The Old English Calendar [Ganino]

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====== The Old English Calendar ======

<html>
<table border="1" width="99%" bordercolor="#FF0000" cellspacing="1">
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center">
      <p align="center"><b><i><font size="2">Old English Name</font></i></b></td>
    <td width="58%">
      <p align="center"><font size="2">&nbsp;<i><b>Suggested Meaning of Old
      English Name</b></i></font></td>
    <td width="22%">
      <p align="center"><b><i><font size="2">	Modern Equivalent</font></i></b></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>[Æftera]-Geol-monaþ</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'After-Yule-month' (second passing / changing month)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	January</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>Sol-monaþ</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'[Returning] Sun-month'; also called '	Flat Cakes' Month'</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	February</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>Hreð-monaþ&nbsp;</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'month of <i>Hreða</i>' ('glory-goddess')</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	March</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>Eostur-monaþ</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'month of  the <i>Eostre</i> [Easter]' (goddess of&nbsp;
      'the radiant dawn')</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	April</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>Ðrimilce-monaþ</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'month of Three milkings'  (cows milked three times a day)</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	May</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>[Ærra]-Liða-monaþ</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'First Travelling month' ('líðian', to travel, sail,
      glide)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	June</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>[Æftera]-Liða-monaþ</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'Second Travelling month'  (some years had three)&nbsp;</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	July</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>Weod-monaþ</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'Weed-month' (still a problem)</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	August</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>Halig-monaþ&nbsp;</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'Holy month' (Harvest Month)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	September</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>Winter-fylleð&nbsp;</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'Winter full moon month' (hunters' moon: first full moon of
      Autumn)</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	October</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>Blot-monaþ</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'Blood (sacrifice) month'  (surplus  livestock	killed off
      before winter)</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	November</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>[Ærra]-Geol-monaþ</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'Before-Yule-month' (first passing / changing / month)</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">&nbsp;December</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="24%" align="center"><b>Modra-niht</b></td>
    <td width="58%">&nbsp;'Mothers' Night' (longest night: birth of the new solar year)</td>
    <td width="22%" align="center">	Christmas</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<blockquote>
<p align="left">
<font color="#663300">
This calendar is largely based on information supplied yet again by dear old
Bede.&nbsp; In his scientific treatise <i>On Chronology</i>, written in the
early eighth century, he provides us with the names of the pre-Christian Old
English months of the year [ch.15].&nbsp;&nbsp;</font>
</p>

</blockquote>

<p align="center"><font size="2" color="#663300">© Copyright Dr Sam Newton, Blotmonaþ AD 2000</font></p>

<p align="center"><b>Further Reading</b>
</p>

<blockquote>

<p align="left"><font color="#663300">Kenneth Harrison, <i>The Framework of Anglo-Saxon History to
AD900</i> (Cambridge 1976), especially pp.1-14.<br>
C.W.Jones (ed.), <i>Bedae Opera de Temporibus</i> (Cambridge, Mass. 1943). <br>
A.L.Meaney, &quot;Bede and Anglo-Saxon Paganism&quot;, <i>Parergon</i> ns 3
(1985), pp.1-29, especially pp.2-8.</font>
</p>

</blockquote>
</html>
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