Early Germanic calendars

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 interpretatio germanica.

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 Tiburtius Day (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, *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 *d^heg^wh- meaning "to be hot, to burn".

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

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 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.

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.

1. The first month, which the Latins call January, is Ġiuli;
2. February is called Solmonath;
3. March Hrethmonath;
4. April, Eosturmonath;
5. May, Thrimilchi;
6. June, Litha;
7. July [is] also [called] Litha;
8. August, Weodmonath;
9. September, Helegmonath;
10. October, Winterfilleth;
11. November, Blodmonath;
12. December, Ġiuli – the same name by which January is called.

They began the year on the 8th kalends of January [25 December], 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.

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 13 lunar months – instead of the usual 12) 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.

Nor is it irrelevant if we take the trouble to translate the names of the other months:

1. 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.
2. Solmonath can be called "month of cakes", which they offered to their gods in that month.
3. Hrethmonath is named for their goddess Hretha, to whom they sacrificed at this time.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Weodmonath means "month of tares (weeds)", for they are very plentiful then.
8. Helegmonath means "month of sacred rites".
9. Winterfilleth can be called by the invented composite name "winter-full".
10. 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."

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.

Modern correspondences

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 11th century pedagogical compendium, in chapter II.15 (De temporibus et mensibus et annis) advocates the use of the German month names rather than the more widespread Latin ones.

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.

Icelandic calendar

A special case is the Icelandic calendar, developed in the 10th century. Inspired by the Julian calendar, it introduced a purely solar reckoning with a year, having a fixed number of weeks (52 weeks or 364 days). 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 12 months, of 30 days broken down into two groups of six often termed "winter months" and "summer months". The calendar is peculiar in that each month always starts on the same day of the week. This was achieved by having 4 epagomenal 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 19 and 25 April in the Gregorian calendar (First day of summer). Hence Þorri always starts on a Friday sometime between 8 and 15 January of the Julian calendar, Góa always starts on a Sunday between 7 and 14 February 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, 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.

External links and references

• Northvegr article on dating Archived 2006-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
• Facts and Figures: The Norse Way General information on old Germanic culture, including time.
• (in German) Old High German dictionary, including month names
• (in German) Old Norse dictionary, including month names
• (in German) Old English dictionary, including month names
• Anglo-Saxon month names