“The Anglo-Saxon form of Lughnomass, mass in honour of the God Lugh or Llew, was hlaf-mass, ‘loaf-mass’, with reference to the corn-harvest and the killing of the Corn-king…The name ‘Lugh’ may be connected with the Latin lux (light) or lucus (a grove); it may even be derived from the Sumerian lug meaning ‘son’.” – Robert Graves, The White Goddess
“In Northern myth giants are divided into two kinds, Hill Giants and Frost Giants which are distinctly chthonic beings, and a third kind, Fire Giants which represent the destructive power of fire…in Þrymskviða: in fact, two myths have been skillfully joined, one dealing with the theft of the gods’ only infallible weapon in their constant struggle with the giants, and the other with the theft by the frost giants of Freya the goddess of fertility.” – Brian Branston, Gods of the North
Widely believed to be a pre-Christian Irish Sun God, the Greater Sabbat of August Eve in the Saxon tradition of Witchcraft is named in honor of the God Lugh. R.W. Rolleston went so far as to say in Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race (1917) that Lugh was the “Sun-god par excellence of all Celtica”. He was also notably, as Rolleston points out, “the appointed redeemer of the Danann people from their servitude.”
Considering the fact that there were Irish and Scottish Vikings, F. Marian McNeill in The Silver Bough drew the obvious solar comparisons between Lugh and Balder, based on James Frazer’s The Golden Bough—yet Balder’s association with the corn-harvest prior to the conversion of Norway to Christianity is highly speculative at best. Frey, however, was undoubtedly a harvest Lord, (and explicitly associated with sunshine by Snorri)—important enough well into the Viking Age to be one of the three Gods, alongside Odin and Thor, attested by Adam of Bremen in the 11th century to have had an idol at the Temple at Uppsala in Sweden.
Likewise, it is Frey specifically that Tyr (Tiw) so famously defends in the Lokasenna as a Liberator of those in bondage, and who is also explicitly said to not be the cause of woman’s weeping—the exact opposite of what we are told in the Eddas regarding Balder. The name Tyr, or Tiw, is one of the oldest Gothonic God Names, although his ancient role as the Sky Father who unites with the Earth Mother has been replaced with Gods such as Frey, who is said to bring the fertile rains along with the Sun. Tuesday is named in his honor, and the Eddas preserve how the God remains a defender of Sun and Moon from the Wolf, having (like the Irish God Nuada, first king of the Danaan people) lost his hand—bravely sacrificing it as the price of the Wolf’s binding. For Nuada, the loss of his hand (although later replaced with a hand of silver) meant the loss of his kingship. McNeill in The Silver Bough associates the Irish Nuada with the Scandinavian God Njörðr—Freyr’s noticeably single father, the heathen religious attitude toward divorce even sanctified in the Eddas through Njörð’s handfasting and handparting with the Goddess Skaði. Njörð was also very significantly equated by Icelanders with the Roman God Saturn. And finally, Tiw’s name, a form of the rune “Tyz” (the upward pointing arrow), is identified in the Old English rune poem with the North Star (Polaris), a star of great importance to Northern sailors and fishermen, and referenced in the traditional Witches’ Chant of Saxon Witchcraft.
In the North, August Eve is the official beginning of the harvest. Berry-picking season has already begun and will continue until the Frost Giants descend from the Mountains. Local farmers’ markets selling a wealth of seafood and vegetables are just a bicycle ride away. So grill outdoors if the weather is favorable, but also dry mint and chamomile for tea, pickle onions, and fill the freezer with fish and raspberries. And certainly weave a garland of daisies, bake bread, and make a corn dolly in honor of the Mother Goddess who presides over the Sabbat—but if the Salmon of Wisdom has taught me anything, it is that despite the cool rains that may dampen some of these days, in the Northlands, Summer leaves little time for grief.
(A temporary Frey shrine at our sacred tree from a Lughnasadh-tide past. Replica of the famous Frey idol found in Rällinge, Sweden in 1904.)
Lincoln Green 