Midsummer...

Hail! 

Midsummer (=the summer solstice,  in O.E. "on sumerlicum sunnstede") is upon us and I thought I should say something about this...  In Ólafs Saga Tryggvasonar 65 we learn of a ‘miðsumarsblót’ at ‘Mærini’ where Thor, our Thur or Thunor, was sunderly worshipped (see chap. 69 in that saga).   I say this first and foremost, because Sandra Billington in her The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was Not, Observed in Pagan Germany, Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England (Folklore, Vol. 119, No. 1 (Apr., 2008), lvs. 41-57) has treated this key bit of evidence most unfairly. For she would consider it a Christian interpolation in her effort to say that all the Northern folks knew nothing of any midsummer feast.  Now it is true that in the so-called Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta 162 “Á ǫndverðum vetri” “at vera skyldi miðsvetrarblót inn á Mærinni” are found instead of Snorri’s “um sumarit” “at vera skyldi miðsumars blót inn á Mærinni” (see Heimskringla eða Sögur Noregs konunga, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar 72).  But Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta is a hundred years or so later than Snorri’s work.  Even older is Odd Munk’s account (see Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar 54) which does not specify a time at all for the same events.  And Theodericus’ Historia De Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium chap. 11 has the burning of the seiðmenn take place in the temple at Mærin but does not give a time of year for this.  In Snorri’s account the burning of the seiðmenn was another time and stead (see Heimskringla eða Sögur Noregs konunga, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar 69). Now in Snorri's Saga Hákonar góða 18 we find a Yule feast “jólaveizlu” “á Mæri” which the Þrœndir went to, and the compiler of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta has simply taken this reference, together with the Ynglinga saga 8 wording about three blót, and none being at midsummer, and amended (as he thought) Snorri’s text.  But he has overlooked that the events at Mærin  follow on a great “þing á Frostu” (see Snorri’s ch. 72) for “öll Þrœndalög” and is this likely to have been held at any other time but midsummer?

21st or 24th?

After this I think it is needful to deal with the seeming oddness of the summer solstice falling on the 20th. or 21^st. June, and yet the name of Midsummer still cleaves to the slightly later date of the 24^th. June. Bede  De Temporum Ratione chap. 30 De Aequinoctiis et Solstitiis (awend. Faith Wallis):

“DE æquinoctiis, quod octavo Calendarum Aprilium, et octavo Calendarum Octobrium: et de solstitiis, quod octavo Calendarum Juliarum, et octavo Calendarum Januariarum die sint notanda, multorum late et sapientium seculi, et Christianorum sententia claret.   … Hæc quidem Gentiles, quibus non dissimilia de tempore etiam perplures ecclesiæ tradidere magistri, dicentes : VIII Calendas Aprilis in æquinoctio verno Dominum conceptum et passum, eundem in solstitio brumali VIII Calendas Januarias natum. Item beatum præcursorem et baptistam Domini VIII Calendas Octobres in æquinoctio autumnali conceptum, et in æstivo solstitio VIII Calendas Julias natum : addita insuper expositione, quod auctorem lucis æternæ cum cremento lucis temporariæ concipi simul et nasci deceret.”

“On the subject of the equinoxes and solstices, the opinion of many learned men, both worldly and Christians, is straightforward:  the equinoxes are to be observed on the eight kalends of April [25 March] and the eighth kalends of October [24 September, the solstices on the eigth kalends of July [24 june] and the eigth kalends of January [25 December].   … That is what some of the pagans say: and very many of the Church's teachers recount things which are not dissimilar to these about time, saying that our lord was conceived   and suffered on the 8th kalends of April [25 March], at the spring equinox, and that he was born at the winter solstice on the 8th kalends of January [25 December]. And again, that the Lord’s blessed precursor and Baptist was conceived at the autumn equinox on the 8th kalends of October [24 September] and born at the summer solstice on the 8th kalends of July [24 June]. To this they add the explanation that it was fitting that the Creator of eternal light should be conceived and born along with the increase of temporal light, and that the herald of penance, who must decrease, should be engendered and born at a time when the light is diminishing.”

Thus we will read in later psalters, like the St. Alban’s Psalter, that they have the 24th. June marked up as:

“[ante diem] VIII K[a]l[endas Iulias].          Nativitas s[an]c[t]i Ioh[anni]s bapt[tiste]·    Solstitiu[m] s[e]c[un]d[um] rom[anos].”

“the eigth day before the  kalends of July, birthday of st. John the Baptist.  Solstice after the Romans.” [here]

Bede however, knew that this was the wrong date of the summer solstice and so on:

“Verum quia sicut in ratione paschali didicimus aequinoctium vernale duodecimo Calendarum Aprilium die cunctorum Orientalium sententiis, et maxime Aegyptiorum, quos calculandi esse peritissimos constat, specialiter adnotatur, caeteros quoque tres temporum articulos putamus aliquanto priusquam vulgaria scripta continent esse notandos.”

“But because, as we have learned in connection with the calculation of Easter, the judgment of all the men of the East (and especially of the Egyptians, who, it is agreed, were the most skilled in calculation) is in particular agreement that the spring equinox is on the 12th kalends of April [21 March], we think that the three other turning-points of the seasons ought to be observed a little before [the date] given in the popular treatises.”

Thus Byrhtferth’s Enchiridion has corrected the date as “xii kalendas Iulius” that is 20^th. June, and gives the Old English wont of calling the summer solstice midsummer day:

“Æfter him Iunius sihð to mancynne, and he hæfð þrittig daga, and wel gelome byð Pentecosten on him geendod, and seo sunne gæð on þam tacne þe ys Cancer gehaten, and on XII kalendas Iulius byð sunstede, þæt ys on Lyden solstitium and on Englisc midsumor.”

“After that June comes to mankind, and he has thirty days, and very often is Whitsun finished in it, and the sun goes in to the sign called Cancer, and on 20^th. June is the solstice (sunstede), that is in Latin solstitium and in English Midsummer.”

Solestitia?

The earliest evidence that something odd was happening at Midsummer in north-west Europe that I can think of is from the  Vita Eligii episcopi Noviomagensis, ed. Levison, MGH SS Mer. 4, 669-742, which has that saint moan about “solestitia”. (awend. Jo Ann McNamara):

“Nullus in festivitate sancti Iohannis vel quibusque sanctorum sollemnitatibus solestitia aut vallationes vel saltationes aut cantica diabolica exerceat.” 

 “Christian on the feast of Saint John or the solemnity of any other saint performs solestitia [solstice rites?] or dancing or leaping or diabolical chants.”

Then there is John Belleth.  In his Rationale divinorum officiorum  written in Paris in 1162 he has some surprising remarks on the dual nature, both Christian and pagan, of the feast:

 “Festum sancti Ioannis ...   Celebratur autem Nativitas Ioannis, tum propter historiam (habet enim Evangelium: Et multi in nativitate eius gaudebunt (Luc. I) , QUOD OBSERVANT CHRISTIANI ET PAGANI) tum propter allegoriam et mysterium.”

“The feast of Saint John … they celebrate the birthday of John moreover, on account of history (for he has the good news, and ‘many shall rejoice at his birth’ (see Luke 1:14), BECAUSE IT IS CELEBRATED BY CHRISTIANS AND PAGANS) and on account of the allegory and  mystery.”

Belleth also writes a little of the rites undertaken at that time.  Here we can see the Christian desperately trying to make his new faith cover the same ground as the old. 

  “Solent porro hoc tempore ex veteri consuetudine mortuorum animalium ossa comburi, quod huiusmodi habet originem.   Sunt enim animalia, quae dracones appellamus, unde in psalmo: Laudate Dominum, de terra dracones (Psal. CXLVIII) , non thracones, ut quidam mendose legunt, scilicet terrae meatus. Haec, inquam, animalia in aere volant. in aquis natant, in terra ambulant. Sed quando in aere ad libidinem concitantur (quod fere fit), saepe ipsum sperma vel in puteos, vel in aquas fluviales eiiciunt ex quo lethalis sequitur annus. Adversus haec ergo huiusmodi inventum est remedium, ut videlicet rogus ex ossibus construeretur, et ita fumus huiusmodi animalia fugaret. Et quia istud maxime hoc tempore fiebat, idem etiam modo ab omnibus observatur. Est et alia causa quamobrem ossa animalium comburantur, quod ossa sancti Ioannis in civitate Sebastae ab ethnicis combusta fuere.   Consuetum item est hac vigilia ardentes deferri faculas, quod Ioannes fuerit ardens lucerna, et qui vias Domini praeparaverit. Sed quod etiam rota vertatur hinc esse putant, quia in eum circulum tunc, sol descenderit ultra quem progredi nequit, a quo cogitur paulatim descendere, quemadmodum vulgi rumor de B. Ioanne Christo adveniente ad summum pervenit, cum Christus putabatur, posteaque descendit ac fuit diminutus, ut vel ipse de se testis est: Me, inquiens, oportet minui, illum autem crescere (Ioan. III).”  

 “Furthermore, they are accustomed at this time by ancient use to burn the bones of animals, which has this origin.  There are animals which we call dragons, whence the psalm “Praise the Lord, from the earth, ye dragons …” (Psalm 148), not “thracones” [“tarrasques”?], as some mistakenly read, that is to say, the way of the earth.  These animals, I must say, fly in the air, swim in the water and walk on the land. But when in the air they are roused to lust (which they generally are), often cast their seed into wells, or into  river waters, from which they become lethal the year following.  Against this therefore this remedy was found, namely a fire made of bones, and thus this smoke drives these animals away. And as this is done much at this time, that is also presently observed by everyone.  Another reason why they burn the bones of animals is because the bones of Saint John were burnt in the city of Sebaste by the heathen. It is customary again to bear burning torches at this vigil, because John was a burning light who prepared the way of the Lord. And also they roll a wheel, because they think then the sun in his orbit will come down to that point beyond which he cannot go further, from which he is compelled to descend little by little, just as what common rumour says of the blessed John, who   coming before Christ reached the height, as he was thought the Christ;   but afterwards descended and was diminished, even as he himself witnesses: ‘I will decrease; but he will become great.’ ”

Belleth’s words are later leant on by our own John Mirk of Lilleshall whose Festial (14th/15th centuries) is the earliest treatment of the midsummer rites in English. 

“But ȝet, yn þe worschip of Saynt Ion, men waken at evyn, and maken þre maner of fyrys : on ys clen  bonys and no wod, and ys callyd a bonnefyre ; anoþer ys of clene wod and no bonys, and ys callyd a wakefyre, for men syttyth and wakyth by hyt ; the thryd ys made of bonys and of wode, and ys callyd Saynt Ionys fyre.   ... The fyrst fyre was made of bonys, as Ion Bellet sayth, for yn þat contray ys gret hete þe whech hete encawsut dragons þat  gedryn ynfere, and fleyn yn þe ayre, and fallyn downe ynto watyrs þe froþe of hur kynde, and soo venemyth þe watyrs, þat moch pepyll takyn her deth þerby and oþer mony gret sekenes.Then wer þer mony gret clerkys, and haddyn red of kyng Aliȝandyr || how when he schulde haue a batayle wyth þe kyng of Inde, and þe kyng broght wyth hym mony olyfaundys beryng castellys of tre on hor backys, as þe kynde of hom ys, and knyghtys arrayd yn þe castels, arayde al for þe warre. Then knew Alyȝaundyr þe kynde of þe olyfaundys, þat þay dredyn nothyng so moch as' rorryng of swyne.  Wherfor he let gedyr alle þe swyne þat myght be getyn, and made hom to dryue hom also nygh þe olyfaundys, as þai myghtyn wele here hor roryng. And þen he let make a pig forto crye, and þen anon alle infere made soch a rorryng, þat all þe olyfaundys floen, and castyn downe hor castels, and sloyn þe knyghtys þat werne yn ham; and soo Alesaundyr had þe victori. Thes wyse clerkys kneuyn wele þat dragons hatyth nothyng so meche as brent bonys. Wherfor þay tacht þe pepyll forto gedyr al þe bonys þat þay myght fynde, and sett hom on fyre; and soo wyth þe stench of hom þay dryven away the dragon, and soo werne holpyn of hor deses.”

 To this we can put John Stow’s A Survay of London (written 1598) which falls into two parts.  First on the “bonfires in the streets”:

“...In the months of June and July, on the vigils of festival days, and on the same festival days in the evenings after the sun setting, there were usually made bonfires in the streets, every man bestowing wood or labour towards them ; the wealthier sort also, before their doors near to the said bonfires, would set out tables on the vigils, furnished with sweet bread and good drink, and on the festival days with meats and drinks plentifully, whereunto they would invite their neighbours and passengers also to sit and be merry with them in great familiarity, praising God for his benefits bestowed on them. These were called bonfires as well of good amity amongst neighbours that being before at controversy, were there, by the labour of others, reconciled, and made of bitter enemies loving friends ; and also for the virtue that a great fire hath to purge the infection of the air. On the vigil of St. John the Baptist, and on St. Peter and Paul the apostles, every man's door being shadowed with green birch, long fennel, St. John's wort, orpin, white lilies, and such like, garnished upon with garlands of beautiful flowers, had also lamps of glass, with oil burning in them all the night ; some hung out branches of iron curiously wrought, containing hundreds of lamps alight at once, which made a goodly show, namely in New Fish street,Thames street, &c.”

And then on the Midsummer Watches:

“Then had ye besides the standing watches all in bright harness, in every ward and street of this city and suburbs, a marching watch, that passed through the principal streets thereof, to wit, from the little conduit by Paule's gate to West Cheape, by the stocks through Cornhill, by Leaden hall to Aldgate, then back down Fenchurch street, by Grasse church, about Grasse church conduit, and up Grasse church street into Cornhill, and through it into West Cheape again. The whole way for this marching watch extendeth to three thousand two hundred tailor's yards of assize; for the furniture whereof with lights, there were appointed seven hundred cressets, five hundred of them being found by the companies, the other two hundred by the chamber of London. Besides the which lights every constable in London, in number more than two hundred and forty, had his cresset: the charge of every cresset was in light two shillings and four pence, and every cresset had two men, one to bear or hold it, another to bear a bag with light, and to serve it, so that the poor men pertaining to the cressets, taking wages, besides that every one had a straw hat, with a badge painted, and his breakfast in the morning, amounted in number to almost two thousand. The marching watch contained in number about two thousand men, part of them being old soldiers of skill, to be captains, lieutenants, serjeants, corporals, &c, wiflers, drummers, and fifes, standard and ensign bearers, sword players, trumpeters on horseback, demilances on great horses, gunners with hand guns, or half hakes, archers in coats of white fustian, signed on the breast and back with the arms of the city, their bows bent in their hands, with sheaves of arrows by their sides, pikemen in bright corslets, burganets, &c. halberds, the like billmen in almaine rivets, and apernes of mail in great number ; there were also divers pageants, morris dancers, constables, the one-half, which was one hundred and twenty, on St. John's eve, the other half on St. Peter's eve, in bright harness, some overgilt, and every one a jornet of scarlet thereupon, and a chain of gold, his henchman following him, his minstrels before him, and his cresset light passing by him, the waits of the city, the mayor's officers for his guard before him, all in a livery of worsted, or say jackets partycoloured, the mayor himself well mounted on horseback, the swordbearer before him in fair armour well mounted also, the mayor's footmen, and the like torch bearers about him, henchmen twain upon great stirring horses, following him. The sheriffs' watches came one after the other in like order, but not so large in number as the mayor's ; for where the mayor had besides his giant three pageants, each of the sheriffs had besides their giants but two pageants, each their morris dance, and one henchman, their officers in jackets of worsted or say, party-coloured, differing from the mayor's, and each from other, but having harnessed men a great many, &c.

This midsummer watch was thus accustomed yearly, time out of mind, until the year 1539, the 31st of Henry VIII., in which year, on the 8th of May, a great muster was made by the citizens at the Mile's end, all in bright harness, with coats of white silk, or cloth and chains of gold, in three great battles, to the number of fifteen thousand, which passed through London to Westminster, and so through the Sanctuary, and round about the park of St. James, and returned home through Oldborne. King Henry, then considering the great charges of the citizens for the furniture of this unusual muster, forbad the marching watch provided for at Midsummer for that year, which being once laid down, was not raised again till the year 1548, the 2nd of Edward VI., Sir John Gresham then being mayor, who caused the marching watch, both on the eve of St. John the Baptist and of St. Peter the Apostle, to be revived and set forth in as comely order as it hath been accustomed, which watch was also beautified by the number of more than three hundred demilances and light horsemen, prepared by the citizens to be sent into Scotland for the rescue of the town of Hadington, and others kept by the Englishmen. Since this mayor's time, the like marching watch in this city hath not been used, though some attempts have been made thereunto ; as in the year 1585, a book was drawn by a grave citizen, and by him dedicated to Sir Thomas Pullison, then lord mayor, and his brethren the aldermen, containing the manner and order of a marching watch in the city upon the evens accustomed; in commendation whereof, namely, in times of peace to be used, he hath words to this effect : "The artificers of sundry sorts were thereby well set a-work, none but rich men charged, poor men helped, old soldiers, trumpeters, drummers, fifes, and ensign-bearers, with such like men, meet for princes' service, kept in ure, wherein the safety and defence of every common weal consisteth. Armour and weapon being yearly occupied in this wise, the citizens had of their own readily prepared for any need ; whereas by intermission hereof, armourers are out of work, soldiers out of pay, weapons overgrown with foulness, few or none good being provided," &c. …”.

And lastly John Aubrey Remaines Of Gentilisme ... (1686/7) who writes of the decline of the keeping of Midsummer in the Civil War, and also of their lingering on after that in Herefordshire and Somerset.

“It was a Custome for some people that were more curious than ordinary, to sitt all night in the church porch of their Parish on midsomer-eve (i) St John Baptist's eve ; and they should see the apparitions of those that should die in the parish that yeare come and knock at the dore : and still in many places on St Johns night they make Fires, (i) Bonfires, on ye Hills, &c. : but the Civil warres comeing on have putt all these Rites, or customes quite out fashion. Warres doe not only extinguish Religion & Lawes : but Superstition : & no suffimen is a greater fugator of Phantosmes, than gunpowder.”

“M[EMORAN]D[U]M in Herefordshire, and also in Somersetshire, on Midsommer-eve, they make fires in the fields in the waies : s[i]c. to Blesse the Apples. I have seen the same custome in Somerset, 1685, but there they doe it only for custome-sake;.but I doe guesse that this custome is derived from the Gentiles, who did it in remembrance of Ceres her running up and downe with Flambeaux in search of her daughter Proserpina, ravish away by Pluto; and the people might thinke, that by this honour donne to ye Goddesse of husbandry, that their Corne, &c. might prosper the better.”

I mark in passing here that the golden hair of the goddess Ceres - flava ceres (Tibullus)  dea flava (Ovid ) ξανθὴ Δημήτερ (Iliad 5. 500), although usually taken to refer to the hue of ripe corn, might also suggest a sun-goddess.  It does however link her more to the Northern Sif “it hárfagra goð” (Skáldskaparmál 29) the well known “konu Þórs”.

The Whalton Baal-fire in Northumberland is reputed to be the last genuine survival in England of the midsummer bonfire.

Sun worship?

The pure and ancient midsummer rite should probably be like that connected to the hill of Knockainey in Limerick in Ireland.  Áine is the local sun-goddess, the same as our Sunne, and patroness/ancestress of the local kings, the Eóganachta.  Thomas Johnson Westropp, M.A.,  The Ancient Sanctuaries of Knockainey and Clogher, County Limerick, and their Goddesses (Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol.34, 1917-1919, lf.60):

“They used to go in procession on St. John's Eve, carrying lighted wisps (cliar, whence "'Aine Cliar," recte cliach), encircling the hill, and visiting " the little moat called Mullach cruachain laimhre leab’ an triuir, the mound of three persons (perhaps the local triad), visiting the tillage and meadows to bring luck to the crops and cattle. … She owned a red bull, with which she entered the" green hill." …”. 

Balder?

The worship of Balder by the skald, would then seem to have overlaid the worship of the sun-goddess.  Thus in Sweden not only did they cut the mistletoe linked to his myth at Midsummer, but the Midsummer bonfires are said to have been called Balder’s “bålar” (see James Frazer The Golden Bough looking to L. Lloyd Peasant Life in Sweden (1870) lf.269).   Frazer, as  Esaias Tegnér  before him, assumes “bål” is what we should call in English a baal-fire or bale-fire, a funeral pyre, and this indeed is its most often met with meaning. Nevertheless, it can mean simply, albeit rarely, a fire (see the Whalton Baal-fire and Bēowulf line 2309 where “(wyrm) mid bæle fôr” “passed (through the air) with fire” and in Denmark and Norway “Sankt Hans Bål” is hardly for “Saint John's funeral pyre!”). We may remember then in the Old English kingly pedigrees Balder’s son is called Brand which means “fire”. In Bēowulf lines 2321 to 22, these two words are linked when speaking of the dragon:

hæfde landwara líge befangen
bæle ond bronde· …

the land-dwellers had been taken away by flame,
bale and brand …

  
Trolls…

I don’t think therefore that the fires of Midsummer are funereal.  In England after all, mistletoe is linked to the winter solstice, and not to the summer one.  The Midsummer bonfires are simply for the warding off of evil thought to be about at that time from men, their livestock and their crops.  Thus John Brand in his Observations of Popular Antiquities (1853) quotes an old writing of 1723 about the lingering Midsummer custom in Ireland:

“On the vigil of St. John the Baptist's Nativity, they make bonfires, and run along the streets and fields with wisps of straw blazing on long poles to purify the air, which they think infectious, by believing all the devils, spirits, ghosts, and hobgoblins fly abroad this night to hurt mankind.”

And here we see Belleth’s dragons have become devils and so on.  Frazer again from Lloyd’s work (lf.259) has this:

“In parts of Norrland on St. John’s Eve the bonfires are lit at the cross-roads. The fuel consists of nine different sorts of wood, and the spectators cast into the flames a kind of toad-stool (Bäran) in order to counteract the power of the Trolls and other evil spirits, who are believed to be abroad that night; for at that mystic season the mountains open and from their cavernous depths the uncanny crew pours forth to dance and disport themselves for a time. The peasants believe that should any of the Trolls be in the vicinity they will show themselves; and if an animal, for example a he or she goat, happens to be seen near the blazing, crackling pile, the peasants are firmly persuaded that it is no other than the Evil One in person.”

But who warded off all this evil?  

 The sun was doubtlessly invoked, but such an invocation must always have been tinged with the knowledge that the turning point of the year already having been reached.  The sun’s apparent weakness would shortly have to be come to terms with. At length, the sun himself/herself will need protecting until born again at the start of the next year.  A greater power  than the sun therefore was needed.  And that power can only be the thunder god, our Thur or Thunor, the Northern Thor. Thus in 1750   Fr. Arndtz, dean of Sundfjord and vicar of Askevold in Norway, sent a small, round thunder-stone to Bishop Pontoppidan and wrote:

“The peasants ... old idea is that thunder strikes the trolls who would otherwise destroy the world, ...”.

Skáldskaparmál 11. Þórskenningar. :

“...verjandi Ásgarðs, Miðgarðs, dólgr ok bani jötna ok trollkvinna, ... dólgr Miðgarðsorms, ...”.

“...Defender of Ásgard and of Midgard, Adversary and Slayer of Giants and Troll-Women, ...Foe of the Midgard Serpent. ...”


Þrymskviða 18:

Þá kvað þat Loki | Laufeyjar sonr:

"Þegi þú, Þórr, | þeira orða.
Þegar munu jötnar | Ásgarð búa,
nema þú þinn hamar | þér of heimtir."

Then Loki spake, | the son of Laufey:
 
"Be silent, Thor, | and speak not thus;
Else will the giants | in Asgarth dwell
If thy hammer is brought not | home to thee."

Skáldskaparmál 11. Þórskenningar. 50.

“Svá kvað Þorbjörn dísarskáld:

Þórr hefir Yggs með árum
Ásgarð af þrek varðan.”

Thus sang Thorbjörn Lady's-Skald:

Bravely Thor fought for Ásgard
And the followers of Odin.”

He fights against the foes of the good.  The devil and his followers taking the place of the older  giants (jötnar, þursar, trollar, risir) and other unwights – the Northern troll.  Thus   Þe Liflade ant te Passiun of Seinte Iuliene, (Bod 34)  about 1225: 

“Belzeebub, þe balde þurs of helle”. 

That our own Thunor had this role might be seen from the gloss - “Latona: Þūres modor.” -which evens him with Apollo the son of Latona, and here Apollo is only is to be thought of “Apollinem morbos depellere,” “Apollo averts diseases” and the slayer of the python.  And by understanding the troll that he slays as causing diseases we come to Adam of Bremen’s words:

“......Si pestis et famis imminet, Thorydolo lybatur, ..."

“... If sickness or famine threaten they sacrifice to the idol Thor;...”

It should be marked here that Alexikakos (Ἀλεξίκακος), the "averter of evil", and linked to the averting of plague, is an epithet among the Greeks of Apollo and Jupiter and Hercules!  And our Thunor is evened with all three!  We may recall  Ólafs Saga Tryggvasonar 65 we learn of a ‘miðsumarsblót’ at ‘Mærini’ where Thor, our Thur or Thunor, was sunderly worshipped (see chap. 69 in that saga).

Wherefore dragons?   

Whilst fighting a dragon, the Hydra, Hercules is nipped in the heel by the crab/crayfish which he promptly crushes, but the said crab/crayfish was put in the sky as the star sign of Cancer by Hera as a reward.  Now Cancer is the sign in which the summer solstice truly falls (anciently said to be in the 8° of Cancer) and the Hydra is a neighbouring constellation to Cancer.  That the constellation of the Hydra is the ultimate source of Belleth’s dragons seems likely, and the Hydra is only the Western equivalent of the Ahi or Vritra slain by Indra.  In myth Ahi/Vritra causes a drouth and Indra ends it by slaying him.  Very appropriate for Midsummer.  And that this act is linked to creation is from Cancer being regarded as the sign of the so-called horoscope of the world.  Indra needless to say, is our Thunor, the Northern Thor.  In  Hymiskviða 22 Thor is :

“...orms einbani ...” 

“... the worm’s lone slayer ...”.

And we need to seek its true meaning in something other than Thor’s comical fishing for the Miðgarðsormr!

Fire?

Now Frazer at one point in The Golden Bough links the lingering French custom of burning live animals and so on in cages at Midsummer with the ancient wicker-man rite mention by Cæsar.  From a commentary, the Berne Scholia, on   Lucan's Pharsalia, Liber I, lines 445  to 446, we know this wicker-man was done in honour of Taranis (“Taranis Ditis pater hoc modo aput eos placatur: in alueo ligneo aliquod homines cremantur.”) and that Taranis is the same as Jove or Jupiter (“… et caelestum deorum maximum Tarnanin Iouem adsuetum olim humanis placari capitibus, nunc uero gaudere pecorum.”).  Indeed “taran” is thunder in the Celtic tongues.  And he is our own Thunor. Frazer also mentions that sometimes the fires of Midsummer were not ordinary fires, but fires made by what is called “need-fire”.  Now the making of “need fire” even in ancient times was a corrupt custom, and to truly understand why “need-fire” is different from ordinary fire, why it has more magical might against evil, we have to understand it as rightly made from trees somehow struck by lightning.  So that the making of “need fire” is the summoning forth by friction of the lightning, the “fire from/of heaven” if you will, in the wood.  As evidence of this I point to Jacob Grimm who has this marked in his Teutonic Mythology:

“In the North of England it is believed that an angel strikes a tree, and then needfire can be got from it...”.

And:

"The Practica of Berthol. Carrichter, phys. In ord. to Maximilian II., gives a description (which I borrow from Wolfg. Hildebrand on Sorcery, Leipz. 1631. p. 226) of a magic bath, which is not to be heated with common flint-and-steel fire : ‘Go to an appletree which the lightning hath stricken, let a saw be made thee of his wood, therewith shalt thou saw upon a wooden threshold that much people passeth over, till it be kindled.  Then make firewood of birch-fungus, and kindle it at this fire, with which thou shalt heat the bath, and on thy life see it go not out '."

Wheel? 

 The wheel is indeed a solar-symbol, but under the law of pars pro toto Thor the wain-driver gets the wheel as a token, thus Grimm again:

“A wheel, especially a flaming one, is the symbol of thunder, of Donar hence the lords of Donnersberg, burg-vassals to Cochheim, bear it on their coat-of-arms, Hontheim 2, 5, tab. v., likewise those of Roll (thunder), …”.

By “lords of Donnersberg” I take it Grimm means the von Bolanden. Wappen of the Bolanden from the Seal of Philipp von Bolanden from 1289:

 

Although their forefathers were linked to the Archbishops of Mainz, whose token was also a wheel, this wheel is markedly unlike the Archbishop’s one. Donnersberg is as much to say in German as Thunor's barrow or hill.

Wherefore John the Baptist?

Often wholly overlooked, is the water-worship at Midsummer, thus Frazer (Lloyd lf.265):

“Further, it deserves to be remarked that in Sweden St. John’s Eve is a festival of water as well as of fire; for certain holy springs are then supposed to be endowed with wonderful medicinal virtues, and many sick people resort to them for the healing of their infirmities.”

In England at least we have a St. John’s Well at Boughton in Northamptonshire.  

At one time I think it was bathing that played the bigger part in the Midsummer rites than fire.  Bathing of course agrees much more with a saint who is called a baptist and often shown wading in water to do this.  We should remember also here that Cancer is said by astrologers to be a water sign,  ruled by the moon, but the place of the exaltation of Jupiter.  Bathing for health would be in keeping with this.  But also the visiting of wells and waters  as part of rain-making rituals if the need arose.

John the Baptist moreover should be a wild looking lad, a beggar to some, and Thor is himself called even this in Hárbarðsljóð 6:

“Þeygi er sem þú | þrjú bú góð eigir;
berbeinn þú stendr | ok hefr brautinga gervi,
þatki, at þú hafir brækr þínar.”

“"Three good dwellings, | methinks, thou hast not;
Barefoot thou standest, | and wearest a beggar's dress;
Not even hose dost thou have.”

brautingi, is a beggar, tramp. 

In Alvíssmál 5 moreover, the dwarf does not recognise Thor who he had particularly come to seek out to ask the hand of his daughter! Fjarrafleinn is said to be another word for a wanderer.

But John the Baptist is said to be Elias or Elijah reborn, see Matthew 11:7–14 and Malachi 4:5–6.  And Elijah is noneother than the local thunder-god turned into an Old Testament prophet who:

 “... prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit”. 

And who in:

“a chariot of fire, and horses of fire... went up by a whirlwind into heaven” . 

Now both Jupiter  and Zeus were often worshipped on the tops of hills,  and all the old hilltop halidoms of Zeus in Greece now have (or had once) chapels hallowed to “saint” Elias (Ἠλίας).   A. B. Cook Zeus, A Study In Ancient Religion, (1914):

“Inspection shows that Saint Elias has succeeded to Zeus at many, not to say most, of the important cult-centres both on the mainland (Mount Olympos, Mount Lykaion, Mount Arachnaion, Mount Taleton, etc.) and in the archipelago (Mount Kenaion, Mount Oche, Mount Kynados, etc.).”

And Grimm hath this when writing of the worship of Elias in the Caucasus:

“The comparison becomes still more suggestive by the fact that even half-christian races in the Caucasus worship Elias as a god of thunder. The Ossetes ... implore Elias to make their fields fruitful, and keep the hail away from them. Olearius already had put it upon record, that the Circassians on the Caspian sacrificed a goat on Elias’ s day, and stretched the skin on a pole with prayers. Even the Muhammadans, in praying that a thunderstorm may be averted, name the name of Ilya. ”

Farewell.