Corn dolly

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For the UK band, see The Corn Dollies.

Corn dollies are a form of straw work made for and associated with harvest customs of Europe before mechanisation.

Before Christianization, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the "corn" (in modern American English, "corn" would be "grain") lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless. J.G. Frazer devotes chapters in The Golden Bough to "Corn-Mother and Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe" (chs. 45-48) and adduces European folkloric examples collected in great abundance by W. Mannhardt. Among the customs attached to the last sheaf of the harvest, hollow shapes were fashioned from the last sheaf of wheat or other cereal crop. The corn spirit would then spend the winter in their homes until the "corn dolly" was ploughed into the first furrow of the new season. "Dolly" may be a corruption of "idol" or simply the diminutive of Dorothy applied to any doll-like object.

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[edit] Background

James George Frazer discusses the Corn-mother and the Corn-maiden in Northern Europe, and the harvest rituals that were being practiced at the beginning of the 20th century:

"In the neighbourhood of Danzig the person who cuts the last ears of corn makes them into a doll, which is called the Corn-mother or the Old Woman and is brought home on the last waggon. In some parts of Holstein the last sheaf is dressed in women's clothes and called the Corn-mother. It is carried home on the last waggon, and then thoroughly drenched with water. The drenching with water is doubtless a rain-charm. In the district of Bruck in Styria the last sheaf, called the Corn-mother, is made up into the shape of a woman by the oldest married woman in the village, of an age from 50 to 55 years. The finest ears are plucked out of it and made into a wreath, which, twined with flowers, is carried on her head by the prettiest girl of the village to the farmer or squire, while the Corn-mother is laid down in the barn to keep off the mice. In other villages of the same district the Corn-mother, at the close of harvest, is carried by two lads at the top of a pole. They march behind the girl who wears the wreath to the squire's house, and while he receives the wreath and hangs it up in the hall, the Corn-mother is placed on the top of a pile of wood, where she is the centre of the harvest supper and dance."
—The Golden Bough, chapter 45

Many more customs are instanced by Frazer (see link).

[edit] Vetula

"In the neighbourhood of Danzig the person who cuts the last ears of corn makes them into a doll, which is called the Corn-mother or the Old Woman and is brought home on the last waggon.... In East Prussia, at the rye or wheat harvest, the reapers call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You are getting the Old Grandmother....In Scotland, when the last corn was cut after Hallowmas, the female figure made out of it was sometimes called the Carlin or Carline, that is, the Old Woman."[1]The name the "Old Woman" (Latin vetula) for such "corn dolls" was in use among the Germanic pagans of Flanders in the 7th century, where Saint Eligius had to warn them to desist from their old practices:

"[Do not] make vetulas, (little figures of the Old Woman), little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf, compare Puck] at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks [a Yule custom]."[2]

[edit] Materials used

With the advent of the combine harvester, the old-fashioned, long-stemmed and hollow-stemmed wheat varieties were replaced with knee-high, pithy varieties. However, a number of English farmers are still growing the traditional varieties,[3] mainly because they are in demand with thatchers.

[edit] Varieties

Corn Dollies and other similar harvest straw work can be divided into these groups:

[edit] Traditional corn dollies

  • Countryman's favours
    • Cat's Paw
    • Lover's Knot
    • Glory Braid
  • Other designs
    • Cornucopia, or Horn of plenty
    • Bride of the Corn (called "Aruseh" in North Africa)

[edit] Fringes

  • Larnaca Fringe
  • Montenegrin Fringe
  • Lancashire Fringe

[edit] Harvest crosses

[edit] Large straw figures

A Swedish Christmas goat.
A Swedish Christmas goat.

These are representations of deities, made from an entire sheaf. They are known by a variety of names, depending on location and also the time of harvesting:

  • The Goddess Ceres
  • Maiden or Bride (harvest before All Saints):
  • Cailleach or cailleagh - corn mother or Auld Mother (harvest after All Saints)
  • Whittlesey Straw Bear, the centre of a ceremony in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, every January. Its origins are obscure.

[edit] Tied straw work

  • German Tied Straw Work
  • Kusa Dazi (Turkey)
  • Scandinavian Tied Work
  • Swedish Straw Crown (Oro)
  • Straw Tomte or Nisse

[edit] Straw marquetry

[edit] Rick finials

  • These are straw sculptures which are placed on the rick of the thatched roof. They are sometimes purely for decoration, but can be the signature of a particular thatcher. Animal shapes (birds, foxes etc.) are the most common.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Frazer, ch. 45.
  2. ^ Saint Ouen of Rouen; trans. Jo Ann McNamara. The Life of Saint Eligius (Vita Sancti Eligii). 
  3. ^ Some traditional English varieties of wheat: Maris Widgeon, Squarehead Master, Elite Le Peuple.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links