Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
cholic makes them serious of settled disposition, even sad. To relieve
brain pressure and/or maybe to exorcise evil spirits, holes were made
in skulls by a drill with a metal tip that was caused to turn back and
forth by a strap wrapped around a wooden handle. A king's daughter
Edith inspired a cult of holy wells, whose waters were thought to
alleviate eye conditions. Warmth and rest were also used for illness.
Agrimony boiled in milk was thought to relieve impotence in men.
It was known that the liver casted out impurities in the blood.
The stages of fetal growth were known. The soul was not thought to
enter a fetus until after the third month, so presumably abortions
within three months were allowable.
The days of the week were Sun day, Moon day, Tiw's day (Viking
god of war), Woden's day (Viking god of victory, master magician,
calmer of storms, and raiser of the dead), Thor's day (Viking god of
thunder), Frig's day (Viking goddess of fertility and growing things),
and Saturn's day (Roman god). Special days of the year were celebrated:
Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ; the twelve days of Yuletide (a
Viking tradition) when candles were lit and houses decorated with
evergreen and there were festivities around the burning of the biggest
log available; Plough Monday for resumption of work after Yuletide;
February 14th with a feast celebrating Saint Valentinus, a Roman bishop
martyr who had married young lovers in secret when marriage was
forbidden to encourage men to fight in war; New Year's Day on March
25th when seed was sown and people banged on drums and blew horns to
banish spirits who destroy crops with disease; Easter, the day of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ; Whitsunday, celebrating the descent of
the Holy Spirit on the apostles of Jesus and named for the white worn
by baptismal candidates; May Day when flowers and greenery was gathered
from the woods to decorate houses and churches, Morris dancers leapt
through their villages with bells, hobby horses, and waving scarves,
and people danced around a May pole holding colorful ribbons tied at
the top so they became entwined around the pole; Lammas on August 1st,
when the first bread baked from the wheat harvest was consecrated;
Harvest Home when the last harvest load was brought home while an
effigy of a goddess was carried with reapers singing and piping behind,
and October 31st, the eve of the Christian designated All Hallow Day,
which then became known as All Hallow Even, or Halloween. People
dressed as demons, hobgoblins, and witches to keep spirits away from
possessing them. Trick or treating began with Christian beggars asking
for "soul cake" biscuits in return for praying for dead relatives.
Ticktacktoe and backgammon were played.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account