i've seen lots of lists for names of the various moons..harvest moon, hunter moon etc throughout the year. can anybody point me to an 'authorititive' version? or anybody care to discuss these names in their tradition:)?

love is the law...

LUMI

AS heathenry

December/January - Yule - is a season with either two or three lunar months, the first called AerYule, the last called AefterYule (and in certain years, a middle one called Yule)

February - Solmonath - means mud month (sol is soil in modern english)

March - Hrethamonath - Hreth month - hreth is a word meaning something like victorious, or wild, and may either be a kenning for a goddess such as the Chooser of the Slain or simply the time when the raiding parties set sail after the winter Or it could simply refer to the storms of the beginning of March

April - Eostremonath - Easter month - easter means east, as in the sun rises in the east. This may be a kenning for a goddess

May - Thrimilch - three milkings - the most productive month for milking cattle

June/July - Litha - Litha is a season. Two (or sometimes three) months called Aerlitha (Litha in some years) and AefterLitha - Lith means mild in AS and this is the mild time, the time of the hay harvest and long warm days. Crucial for feeding the livestock in the winter.

August - Weodmonath - Weed month

September - Haervestmonath - Harvest month - obvious...

October - Wintirfylleth - Winter Filling - Winter Full moon (compare the old fashioned verb ending -eth as in abideth) - the first month of the winter half of the year.

November - Blotmonath - Feast month or Blood month, the month when the first of the animals not able to be kept over the winter are killed, some of them ritually (probably very like the idea behind modern halal or kosher slaughter), to offer in feasts held in honour of the gods and the ancestors. This is the month when many heathens celebrate Winternights at the first frost. In some areas, especially in the more northern countries, this festival is in October.

And so back to December

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Jez

thank you very much jez. heathenry isnt something i know much about so this was helpful.

love is the law..

Lumi

Any time.

... love under will.

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Jez

I made my own ones up. I even think I posted a thread once about it, which had other moon names on it as well, and a couple of links - worth searching for!

I haven't got the list to hand, but it went something along the lines of (starting with the first new moon after Yule):

Snow moon
Bleak moon
Flower moon
Leaf moon
Blossom moon
Rose moon
Mead moon
Blackberry moon
Harvest moon
Apple moon
Grief moon
Candle moon

And if an extra moon was needed: Goddess moon.

It's a nice exercise to think up your own, although of course the traditional ones are useful and interesting as well. Google can find them.

A trio of links for you

http://www.farmersalmanac.com/astronomy/fullmoonnames.html

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonnames.htm

http://www.fabandpp.org/cotm/moons.htm

There are so many different versions out there and so many versions claimed as authoritive as well it's ridiculous. The best way for authoritive versions of non heathen names at least, is to search through folklore, because that's realistic and hasn't been romantised, fictionalised or bastardised in the same way. Although they also got merged over decades and centuries of travelling stories

However, folklore remains local to its own area, so the best names are for those of either your path or those of your area. As for me moon names are irrelavant, the harvest moon can be from late July to end September, early October. And it's the harvest moon because they're gathering in the crops here, in the land around me, local to me. That's what counts in my path

I am wondering how old that scheme is as it appears to fit the new age wheel of the year and reliant upon a solar rather than an intrinsic lunar agrarian one which I assume you are indicating.

How old does your research indicate it to be?



My sources are Bede and several reputable AS dictionaries...

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Jez

Exactly.As as been said elsewhwere,the scheme was reliant upon dates set by Christian monks.The reputable AS works you source are also likely to be early Christian reflectives.

Which even at that (though if Bede was describing the practices and beliefs of the "heathen natives" then surely there's validity there?) hardly makes it "New Age"

Just how old does something have to be before you concede that it has historical validity???

My problem is not one of historical validity,rather the interpretation of narrative.That is where the new age excels!

OK - the months are lunar, based on the name of the full moon and starting at the (first sighting of the?) new moon. That seems to fit most early calendars, and it's practical and efficient. The calendar was clearly not merely lunar, however, since there are two major seasonal groupings of two or three months at a time for Midwinter and Midsummer. This is unlike any other calendar system that the Christians had met, so is likely to be an accurate record of a pre-Christian society. The month of Easter and the feasting in it was so important that it is the only time (including the other germanic areas) that the Passover/Passion/Pasque name was not adapted from the Latin and used for the Christian festival - they used the name already around in the country. That seems to show that the calendar was not only there, but too deeply-rooted to be thrown out easily. It didn't happen elsewhere (look up the Christian name for the festival of the death of their god in other languages).

There are likely to be differences from the ancient heathen dates due to Bede's knowledge being already archaic - no question - (one case in point being that when you work with the system, it is sensible to work with an occasional addition at Yule, not simply the occasional addition at Midsummer which Bede recorded) but it still seems to me to fit pretty well

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Enjoy

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Jez

The thing I wonder about with the AS moon names is would they still be as valid taking climate change into account? I mean the names are reflections of what's going on in the year and could you really call it October Winter filling when summer-like temperatures and weather are becoming more the pattern for that month?

It depends what part of the UK you are in, I think. In Scotland, and the northern areas of modern Britain, the month of October/November is pretty cold, and the growth of plants certainly stops then. Even in the midlands, where I am, winter (as in the cessation of growth) is around then. And we have had hard frosts already, and life has become hard for the wild things around me even in the local parks and gardens. All the trees have ceased growth, though a few idiot plants are having a false spring fling, and the dead wood has fallen...

I think when you look at the agricultural year, you need to think, animals, plants, and so on, rather than just temperature. And both here and further north (Bede was writing about Northumbrian local customs, in Jarrow monastery) the grass is no longer growing as fast as the cattle are eating it. That's a crucial moment in an agricultural year, and the farmers in those tiimes and areas would have been worrying about how late they could leave their herds and flocks out on the outlying fields before bringing them in close to allow them to supplement the feed from the hay stores put aside in Midsummer.

So yes, I believe that October(ish) is still justifiably called Winter filling, and then - when the herds and flocks are brought down and into the home fields - that the November(ish) Blotmonath and feasting happens when you - regretfully - take the final decisions about how old that fine bull is, which youngsters you are going to keep, which ewe has had her last lambs and which tups are going to be the fathers of the new generation... And you hope you have enough salt and the weather is cold enough, the smoked flitches in the roof are going to stay clean of maggots and not go soft and rot, the wood stack is going to last and the fruit in the store is going to chill but not freeze, the bees will survive in the skep...

Good Winternights to you all

May your ancestors, in love, loyalty and inspiration, be with you at this time of year.

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Jez

Good point, it is still very much the status quo, but how long for? Things are changing quite noticeably. How long will it be before the old AS names are invalid or have to be shuffled along a few months i.e Winter filling in December?