Although, therefore, Bede’s account presents great difficulties, they are not diminished by the assumption that the scheme is a construction of his own. In my opinion there is no denying the trustworthiness of the account or the probability that the heathen Anglo-Saxons had arrived at a fixed series of months with empirical intercalation in the summer. But even if this was so, the case is isolated, and does not advance our knowledge of the form of the year among the other Germanic peoples. This only may be pointed out, that the Icelanders inserted their intercalary week in the summer just as the Anglo-Saxons, according to Bede, did with their intercalary month. But since the form of the year is so entirely different in each case, this agreement cannot be made to support further conclusions, any more than the two cases of agreement with the Gothic calendar. The Icelandic months, in conformity with the peculiar arrangement of the year, do not coincide with the Julian, but begin either shortly before or in the middle of these. The series is:--1, _þorri_; 2, _Goi_; 3, _Einmánaðr_, because one month is left before the beginning of summer; 4, _Gaukmánaðr_ (cuckoo month) or _Sáðtið_ (seed-time) or _Harpa_ (unexplained); 5, _Eggtið_ or _Stekktið_ or _Skerpla_ (unexplained); 6, _Sólmánaðr_ (sun month) or _Selmánaðr_ (cowherd’s hut month); 7, _Miðsummar_, or _Heyannir_ (hay-time); 8, _Tvímánaðr_, since two months are left to the beginning of winter, or _Kornskurðmánaðr_ (barley-cutting month); 9, _Haustmánaðr_; 10, _Gormánaðr_ (slaughtering month, _gor_ is the refuse thrown away in the slaughtering); 11, _Frermánaðr_ (frost-month) or _Ylir_ (cognate with _Yul_); 12, _Jólmánaðr_ (Yule-month) or _Hrútmánaðr_ (ram month, on account of the pairing of the sheep) or _Mörsugr_ (‘the fat-sucker’)[1012]. Some of these names are also used to describe seasons and have been explained above, p. 74. With the exception of _þorri_, _Goi_, and _Einmánaðr_, however, these months are not used in practical life, where the reckoning is performed in weeks. In modern times the Icelandic months have other names but keep the same position in the year:--1, _Miðsvetrarm_. (midwinter month); 2, _Föstu(in)gangsm_. (beginning of fasting); 3, _Jafnðøgram_. (month of the equinox); 4, _Sumarm_. (beginning of summer); 5, _Farðagam_. (because it is the legal time for moving); 6, _Nottleysum_. (the nightless month); 7, _Stuttnættism_. (month of the short nights) or _Maðkam_. (as in Denmark, month of worms); 8, _Heyannam_. (month of the hay-time); 9, _Addrattam_. (_m. necessitatum apportandarum_); 10, _Slatrunarm_. (slaughtering month), older _Garðlagsm_. (_m. sæpium struendarum_); 11, _Riðtíðarm_. (spawning month); 12, _Skamdegism_. (month of the short days) or _Jólam_[1013].