Early Germanic calendars


The early Germanic calendars were the regional calendars used amongst the early Germanic peoples, prior to the adoption of the Julian calendar in the Early Middle Ages. It was an element of early Germanic culture.
The Germanic peoples had names for the months which varied by region and dialect, which were later replaced with local adaptations of the Julian month names. Records of Old English and Old High German month names date to the 8th and 9th centuries, respectively. Old Norse month names are attested from the 13th century. Like most pre-modern calendars, the reckoning used in early Germanic culture was likely lunisolar. As an example, the Runic calendar developed in medieval Sweden is lunisolar, fixing the beginning of the year at the first full moon after winter solstice.

Months

As in all ancient calendars, the Germanic calendar before the adoption of the Julian one would have been lunisolar, the months corresponding to lunations. Tacitus in his Germania writes that the Germanic peoples observed the lunar months.
The lunisolar calendar is reflected in the Proto-Germanic term "month", being a derivation of the word for "moon", — which shares its ancestry with the Greek mene "moon", men "month", and Latin mensis "month".

Days and weeks

gives some indication of how the Germanic peoples of the first century reckoned the days. In contrast to Roman usage, they considered the day to begin at sunset, a system that in the Middle Ages came to be known as the "Florentine reckoning". The same system is also recorded for the Gauls in Caesar's Gallic Wars.
The concept of the week, on the other hand, was adopted from the Romans, from about the first century, the various Germanic languages having adopted the Greco-Roman system of naming of the days of the week after the classical planets, inserting loan translations for the names of the planets, substituting the names of Germanic gods in a process known as interpretatio germanica.

Calendar terms

The month names do not coincide, thus it is not possible to postulate names of a Common Germanic stage, except possibly the name of a spring and a winter month, and. The names of the seasons are Common Germanic,,,, and for "spring" in north Germanic, but in west Germanic the term was used. The Common Germanic terms for "day", "month" and "year" were, and. The latter two continue Proto-Indo-European,, while is a Germanic innovation from a root meaning "to be hot, to burn".
A number of terms for measuring time can be reconstructed for the proto Germanic period.

Month names

Medieval

The main source of reference for Old English month names comes from the Venerable Bede. He recorded the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon month names in his Latin work known as De temporum ratione, written in 725.
This is the only testimony of a Germanic lunisolar system, with explicit mention of empirical intercalation, the intercalary month being inserted around midsummer.
Charlemagne recorded agricultural Old High German names for the Julian months.
These remained in use, with regional variants and innovations, until the end of the medieval period in German-speaking Europe and they persisted in popular or dialectal use into the 19th century. They probably also influenced Fabre d'Eglantine when he named the months of the French Republican Calendar.
The only agreement between the Old English and the Old High German month names is the naming of April as "Easter month". Both traditions have a "holy month", the name of September in the Old English system and of December in the Old High German one.
A separate tradition of month names developed in 10th-century Iceland, see [|below].
Julian monthOld EnglishOld High German
JanuaryÆfterra Gēola "After Yule", or "Second Yule"Wintar-mánód
FebruarySolmōnaþ Hornung
MarchHrēþ-mōnaþ "Month of the Goddess Hrēþ" or "Month of Wildness"Lenzin-mānod "spring month"
AprilĒosturmōnaþ "Easter Month", "Month of the Goddess Ēostre"Ōstar-mānod "Easter month"; see also Ostara
MayÞrimilcemōnaþ "Month of Three Milkings"Winni-mánód "pasture month"
JuneÆrra Līþa "Before Midsummer", or "First :wikt:liþe|Summer"Brāh-mānod
—Þrilīþa "Third summer" —
JulyÆftera Līþa "After Midsummer", "Second Summer"Hewi-mānod "hay month"
AugustWeōdmōnaþ "Weed month"Aran-mānod "harvest month"
SeptemberHāliġmōnaþ "Holy Month"Witu-mānod "wood month"
OctoberWinterfylleth "Winter full moon", according to Bede "because winter began on the first full moon of that month ."Wīndume-mānod "vintage month"
NovemberBlōtmōnaþ "Blót Month", "Month of Sacrifice"Herbist-mānod "autumn month"
DecemberÆrra Gēola "Before Yule", or "First Yule"Hailag-mānod "holy month"

Modern

The Old High German month names introduced by Charlemagne persisted in regional usage and survive in German dialectal usage. The Latin month names were in predominant use throughout the medieval period, although the Summarium Heinrici, an 11th-century pedagogical compendium, in chapter II.15 advocates the use of the German month names rather than the more widespread Latin ones.
In the late medieval to early modern period, dialectal or regional month names were adopted for the use in almanachs, and a number of variants or innovations developed in this context, comparable to the tradition of "Indian month names" which developed in American Farmers' Almanacs in the early 20th century. Some of the Farmers' Almanacs' "Indian month names" are in fact derived from continental tradition. The Old English month names fell out of use entirely, being revived only in a fictional context in the Shire calendar constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien for use in his The Lord of the Rings.
Julian monthOld High GermanMiddle High GermanDutchWest Frisian
JanuaryWintar-mánód Wintermonatlouwmaand Foarmoanne
FebruaryHornung
Hornungsprokkelmaand, schrikkelmaand Sellemoanne
MarchLenzin-mānod
Lenzmonat, Dörrmonat lentemaand Foarjiersmoanne
AprilŌstar-mānod Ostermonat grasmaand Gersmoanne
MayWinni-mānod Wonnemonat wonnemaand, bloeimaand, Mariamaand Blommemoanne
JuneBrāh-mānod Brachmonat zomermaand, braammaand, wedemaand, wiedemaand Simmermoanne
JulyHewi-mānod Heumonat vennemaand, hooimaand Heamoanne, haaimoanne
AugustAran-mānod, MHG arn-mânôt
Erntemonat oogstmaand, koornmaand Rispmoanne, flieëmoanne
SeptemberWitu-mānod
Herbstmonat herfstmaand, gerstmaand, evenemaand Hjerstmoanne
OctoberWīndume-mānod
Weinmonat, Weinmond, Herbstmonat, Gilbhart wijnmaand, Wijnoogstmaand, zaaimaand Wynmoanne, bitemoanne
NovemberHerbist-mānod Wintermonat, Herbstmonatslachtmaand, bloedmaand, nevelmaand, mistmaand, smeermaand Slachtmoanne
DecemberHailag-mānod, MHG heilmânôtChristmonat, Heiligmonat wintermaand, midwintermaand, sneeuwmaand, Kerstmismaand, Joelmaand, wolfsmaand, donkere maand Wintermoanne, Joelmoanne

Icelandic calendar

A special case is the Icelandic calendar developed in the 10th century which, inspired by the Julian calendar, introduced a purely solar reckoning with a year having a fixed number of weeks. This necessitated the introduction of "leap weeks" instead of Julian leap days.
The old Icelandic calendar is not in official use any more, but some Icelandic holidays and annual feasts are still calculated from it. It has 12 months, of 30 days broken down into two groups of six often termed "winter months" and "summer months". The calendar is peculiar in that each month always start on the same day of week. This was achieved by having 4 epagomenal days to bring the number of days up to 364 and then adding a sumarauki week in the middle of summer of some years. This was eventually done so as to ensure that the "summer season" begins on the Thursday between 9 and 15 April in the Julian calendar
Hence Þorri always starts on a Friday sometime between 8 and 15 January of the Julian calendar, Góa always starts on a Sunday between 7 and 14 February of the Julian calendar.
  1. Gormánuður
  2. Ýlir
  3. Mörsugur
  4. Þorri
  5. Góa
  6. Einmánuður
  1. Harpa Harpa is a female name, probably a forgotten goddess. The first day of Harpa is celebrated as Sumardagurinn fyrsti, the First Day of Summer
  2. Skerpla
  3. Sólmánuður
  4. Heyannir
  5. Tvímánuður
  6. Haustmánuður
Many of the months have also been used in Scandinavia, the Norwegian linguist Ivar Aasen wrote down the following months in his dictionary, coming in this order: Jolemåne-Torre-Gjø-Kvina, of which two are identical to Iceland, and one is similar. They have developed differently in different regions. Þorri is pronounced tærri, torre and similar, and can mean both the moon after Yule-month, or be a name for January or February.