Early Germanic calendars

thumb|350px|[[Bede's description of English months in The Reckoning of Time from Cotton MS Vespasian B VI.]]

The early Germanic calendars were the regional calendars used among the early Germanic peoples before they adopted the Julian calendar in the Early Middle Ages. The calendars were an element of early Germanic culture.

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.

The lunisolar calendar is reflected in the Proto-Germanic term "month" (Old English , Old Saxon , Old Norse , and Old High German , Gothic ), being a derivation of the word for "moon", —which shares its ancestry with the Greek mene "moon", men "month", and Latin "month".

Days and weeks

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."

The concept of the week, on the other hand, was adopted from the Romans, from about the first century, the various Germanic languages having adopted the Greco-Roman system of naming of the days of the week after the classical planets, inserting loan translations for the names of the planets, substituting the names of Germanic gods in a process known as '.

Calendar terms

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 (14 April) and the first day of winter by the Calixtus Day (14 October).

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, and . The names of the seasons are Common Germanic, , , , and for "spring" in north Germanic, but in west Germanic the term was used. The Common Germanic terms for "day", "month" and "year" were , and . The latter two continue Proto-Indo-European , , while is a Germanic innovation from a root meaning "to be hot, to burn".

A number of terms for measuring time can be reconstructed for the proto-Germanic period.

:{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"

|- style="vertical-align:bottom;"

!rowspan="1"| modern English

!rowspan="2"| Proto- Germanic

!rowspan="2"| Old English

!rowspan="2"| English

!rowspan="2"| Scots

!rowspan="2"| West Frisian

!rowspan="2"| Dutch

!rowspan="2"| Low Saxon

!rowspan="2"| German

!rowspan="2"| Old Norse

!rowspan="2"| Icelandic

!rowspan="2"| Faroese

!rowspan="2"| Swedish

!colspan="2"| Norwegian

!rowspan="2"| Danish

!rowspan="2"| Gothic

|- style="vertical-align:bottom;"

! Term

! Nynorsk

! Bokmål

! daytime, 24 hour period

| *dagaz

| dæġ, dōgor

| day

| day, dey

| dei

| dag

| Dag

| Tag

| dagr, dǿgn / dǿgr

| dagur

| dag, dygn

| dag, døgn/døger

| dag, døgn

| 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃

! night time

| *nahts

| niht

| night

| nicht

| nacht

| Nacht

| nátt

| nótt

| nátt

| natt

| nat

| 𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃

! week

| *wikǭ

| ƿiċe

| week

| wouk

| wike

| week

| Wekke

| Woche

| vika

| vecka

| veke

| uke

| uge

| 𐍅𐌹𐌺𐍉

! month

| *mēnōþs

| mōnaþ

| month

| moanne

| maand

| Mohnd (maond)

| Monat

| mánaðr

| mánuður

| mánaður

| månad

| måned

| 𐌼𐌴𐌽𐍉𐌸𐍃

! year

| *jērą

| ġēar

| year

| year, ear

| jier

| jaar

| Johr (jaor)

| Jahr

| ár

| år

| 𐌾𐌴𐍂

! interval / timespan / period

| *tīdiz

| tīd

| tide

| tiid

| tijd

| Tiet

| Zeit

| tíð

| tid

| *𐍄𐌴𐌹𐌳𐌹𐍃

! hour / timespan / period

| *tīmô

| tīma

| time

| tími

| timme

| time

| *𐍄𐌴𐌹𐌼𐌰

! Spring

| *langatīnaz

| lencten

| Lent

| Lentren

| linte

| lente

| Lent

| Lenz

| *𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌰𐍄𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃

! Spring

| *wazrą-

| vár

| vor

| vár

| vår

| forår (vår)

| *𐍅𐌰𐌶𐍂

! Summer

| *sumaraz

| sumor

| summer

| simmer

| zomer

| Sommer

| sumar

| summar

| sommar

| sommar / sumar

| sommer

| *𐍃𐌿𐌼𐌰𐍂𐍃

! Autumn / Fall

| *harbistaz

| hærfest

| harvest

| hairst

| hjerst

| herfst

| Harvst

| Herbst

| haustr

| haust

| heyst

| höst

| haust

| høst

| efterår (høst)

| *𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌱𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃

! Winter

| *wintruz

| ƿinter

| winter

| Winter

| vintr / vetr

| vetur

| vinter

| vinter / vetter

| vinter

| 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐍄𐍂𐌿𐍃

Month names

Medieval

English

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.

The following is an English translation

</blockquote>

Other

Charlemagne (r. 768–814) recorded agricultural Old High German names for the Julian months.

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 19th century.

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 10th century Iceland, see #Icelandic calendar.

:{| class="wikitable"

!scope="col" style="width:10%;"| Julian month

!scope="col" style="width:50%;"| Old English

!scope="col" style="width:40%;"| Old High German

| January

| "After Yule", or "Second Yule"

| "Winter month"

| February

| ('mud month')

| "Horn-shedding (of stags)" 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.

| March

| "Month of the Goddess Hrēþ" or "Month of Wildness"

| ""

| "Pasture month"

| "Harvest month"

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.

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.

:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

!scope="col" style="width:6%;"| Julian month

!scope="col" style="width:21%;"| Old High German

!scope="col" style="width:21%;"| West Frisian

| January

| "Winter month"

| ' ("tanning month")

| ' ("fore month")

| February

| '

| ' ' ("bissextile month")

| '

| March

| "Spring month"

| ' ("spring month")

| April

| ""

| ' ("grass month" ≈ Fr.R.Cal. Prairial)

| ' ("grass month")

| May

| "Pasture month"

:... 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

This reinterpreted revived form becomes a popular poetic name of May in modern German.

| ' , ' ("flower month" = Fr.R.Cal. Floréal), ' ("Mary's month")

| ' ("bloom month")

| June

| "Break (ground) month"

| ' ("summer month"), , ("woad month"), ("weed month")

| ("summer month")

| July

| "Hay month"

| ' ("pasture month"), ("hay month")

| ' ("haying month")

| August

| "Ears (of grain) month"

| ' ("autumn month"), ("barley month"), ' ("oats month")

| ' ("autumn month")

| October

| "Vintage month"

| ' ("wine month"), Wijnoogstmaand ("vintage month" = Fr.R.Cal. Vendémiaire), ' ("sowing month")

| ' ("wine month"), '

| November

| "Harvest month"

| ' ("slaughter month"), ' ("blood month"), ' ("fog month" ≈ Fr.R.Cal. Brumaire), '

| ' ("slaughter month")

| December

| "Holy month"

Hence always starts on a Friday sometime between 8 and 15 January of the Julian calendar, always starts on a Sunday between 7 and 14 February of the Julian calendar.

:{|

|colspan=4| ' "Short days"

|- style="vertical-align:top;"

|style="text-align:center;"| 1

| || "slaughter month" or "Gór's month" || mid October – mid November

|style="text-align:center;"| 2

| || "Yule month" || mid November – mid December

|style="text-align:center;"| 3

| || "fat sucking month" || mid December – mid January

|style="text-align:center;"| 4

| || "frozen snow month" || mid January – mid February

|style="text-align:center;"| 5

| || "Góa's month" || mid February – mid March

|- style="vertical-align:top;"

|style="text-align:center;"| 6

| || "lone month" or "single month" || mid March – mid April

|colspan=4|

|colspan=4| ' "Nightless days"

|style="text-align:center;"| 1

| || (goddess?) || mid April – mid May

|style="text-align:center;"| 2

| || (goddess?) || mid May – mid June

|style="text-align:center;"| 3

| || "sun month" || mid June – mid July

|style="text-align:center;"| 4

| || "hay working month" || mid July – mid August

|- style="vertical-align:top;"

|style="text-align:center;"| 5

| || "two month" or "second month" || mid August – mid September

|style="text-align:center;"| 6

| || "autumn month" || mid September – mid October

Many of the months have also been used in Scandinavia, the Norwegian linguist Ivar Aasen wrote down the following months in his dictionary,

coming in this order:

:: Jolemåne Torre Gjø-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.

Footnotes

Citations

External links and references

Northvegr article on dating
Facts and Figures: The Norse Way General information on old Germanic culture, including time.
Old High German dictionary, including month names
Old Norse dictionary, including month names
Old English dictionary, including month names
Anglo-Saxon month names

Months

Days and weeks

Calendar terms

Month names

Medieval

English

Other

Footnotes

See also

Citations

External links and references