English Folk-Song and Dance

by Frank Kidson; Mary Neal

Many writers have pointed out the curious resemblance between the dances of the Salii and the English Morris and sword dances, and this resemblance adds to the evidence in favour of our traditional dance having originated in sun worship and nature worship generally.

The following description of the Salii from The Golden Bough will illustrate this point:—“As priests of Mars, the god of Agriculture, the Salii probably had also certain agricultural functions. They were named from the remarkable leaps which they made. Now we have seen that dancing and leaping high are common sympathetic charms to make the crops grow high. Was it one of the functions of the Salii to dance and leap on the fields at the spring or autumn sowing, or at both?

“The dancing procession of the Salii took place in October as well as in March, and the Romans sowed both in spring and autumn. The weapons borne by the Salii, while effective against demons in general, may have been especially directed against the demons who steal the seed corn in the ripe grain. In Western Africa the field labours of tilling and sowing are sometimes accompanied by dances of armed men in the fields.”

In a footnote the author also throws out a suggestion that, as the Salii were said to have been founded by Morrius, King of Veii, and this seems to be etymologically the same as Mamurius and Mars, the word “Morris” may be the same. In answer to a query, however, he does not appear to take this as a really serious suggestion.[2]

The following are some of the reasons for connecting the Morris dance with primitive religious customs:—

(1) The characteristic of the processional form of the dance as performed by the living dancers to-day is a slow, dignified rhythmic movement, which is very marked in the Bampton (Oxon.) dancers, who have an unbroken tradition going back some hundreds of years.

The set dances display a much more lively character and are characterised by wild leaps, twirlings round, hand-clapping, stick clashing, and the waving of handkerchiefs, so that we can easily imagine the present Morris as a descendant of the solemn processional up the mountain-side to greet the morning sun, and the scenes of wild joy on the summit at the appearance of the source of light and life to his waiting worshippers.

(2) Many of the Morris and Sword dancers have evolutions which are characteristic of ceremonial used by savage people in the worship of the sun. The Abingdon (Berks) dances, a very old tradition, end with a complete circle. Bean-setting, one of the Headington (Oxon.) dances, begins with two half-circles danced in opposite directions. The Bampton dances have circles, half-circles, and gypsies, another form of circle. The Gloucestershire dances have the same. In some dances the dancers advance and retire into the centre, forming a widening and narrowing circle alternately, all of which illustrate by mimetic action the supposed movements of the sun and the sun’s rays. All were probably actuated by mimetic magic, primitive man believing that by imitating the rising and setting of the sun and by lighting fires he actually caused the return of the sun to the earth.

(3) The appearance in different forms of the King and Queen, the Lord and Lady, the Mayor and Squire in the ceremonial of the dance. These figures indubitably link up the dances with those ceremonies attending the crowning of the King of the Wood, who, representing the life of the earth’s vegetation, was yearly slain lest his vigour might wane and all the green life of earth perish with it. The slaying of this King and the revels which preceded it and the crowning of the fresh and younger Monarch were all still dimly to be traced in many revels and dances in English villages within quite recent years.

At Abingdon, the story runs, two hundred years ago a great fight took place between the dwellers in Ock Street and the rest of the burghers of the town. The Ock Street people outnumbering the rest of the whole town thought they had the right to appoint a Mayor. A beast was slain in the market-place and roasted whole, a fight took place for the horns, and the winning side then carried the horns in the Morris dancing round the town. The horns are in existence to-day and are carried by the Mayor of the Morris accompanied by the Squire carrying a Sword. There are traces left still of the gold used to tip the horns which are mounted on a bull’s head, with flaming red nostrils, thus making it evident that the beast was regarded as sacred. These ceremonies took place on St John the Baptist’s Eve, celebrating the summer solstice.