Note 812 — Chapter V
Reading edition
Footnote 812
:
(return)
Compare J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 521; J.W. Wolf, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie (Gottingen und Leipsic, 1852-1857), ii. 389; Adalbert Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks,2 (Gütersloh, 1886), pp. 41 sq., 47; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 521. Lindenbrog in his Glossary on the Capitularies (quoted by J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 502) expressly says: "The rustics in many parts of Germany, particularly on the festival of St. John the Baptist, wrench a stake from a fence, wind a rope round it, and pull it to and fro till it catches fire. This fire they carefully feed with straw and dry sticks and scatter the ashes over the vegetable gardens, foolishly and superstitiously imagining that in this way the caterpillar can be kept off. They call such a fire nodfeur or nodfyr, that is to say need-fire."