Blōtmōnaþ (modern English: ''
blót
( Old Norse) and or ( Old English) are terms for "blood sacrifice" in Norse paganism and Anglo-Saxon paganism respectively. A comparanda can also be reconstructed for wider Germanic paganism.
A ' could be dedicated to any of the Germanic ...
month'') was the
Anglo-Saxon name for the month of
November.
The name was recorded by the Anglo-Saxon
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...
Bede in his treatise ''
De temporum ratione'' (The Reckoning of Time), saying "Blod-monath is month of immolations, for it was in this month that the cattle which were to be slaughtered were dedicated to the gods.”
An entry in the
Menologium seu Calendarium Poeticum, an Anglo-Saxon poem about the months, explains that “this month is called ''Novembris'' in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, and in our language the ''month of sacrifice'', because our forefathers, when they were
heathens, always sacrificed in this month, that is, that they took and devoted to their idols the cattle which they wished to offer.”
[Bosworth, Joseph. "An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online." Blót-mónaþ. March 21, 2010. Accessed September 20, 2014. http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/040642.]
See also
*
Germanic calendar
The early Germanic calendars were the regional calendars used among the early Germanic peoples before they adopted the Julian calendar in the Early Middle Ages. The calendars were an element of early Germanic culture.
The Germanic peoples had nam ...
*
Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
*
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blotmonath
November
Old English