Post by Blackbird on Dec 15, 2005 14:23:31 GMT -1
bugger.
I'd spent ages doing a great long post about this - and then the site logged me out and I lost it
Ah well... here is the gist:
Wren hunting is traditional carried out on St Stephens day (Boxing Day) and seems to have been customary throughout Britain and Ireland.
It was a popular target for the folklorists of the early 20th century, many of whom believed it to be a prehistoric survival. Tempting though this is for those of us looking for pre Christian stuff, the truth is that I've not found anything that dates it back further than the 15th century.
That thing in particular being the Cutty Wren song, to which Brochfael has provided the words (See the Bardic section of the website.)
That song comes from Carmarthenshire, but there are other songs and rhymes, many of them similar, which come from a variety of places.
I see the wren as a bird very much connected with Lleu. Like Lleu, the wren uses skill and cunning rather than brute strength (see the tale 'The King of the Birds' - the birds hold a contest, the bird that flies highest shall be their king. The eagle easily outflies all the others - but in his moment of triumph, the wren that has been hiding in his feathers, flutters out and flies above him). I see it as no coincidence that Lleu kills a wren in the getting of his name.
I'd found a load of links about wren hunting - will try and find some again when I have a moment...
I'd spent ages doing a great long post about this - and then the site logged me out and I lost it
Ah well... here is the gist:
Wren hunting is traditional carried out on St Stephens day (Boxing Day) and seems to have been customary throughout Britain and Ireland.
It was a popular target for the folklorists of the early 20th century, many of whom believed it to be a prehistoric survival. Tempting though this is for those of us looking for pre Christian stuff, the truth is that I've not found anything that dates it back further than the 15th century.
That thing in particular being the Cutty Wren song, to which Brochfael has provided the words (See the Bardic section of the website.)
That song comes from Carmarthenshire, but there are other songs and rhymes, many of them similar, which come from a variety of places.
I see the wren as a bird very much connected with Lleu. Like Lleu, the wren uses skill and cunning rather than brute strength (see the tale 'The King of the Birds' - the birds hold a contest, the bird that flies highest shall be their king. The eagle easily outflies all the others - but in his moment of triumph, the wren that has been hiding in his feathers, flutters out and flies above him). I see it as no coincidence that Lleu kills a wren in the getting of his name.
I'd found a load of links about wren hunting - will try and find some again when I have a moment...
