Old Midsummer
Did the Germanic Peoples really celebrate Midsummer?
If we take a look at the old runic calendars we can see that there is a mark for Midsummer but it doesn’t correspond with the Summer Solstice nor the Roman Catholic Midsummer celebration of St John’s Eve on 24th June. Instead, ‘Old Midsummer’ took place one month after the Summer Solstice on 14th July in the Julian Calendar or 21st/22nd July in the Gregorian Calendar. For the Germanic peoples, summer began after the Vernal Equinox and ended in the month of October. Therefore the halfway point would have been in July and not in June. Being in the middle of a Julian Calendar month points to ‘Old Midsummer’ having taken place on the full moon of the seventh month after the winter solstice. This is due to the Germanic and Celtic peoples following a lunisolar calendar.
Is there Historical Evidence of Pre-Christian Midsummer Celebrations?
The Germanic Midwinter Yule feast is mentioned in over seven hundred sagas and poems including the Eddas. In ‘Heimskringla’ (a 13th century collection of sagas about Swedish and Norwegian kings) it is acknowledged over one hundred times and therefore one would assume that Midsummer celebrations would also be discussed especially by writers such as Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) an Icelandic poet, historian and politician or the 6th century Greek historian Procopius. However, they are silent on the matter and so are all of the old texts.
The following passage from Olafs saga Tryggvarssonar by Snorri Sturluson is the only account in all of old Norse literature that mentions a Midsummer sacrifice which takes place during a forced attempt to convert the people of Drontheim to Christianity.
‘In Summer, king Olaf gathered a great host from the east of the country and went northways with them to Drontheim. First he landed at the mouth of the Nid. Then he proclaimed a Thing for all of the Drontheim Fjord and called the assembly of the eight districts (Fylke) in Frosta, but the farmers took the invitation to the Thing as a call to war, and they called free and unfree men to arms from all over Drontheim.
Thus all farmers came fully armed and geared when the king arrived at the Thing. After opening the Thing, the king spoke to the people and ordered them to adopt Christianity. After he had spoken for only a short while, the farmers interrupted him with shouts and ordered him to be silent, they threatened to attack and drive him out of the country - “this we also did to Hakon Ethelstan’s foster son”, they shouted,”when he had the same idea of us following the Christ, and we do not value you higher than him.”
When king Olaf saw the wrath of the farmers and that they had a great host, he found he could not fight them, so he calmed his words and behaved as if he was to yield to the farmer’s will. He said: I would like us to retain the good understanding we always had. I will go to your biggest sacrificial place and look at your traditions. Then we can decide which custom (religion, belief) we will keep and we can speak about this further.” When the king spoke mildly to the farmers, they became more placid and the debate was peaceful thereafter. Finally it was decided that a midsummer blot should be performed in Maere. All headmen and mighty farmers should come as the tradition wanted, and king Olaf was to go there as well.’ (Translation: Klapper, 2018, after Niedner, 1965).
Midsummer was not a pre-Christian Germanic feast. The summer months with their warmer weather and longer days were a crucial time to prepare for the harsh winter ahead. The everyday folk were far too busy farming, preparing for the harvest, raiding, participating in legal proceedings or trading at markets and fairs. There was neither the time nor the need to prepare for a summer sacrifice. In the ‘Stories of the Orkney Jarls of Jarl Harald and Svend’ we read,
‘In spring, Svend had a lot of work to do, he ordered a lot of crops to be sown and worked diligently himself. When his work was finished, he went on a viking raid every spring, going to the Hebrides and to Ireland, returning home after midsummer; he called this the spring viking. Then he stayed at home until the harvest was hauled in. After that, he again went on a viking raid and only came home after a month of winter was over, naming this the fall viking’. (Translation: Klapper, 2018, after Walter Baetke,1966)
In the above passage it seems that Midsummer was the beginning of the harvest season which makes sense as the following three months were called Hay Harvest Month, Grain Cutting Month and Harvest Month.
Saint John’s Eve
The only notable feast day that took place during the summer months was the Roman Catholic observance of St John the Baptist’s birthday. In the ‘Saga of the Norwegian Kings’, chapter 19, it says,
‘He was 27 winters (years) old when he arrived in Norway and in the five years he was bearing the title (name) king of Norway, he Christianised five countries: Norway, Iceland, the Shetland Islands, the Orkneys and the Faroese Islands, and he erected the first churches himself in his main residences; he abolished the sacrificial feasts and wassails and ordered the feast days of Yule (Christmas 25th December), Passover (on the full moon before Easter Sunday), St John’s Day Beer (24th June) and the Harvest Beer (Michaelmas 29th September). (Translation: Klapper, 2018, after A.E. Zautner, 2017)
In this passage it explains that the dates and names of important Germanic pagan observances were changed. Winter Nights became Harvest Feast or Michaelmas, Yule became Christmas, Sigrblot became Passover or Easter and Old Midsummer became St John’s Eve.
Hey Days
When we do come across mentions of Midsummer in Old Norse texts it is always in reference to ‘Hey Days’ which always refer to weddings or sea faring weather. Another term used for this time of year was ‘sumarmagni’ which means ‘high summer’ or the ‘time of the greatest might of summer’. From ‘Brennu Nial’s Saga’ we read,
‘Mord betrothed his daughter Unne to Rut; the wedding was to be celebrated half a month after Midsummer.’ (Translation: Klapper, 2018).
Around the time leading up to Midsummer when the ‘faring days’ began, the kingly permission for seafaring was granted. In the ‘Saga of Grettir the Strong’ it does not mention a sacrificial feast, but instead we are led to believe that Midsummer was a period free of evil spirits.
‘...the haunting dwindled, as long as the sun was high in the sky. It went on like this until midsummer’. (Translation: Klapper, 2018, after Paul Herrmann, 1922).
Midsummer Today
Our modern day Midsummer festival which is widely celebrated in Sweden on St John’s Eve (Sankt Hans Afton) originated from Germany in the 16th century as does the Christian custom of the Maypole or ‘Midsommarstang’. This celebration is not associated with the lunar Midsummer found on the old runic calendars.
Poppycock (or in other words just plain old nonsense)
An unfounded belief still exists today that the Midsummer bar represents a phallus symbol and is a remnant of ancient fertility worship. Admittedly, fertility symbolism is represented by the decorative foliage and in the hope of a bountiful harvest, but this is associated with the harsh conditions of those living in rural areas where folk magic was a way of mastering the unpredictability of existence. We can safely reject any notion of a pre-Christian fertility cult.
Midsummer Fires
In his ‘Teutonic Mythology’’ written in the 19th century, the folklorist Jacob Grimm explains that Midsummer fires were only lit in southern Germany during the ‘Sonnenwende’ (Summer Solstice) while in the north, the Germanic peoples lit fires around Easter time. Grimm writes that the northern fires which welcomed the start of summer were more ancient than the southern fires and came ‘straight from fires of our native heathenism.’ He continues,
‘Midsummer fires came from the church and she had picked it up in Italy.’
Sandra Billington’s research as well as Dr Andreas E Zautner and Andreas Nordberg have all proven that for the pre-Christian Germanic peoples, summer began in April. They have found no evidence in old Norse or Saxon literature to support any celebration of Midsummer. Even the Anglo Saxon Chronicle which is made up of seven manuscripts is mute. The sacrifice that took place on ‘summer day’ or Sigrblot celebrated the start of summer and was not the midpoint of the season. The ancient Celtic fires of Bealtaine were also lit at this time. In Germany, records of Midsummer celebrations only began in the 7th century and in England it was after the Norman conquest. One of the earliest sources available in Scandinavia is Bishop Olaus Magnus’ ‘History of the Nordic Peoples’ from 1555 AD. Here Magnus describes Saint John’s Eve,
‘On the evening of Saint John the Baptist ... all people without distinction to gender and age gather in crowds in the city square or out in the free field, to happily thread the dance at the glow of numerous fires, which are lit everywhere.’
In ‘Ynglinga Saga’ we find the god Odin’s law…
‘Odin established the same law in his land that had been in force in Asaland… On Winter Nights, (first day of winter) there should be blot (sacrifice) for a good year, and in the middle of winter for a good crop; and the third blot should be on summer day, a Victory-blot.’ (Sigrblot).
In Dr Andreas E Zautner’s book he writes…
‘Midsummer festivities had no connection with the Odin Cult’.
The Venerable Bede, an English monk and scholar, in his work of 725 AD called ‘De Temporum Ratione’ describes the Anglo Saxon lunar calendar. He comments on the months’ names as well as their rituals, but Bede never mentions any feasts during the months called ‘Aerra Litha’ and ‘Aeftera Litha’ which were June and July and would have held the Midsummer moon if it had been hypothetically observed.
Litha
In modern Paganism, the name given to the Midsummer celebration is Litha which has no historical connection to the Summer Solstice or Midsummer. Aidan Kelly, a notable figure in the religion of Wicca is responsible for the widespread use of this name today. He explains on his Patheos blog,
‘Back in 1974, I was putting together a “Pagan-Craft” calendar—the first of its kind, as far as I know—listing the holidays, astrological aspects, and other stuff of interest to Pagans. We have Gaelic names for the four Celtic holidays. It offended my aesthetic sensibilities that there seemed to be no Pagan names for the summer solstice or the fall equinox equivalent to Yule or Beltane—so I decided to supply them.’
The word ‘litha’ is an Anglo Saxon word meaning ‘pleasant’ or ‘navigable’ and refers to the ideal sailing conditions of the summer months which have longer daylight hours and calmer waters. Bishop Olaus Magnus wrote in his ‘History of the Nordic Peoples’ about Finnmark in Norway.
‘From the twenty-fifth of March till the eighth of September there is continuous daylight there uninterrupted by darkness, and the sun is visible from the fourth of May right up to the first of August with no intervention of night. This is why you may sail the seas there without serious peril, in the gloom, a voyage to that place would be very dangerous because of the concealed rocks.’
For the Vikings and other seafarers, the brighter months and calmer seas were essential for their survival. They provided opportunities to sail south and augment their resources through trade or raids. The name 'somarlithi' or ‘summer sailor’ became associated with these endeavours. This name can be found in the Anglo Saxon village names of Somerton and Somerleyton in Suffolk. In Old Saxon, ‘litha’ means ‘travelling’ and examples can be seen in the words ‘seolithandean’ meaning sea travellers and ‘lagulithandean’ meaning lake travellers. The Germanic April sacrifice of Sigrblot was more than likely to have been a victory sacrificial feast for success on these journeys.
Until 1952 in Sweden, Midsummer’s fixed date was 23rd June, but in order for it to fit in better with people’s work week, it was decided in 1953 that Midsummer would always be on a Friday between 19th June and 25th June.
Wishing you a lovely Midsummer and belated St John’s Eve blessings.
Elissa
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was Not, Observed In Pagan Germany, Scandinavia And Anglo Saxon England by Sandra Billington (2008)
Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning by Andreas Nordgerg. The introduction and summary are both in English (2006)
De Temporum Ratione by the Venerable Bede (725 AD)
The Lunisolar Calendar Of The Germanic Peoples by Andreas E. Zautner (2021)
Folktrons ABC by Ebbe Schon (2004)
Teutonic Mythology by Jacob Grimm translated by James Steven Stallybrass (1883)
The Nordic Museum’s Website nordiskamuseet.se
Robert Sass (Old Saxon Heathenry) alsidu.com
Aiden Kelly’s Patheos Blogpost about his naming of Ostara, Litha and Mabon
Thank you for taking the time to research the original sources, it's very interesting and useful!
Thank you. And yes. Very helpful. Will have a look at the Celtic Wheel of the Year.