The Story of the Months

The Spring Months

April - the month of Venus

Gemstone : Diamond
Flower : Sweet Pea 

Where does the word April orginate from?

No one knows for certain how April got its name, but it may have come from the Latin word 'aperire' which means 'to open'. April is, after all, the month when in the northern hemisphere buds begin to open and things start to grow again after the winter.

Eostre monath or Eastremonath was the Anglo-Saxon name for the month. The name of the Christian Festival of Easter comes from this Anglo-Saxon word.

MAY

May--The Month of Maia

Gemstone: Emerald
Flower: Lilly of the Valley 

May is named after the Greek goddess, Maia. The month is a time of great celebrations in the northern hemisphere. It is the time when flowers emerge and crops begin to sprout.

The Anglo-Saxon name for May was Tri-Milchi, in recognition of the fact that with the lush new grass cows could be milked three times a day. It was first called May in about 1430. Before then it was called Maius, Mayes, or Mai.

JUNE

June--The Month of Juno

Gemstone: Pearl
Flower: Rose

June marks the beginning of Summer in the northern hemisphere and the month of the Wimbledon tennis tournament in England.

June is the sixth month of the year and takes its name from the Roman goddess Junno, the goddess of marriage. For this reason, June has always been looked upon as the best month in which to marry:

Married in the month of roses - June
Life will be one long homeymoon.

Sera monath (Dry month) was the name the Anglo-Saxons gave to the month.

July--The Month of Julius Caesar

Gemstone: Ruby
Flower: Larkspur

July is one of the hottest months of the year. It is nearly the end of the school year and summer holidays are near.

July is the seventh month of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. It was the fifth month in the early calendar of the ancient Romans. The Romans called the month Quintilius, which means fifth. A Roman Senate renamed the month to Julius (July) in honour of Julius Caesar, who was born on 12 July.

The Anglo-Saxon names for the month included Heymonath or Maed monath, referring respectively to haymaking and the flowering of meadows.

August--The Month of Augustus

Gemstone: Agate
Flower: Gladiolus

August, the eighth month of the year and the sixth month of the Roman calendar. The Romans called the month Sextilis, which means sixth. Eight years before Jesus was born the name of the month was changed to Augustus in honour of the Roman Emperor Augustus Casesar, because many of the important events in his life happened around that time of year.

The Anglo-Saxons called it Weod monath, which means Weed month, because it is the month when weeds and otehr plants grow most repidly.

August is the busiest time for tourism, as it falls in the main school holiday of the year, the summer holidays, which lasts for six weeks for state run schools.

September--The Seventh Month

Gemstone: Sapphire
Flower: Aster

The name September comes from the old Roman word 'septem', which means seven, because in the Roman calendar it was the seventh month. The Anglo-Saxons called it Gerst monath (Barley month), because it was their time when they harvested barley to be made into their favourite drink - barley brew. They also called it Haefest monath, or Harvest month.

The Romans believed that the month of September was looked after by the god, Vulcan. As the god of the fire and forge they therefore expected September to be associated with fires, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

September is the start of the school year. Students return to school after the six week summer holiday.

October--The Eighth Month

Gemstone: Opal
Flower: Calendula

In the old Roman calendars, October was the eighth month of the year and got its name from the word 'Octo' meaning eight.

The Saxons called it Wyn Monath because it was the season of wine making.

During October, the leaves begin to change colour, transforming Britains landscape into an array of autumn colours.

November

Gemstone: Topaz
Flower: Chrysanthemum

The name comes from the Roman word 'novem' meaning nine, because it was the ninth month in their Roman calendar.

Few people find November pleasant. The Anglo-Saxons called November 'Wind monath',

because it was the time when the cold winds began to blow. They also called it 'Blod monath', because it was the time when cattle were slaughtered for winter food. The poet T.S. Elliot called it 'Sombre November'. Sir Walter Scott, in his long poem Marmion, wrote in 1808:

November's sky is chill and drear,
November's leaf is red and sear (withered)'

December

Christmas Plant - Poinsettia
(December 12 is Poinsettia Day)

Gemstone: Turquoise
Flower: Narcissus

December used to be the tenth month of the Roman year, and it gets its name from the word 'decem', which means ten.

The Anglo-Saxons called it 'Winter monath', or 'Yule monath' because of the custom of burning the yule log around this time. After many Anglo-Saxons became Christians they called it 'Heligh monath' or holy month, because Christmas, the birth of Jesus, is celebrated in December.

In the northern hemisphere December marks the beginning of winter, and it is the time of rain, wind and snow.

The Unicorn Tales

The Adventures of Reynard the Fox

Reynard is Summoned to Court

        Sir Tibert the Cat was sent by King Lion to summon Reynard the Fox to appear at court, there to answer for all his offences.
       When he arrived at Reynard's Castle the fox promised to return with him to the court. "But," said the fox, "you must remain for the night, and tomorrow we will travel together." Sir Tibert agreed to this. Then the fox began to lay a meal, but all he could provide was honey.
      "That is food I care nothing about," said the cat. "Have you not got a mouse? "
"Oh," replied Reynard, "come with me to the priest's barn; it is full of mice!"
So the two set out for the barn.
        There is the entrance," said the fox, pointing to the hole by which he had entered the night before and stolen a hen.
   Now what the cat didn't know was that  the priest had set a trap near the hole inside the barn, and when Sir Tibert crept in he was caught in the trap.
His mewing soon brought out the priest, who, supposing him to be Reynard, began striking out with a stick. Thereupon Sir Tibert seized the priest's leg with his teeth, and while the worthy man and his wife were attending to his wound Sir Tibert bit through the cord that held him and made off as fast as he could.

Reynard Tells of a Treasure.

      When at last Reynard the Fox was brought to the court so many witnesses appeared against him that he was found guilty and sentenced to death. He asked that he might make a confession of all his misdeeds, and in the course of this confession he said something that made the king listen very carefully.
        "My lord the king," he declared, "in Flanders there is a dense wood by a river and in it I have hidden a great treasure. I want you to get this treasure; then perhaps you will remember your devoted servant Reynard."
        The animals who had accused the fox now began to feel very nervous, for King Lion, having learned exac6tly where the treasure was supposed to be hidden, forgave the fox and made him a noble man.
      "Hear, all you knights and gentlemen," said the king. "Sir Reynard is now one of the chief officers of my court, and I do charge you upon pain of death, to show him the greatest reverence." Reynard now asked permission to make a pilgrimage to Rome, and he set out, accompanied by the hare and the ram.
         Soon the party arrived at Reynard's house, and the fox asked Bellin the Ram to kep guard outside while Kayward the Hare went into the house to see Reynard's meeting with his family. Once inside it was not long before the hare was killed and eaten. The fox came out and gave a bag to the ram, asking him to take it to the king.
"Where is Kayward?" asked Bellin.
      "Oh he is talking with my aunt, and wants you to go on; he will overtake you."
The Ram carried the bag to the king. "Sire," he said, "this is a present from Sir Raynard, who rested at his castle."
"Open the bag!" said the king.
        The bag was opened , and out fell the head of poor Kayward the Hare.
"Alas!" said the king, "unhappy monarch that I am ever to have given credit to a sly and traitorous fox.
                           Reynard Escapes.

      The day after Bellin the ram had brought the head of Kayward the Hare to the King, Laprel the Coney came into the court weeping and crying.
"Oh king!" deliver your subjects from the wicked attacks of Reynard the Fox. I was passing his castle yesterday, and he came out telling his beads so devoutly that instead of hastening away, I saluted him and immediately he gave me such a blow that I was nearly killed."
        At that moment in came Corbant the Rook in a great state of excitement.
"Oh my lord hear me!" he cried. "I was on the common this morning when I saw Reynard the Fox lying apparently dead and stiff on his back. My wife went and put her head to his mouth to see if he was still breathing when suddenly the wicked creature snapped at her and bit her head clean off. Then he made a dash for me, and I only just managed to get away."
        The king was furious. Reynard was brought to trial a second time, sentenced to death once more, but again he escaped by talking of the treasure and by promising to go in search of it himself for the king..
 And that is as far as Reynard's Adventures have gone up to now, I have many more hidden away that I shall find them for you at a later date... Don't you think Reynard was a terrible rogue, but then I think the King was a worse one, for he was just a very greedy Lion King.

Reynard the Fox has been a popular character in stories since his origin in medieval French fables. A sly trickster, Reynard – which is simply the French word for “fox” – is brought to trial by the other animals of the forest, all of whom come forward with complaints against them. He notoriously gets away with every single one. This edition was translated and amended from a Dutch version of the story by F.S. Ellis; it was published in London by D. Nutt in 1894. Each chapter of the relatively long book tells a different animal’s testimony; complaints against Reynard are various and grave, but he evades blame.

"Reynard the Fox - English Traditional"

Ye gentlemen of high renown,
come listen unto me.
That takes delight in fox hunting,
by every degree.
A story I will tell to you,
concerning of a fox.
Near royston woods and mountains high
and over stony rocks.

Bold Reynard being in his hole,
and hearing of these hounds.
Which made him for to prick up his ears,
and tread upon the ground.
"Methinks me hears some jubal hounds,
a-pressing upon the life.
Before that they should come to me,
I'll tread upon the ground".

We hunted for four hours or more,
through parishes sixteen.
We hunted for four hours or more,
and came by Parkworth Green.
"Oh, if you'll only spare my life,
I promise and fulfil.
To touch no more your feathered fowl,
or lambs on yonder hill"

Bold Reynard, spent and out of breath,
and treading on this ground.
Thinking he must give up his life,
before these jubal hounds.
"So here's adieu to ducks and geese,
likewise to lambs also".
They've got poor Reynard by the slabs
and will not let him go.

Old Hungarian Fairy Tales by  Baroness Orczy

But the princess was very proud and very vain of her own beauty, and she said to her mother one day: "It is quite useless for either Dragon-fly or Stag-beetle, or, in fact, any of them to try and woo me, for I will not marry any one unless he perform some perilous task which I will impose upon him. Then if he fails, and dies in the attempt, I shall be thankful to have escaped being married to so foolish and careless a being; or if he should not dare to attempt the task, it will be a proof that he values his life higher than his love, and is therefore not worth having."

As this beautiful princess was very much spoilt at home, her mother and father, King and Queen Fire-fly, both acceded to her whim, and the king issued a proclamation, by which he declared that no suitor should have the hand of his lovely daughter unless he performed the task she imposed upon him.

Forthwith did Prince Gold-beetle start from his kingdom of Gladiola over the grass, and placed his heart and hand at Princess Fire-fly's feet. She listened to all he had to say, and smiled very sweetly. "Yes," she said, "all that you say is very pretty indeed, and I am sure your proposal is exceedingly flattering; but you know the condition, without which I cannot possibly marry you."

"Name the condition, lovely princess," said the Gold-beetle; "no task, be it ever so hard, would be too much to undertake for such a prize."

"You most bring me, from anywhere you like," said the beautiful Fire-fly, "one spark of fire!"

"Is that all you wish for?" said the Gold-beetle. "I fly, and before another night has descended and passed by I will lay this spark at your feet." And away he flew, quite confident that he would be able to obtain so simple a thing as a mere little spark of fire, which the  moment night came could be found in every house in the neighbourhood. You will hear presently how he fared in his quest.

In the meantime the beautiful Fire-fly had another suitor. Lord Cockchafer appeared upon the scene, and, obtaining entrance into the Lotus Palace, he boldly asked for the honour of becoming the Princess's husband, but she turned away quite disdainfully from him:

"I don't think I should ever care to marry you at all," she said; "but I am so very, very anxious to possess a spark of fire, and I really would like to know if you would be brave enough to undertake a perilous task in order to please me."

"I will travel night and day," said Lord Cockchafer, "till I bring you what you wish."

Away he went, tripping merrily, and blissfully unconscious of the fact that he was not the only one who was bent on this curious errand.

Presently Fire-fly had another suitor—a beautiful suitor he was too, with his shimmering suit of green and gold, my Lord Dragon-fly. He thought to dazzle her by his beauty and make her forget her foolish fancy about this spark of fire. But the princess would not listen even to him; she only smiled, and said—

"I will only marry him who brings me this spark of fire."

And away he had to go. And thus, day after day, there came a regular crowd of suitors round the beautiful princess; but day after day she sent them off in quest of a spark of fire.

Prince Gold-beetle waited till night set in, then flew off gaily to the nearest city. He came up near a lovely little house, standing in a large garden; he looked in at the window, and there he saw a large table laid out with tea and cakes, sweets and fruit, and twelve little girls and boys sitting round, having their tea; on the table a large lamp was burning very brightly.

"Why, this is just what I want," said Prince Gold­-beetle; and as the window was open he flew in. The lamp burnt beautifully, it quite fascinated him; he flew quite close, in order to get a better view of the bright flame.

"Oh, what a lovely beetle," he heard one of the little children say, "Mother, do look! What beautiful wings it has!"

"Oh, dear, it is flying so near the lamp I am sure it will burn its wings," said another.

The Gold-beetle took no notice of what they said, but drew nearer and nearer to the coveted prize; there was a spark of lovely fire, how pleased the beautiful princess would be when he brought it home for her. At last he made a bold dash to catch the flame, when lo! alas! he felt his poor wings all singed and burnt; he could not fly any more, but fell fainting on the tablecloth. He heard the little children say to each other—

"Stupid beetle to go flying into the lamp; now it has burnt its lovely wings."

Then somebody else said, "Throw away the nasty thing, or put it out of its misery."

That was the end of poor Prince Gold-beetle's life.

  Another suitor of Fire-fly, a Hawk-moth, while fluttering about one evening, wandered into a room where, at first, he could see nothing, it seemed pitch dark; presently he noticed a large luminous object, which turned out to be long blue flames, apparently emerging from a large bowl, filled with plums; all round he saw eager little laughing faces, and every now and then little fingers would boldly make a dash into the bowl and bring out a flaring sugar plum. Hawk-moth watched them for a time, very much interested; you see, they don't play snap­dragon in the Lotus kingdom. Then he suddenly thought this would be a grand opportunity to steal a lovely spark of blue fire, and with it claim the hand of the proud princess. He fluttered round the bowl for some time, but no one paid any attention to him, they were all so merry pulling out the plums and eating them. It seemed so easy that Hawkmoth determined to try his luck, and boldly flew into the flames. Alas! poor fellow, he was burnt to a cinder, you could hardly tell him from a raisin.

One after another the suitors tried, and one after another they failed. There was a Horn­bug who actually, one night, saw a green light in a cat's eye; he tried to snatch that, but you may well imagine how pussy, very much annoyed, made a short meal of my lord Horn-bug.

A venturesome Carrion-beetle having drifted towards the sea-shore, late one night, saw some fish lying there apparently all glowing with fire. He picked off one of the glistening scales, and went away proud and happy, quite convinced that the necessary prize—the much-sought-for spark of fire—was at last in his grasp. He was hurrying to get to Lotus land as fast as his legs could carry him, when he met a Stag-beetle, [30] who apparently was also carrying a luminous object in front of him. The fact of the matter was, that Mr. Stag-beetle had also fallen madly in love with the beautiful but capricious princess, and had determined to succeed in bringing her a spark of fire, even if it should cost him his wings!

After several unsuccessful attempts he had found at the foot of a large tree, a funny little bit of old wood, which gave out a beautiful little bright blue light. He approached very carefully (as he had been severely burnt several times), and you may be sure he was delighted when he found that it did not give out any heat, so that he was able to carry it off without burning himself. He was hurrying off with his prize to claim the Princess, when he met Mr. Carrion-beetle bent on a similar errand.

They both stopped short, and glared at each other. No explanation was necessary. Each knew where the other one was hurrying to, and each was determined to get there first. They could not both marry Princess Fire-fly, that was very evident, so, after talking matters over for a while, they determined to fight it out till one of them remained dead on the battle-field. It was pitch dark, but the fish-scale and the bit of wood were quite enough light to kill one another by, so they each put down their prize, and began boxing in true beetle-like fashion.

As they both were equally tall, and equally strong, the fight lasted a considerable time. When lo! behold! as the first ray of dawn illumined the eastern sky, and the two combatants turned for a rest, previous to renewing hostilities, there, on the ground, instead of the two tiny sparks of blue flame, lay only a nasty fish's scale and an ugly bit of wood. King Phosphorus had vanished with the dawn. Further fighting was useless. Carrion-beetle and Stagbeetle each went his own way to seek fortune elsewhere.

  Meanwhile, the Princess, in her beautiful palace, waited in vain for the return of one of her many suitors. When she heard of the sad fate of Prince Gold-beetle, she wept bitterly, for though she was so proud and vain, she was not wholly devoid of feeling, and of the many who had come wooing her she had preferred Prince Gold-beetle. When the Queen saw her tears, she tried to make her forego her purpose; but all her persuasions were of no avail, for the Princess was very obstinate, and would not own to being in the wrong.

Suitor after suitor came, and they were one and all sent off on the same hopeless errand. One day a most beautiful "Red Admiral" was on the point of committing suicide on the thorn of a rosebush, being so fearfully despondent on account of his non-success, when he caught sight of a luminous object underneath the very branch upon which he meant to end his life. His joy was great; what was it? Would it hurt him? He thought not, it looked so beautiful as it lay and sparkled in the sun. All round it was a hoop of gold. He went closer; no, it did not burn. Then came the question, how was he to convey it to the Princess? It was far too heavy for him to carry. Whilst he was considering how he could possibly convey it, he heard footsteps, and in another second a little child's voice exclaim, "Why, look! here is your diamond ring you lost; . . . . how lucky it is I have found it," and the child picked it up and gave it to a grown-up lady who was a little way off.  This was the last straw for the beautiful Red Admiral, and in another minute he had committed suicide.

And thus it was with one and all—some were frightened, and never attempted the task, others were badly singed, some died, none succeeded, and even to this day, in far-off lands, where the lotus grows, we always say when we see a crowd of insects fluttering round a flame: "Ah! Princess Fire-fly has many suitors to-night!"

 

THE STORY OF THE FIRST WOODPECKER.

        IN the days of long ago the Great Spirit came down from the sky and talked with men. Once as he went up and down the earth, he came to the wigwam of a woman. He went into the wigwam and sat down by the fire, but he looked like an old man, and the woman did not know who he was.

        "I have fasted for many days," said the Great Spirit to the woman. "Will you give me some food?" The woman made a very little cake and put it on the fire. "You can have this cake," she said, "if you will wait for it to bake." "I will wait," he said.

        When the cake was baked, the woman stood and looked at it. She thought, "It is very large. I thought it was small. I will not give him so large a cake as that." So she put it away and made a small one. "If you will wait, I will give you this when it is baked," she said, and the Great Spirit said, "I will wait."

        When that cake was baked, it was larger than the first one. "It is so large that I will keep it for a feast," she thought. So she said to her guest, "I will not give you this cake, but if you will wait, I will make you another one." "I will wait," said the Great Spirit again.

        Then the woman made another cake. It was still smaller than the others had been at first, but when she went to the fire for it, she found it the largest of all. She did not know that the Great Spirit's magic had made each cake larger, and she thought, "This is a marvel, but I will not give away the largest cake of all." So she said to her guest, "I have no food for you. Go to the forest and look there for your food. You can find it in the bark of the trees, if you will."

        The Great Spirit was angry when he heard the words of the woman. He rose up from where he sat and threw back his cloak. "A woman must be good and gentle," he said, "and you are cruel. You shall no longer be a woman and live in a wigwam. You shall go out into the forest and hunt for your food in the bark of trees."

         The Great Spirit stamped his foot on the earth, and the woman grew smaller and smaller. Wings started from her body and feathers grew upon her. With a loud cry she rose from the earth and flew away to the forest.