Woden, Frige and the Giant's Dance of Dent in Yorkshire

Folklore and customs are an invaluable aspect of the inherited culture of our peoples and help to supplement our knowledge of the Germanic Gods for such lore and customs often escaped the ruthless cultural and religious cleansing of the Church. One hitherto largely unexplored and inadequately researched aspect of our culture is dance.

Jacob Grimm writing in his Teutonic Mythology volume 1 refers to such a dance in some parts of late 19th century Yorkshire:

"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." (page 304)

This interesting piece of information was obtained by Grimm from J.M. Kemble, the great scholar of Anglo-Saxon history. Kemble was told about this from the mouth of an 'old Yorkshireman'. Grimm points out that there was an ancient practice of the use of swords at weddings and refers to various Frisian, Swabian and Estonian customs with regard to this.

I have long been intrigued by the concept of sword dances and Morris Dancing encapsulating vestiges of pre-Christian heathen lore and custom and always take the opportunity to watch such displays for they are an ancient echo of Old England. Much more research needs to be carried out on this whole subject which I intend to revisit in future articles on this blog.