A Dictionary of English Folklore JACQUELINE SIMPSON STEVE ROUD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS A Dictionary of English Folklore This page intentionally left blank A Dictionary of English Folklore jacqueline simpson & steve roud Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press 2000 Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2000 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0–19–210019–X 10 Typeset in Swift and Frutiger by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by T.J International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall Introduction The title of this book invites two challenges: What is ‘folklore’? And what is ‘English’ folklore? As regards the first, ‘folklore’ is notoriously difficult to define with rigour, and the term now covers a broader field than it did when invented in 1848, linking many aspects of cultural traditions past and present It includes whatever is voluntarily and informally communicated, created or done jointly by members of a group (of any size, age, or social and educational level); it can circulate through any media (oral, written, or visual); it generally has roots in the past, but is not necessarily very ancient; it has present relevance; it usually recurs in many places, in similar but not identical forms; it has both stable and variable features, and evolves through dynamic adaptation to new circumstances The essential criterion is the presence of a group whose joint sense of what is right and appropriate shapes the story, performance, or custom—not the rules and teachings of any official body (State or civic authority, Church, school, scientific or scholarly orthodoxy) It must be stressed that in most other respects this ‘group’ is likely to share in mainstream culture and to be diverse in socio-economic status, interests, etc.; the notion that folklore is found only or chiefly where an uneducated, homogeneous peasantry preserves ancient ways has no relevance to England today, and probably never had We have included a broad range of oral genres, performance genres, calendar customs, life-cycle customs, supernatural, and ‘superstitious’ beliefs Lack of space forced us regretfully to omit entries on traditional foods, sports, games, fairs, and most obsolete customs; we have also been selective in children’s lore, fairies, plants, and superstitions, since excellent books on these topics are available already Material culture (such as traditional farming, crafts, vernacular buildings, etc.) has been left aside, this being an immense but separate topic But modern everyday lore is well represented; the *Tooth Fairy counts as well as *Puck, the *Vanishing Hitchhiker as well as Lady *Godiva On some topics (e.g *conception, *menstruation, *sex) data are scarce, as earlier scholars ignored these ‘unpleasant’ matters; we hope these entries will inspire others to fuller research There are entries for past writers who have contributed significantly to the study of English folklore, but not for those still living (except in so far as it is impossible to separate Iona Opie’s work from that of her late husband Peter) There appears to be no precedent for taking ‘England’ as the basis for a book covering all folklore genres, although there have been books on, for instance, English calendar customs or dances Folklorists have either studied a specific county, or have drawn material from all over the British Isles Indeed, there has always been great stress on Scottish, Welsh, and Irish traditions as richer, more ancient, and more worth preserving than those of England This became a self-fulfilling theory; the more scholars thronged to study them, the larger grew their archives, and the duller England seemed in comparison Moreover, the English have never used folklore to assert their patriotic identity, or even (until recent years) to attract tourists, though certain counties and regions have Whereas Scotland, Wales, and Ireland have celebrated their Introduction vi traditions with pride, here folklore is seen as something quaint, appropriate to rural backwaters, but irrelevant to nationhood Whereas virtually every other European country has university departments for folklore studies, with massive archives, English academia has almost unanimously turned a blind eye The paradoxical result is that the country which invented the word ‘folklore’ and whose scholars, a hundred years ago, were leaders in the field, is now a neglected area We have long wished to redress the balance; the fact that our work appears now, at a time when there is some public debate on how ‘Englishness’ should be defined, is purely coincidental Our second reason for excluding Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Isles, is that these areas have languages of their own; being unable to read their primary material, we could not have treated them adequately We are fully aware that the traditions of the whole British Isles (plus Ireland) have vast areas of overlap, in which separate treatment is unnecessary However, there are also great historical and cultural differences; any book attempting to combine them would either be vastly longer than the present one, or, in our view, unacceptably shallow We hope other ‘Dictionaries’ will be written, by those more qualified than ourselves, to cover those areas Similarly, we reluctantly decided not to cover the many ethnic groups now forming part of English society We could have described large-scale public events such as the Notting Hill Carnival or Chinese New Year dragon dances, but how could we, as outsiders, get access to the more intimate world of family custom and personal beliefs? How, for example, could we know where religious ritual ends and customary practice begins in a Muslim or Hindu wedding? Or distinguish between different types of Chinese medicine? Moreover, various families, generations, or individuals within each ethnic group guard, modify, or reject their traditions in different degrees in reaction to their English environment; the situation is currently too fluid and complex for brief summary Likewise, it is too early to say whether the policy in multicultural schools of encouraging all children to share one another’s festivals will spread into the community, and modify established traditions Our intention is to provide a work of reference, not to build theories, of which there have been too many, based on too little evidence The entries therefore emphasize established dates and facts; speculative interpretations are kept to a minimum In particular, we view with scepticism theories that items of folklore are direct survivals of pre-Christian religion or magic, since the time-lag between their ascertainable dates and the suggested pagan origins is generally over a thousand years, and alternative explanations are often available Similarly, although entries on folk medicine and superstitions sometimes refer to cognate ideas in classical writers, notably Pliny, we must state emphatically that we not imply that the English items are orally transmitted from equally ancient times; classical medicine and ‘science’ was known to medieval and early modern compilers of bestiaries, lapidaries, and herbals, through whom it passed to ordinary people The importance of Greek and Roman authors to English folklore is that their prestige among the educated supported various popular beliefs The authority of the Bible and Church was even more powerful; it endorsed the reality of ghosts, witchcraft, and demons, while the pervasive influence of its ethics and imagery can be traced in very many legends, practices, and beliefs In conclusion, we offer appreciation and thanks to our friends and vii Introduction colleagues whose writings, lectures, and conversation have taught us so much: Gillian Bennett, Julia Bishop, Marion Bowman, Georgina Boyes, Theresa Buckland, E C Cawte, Jennifer Chandler, Keith Chandler, Hilda Ellis Davidson, George Frampton, Reg Hall, Gabrielle Hatfield, Michael Heaney, Roy Judge, Venetia Newall, Iona Opie, Roy Palmer, Tom Pettitt, Neil Philip, Doc Rowe, Leslie Shepard, Brian Shuel, Paul Smith, Roy Vickery, John Widdowson, Juliette Wood Particular thanks to Caroline Oates (Librarian of the Folklore Society), Malcolm Taylor (Librarian of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library), and the staff of Worthing Public Library and Croydon Libraries (RTS and Local Studies and Archives) J.S S.R This page intentionally left blank Abbreviations BM DNB ED&S EDD FMJ JEFDS JEFDSS JFSS L&L N&Q OED British Museum Dictionary of National Biography English Dance and Song English Dialect Dictionary Folk Music Journal Journal of the English Folk Dance Society Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society Journal of the Folk-Song Society Lore and Language Notes & Queries Oxford English Dictionary [ JS], [SR] Information from the authors’ own fieldwork or personal experience wrens 397 services; but also, in real life, of village *charmers and *cunning men The latter were also sometimes called *conjurers Women’s Morris Federation, see *morris federation woodwose An alternative name for the *Wild Man; from Old English wudu wasa = ‘woodland being’, but with the meaning modified through the influence of Middle English wood = ‘mad, furious’ wooset, husset A form of *rough music, reported from the Berkshire/Wiltshire/ Somerset area, under a variety of variant spellings and pronunciations—wooset, husset, housset, hooset, and so on The main distinguishing feature was the ‘Wooset’—a horse’s head with snapping jaws and added horns, carried in procession on a pole Compare also *hobby horses, *ooser Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine (1854), 88–9; EDD (1902), iii, under ‘Hooset’; Major B Lowsley, A Glossary of Berkshire Words and Phrases (1888), 92 Word-Lore Subtitled The ‘Folk’ Magazine and published by the Folk Press Ltd., edited by Douglas Macmillan It ran for twelve numbers, January 1926 to December 1927, and included short pieces on many aspects of language and folklore, including dialect poems and stories, song-texts, word-lists, place-names, wordpuzzles, and notes and queries Word-Lore had an amateur, home-made feel, and some of its content was of dubious authority, but it is a product of its time, and there is much valuable material to be found in its pages wraiths This can be a synonym for *ghost, but generally means the spectral double of someone still alive Usually, it appears at or near the time of the person’s death, as a sign for close friends or relatives; sometimes it is a more long-term warning; occasionally it means the person is in danger or distress To see one’s own wraith (also called a ‘fetch’) is a sure sign of death The apparition of a destined husband summoned by some *love divinations is also a wraith The belief is old, and still strongly held; a Manchester woman in 1981 said: Some years ago, it was at the end of the First World War My husband was quite young, and he was away with his older sister,—on holiday or something And the young man his sister was engaged to appeared before them in the bedroom, as plainly as anything, in his uniform He said it was just as if he was almost there! And he’d been killed just at that time in the War! (Bennett, 1987: 55) There was a widespread idea that once a year, usually on *St Mark’s Eve but sometimes at *All Souls or *Midsummer Night, anyone who watched in the church porch from *midnight till one o’clock would see those fated to die that year entering the church, usually in the order of their deaths An account of 1634, from Burton in Lincolnshire, describes a procession of figures in winding-sheets led by the curate, and sounds of a burial service However, keeping this watch was disapproved of, and could bring its own punishment It was said of a certain Jonny Joneson, sexton of Middleton (near Manchester) around 1800, that he kept watch on All Souls’ Eve, counting the wraiths and gloating to think how many burial fees he would earn, until one appeared which he recognized as himself He fell ill, and was dead within a year (Samuel Bamford, Autobiography (1848–9), i 160–2) Similarly at Dorstone (Herefordshire) on All Souls’ Eve a man saw wraiths gathering in the church, where the Devil, dressed as a monk, called out the names of those fated to die; he heard his own name, and died shortly after (Leather, 1912: 107) For further examples, see *St Mark’s Eve Opie and Tatem, 1989: 80–1; Bennett, 1987: 55–64; S P Menefee, in The Seer, ed Hilda Ellis Davidson (1989), 80– 99 Some Victorian accounts of wraiths are in Briggs, 1970–1: B ii 489–93, 505–6 518–19, 525–6, 549, 576, 595 wrens In folk tradition, the wren is regarded as always female (‘Jenny Wren’), and as wife to the *robin; like the latter she is a sacred bird and must not be harmed, nor should her eggs be taken, otherwise someone close to the taker will die: The robin redbreast and the wren Are God Almighty’s cock and hen Nevertheless, there exists a *calendar custom called ‘Hunting the Wren’ which was widespread in Ireland, Wales, and the Isle of Man, and not unknown in England The usual time for the custom is St Stephen’s Day (26 December), when groups of young men hunted and killed wrens and then paraded them around the neighbourhood with much singing and music Hunting the Wren is thus normally disregarded in discussions of English customs, but there have been sufficient reports to Wright, Arthur Robinson indicate a reasonably strong presence in this country In some instances, the custom may well have been performed by Irish or Welsh immigrants, as a writer from Plymouth, Devon, confirms: ‘I have often known the Irish boys living in Stonehouse Lane, the St Giles of Plymouth, go round the town with sticks and garlands, singing the well-known song of the Wren Boys from door to door, on St Stephen’s Day, in order to get money, but I am happy to say I never could find either a living or dead wren among them’ (Land and Water (30 Oct 1880) ) But there are too many references for them all to be explained in this way, as Armstrong, for example, lists fifteen English counties in which he found traces One description includes the rhyme that is commonly used in Ireland: ‘At Christmas-tide, boys are accustomed in Essex to kill wrens and carry them about in furze bushes, from house to house, asking a present in these words: The wren, the wren, the king of the birds St Stephen’s Day was killed in the furze Although he be little his honour is great And so, good people, pray give us a treat’ (Henderson, 1879: 125) The picture is slightly obscured by an occasionally reported custom which may or may not be related Several reports state that at Christmas time it was customary for villagers to go out into the woods to ‘hunt’, which often turned into an indiscriminate orgy of killing anything that moved, including wrens and other small birds (see *St Stephen’s Day, and *squirrel hunting) Another strand in our wren lore is a widespread song which has excited folklorists’ imagination for many years, ‘The Cutty Wren’ or ‘Richat to Robert’, which has been collected all over the British Isles and North America, with a first-known publication date of 1744 In a hypnotic, repetitive chant, the song details how we are to go hunting to kill a wren, in terms of how huge the bird is, how difficult to kill, and the prodigious amount of meat there will be to share out It has been claimed that it has ancient ritual origins, which may be true, but there is no evidence and it is also possible that it belongs to the genre of hyperbolic comedy songs such as ‘The Wonderful Crocodile’, ‘The Derby Ram’, and so on Armstrong, 1958: 141–66; Swainson, 1886: 35–43; Opie and Opie, 1997: 437–40 Wright, Arthur Robinson (1862–1932) His 398 working life was spent as a civil servant in the Patent Office He was an active member of the *Folklore Society, serving for many years as Editor of the journal *Folk-Lore (1909–31) and as President (1927–8) Wright was a great gatherer of information His personal library (donated to the Folklore Society on his death) numbered some 5,000 folklore volumes, and he was an inveterate cutter of items from newspapers He was unusual in the inter-war generation for being equally interested in the ‘modern’ as in the ancient, and in numerous letters to Folk-Lore he commented on topics such as vehicle mascots (in 1913), confetti, the three lights superstition, the number thirteen, and the burial of amputated limbs, and his small book English Folklore (1928) is packed with material on a wide variety of topics and can still be useful as an introduction to folklore In his second Presidential Address, entitled ‘The Unfinished Tasks of the Folk-Lore Society’ (Folk-Lore 39 (1928), 15–38), he commented: folklore is very much a thing of life and growth today, and not a mere ‘survival’ from the smelly and fear-haunted days of ‘primitive’ man, no more capable of development or growth than a fossil bone or stone axe Wright’s other lifelong folklore interest was in *calendar customs, and he laboured long to gather material for what he saw as a new version of *Brand’s Popular Antiquities He died before it was completed, but his material was edited into shape by T E Lones, and published by the Folklore Society under their joint names as British Calendar Customs: England (3 vols., 1936–40), which still serves as a standard work on the subject Obituary by M Gaster and A A Gomme: Folk-Lore 44 (1933), 116–20; Who Was Who Wright, Elizabeth Mary (b 1863) Born Elizabeth Mary Lea, eldest daughter of an East London and Herefordshire clergyman; after a conventional schooling, she enrolled at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in 1887, where she attended classes in Old English given by Professor Joseph Wright, under whose supervision she prepared a grammar of the dialect of Northumbria, and whom she later married She assisted Joseph with his books on grammar and worked closely with him on his monumental English Dialect Dictionary (1896– 1905) She had, in fact, already encountered this sort of material—‘My father was greatly Wroth Silver 399 interested in folk-lore and dialect, and would expound to us superstitions he had come across in his pastoral visits’—and she published, in her own right, Rustic Speech and FolkLore (1913), an excellent book packed full of astute personal observation and knowledge and unusual for its time as not being confined to one particular region After her husband’s death in 1930, she published a two-volume biography, The Life of Joseph Wright (1932), which also gives many details of her own life the British Museum (1856), Political Poems and Songs Relating to English History from Edward III to Richard III (1859–61), and Songs and Ballads with other Short Poems Chiefly of the Reign of Philip and Mary (1860) Other works of his with important folklore elements were: Narratives of Sorcery and Magic (1851), and Essays on Subjects Connected with Literature, Popular Superstitions and History of England in the Middle Ages (1846) Unfortunately, Wright does not have a very good reputation as far as accuracy of transcription is concerned Wright, Joseph (1855–1930) Born in poverty in Thackley, Yorkshire, Joseph Wright taught himself to read and write and educated himself to university level He studied for a Ph.D at Heidelberg, and served as Deputy Professor (1891–1901) and later Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University (1901–25) Wright published numerous standard texts on the grammar of various languages, and an interest in English dialects resulted in his Windhill Dialect Grammar (1893), which was, he claimed, ‘The first grammar of its kind in England: as scientific study of a living dialect intended to be useful to philologists’ (Wright, 1932: 138) In 1887 Wright accepted the position of editor of the long-planned English Dialect Dictionary, which was finally published in six volumes between 1896 and 1905, mostly at Wright’s own expense He was also the instigator of the Yorkshire Dialect Society Joseph Wright married Elizabeth Mary Lea (see E M *Wright) in 1896 DNB; Dorson, 1968: 61–6 Elizabeth Mary Wright, The Life of Joseph Wright (1932); F Austin Hyde, ‘Yorkshire Remembers Dr Joseph Wright’, The Dalesman (Oct 1955), 335–7; DNB Wright, Thomas (1810–77) After showing early promise in the literary-antiquarian field, settling in London in 1836, he served as Secretary of both the Camden and Percy Societies, and for many years worked in collaboration with fellow antiquarian *Halliwell-Phillipps Most of Wright’s prodigious output was concerned with literary or topographical matters, but his interest in early poetry led him to publish collections of songs and ballads which the folklorist can still find useful, including: Songs and Carols from a Manuscript of the 15th Century in Wroth Silver Early in the morning of 11 November (St Martin’s Day), representatives of various Warwickshire parishes—along with a large crowd of onlookers—gather on Knightlow Hill to pay money, or Wroth Silver, to the agent of the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord of the Hundred of Knightlow As each person is called, they step forward and throw their money into a square hollow stone, which was previously the base of a stone cross, saying ‘wroth silver’ In much earlier days they were required to walk round the stone first Having paid their dues, which only takes a few minutes, the company then set off to the Dun Cow where they all sit down to breakfast Nowadays, the breakfast is by ticket only (the collected Wroth Silver usually amounts to less than 50p), and includes a glass of hot milk and rum which is traditional to the occasion Defaulters could be fined £1 for every penny owed, or the Duke could demand from them a ‘White bull, with red nose and ears of the same colour’ The ceremony is clearly a relic of the payment of dues or rents to the Lord of the *Manor, although the exact nature of the rights or privileges paid for is not known As several neighbouring parishes are liable for payment, it is likely that the fees were for access or movement by locals and their cattle over the Duke’s land The name Wroth is of unknown meaning, and is not unique to this custom There was, for example, Wrather Money, paid by New Forest tenants to their Lords of the Manor William Waddilove and David Eadon, Wroth Silver Today: An Ancient Warwickshire Custom (1983); Stone, 1906: 23–4 X Xerox-lore, see *Photocopy-lore Y Yallery Brown This Lincolnshire tale is a sinister variation on the *brownie theme The man who told it, a farm labourer, claimed that it had happened to himself in his youth One day, he had freed a little man with yellow hair and brown skin, trapped under a large flat stone The creature asked what reward he would like; the man asked for help with his work, and Yallery Brown agreed, on condition he was never thanked Things turned out badly, for though the man’s work was magically done for him the others found theirs spoiled and their tools blunted, so they accused him of being a wizard So he was sacked, and raged at the fairy: ‘I’ll thank thee to leave me alone, I want none of thy help!’ It screeched with laughter because it had been ‘thanked’, and told him he would be poor now to his dying day M C *Balfour (Folk-Lore (1891), 264–71) gives the original version in full dialect *Jacobs (1894/1968: 163–7) turned it into a third-person story in Standard English, and called the workman Tom Tiver; it is this version which is usually reprinted yarrow In Devon and Cornwall, girls wanting to dream of their future husbands would pick this plant at night—some said, from a young man’s grave—and put it under their pillows, saying: Good night, fair yarrow, Thrice good night to thee, I hope before tomorrow My true love to see East Anglian girls pinned yarrow to their dresses to draw the attention of the lads they fancied; or, barefoot and with their eyes shut, they picked a bunch at midnight by the light of the full moon and kept it overnight, for if at dawn it was still wet with dew they would soon be courted (Porter, 1969: 3); to test a man’s love, they would push a yarrow leaf up their nose, saying: Yarroway, yarroway, bear a white blow [blossom], If my love love me, my nose will bleed now (Wright, 1913: 258) The plant was actually called ‘Nosebleed’ in some areas; some said this was because to smell its flowers stopped a nosebleed, others because a leaf up the nostril caused bleeding, which relieved headaches Medicinal uses in East Anglia in the 20th century include yarrow tea for measles and fevers, ointment for cuts and grazes, and an infusion of its roots for rheumatism (Hatfield, 1994: 33, 343, 46) A bunch tied to a cradle was said to calm a baby and make it sweet-tempered; a pillow stuffed with it brought happiness; yarrow strewn on the doorstep kept witches out (Porter, 1969: 17, 49) However, it was unlucky to bring its flowers into the house as decoration yell-hounds, yeth-hounds In Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, a name for the dogs of the *Wild Hunt (Wright, 1913: 196) yellow This colour carries few meanings in English lore, and no beliefs are attached to it In the Middle Ages it stood for jealousy and treachery, and in the 19th and 20th centuries for cowardice; ‘yellow-belly’ is a mocking nickname for people of marshy districts, comparing them to frogs In America a yellow *ribbon indicates loyalty to an absent soldier or prisoner; this symbolism is spreading in Britain yew Yew trees symbolize both death and immortality, being poisonous but longlived, and able to re-root their branches to produce fresh saplings Until the 18th century, their foliage was laid in coffins and graves at *funerals The custom of planting yews in churchyards seems to have come with Yorkshire Dialect Society Christianity to Ireland and Wales, in imitation of Mediterranean cemeteries with cypress and laurel; it then spread to England, probably as early as the 12th century Later generations, however, found churchyard yews puzzling Two practical explanations are often put forward, namely to provide wood for longbows, and/or to ensure farmers did not let cows graze among the graves Both lack documentary support, and the slow growth of yews makes the first implausible; naturally, the branches of an already mature tree could be cut for bows, but existing trees show no sign of having been lopped, nor parish records note sales of yew staves (N&Q 5s:12 (1879), 112–13) The age of large yews is hard to assess, but 1,000 years is not impossible, suggesting that some were planted soon after their church was built When a large one at Selborne (Hampshire) collapsed in a gale in January 1990, medieval graves were found beneath its roots, the oldest being from around ad 1200 (Harte, 1996: 6–7) However, some have claimed that large churchyard yews are from 2,000 to 5,000 years old and were sacred to *Druids or earlier peoples, implying that the church was built because the tree was there, not vice versa This is improbable, both botanically and archaeologically, and lacks supporting evidence Round the church at *Painswick (Gloucestershire ) are many clipped yews, traditionally said to number 99; it was alleged that every attempt to plant a hundredth would fail—and so it did! At length the mystery was solved, when a lady wrote to The Times (7 July 1963), explaining that her father, a scientist and practical joker who lived beside the churchyard, ‘used to pour acid or poison on the roots of the hundredth yew tree whenever they planted a new one It’s highly likely that he started the legend himself.’ Vaughan Cornish, The Churchyard Yew and Immortality (1949); Jennifer Chandler, FLS News 15 (1992), 3–6; Jeremy Harte, At the Edge (1996), 1–9 Yorkshire Dialect Society Founded in 1897, although it had its roots in a committee formed in 1894 to assist Joseph *Wright in the compilation of his English Dialect Dictionary Since its inception, the Society has acted as a focus for dialect studies in the area, prompting research, encouraging the writing of dialect verse and prose, sponsoring lectures and meetings, and publishing Its annual Transac- 402 tions was launched in 1898 and is still being published W J Halliday, The Yorkshire Dialect Society: History and Aims (c.1942); Peter Anderson, Yorkshire at Work: a Selection of Articles Reprinted from the Yorkshire Dialect Society (1980) Yule This word, in various spellings, means a loosely defined midwinter period (not a single day) in the early languages of most Germanic and Scandinavian countries Bede, writing of pagan England, mentions two months, ‘early Yule’ and ‘later Yule’, corresponding to Roman December and January; after the Conversion, ‘Yule’ was narrowed to mean either the Nativity (25 December), or the twelve days of festivity beginning on this date The word *Christmas replaced ‘Yule’ in most of England in the 11th century, but not in north-eastern areas of Danish settlement, where it survived strongly till modern times as the normal dialect term for Christmas Nineteenth-century writers took up the word as a way of denoting the ‘Christmas of olden times’, with its lavish food and secular jollity, situated in a largely invented *‘Merrie England’ The medieval liking for pageantry and symbolism sometimes led to Yule being impersonated (cf *Father Christmas) In 1572 the Archbishop of York ordered the Mayor and Aldermen to suppress an annual parade on St Thomas’s Day (21 December) called ‘The Riding of Yule and his Wife’, because it drew ‘great concourses of people’ away from church-going, and involved disguising The man representing Yule carried a shoulder of lamb and a large cake of fine bread; he was accompanied by his ‘wife’, carrying a distaff, and by attendants who threw nuts to the crowd (Duffy, 1992: 581–2) The Yule Log (or Clog, or Christmas Block) is mentioned in folklore collections from most parts of England, but especially the West Country and the North It would be the largest piece of wood which could fit on the family hearth, and was usually brought in on Christmas Eve with some ceremony, and put on the fire that evening; many writers, including *Herrick, say it was kindled with a fragment kept from the previous year’s log (Hesperides (1648), no 785; N&Q 11s:1 (1910), 129–30) It was also generally believed that it would be very unlucky for the family if the log was allowed to go out on Christmas Day It is not clear when the custom arose, since the first definite references are only from the 17th century, for example Aubrey’s ‘In the West-riding 403 of Yorkshire on Christmas Eve at night they bring in a large Yule-log, or Christmas block, and set it on fire and lap their Christmas ale and sing “Yule, Yule, a pack of new cards and a Christmas stool” ’ (Aubrey, 1686/1880: 134) Victorian illustrations of a medieval Christmas often show several men hauling huge trees or stumps in with ropes, but the antiquity of the word ‘Yule’ cannot prove the custom’s age Less well known is the custom of lighting a Yule candle on Christmas Eve, first recorded by this name in 1817 These were taller than usual candles (‘half a yard in length’), and there was a tradition of chandlers and grocers giving them to their regular customers The Yule custom is reported chiefly from the north of the country, but its wider range is indicated by Parson Woodeforde’s diary entries, in Norfolk, such as: ‘I lighted my large wax-candle being Xmas day during tea-time this afternoon for abt an hour’ (25 December 1790) The preReformation Church made a particular feature of candles at Christmas, and strong connections between the season and candles persist to this day It was thought unlucky to light the Yule candle before dusk on Christmas Eve, and once alight it was not moved As with the log, a small piece was kept ‘for luck’ in the coming year (Wright and Lones 1940: iii 215; 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