says about the calendar to recommend it. If the equinox falls during Eostremonath, then I assume that the year is a thrilithi year. This so far has worked to keep the months where they need to be and it seems to me to require fairly simple astronomical observation in order to have made it work in elder days.

I happened upon this trying to come up with proper months for a few years using dates of moon phases keeping the following principles in mind.

  • Months start with the moon’s first appearance after the new moon
  • Midsummer must fall during a Litha month
  • Yule must fall during a Giuli month
  • Eostre must follow the equinox

This in mind, what follows are dates for the Anglo-Saxon months for the year 2009, era vulgaris. I begin the months the day after the “official” New Moon. Properly, I think they should begin as soon as the moon first becomes visible.

  • Giuli: December 17, 2009 – January 15, 2010
  • Solmonath: January 16 – February 13
  • Hrethmonath: February 14 – March 15
  • Eosturmonath: March 16 – April 14
  • Thrimilchi: April 15 – May 14
  • Litha: May 15 – June 12
  • Litha: June 13 – July 11
  • Litha: July 12 - August 10
  • Weodmonath: August 11 - September 8
  • Halegmonath: September 9 - October 7
  • Winterfillith: October 8 - November 6
  • Blodmonath: November 7 - December 5
  • Giuli: December 6 - January 4, 2011
  • Giuli: January 4 - February 3, 2011

1 There is, of course, a large amount of later calendar folklore in Germanic Europe, but on the continent we do not find much by way of direct descriptions of how the Germans divided the year before the conversion and its accompanying importation of classical learning. Things such as the listing of the Frankish month names that Charlemagne used are valuable, but already here the native Germanic method of the months following the moon has given way to earlier, native names simply being applied to Roman months as used by the Church.


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