The names of the Germanic months are a calendar in shorthand: each name records what happened on farm and field during that lunar month, whether milking, sowing, sacrificing or harvesting. To read them is to read the farming year. This article goes through the names one by one; how the calendar works as a whole, with its crescent, leap month and winter solstice, is set out in the Germanic lunar calendar.

The names used here follow two strands of tradition. The Anglo-Saxon strand comes from Bede around 725, in De temporum ratione (chapter "De mensibus Anglorum"), the most important medieval witness to the Germanic lunisolar calendar. To these are added the Old Norse month names and, where illuminating, the Old High German and Danish equivalents. Almost all of them, as Jean-Pierre Poirier has shown for the whole of Europe, point to agricultural work and weather, not to the Moon, even though the calendar reckons lunisolarly.

The winter months: sacrifice, frost, and the two Yule moons

Late Yule Month (month 1, Anglo-Saxon æftera jéola, "later Yule"). The year begins with it, because its full moon is the midwinter full moon, Yule. In Old Norse it is jólmánaðr or ýlir, in Old High German hartimánoth, the German "Hartmond," the hard, frozen month.

Sol-Month (month 2, solmónað). The Anglo-Saxon name probably means "mud" or "mire month" (Old English solu = wallow), the sodden ground of late winter. Bede mentions cake offerings to the gods for it. In Old Norse this is þorri, the mythical winter giant, frost-drought personified; its full moon carried the Þorrablót. The German name Hornung or Sporkele lives on in the "Old Carnival."

Earth-Month (month 3, hréðmónað). It is named, Bede says, after a goddess Hreða, who, however, is attested only by him and is therefore disputed. The Old Norse name gói/góa is read as "the thawing one" (proto-Germanic gewôn), the late winter in which the ice breaks. In German also Lenzmond, from Old High German lenzo, spring.

Blót-Month (month 11, blótmónað, "month of sacrifices"; Old English blótan = to sacrifice, to slaughter). Bede records that the cattle slaughtered in this month were dedicated to the gods. A Danish name (in Wormius, pølsemaen, "sausage month") is by contrast down-to-earth, and Zautner reads it as an argument against a great slaughter feast. Whether the slaughter-blót truly existed therefore remains an uncertain interpretation, not a secured finding.

Early Yule Month (month 12, ærra jéola, "earlier Yule"; Gothic fruma jiuleis, "pre-Yule"). The winter solstice falls in it and, on the night before December 25, the Mother Night attested by Bede. The Old Norse byname mǫrsugr, "fat-sucker," alludes to living off the winter stores.

The summer months: pasture, a navigable sea, and hay

Easter-Month (month 4, eosturmónað). Like the Earth-Month it bears a divine name found only in Bede: the likewise disputed goddess Eostre. Einhard transmits the Old High German name Ostarmanoth for the Frankish sphere. Its full moon marks Sumarmál, the start of summer in the two-part Germanic year. Old Norse einmánuðr ("first month") or harpa.

Merry-Month (month 5, þrimilchi, "three-milkings month"). According to Bede the cows were now milked three times a day, because the young pasture grass was so nourishing. The Old High German wunni-/winnimánoth means both "pasture" and "joy" month; today's "merriment" was originally the meadow. In Old Norse it is gaukmánuðr ("cuckoo month") or sáðtíð ("sowing time"), the time of driving herds to pasture and of sowing.

Early Litha-Month (month 6, ærra líða). Líða means "mild" or "navigable"; the sea now lay smooth and could be sailed, as Poirier confirms. In German Brachmond or Brachet, after the fallow field of the three-field system. Old Norse sólmánuðr ("sun month") or selmánuðr ("shieling month"); the summer solstice falls in it.

Late Litha-Month (month 7, æftera líða, "late líða"). Its full moon carried the old Midsummer. In German Heumond or Heuert, in Old Norse heyannir, the "hay works," the month of the hay harvest. A byname tvímánuðr, "double month," recalls that the leap month can follow it.

Third Litha-Month (leap month, leap years only). Bede attests the term þrilíða, the "Three-Litha year," that is, the name for a year with three Litha moons. That the thirteenth month is inserted between the Late Litha-Month and the Weed-Month, in the middle of summer, is by contrast Zautner's reconstruction, no longer Bede's wording. Old Norse aukamánaðr or aukatungl, the "additional month," the "additional moon." Why it falls in summer, and how this keeps the year in step, is explained in the Germanic lunar calendar.

The harvest months: weed, grain, and the holy autumn

Weed-Month (month 8, weodmónað, "weed month"). The time when weeds run rampant and the grain ripens. In German Ernting, in Old Norse kornskurðarmánuðr, the "grain-cutting month." This is the old reaping season around August 1.

Harvest-Month (month 9, halegmónað, "holy month"; also hærfestmónað, "harvest month"). Bede calls it a "month of sacrifices" but gives no details of the rite, a possible harvest thanksgiving; no more can be secured. Old Norse haustmánuðr.

Winter-Month (month 10, winterfilleð, "winter full moon"; Gothic fillith = full moon). Bede writes explicitly that winter begins with the full moon of this month: the Winter Nights (vetrnætr). Old Norse gormánuðr, "slaughter month." With it the dark half of the year begins again.

Why the names are agrarian but the calendar is lunisolar

The apparent contradiction clears up here. Most of the month names point to fixed seasonal work such as milking, mowing and slaughtering, that is, to the solar year. But the calendar itself counts in lunar months. The two fit together: the names described what was due in each stretch of the year, while the underlying framework stayed lunisolar. Poirier shows the same agricultural-meteorological origin for the month names of all of Europe, from the Old Germanic names in Einhard down to German dialects of the 19th century.

Which Germanic month is currently running depends on the Moon, and it shifts every year. The Ártala app works out the exact date for you: it shows the current lunar month with its traditional name, the inserted leap month, and the festivals bound to the full moons, source-based and ad-free. Available as a web app, for Android and for iOS. You can check under Ártala – the Germanic lunar calendar.

Sources