Note 971 — Chapter XII · NEW YEAR CUSTOMS
Reading edition
Brand, i. 3, 209, 226, 257; Spence, Shetland Folk-Lore, 189; Grimm, iv. 1777-1848 passim; Jackson and Burne, 176, 380, &c., &c. Burchardus (App. N, No. xlii) mentions that the Germans took New Year omens sitting girt with a sword on the housetop or upon a [sacrificial] skin at the crossways. This was called liodorsâza, a term which a glossator also uses for the kindred custom of cervulus (Tille, Y. and C. 96). Is the man in Hom. de Sacr. (App. N, No. xxxix) ‘qui arma in campo ostendit’ taking omens like the man on the housetop, or is he conducting a sword-dance?