Lo heare J stand
With swrd in hand
To dubbelle eurey blow.’
[721] Mayer, 230, 425, finds in the dance a symbolical drama of the death of winter; but he does not seem to see the actual relic of a sacrificial rite.
[722] Müllenhoff, 114; Du Méril, La Com. 82; Plato, Leges, 815; Dion Cassius, lx. 23; Suetonius, Julius, 39, Nero, 12; Servius ad Aen. v. 602; cf. p. 7. A Thracian sword-dance, ending in a mimic death, and therefore closely parallel to the west European examples mentioned in the next chapter, is described by Xenophon, Anabasis, v. 9.
[723] Müllenhoff, 115; Frazer, iii. 122; W. W. Fowler, The Roman Festivals, 38, 44. The song of the Salii mentioned Saeturnus, god of sowing. It appears also to have been their function to expel the Mamurius Veturius in spring. Servius ad Aen. viii. 285, says that the Salii were founded by Morrius, king of Veii. According to Frazer, Morrius is etymologically equivalent to Mamurius—Mars. He even suggests that Morris may possibly belong to the same group of words.
[724] Cf. Appendix J. In other dances a performer stands on a similar ‘knot’ or Stern of swords. Mayer, 230, suggests that this may represent the triumph of summer, which seems a little far-fetched.
[725] Mayer, 243; O. Wittstock, in Sievers-Festgabe, 349.
[726] Grimm, i. 304, gives the following as communicated to him by J. M. Kemble, from the mouth of an old Yorkshireman: ‘In some parts of northern England, in Yorkshire, especially Hallamshire, popular customs show remnants of the worship of Fricg. In the neighbourhood of Dent, at certain seasons of the year, especially autumn, the country folk hold a procession and perform old dances, one called the giant’s dance: the leading giant they name Woden, and his wife Frigga, the principal action of the play consisting in two swords being swung and clashed together about the neck of a boy without hurting him.’ There is nothing about this in the account of Teutonic mythology in J. M. Kemble’s own Saxons in England. I do not believe that the names of Woden and Frigga were preserved in connexion with this custom continuously from heathen times. Probably some antiquary had introduced them; and in error, for there is no reason to suppose that the ‘clown’ and ‘woman’ of the sword-dance were ever thought to represent gods. But the description of the business with the swords is interesting.
[727] Müllenhoff, Z. f. d. A. xviii. 11, quoting Covarubias, Tesoro della lengua castellana (1611), s.v. Danza de Espadas: ‘una mudanza que llaman la degollada, porque cercan el cuello del que los guia con las espadas.’ With these sword manœuvres should be compared the use of scythes and flails in the mock sacrifices of the harvest-field and threshing-floor (p. 158), the ‘Chop off his head’ of the ‘Oranges and Lemons’ game (p. 151), and the ancient tale of Wodan and the Mowers.