The Germanic peoples had names for the months that varied by region and dialect, but they were later replaced with local adaptations of the Julian month names. Records of Old English and Old High German month names date to the 8th and 9th centuries, respectively. Old Norse month names are attested from the 13th century. As with most pre-modern calendars, the reckoning used in early Germanic culture was likely lunisolar. As an example, the Runic calendar developed in medieval Sweden was lunisolar, fixing the beginning of the year at the first full moon after winter solstice.
Months
The Germanic calendars were lunisolar, the months corresponding to lunations. Tacitus writes in his Germania (Chapter 11) that the Germanic peoples observed the lunar months.
Tacitus gives some indication of how the Germanic peoples of the first century reckoned the days. In contrast to Roman usage, they considered the day to begin at sunset, a system that in the Middle Ages came to be known as the "Florentine reckoning". The same system is also recorded for the Gauls in Caesar's Gallic Wars.
"They assemble, except in the case of a sudden emergency, on certain fixed days, either at new or at full moon; for this they consider the most auspicious season for the transaction of business. Instead of reckoning by days as we do, they reckon by nights, and in this manner fix both their ordinary and their legal appointments. Night they regard as bringing on day."[3]
The year was divided into a summer half and a winter half, as attested in Old English and medieval Scandinavian sources. In Scandinavia this continued after Christianization; in Norway and Sweden the first day of summer is marked by the Tiburtius Day[de] (14April) and the first day of winter by the Calixtus Day (14October).[4]
The month names do not coincide, so it is not possible to postulate names of a Common Germanic stage, except possibly the names of a spring month and a winter month, *austrǭ and *jehwlą. The names of the seasons are Common Germanic, *sumaraz, *harbistaz, *wintruz, and *wazrą for "spring" in north Germanic, but in west Germanic the term *langatīnaz was used. The Common Germanic terms for "day", "month" and "year" were *dagaz, *mēnōþs and *jērą. The latter two continue Proto-Indo-European*mḗh₁n̥s, *yóh₁r̥, while *dagaz is a Germanic innovation from a root *dʰegʷʰ- meaning "to be hot, to burn".
A number of terms for measuring time can be reconstructed for the proto-Germanic period.
Bede's Latin work De temporum ratione (The Reckoning of Time), written in 725, describes Old English month names. Bede mentions intercalation, the intercalary month being inserted around midsummer.[5]
The following is an English translation[6] of Bede's Latin text:
"It did not seem [right] to me that I should speak of other nations’ observance of the year and yet be silent about my own nation’s.[6]
In the old days the English people calculated their months according to the course of the moon. Hence, after the manner of the Greeks and the Romans, [the months] take their names from the Moon, for the Moon is called mona and the month monath. The first month, which the Latins call January, is Ġiuli; February is called Solmonath; March Hrethmonath; April, Eosturmonath; May, Thrimilchi; June, Litha; July [is] also [called] Litha; August, Weodmonath; September, Helegmonath; October, Winterfilleth; November, Blodmonath; December, Ġiuli – the same name by which January is called.[6]
They began the year on the 8thkalends of January [25December], when we celebrate the birth of the Lord. That very night, which we hold so sacred, they used to call by the heathen word Modranecht, that is, “mother’s night”, because (we suspect) of the ceremonies they enacted all that night.[6]
Whenever it was a common year, they gave three lunar months to each season. When a year with an embolismic month occurred (that is, one with 13lunar months [instead of the usual12]) they assigned the extra month to summer, so that three months together bore the name “Litha”; hence they called [the embolismic] year “Thrilithi”. It had four summer months, with the usual three for the other seasons. But originally, they divided the year as a whole into two seasons: summer and winter. They assigned the six months in which the days are longer than the nights to summer, and the other six to winter. Hence they called the month in which the winter season began “Winterfilleth”, a name made up from “winter” and “full moon”, because winter began on the full Moon of that month.[6]
Nor is it irrelevant if we take the trouble to translate the names of the other months: The [two] months of Giuli derive their name from the day when the Sun turns back [and begins] to increase, because one of [these months] precedes [this day] and the other follows.[6]
Solmonath can be called “month of cakes”, which they offered to their gods in that month.
Hrethmonath is named for their goddess Hretha, to whom they sacrificed at this time.
Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated “Paschal month”, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.
Thrimilchi was so called because in that month the cattle were milked three times a day; such at one time, was the fertility of Britain or Germany, from whence the English nation came to Britain. Litha means “gentle” or “navigable”, because in both these months the calm breezes are gentle, and they were wont to sail upon the smooth sea.
Weodmonath means “month of tares [weeds]”, for they are very plentiful then.
“Helegmonath” means “month of sacred rites”.
Winterfilleth can be called by the invented composite name “winter-full”.
Blodmonath is “month of immolations”, for then the cattle which were to be slaughtered were consecrated to their gods.
Good Jesu, thanks be to thee, who hast turned us away from these vanities and given us [grace] to offer to thee the sacrifice of praise."[6]
Charlemagne (r. 768–814) recorded agricultural Old High German names for the Julian months.[lower-alpha 1] These month- and seasonal-names remained in use, with regional variants and innovations, until the end of the Middle Ages across German-speaking Europe, and they persisted in popular or dialectal use into the 19thcentury.[lower-alpha 2]
The only agreement between the Old English and the Old High German (Carolingian) month names is the naming of April as "Easter month". Both traditions have a "holy month", however it is the name of September in the Old English system and of December in the Old High German one.
A separate tradition of month names developed in 10thcentury Iceland, see #Icelandic calendar.
The Old High German month names introduced by Charlemagne persisted in regional usage and survive in German dialectal usage. The Latin month names were in predominant use throughout the medieval period, although the Summarium Heinrici, an 11thcentury pedagogical compendium, in chapterII.15 (De temporibus et mensibus et annis) advocates the use of the German month names rather than the more widespread Latin ones.[13]
In the late medieval to early modern period, dialectal or regional month names were adopted for use in almanacs, and a number of variants or innovations developed, comparable to the tradition of "Indian month names" developed in American Farmers' Almanacs in the early 20th century. Some of the Farmers' Almanacs' "Indian month names" are in fact derived from continental tradition.[lower-alpha 7] The Old English month names fell out of use entirely, being revived only in a fictional context in the Shire calendar constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien for use in his The Lord of the Rings.
A special case is the Icelandic calendar, developed in the 10thcentury: Inspired by the Julian calendar it introduced a purely solar reckoning with a year, having a fixed number of weeks (52weeks or 364days). This necessitated the introduction of "leap weeks" instead of Julian leap days.
The old Icelandic calendar is not in official use anymore, but some Icelandic holidays and annual feasts are still calculated from it. It has 12months, of 30days broken down into two groups of six often termed "winter months" and "summer months". The calendar is peculiar in that each month always start on the same day of week. This was achieved by having 4epagomenal days to bring the number of days up to 364, and then adding a sumarauki week in the middle of summer of some years. This was eventually done so as to ensure that the "summer season" begins on the Thursday between 9 and 15April in the Julian calendar.[31][full citation needed] Hence Þorri always starts on a Friday sometime between 8 and 15January of the Julian calendar, Góa always starts on a Sunday between 7 and 14February of the Julian calendar.
Many of the months have also been used in Scandinavia, the Norwegian linguist Ivar Aasen wrote down the following months in his dictionary,[32] coming in this order:
JolemåneTorreGjø-Kvina
Two of the names are identical to Iceland, and other is similar. They have developed differently in different regions. Þorri is pronounced "tærri", "torre" and similar, and can mean both the moon after Yule-month, or be a name for January or February.[33]
Mensibus etiam iuxta propriam linguam vocabula imposuit, cum ante id temporis apud Francos partim latine partim barbaris nominibus pronunciarentur.
[For months he also imposed terms according to his own language, since before that time among the French they were pronounced partly in Latin and partly by barbarian names.]
↑ The format and meanings of the Carolingian month names probably also influenced d'Eglantine when he assigned names to the months in the French Republican Calendar.
↑ Bede calls it "the month of cakes, which they offered in it to their gods." Perhaps the cakes he mentioned looked like they were made of mud, due to their color and texture. Or the cakes and the mud could be unrelated, with the name "mud month" being literal: It was the month of mud due to wet weather England endures in February.
↑ The name Hornung for February, the only name in the list without the "month" suffix, is explained by König (1997)[9] as a collective of horn, taken to refer to the antlers shed by red deer during this time. Older explanations compare the name with Old Frisian horning (Anglo-Saxon hornung-sunu, Old Norse hornungr) meaning "bastard, illegitimate son", taken to imply a meaning of "disinherited" in reference to February being the shortest of months.[10]
↑ According to Bede, the month aligning with Julian October was named Winterfylleth "because winter began on the first full moon of that month".
↑ Blōt-mōnaþ meaning “blood month” is probably a reference to the regular slaughter of those livestock that were not going to be kept through the winter, at the end of the last pasturing season, when they would begin to need fodder that was saved to feed the rest over the coming winter. So in addition to any religious sacrifice, the slaughter was also practical. Compare Blōt-mōnaþ = “blood month” with Welsh: Tachwedd = “slaughtering”, and FinnishMarraskuu = “Moon of death”.
↑ Haddock (1992)[14] gave an extensive list of "Indian month names" along with the individual tribal groups they were supposedly associated with, which were later repeated by Long (1998).[15] Haddock supposes that certain "Colonial American" moon names were adopted from Algonquian languages (which were formerly spoken in the territory of New England), while others, for lack of a native-America source are assumed to be based in some European language and culture.
For example, the Colonial American names for the May moon, "Milk Moon", "Mother's Moon", "Hare Moon" have no parallels in the supposed native names, so they are presumed European, while the Colonial name for November, "Beaver Moon" is supposedly translated from an Algonquin name.
↑ These archaic or poetic Dutch names are recorded in the 18thcentury and were used in almanacs during the 19thcentury.[16]
↑ In Middle High German, any of the months November, December, January and (more rarely) February was also given the name hartmân, hartmânot "hard month".[18]
↑ The month-name Hornung survived in southern German dialects, and in the 19thcentury was also used officially in Switzerland as a synonym of February.[19]
↑ Middle High German month-name lenzemânot survived in modern German use only in poetic or archaizing language, e.g. Schiller in a dedication: "Mannheim den 14. des lenzmonats 1785".[20]
↑ Middle High German ôstermânôt; occasional modern use in poetic language, Herder in dem blühnden ostermonat, da die erde neu sich kleidet.[21]
... maius, der may, a frondibus Carolus Magnus den wonnemonat, id est mensem amoenitatis olim nuncupavit
Crude translation:
... Maius, the May time, from the pages of Charles the Great the wonnemonat, that is, he once called the month of pleasantness
↑ OHG winnimanoth "pasture month", from an old word winni "pasture". The name does not seem to survive into MHG, but is revived in the 16th century (from the Carolingian month list), but etymologized as wunnemânôt "month of joy"[lower-alpha 13] This reinterpreted revived form becomes a popular poetic name of May in modern German.[23]
↑ Remains in use 15–16thcenturies, brachmonat, brachmon.[24]
↑ Heumonat remained in use in 16thcentury (Luther: am zehenten tage des heumonds).[25]
↑ The word oogst "harvest" itself comes from Latin Augustus.
↑ MHG herbestmânôt. Herbstmonat "autumn month" remains a productive compound which may refer to any month in autumn (September, October or November). Occasionally numbered as erster, anderer, dritter Herbstmonat. Herbstmond is revived as a name of September in 18th-century almanacs.[26]
↑ MGH winman, wynmanot MLG wijnmaand, survived into early modern use only in very rare Westphalian wynmaent. Weinlesemonat specifically as the translation of the Vendémiaire of the French Republican Calendar.[27]
↑ Gilbhart is a pseudo-archaic name coined in the early 20thcentury.[28]
↑ Wintermonat is a name for January in Alemannic and Frisian; in MHG more generally any month in winter. As a name of November (the first month of winter) in 12th-century glossaries, and more widely during the 14–18thcenturies.[29]
↑ MGH wolfmânôt for November or (more rarely) December.[30]
↑ The first day of Harpa is celebrated as Sumardagurinn fyrsti, the First Day of Summer.
↑ Harpa is a female name, probably a forgotten goddess.
↑ Skerpla is also a female name, probably yet another forgotten goddess.
↑ Coeunt, nisi quid fortuitum et subitum inciderit, certis diebus, cum aut inchoatur luna aut impletur: nam agendis rebus hoc auspicatissimum initium credunt. Nec dierum numerum, ut nos, sed noctium computant. Sic constituunt, sic condicunt: nox ducere diem videtur.
↑ Jansson, Svante (2011). "The Icelandic calendar"(PDF). In Óskarsson, Veturliði (ed.). Scripta islandica. Isländska Sällskapets Årsbok. Vol.62. pp.65–66. ISSN0582-3234.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bede, [the venerable] (1999). "Chapter15 – The English months". In Willis, Faith (ed.). Bede: The Reckoning of Time. Liverpool University Press. pp.53–54. translated with introduction, notes, and commentary by Faith Willis
↑ Stenton, Frank Merry (1971). Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford University Press. p.97ff – via page links to Google books.
Nilsson, M.P. (1920). Primitive Time-Reckoning: A study in the origins and development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early-culture peoples. Lund, SV.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Hollis, Stephanie; Wright, Michael (1992). Old English Prose of Secular Learning. Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English Literature. Vol.4. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p.https://books.google.com/books?id=Jsat7SRTmxAC&pg=PA194 194 ] – via page links to Google books.
↑ Neue und volständige Hoogteutsche Grammatik of nieuwe en volmaakte onderwyzer in de hoogduitsche Spraak-Konst[New and Complete High German Grammar – or [the] New and Perfect Train[ing book] of High German Linguistics] (in Dutch). 1768. p.173ff .
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