Blōtmōnaþ (modern English: blót month) was the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of November.[1]
The name was recorded by the Anglo-Saxon scholar Bede in his treatise De temporum ratione (The Reckoning of Time), saying "Blod-monath is month of immolations, for it was in this month that the cattle which were to be slaughtered were dedicated to the gods.”[2]
An entry in the Menologium seu Calendarium Poeticum, an Anglo-Saxon poem about the months, explains:
Se mónaþ is nemned on Léden Novembris, and on úre geþeóde blótmónaþ, forðon úre yldran, ðá hý hǽðene wǽron, on ðam mónþe hý bleóton á, ðæt is, ðæt hý betǽhton and benémdon hyra deófolgyldum ða neát ða ðe hý woldon syllan |
This month is called Novembris in Latin, and in our language the month of sacrifice, because our forefathers, when they were heathens, always sacrificed in this month, that is, that they took and devoted to their idols the cattle which they wished to offer |
| —Old English text[3] | —Modern English translation[3] |
See also
References
- ↑ Cockayne, Thomas. "The shrine: a collection of occasional papers on dry subjects" p.144
- ↑ Chapter XV, De mensibus Anglorum. Archived 2007-07-07 at the Wayback Machine "Blot-monath mensis immolationum, quia in ea pecora quae occisuri erant diis suis voverent.”
- 1 2 Tichy, Martin Rocek, Ondrej. "blót-mónaþ". Bosworth-Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
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