Pagan Magic of the Northern Tradition: Customs, Rites, and Ceremonies - Nigel Pennick 2015

Natural Measure

We are so used to counting in tens, using decimal coinage and metric measurements, that it is difficult sometimes to think in other ways. The decimal system is not the natural way of measuring; it comes from a mathematical rather than a practical worldview. Traditional measure is totally practical. It is based upon the requirements of cooking, handicrafts, agriculture, and trade. It emerges directly from the characteristics of the materials being measured, and not from mathematical theory. These weights and measures are physical; they relate to the human body and natural objects, and they are interconnected in subtle ways. Traditionally, length, weight, and capacity is divided by halving. A unit of anything is divided into two halves, then halved again to produce four quarters, then halved again to produce eight eighths, and so forth. This can be done by eye, or by folding anything foldable. Three such divisions cut the item into eight equal parts, and in natural measure 3, 4, and 8 are significant numbers. Traditional weights and measures as well as time were based on an eightfold system. Eight is significant also because it occurs in the eightfold division of space into the eight airts, the octave of the musical scale, and the thirty-two divisions of the compass rose (8 × 4). Norse weighing used a system of measure that existed until 1971 in the traditional coinage of Great Britain and Ireland: 1 Mark = 8 —rer = 24 Ertogar = 240 Penningar (from which the coin called a penny is derived, though now it is one-hundredth of a pound Sterling). This is a 1 × 8 × 3 × 10 sequence.

Common measurements were necessitated by trade, so that some meaningful exchange of value could take place, or critical quantities of materials could be determined repeatedly. A characteristic traditional system of measure conserved into modern times is recorded in the medieval Welsh medical text Meddygon Myddfai (The Physicians of Myddvai), whose contents include herbalism and forms of magical treatment. Legend places the origin of the Myddfai physicians’ knowledge, famed throughout Wales, in an otherworldly gift of a bag of medicines from the Lady of the Lake (Pughe and Williams 1861, xxiii—xxx). After giving the standardized “weights and measures of proportion” that include the common Apothecaries’ Measure, the writer gives fluid measures, which clearly are arranged according to the principles of natural measure. Fluid or liquid measure is based on a fourfold principle. Four podfuls made one spoonful. Four spoonfuls make one eggshellful. Four eggshellfuls make one cupful. Four cupfuls make one quart. Four quarts make one gallon. Four gallons make one pailful. Four pailfuls make one grenn (a large earthenware vessel). Four grenns make one mydd. Four mydds make one myddi (hogshead barrel) (Pughe and Williams 1861, 458). “All the measures of solids and fluids should be of warranted [i.e., standardized] weight and measure, so that they may afford warranted and just information in order that the medicines administered to the sick may neither be ineffective nor poisonous, and that every dose may be of the proportion intended” (Pughe and Williams 1861, 458). However, traditional measure of weight is also given, “conjectural measures, dependent upon the Physician’s judgement.” This traditional measure is as follows: four grains of wheat = one pea; four peas = one acorn; four acorns = one pigeon’s egg; four pigeon’s eggs = one hen’s egg; four hen’s eggs = one goose’s egg; four goose eggs = one swan’s egg.

THE NORTHERN CUBIT AND ITS DERIVATIVES

Natural measure is a system used between the Iron Age and the Middle Ages, having its origins in the oldest known measures. It continues today in the mile, used in the United Kingdom and the United States, and its traditional submultiples. The mile is a multiple of the ancient and consistent measure known as the Northern Cubit and its half, the Northern Foot. This existed prior to 3000 BCE, being used in ancient India, Mesopotamia, Europe, North Africa, and China (Skinner 1967, 40). It was associated in Europe with the Germanic peoples, and was taken to wherever they migrated, so in that context the Northern Foot is known as the Saxon Foot. This unit measures 13.2 inches (335.3 mm).

Artifacts found in remains of the Indus civilization at Mohenjodaro (dating from around 2500 BCE) have this measure incised upon them, as do the XIIth dynasty (ca. 1900 BCE) Egyptian cubit measures from Kahun. Royal Cubit measuring rods of the XVIIIth dynasty (1567—1320 BCE) have the Northern Foot marked at the 18th digit. In twelve BCE Nero Claudius Drusus, Roman governor of Lower Germany, had to adopt the Northern Foot as the official measure for the province, rather than the Pes, the shorter Roman Foot. The Northern Foot was defined as two digits longer than the Pes.

Primarily a land measure, the Northern Foot is part of an interlinked system of measures. It is the base unit of the Rod, the Rood, the Acre, the Furlong, and the Mile. The Northern Foot has a 4:3 relationship to the Natural Foot (or Welsh Foot). They are both submultiples of the Rod (16 feet 6 inches; 5.0292 metres); the Northern Foot is one-fifteenth of a Rod and the Natural Foot, one-twentieth. Both Northern and Natural Feet are subdivided into palms or Shafthands (Scots shathmont or shaftmon), 3.3 inches (83.8 mm). Three of these make a Natural Foot and four a Northern Foot. Each Shafthand subdivides into three Thumbs of 1.1 inches (27.9 mm), and each Thumb is divided into three Barleycorns of 0.37 inches (9.4 mm). So the Natural Foot measures 9 Thumbs (27 Barleycorns) and the Northern Foot 12 Thumbs (36 Barleycorns).

Measurements used in handicrafts and building construction take these measures up using mainly the 8/3 pattern. An Ell is 2 Northern Feet long (8 Shafthands). A Fathom consists of 3 Ells, 6 Northern Feet (24 Shafthands). A Rod (otherwise Perch or Pole) is 2½ Fathoms, 15 Northern Feet, 20 Natural Feet (60 Shafthands). One Furlong is 40 Rods, 600 Northern Feet, 800 Natural Feet. (In the eighteenth century, for surveying purposes, the Furlong was subdivided into ten units called Chains). The Mile measures 8 Furlongs, 320 Rods, 4,800 Natural Feet, and 6,400 Natural Feet. In England a longer Mile was sometimes reckoned, 10 Furlongs in length. This is the Country Mile or Derbyshire Mile, 6,000 Northern feet and 8,000 Natural Feet; the Cheshire Mile was 7,680 Feet. The Scots Mile is 5,952 Feet; the Irish 6,720 Feet (Michell 1981, 21).

Fig. 9.1. Natural measure.

Measuring the land and setting up landmarks is a magical act that brings stability to society. Traditional area measure is derived from squares based on the Rod of 15 Northern feet. A Rood of land is one Rod wide by one Furlong in length, 15 by 600 Northern Feet, 20 by 800 Natural Feet. Its area is 9,000 square Northern Feet and 16,000 square Natural feet. One Acre is an area measuring 10 by 100 Fathoms; four Roods make an Acre, measuring 60 by 600 Northern Feet; 80 by 800 Natural Feet. A Ferlingate or ferdelh is one square Furlong, 600 by 600 Northern Feet, 800 by 800 Natural Feet. Four Ferlingata make one Townyard or Virgate, a quarter of a Mile square measure, 1,200 by 1,200 Northern Feet. Four Virgata make one Hide of Land, half a Mile by half a Mile, 2,400 by 2,400 Northern Feet. Hyde Park in London, England, is a relic of this traditional land measure, and the customary four quarters of medieval towns reflect the Townyard of four Ferlingata. When the United States was surveyed for settlement from 1785, the Mile was taken as the unit for the grid with which it was laid out (Johnson 1976, passim). The grid was subdivided into Sections of land subdivided into four square Quarters of 160 Acres with sides half a mile long, the old English Townyard. The Quarters were again subdivided into 40 Acre Quarter Quarter Sections, the old English Ferlingate. The landscape of the United States is the largest example of natural measure.

Traditional land measure is thus a completely integrated system. The present Foot commonly used is not the Northern one, though the Northern Foot is embedded in the measured landscape. It is a compromise originating in 1305 in The Statute for Measuring Land, part of the reforms of King Edward I of England (33 Edward I, Stat. 6, 1305). Until then, different parts of the king’s realm had used different measures. In former Saxon areas the Northern Foot was used; the Natural Foot was used in predominantly Celtic parts. Versions of the Roman Foot were used in building along with the Norman Foot and the Greek Common Foot. The Statute for Measuring Land abolished these local variants and set up a standard Foot, which is the current standard. Land-measure units from the Rod upward were not changed. The Rod was defined as 16 feet 6 inches in the new measure, which subdivided the new Foot into 12 inches and abolished the old subdivisions. This made the new Foot (304.8 mm) in a 10:11 ratio with the old Northern Foot, which is the reason that the Mile is an odd figure of 5,280 feet. Edward I’s statute introduced a new measure; three of the new Feet became the Meter Yard (Yard, 914.4 mm) to which later mete wands conformed. This was subdivided into 16 units, the Nail of 2¼ inches, used in Britain until the twentieth century in cloth measure. Four Nails of cloth measure made one Quarter; three Quarters made one Flemish Ell. Four Quarters made one Yard, and five Quarters made one English Ell. Another measure related to the Yard is the Hand used to measure the height of horses, one Hand being 4 inches, one-ninth of a Yard. In The Nameless Art (East Anglian rural magic), a sway (magic wand) made from blackthorn or hazel should measure an old Ell in length (26.4 inches; 67.06 cm).

Fig. 9.2. Measures of the city of Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany.

In the Holy Roman Empire in medieval times, each city had its own standards of measure, based on local needs. In England and Scotland there were national measures valid across the countries. The standards were displayed in public for everyone to check measures against them. Standard measurements were made in durable metals, generally iron or bronze, and fixed to stone structures near the marketplace, so that their measure could be taken and used according to law. The measures of Augsburg in Bavaria, Germany, are shown here.

In Dunkeld, Scotland, the Ell Shop (built in 1757) is called that because there is an eighteenth-century iron ellwand fixed to one corner. It was the standard for cloth merchants in the marketplace. Also in Scotland, in the square of Fettercairn, Kincardine, is the remains of the Mercat Cross, which has an ell measure cut into the stone. Measures were transferred from place to place by taking a measure from one of these public standards. It can be seen in the case of weights, too, such as the practice of using Ouncle Weights, recorded in Scotland but clearly of much wider application. These were large stones, usually taken from the seashore, that were checked for weight against known weights, then used as weights in their own right (Warrack 1988 [1911], 392). (The Stone is still a weight used informally to weigh people in Britain. It is 14 pounds, so someone weighing 140 pounds is 10 stone.)

Publicly displayed official measures were the legally enforceable standards of the city or nation. Many local Feet and Ells for measuring cloth, however, inside and outside the Holy Roman Empire, were derived from the Northern Foot. Cities as far apart as Lyon, Moscow, and Verona, and the island of Sardinia, used Feet clearly northern in origin. As far away as China, the Revenue Ch’ ih was the same as the Saxon Foot until it was abolished in the twentieth century (Skinner 1967, 43). The Ells of cloth weaving and trading cities in the Low Countries, such as Antwerp, Namur, Nijmegen, Leiden, Oudenarde, and Maastricht were the Northern Cubit. In the Empire the cities of Aachen, Nuremberg, and Berlin used the measure, as did the Italian cities of Ferrara, Padua, Ravenna, Venice, and Trieste.

CAPACITY MEASURES

English traditional capacity measures, too, are based on the system of halving divisions. The Gallon is divided into eight Pints, each of which is subdivided into four Gills or Quarterns. The Quartern is one-sixteenth of a Gallon. Four Gills equal one Pint; two Pints are a Quart, one quarter of a Gallon; two Quarts are a Pottle, half a Gallon; two Pottles are a Gallon. Two Gallons equal one Peck; four Pecks (eight Gallons) make one Bushel; two Bushels, one Strike; two Strikes, one Coomb (Sack); two Coombs, one Quarter. Thirty-six Bushels make one Chaldron. The capacity of a cube with sides measuring one Shafthand is very close to the Pint. In the 1497 standard, the Pint was defined as equal to 12½ Troy Ounces of wheat; the Quart 25, the Pottle 50, and the Gallon 100, making the Bushel 800 Troy Ounces of wheat. Measures of ale and beer were also based upon the Gallon, but in a ninefold system. The smallest beer keg was the Pin, equal to four and a half Gallons, 36 Pints. Two of these make a Firkin, nine Gallons; two Firkins are a Kilderkin, 18 Gallons (144 Pints); two Kilderkins make a Barrel, 36 Gallons (288 Pints), and two Barrels are a Puncheon, 72 Gallons. Additionally, there are intermediate beer measures. Three Firkins make a Half Hogshead; two Half Hogsheads, of course, make a Hogshead; and two Hogsheads make a Butt of 108 Gallons.

This system of division was applied to the Winchester Standard of King Edgar (reigned 959—975 CE). In 1340 under King Edward III, it was made the universal standard in England: “It is assented and accorded that from henceforth one Measure and one Weight shall be throughout the realm of England, and that the Treasurer cause to be made certain standards of the Bushel, the Gallon, of weights made of brass, and send the same into every county where such standards be not sent before this time” (14 Edward III, Stat. I, Cap. 12, 1340). In Edward III’s statute, the Pound was defined as 6992 Grains, with an Ounce of 437 Grains for a 16-Ounce Pound. In 1824 in the United Kingdom, the standard was altered to the Imperial System by an approximately 3 percent increase in volume. The ratios and names of the units remained the same. The tenth-century Winchester Standard still applies in the U.S. Gallon and its derivatives. All of these systems of measure allow numerous whole-number divisions of measure, more practical and convenient than systems based on ten.

METE WANDS, THE “DRUID’S CORD,” AND TAKING ONE’S MEASURE

The eighth-century Anglo-Saxon military surveyors who built Offa’s Dyke and Wat’s Dyke, which formed the border between England and Wales, had precise systems of measurement (Fox 1955). Clearly, these were based upon standardized measuring rods. Similarly, the tenth-century Danish earthwork called the Danevirke and the Trelleborg-type ring fortresses demonstrate precise surveying and layout of military fortifications. At Trelleborg all the main dimensions were precisely related, and the houses inside the ring fort were all the same size. Although the exact nature of the measures is disputed, the ratios are precise. If the main buildings are taken to be 100 units (feet) long, two small houses in the middle of the blocks measure 30 × 15 units, the houses in an outer ward 90 units, and the circular rampart is 60 units thick. The radius of the inner edge of the circular rampart is 234 units, as is the distance between the inner and outer ditches (Nørlund 1948, 14).

The “druid’s cord” is a string or rope with twelve knots equally spaced, making thirteen equal units. In East Anglian tradition this measuring cord is called a snor and the marker knots are snotches. Druid’s cords can be of any length, so they can be a way of using different measures, depending on distance between knots, so long as they are equally spaced. It is not primarily a form of measurement, but a geometrical tool. The primary function of a druid’s cord is the production of right angles on the ground, as in laying out a garden or building plot. The cord can be used to construct Pythagorean triangles (right-angle-containing triangles with whole-number side lengths; e.g., 3, 4, 5). Nineteen different triangles with whole-unit sides can be made with the druid’s cord, producing forty different angles at the vertices. It is possible that this basic tool was used to lay out stone circles and enclosures, Norse triangular sacred plots, labyrinths on the ground, and “mystic plots” for ritual use. The druid’s cord also facilitates various other shapes to be laid out (Morgan 1990, 109—13; Pennick and Gout 2004, 52—55, 111).

Fig. 9.3. Grid layout of the streets of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, on a modular measure, based on the orientation of the Abbey church, ca. 1050.

“Taking someone’s measure” is considered to give the measurer power over that person. It is associated with death because the coffin maker always needed to measure the dead person’s body to make a coffin the right size for burial. If an evil person should have one’s measure, then one was doomed. But measurement was also an element of traditional healing. An accusation of measurement witchcraft from northern England is preserved in a Durham Book of Depositions from the year 1565 to 1573 (vol. xxi of the Publications of the Surtees Society). The alleged witch was Jennet Pereson, who was accused of using witchcraft in “measuring belts to preserve folks from the fairies” and taking payments to heal people “taken with the fairy.” She was said to have sent for south-running water to heal a sick child whom they believed had been taken with the fairy and thus fallen ill. Her antifairy magic was condemned as witchcraft (Henderson 1866, 140—41). Three hundred years later in Wales, Marie Trevelyan recorded measurement used as a form of medical diagnosis:

Old women who were skilful in making herb-tea, ointments and decoctions of all kinds, professed to tell for certain if a person was consumptive. This was by measuring the body. They took a string and measured the patient from head to feet, then from tip to tip of the outspread arms. If the person’s length was less than his breadth, he was consumptive; if the width from shoulder to shoulder was narrower than from the throat to the waist, there was little hope of cure. The proper measure was made of yarn. (Trevelyan 1909, 317)

This practice appears to be based upon a belief that the ideal proportions of the human body are concomitant with health.