Bidding stick

Last updated

A bidding stick [1] [2] [3] (sometimes also referred to as a budstikke, [4] [5] [6] [7] war arrow, [7] or stembod [8] ) is a term for a wooden object, such as a club or baton, carried by a messenger and used by Northern Europeans, for example in Scotland and Scandinavia, to rally people for things (assemblies) and for defence or rebellion.

Contents

Scotland

In Scotland, such a token (Scottish Gaelic: crann-tara, [9] [10] translated as "fiery cross" [11] [12] or "cross of shame" [11] ) was used to rally clan members to arms. The practice is described in the novels and poetry of Sir Walter Scott. A small burning cross or charred piece of wood would be carried from town to town. A widely known use was in the 1715 Jacobite rising, although it was used more recently among Scottish settlers in Canada during the War of 1812. [13] In 1820, over 800 fighting men of the Scottish Clan Grant were gathered, by the passing of the Fiery Cross, to come to the aid of their Clan Chief and his sister in the town of Elgin. [14]

The name Crann Tara was used for a Scottish Gaelic current affairs programme on Grampian Television (ITV) [15] and a political magazine edited by Norman Easton between 1977 and 1982. [16]

Scandinavia

A Finnish boy with a bidding stick from 1876 Arpakapula.jpg
A Finnish boy with a bidding stick from 1876

When an enemy had arrived, bidding sticks (Old Swedish: buþkafle (sg.)) were sent in all directions. In Sweden, they consisted of clubs, or just wooden chunks; in Norway, there were repurposed arrows. Sometimes the bidding sticks had a string attached to one end and were charred on the other end; Olaus Magnus (1555) relates that those who did not bring the club to the next village would be hanged and their homesteads burnt down.

When the people were assembled to a thing, the object was in the shape of an axe, or if the meeting concerned blasphemy, it was a cross.

The objects were signed with runes or other marks in order to indicate the reason for the assembly (e.g. election of king at the Stone of Mora), and who had sent them. During the Middle Ages, using buþkaflar was the official method of assembling people, and they were only allowed to be carved by certain officials, e.g. governors and sheriffs.

They were especially efficient, however, when they were used to levy people against royal oppression and high taxes. After the Dalecarlian rebellion of 1743, strong checks were placed on the use of bidding sticks.

In Sweden, the bidding stick was standardized during the village reorganizations in 1742, and it was at the village level that they were frequently used. During the 19th and 20th centuries, more specific messages were attached to the clubs or inserted into a hollow space. Still in the early 20th century, there was a paragraph in Swedish law that stated that the bidding stick would be sent between the villages if there was a forest fire.[ citation needed ] — Similar paragraphs were also present in the Finnish legislation concerning the correct use of arpakapula, or budkavle in Finland’s Swedish, till the 20th century. [17]

Newspapers

The concept of the bidding stick has been used as the name for several newspapers, including the Norwegian papers Budstikka , Budstikken , and Bremanger Budstikke , and the Faroese paper Tingakrossur .

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stone of Scone</span> Ancient Scottish coronation artefact

The Stone of Scone, is an oblong block of red sandstone that was used in the coronation of Scottish monarchs until the 13th century, and thereafter in the coronation of English and later British monarchs. The Stone measures 26 by 16.7 by 10.5 inches and weighs approximately 335 lb. A cross is roughly incised on one surface, and an iron ring at each end aids with transport. Monarchs sat on the Stone of Scone itself until a wooden platform was added to the Coronation Chair in the 17th century.

A backsword is a type of sword characterised by having a single-edged blade and a hilt with a single-handed grip. It is so called because the triangular cross section gives a flat back edge opposite the cutting edge. Later examples often have a "false edge" on the back near the tip, which was in many cases sharpened to make an actual edge and facilitate thrusting attacks. From around the early 14th century, the backsword became the first type of European sword to be fitted with a knuckle guard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thing (assembly)</span> Type of governing assembly

A thing, also known as a folkmoot, assembly, tribal council, and by other names, was a governing assembly in early Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by a lawspeaker. Things took place at regular intervals, usually at prominent places that were accessible by travel. They provided legislative functions, as well as being social events and opportunities for trade. In modern usage, the meaning of this word in English and other languages has shifted to mean not just an assemblage of some sort but simply an object of any sort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lia Fáil</span> Standing stone on the Hill of Tara, Ireland

The Fál or Lia Fáil is a stone at the Inauguration Mound on the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland, which served as the coronation stone for the King of Tara and hence High King of Ireland. It is also known as the Stone of Destiny or Speaking Stone. According to legend, all of the kings of Ireland were crowned on the stone up to Muirchertach mac Ercae, c. 500 AD.

Sunwise, sunward or deasil, are terms meaning to go clockwise or in the direction of the sun, as seen from the northern hemisphere. The opposite term is widdershins, or tuathal. In Scottish culture, this turning direction is also considered auspicious, while the converse is true for counter-clockwise motion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross burning</span> Antiquated practice now associated with the Ku Klux Klan

In modern times, cross burning or cross lighting is a practice which is associated with the Ku Klux Klan. However, it was practiced long before the Klan's inception. Since the early 20th century, the Klan burned crosses on hillsides as a way to intimidate and threaten Black Americans and other marginalized groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ell</span> Unit of length

An ell is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit. The word literally means "arm", and survives in the modern English word "elbow" (arm-bend). Later usage through the 19th century refers to several longer units, some of which are thought to derive from a "double ell".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Croft (land)</span> Small area of agricultural land

A croft is a traditional Scottish term for a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birlinn</span> Middle ages Scottish ship

The birlinn or West Highland galley was a wooden vessel propelled by sail and oar, used extensively in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland from the Middle Ages on. Variants of the name in English and Lowland Scots include "berlin" and "birling". The Gaelic term may derive from the Norse byrðingr, a type of cargo vessel. It has been suggested that a local design lineage might also be traceable to vessels similar to the Broighter-type boat, equipped with oars and a square sail, without the need to assume a specific Viking design influence. It is uncertain, however, whether the Broighter model represents a wooden vessel or a skin-covered boat of the currach type. The majority of scholars emphasise the Viking influence on the birlinn.

A formal Gaelic language name consists of a given name and a surname. First names are either native or nativized. Surnames are generally patronymic, i.e. they refer to a historical ancestor. The form of a surname varies according to whether its bearer is male or female though for some surnames the adjectival form of a name such as Dòmhnallach can be used for both men and women. However, when used in the female form the first letter is lenited.

The religion of the yellow stick was a facetious name given to the enforcement of the Church of Scotland among certain Catholic churchgoers who lived in the Hebrides of Scotland. Such actions, however, were not unique to the Hebrides, but occurred in other parts of Scotland.

The liaghra was a tool used in Scottish knitting, especially in the north west, and Argyll. It had various regional names, and is sometimes known in English as a thread winder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norse–Gaels</span> Extinct people of mixed Gaelic and Norse heritage

The Norse–Gaels were a people of mixed Gaelic and Norse ancestry and culture. They emerged in the Viking Age, when Vikings who settled in Ireland and in Scotland became Gaelicised and intermarried with Gaels. The Norse–Gaels dominated much of the Irish Sea and Scottish Sea regions from the 9th to 12th centuries. They founded the Kingdom of the Isles, the Kingdom of Dublin, the Lordship of Galloway, and briefly ruled the Kingdom of York. The most powerful Norse–Gaelic dynasty were the Uí Ímair or House of Ivar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan Sinclair</span> Highland Scottish clan

Clan Sinclair is a Highland Scottish clan which holds the lands of Caithness, the Orkney Islands, and the Lothians. The chiefs of the clan were the Barons of Roslin and later the Earls of Orkney and Earls of Caithness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan Matheson</span> Highland Scottish clan

Clan Matheson is a Highland Scottish clan.

The caoineag is a female spirit in Scottish folklore and a type of Highland banshee, her name meaning "weeper". She is normally invisible and foretells death in her clan by lamenting in the night at a waterfall, stream or Loch, or in a glen or on a mountainside. Unlike the related death portent known as the bean nighe, the caoineag cannot be approached, questioned, or made to grant wishes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claymore</span> Two-handed sword

A claymore is either the Scottish variant of the late medieval two-handed sword or the Scottish variant of the basket-hilted sword. The former is characterised as having a cross hilt of forward-sloping quillons with quatrefoil terminations and was in use from the 15th to 17th centuries.

Clann Somhairle, sometimes anglicised as Clan Sorley, refers to those Scottish and Irish dynasties descending from the famous Norse-Gaelic leader Somerled, King of Mann and the Isles, son of Gillabrigte (†1164), and ancestor of Clann Domhnaill. Primarily they are the Clan Donald, formerly known as the Lord of the Isles, and the mainland Clan MacDougall and all their numerous branches. Clan Macruari are their lost sept.

Known as the Crann Tara in Gaelic, the burning cross represented a signal fire, a method of communication among the clans and the rallying symbol of ancient Scotland and of the Highlanders in times of war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Glen Affric</span> 1721 battle

The Battle of Glen Affric took place in 1721 in Glen Affric, in the Scottish Highlands. It was fought between Government backed forces of the Clan Ross against rebel the forces of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies the Clan Macrae.

References

  1. ↑ Bell, William. 1862. On the So-Called Ring-Money ... Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 8(1): 253–268, p. 260.
  2. ↑ Yonge, Charlotte M. 1884. History of Christian Names. London: Macmillan and Co., p. 413.
  3. ↑ West, John Frederick. 1972. Faroe: The Emergence of a Nation. London: C. Hurst, p. 24.
  4. ↑ Marryat, Horace. 1860. A Residence in Jutland, the Danish Isles, and Copenhagen, volume 1. London: John Murray, p. 33.
  5. ↑ Williams, Henry Smith. 1908. Scandinavia, Switzerland to 1715. New York: The Outlook Company, p. 91.
  6. ↑ Klausen, Arne Martin. 1999. The Torch Relay: Reinvention of Tradition and Conflict with the Greeks. In Arne Martin Klausen (ed.), Olympic Games as Performance and Public Event: The Case of the XVII Winter Olympic Games in Norway, pp. 75–96. New York: Berghahn, p. 95.
  7. 1 2 Simon, Jeffrey. 1988. NATO-Warsaw Pact Force Mobilization. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, p. 520.
  8. ↑ Withrington, Donald J. 1983. Shetland and the outside world, 1469-1969. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 58.
  9. ↑ "Crann-tara". at Dwelly's Gaelic Dictionary.
  10. ↑ "crann-tara". ann Am Faclair Beag.
  11. 1 2 The Royal School History of Scotland. 1873. London: T. Nelson and Sons, p. 247.
  12. ↑ Pittock, Murray. 1999. Celtic Identity and the British Image. Manchester: Manchester University Press, p. 5.
  13. ↑ Crann-tara – “The gathering beam, a signal formally used on occasion of insult or impending danger, to summon a clan to arms. It was a piece of wood, half burnt and dipped in blood, in token of the revenge by fire and sword awaiting those clansmen who did not immediately answer the summons. It was passed from one permanently appointed messenger to another, and in this manner the alarm was spread across the largest districts in an incredibly short time. In 1745 the crann-tara traversed the wide district of Breadalbane, upwards of 30 miles in three hours.” Dwelly, Edward (1973). The Illustrated Gaelic English Dictionary (8th ed.). Glasgow: Gairm Publications. page 264
  14. ↑ "Clan Grant History & Facts". Archived from the original on 2008-01-13.
  15. ↑ Gaelic and Welsh House of Commons Debate, Hansard , 20 July 1988 vol 137 cc641-2W
  16. ↑ Easton, Norman (ed.), Crann-Tàra No. 1, Winter 1977, Aberdeen.
  17. ↑ Hakkila, Esko (ed.): ”Arpakapula.” Lakiasiain käsikirja, p. 40. Porvoo: Werner Söderström Oy, 1938. — The most prominent regulations were in the Criminal Code of 1889 (chapter 44, §§ 23–24).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.