36
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. JULY is, 1007.
a few years before the rebuilding of the old Church in 1540, on the site of a still older building.
Prof. Rhys in his Hibbert Lectures points out that
"at Lyons (the ancient Lugduna) the 1st of August was the day when the festival was held, probably simply superseding, in name mostly, an older feast held on that day in honour of Lug."
This festival corresponded to the Irish
Lugnassad, called after the Celtic sun-hero Lug.
He also says:—
"The echoes of a feast or fair on the 1st of August have not yet died out in Wales, where one still speaks of 'Gwyl Awst,' which would now mean only the August Festival, though, according to the analogy of other names, it should be rendered the Feast of August."
The evident confusion existing as to whether the word gwyl means the eve of a feast or the feast day itself may have arisen from the fact that the Celtic summer festival began the night before, when all fires were extinguished and the bonfire made ready to be lit next day by new fire direct from heaven. The descent of the new fire caused the greatest excitement in Brittany, the people shouting "An tan, an tan!" ("The fire, the fire!") and expecting miracles to be performed.
In the churchwardens' accounts (1491) of St. Edmund at Sarum we have
"the charge of 1d. for coals to make Holy Fire on Easter Eve: all lights were then quenched, and fresh fire drawn From flint, and distributed by hallowed tapers."
In earlier Celtic days the fire was obtained by the friction of wood; and at Florence the ceremony of bringing down fresh fire by means of an artificial dove can still be seen every Easter.
At the time of the Inquisition P.M. of Humphrey de Bohun (1299) the term "Gule of August" was used as a fixed date. We read that ten virgators were paid 27s. 6d. for their labour from St. John the Baptist's Day to the Gule of August (i.e., 38 days), and 50s. 1d. from that date to Michaelmas, being rather more money for the latter than the former period (taking Gule of August to be 1 August).
Prof. Skeat's 'Etymological Dictionary,' ed. 1901, gives the word Yule as modern English, and refers to A.-S. iula, gēola, the name of a month. He adds: "December was called se œrra geōla, the former yule and January se œftera geōla, the latter yule." He pointed out at 10 S. vi. 15 that the Welsh Gwyl is merely the Latin uigilia done into Welsh. This word occurs Chaucer, 'C.T.,' 379, and in his dictionary he describes Vigil as the eve before a feast, so called because originally kept by watching through the night.
Has the A.-S. gēola any connexion with the F. gule and L. gula? T. S. M.
Du Cange says:—
"Gula Augusti, initium mensis Augusti, Le Gule d'August. In Statuto Edw. III. 31, 14: 'Averagium æstivale fieri debet inter Hokedai [quindenam Paschæ, Hocktide] et Gulam Aiigusti.' Utitur Willelmus Armoricus, in Philippi Augusti anno 1219 (Kennetti 'Glossar.' ad calc. 'Antiquit. Ambrosden.'). Charta ann. 1204, in Reg. 31, Chartoph. reg., fol. 82, col. i.: 'Domino regi dono D marchas argenti reddendas, duas partes ad prox. festum S. Johannis, et tertiam partem ad festum S. Petri, in Gula Augusti proximi.' En goule Aoust, in Reg. Phil. Pulc. 50, ch. 92; Charta ann. 1281, ex chartul. S. Dion., pag. 436. Le jour de feste S. Pere en Goule Aoust."
The reference to gula by William of Armorica, or Brittany, points once more to- e Celtic origin of the word.
As the feast (Celtic) begins and ends with nightfall, the Rev. E. H. Jones and I are in accord. For Al yr Wyl (a misprint in the citation from him) read ar yr wyl. Mr. S. Dodgson will not ask me, a Welsh-speaking Welshman, to agree that gwyl is derived from gula: the contrary is the truth—gula (late) from gwyl, which (earlier) came, as ecclesiastical Welsh generally, from Latin. The Julian calendar was then current; and for fairs, feasts, &c., we still keep the Old Style, especially in country places.
B.V.M. and the Birth of Children (10 S. vii. 325, 377, 417, 437).—In the priory of Sinningthwaite, in Yorkshire, they had "the arm of St. Margaret and the tunic of St. Bernard, believed to be good for women lying in" (quoted from 'Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII.,' x. 141, in The Yorksh. Archœol. Journ., xvi. 440n.). W. C. B.
Towns unlucky for Kings (10 S. vii. 29, 74, 212).—Lincoln having been mentioned at the last reference, it may be stated that this town is called "Nichole" in 'The Brut or, the Chronicles of England.'
"Frittars or Greaves" (10 S. vii. 426).—I distinctly remember an old woman calling the scraps left after the lard has been extracted "greaves." They are now, I think, generally called "crackling," and were much enjoyed when eaten with oatcake. This would be in Westmorland dialect. M. N.
