Midsiujimei' Fires 



D.-^ 



ill t'lie sumiiJL'i' of 1782, as to have iny curiosity gratified 

 by the sight of this ceremony to (over) a very great 

 extent of country. At the house wliere I was enter- 

 tained it was told me that we should see at midniylit 

 the most singular siglit in Iceland, which was the light- 

 ing of fires in honour of the sun. Accordingly, exactly 

 at midnight, the fires began to appear, and taking the 

 advantage of going up to the leads of the house, which 

 had a widely extended view, I saw on a radius of thirty 

 miles all round the fires burning on every eminence 

 which the country afforded. I had the further advan- 

 tage of learning, on undoubted authority, that the people 

 danced rov/nd the fires, and at the close went through 

 these fires, and made their sons and daughters, together 

 with their cattle, pass through the fire, and the whole 

 was conducted with religious solemnity.' 



This is a description of the ceremony in its most elabo- 

 rate form, such as, even at that date, I suspect, was hardly 

 to be found in England. Stow speaks of the custom of 

 hanging garlands of lucky herbs over the doors, and 

 among these garlands placing blazing lamps which burn 

 all night. Among the herbs which were considered to 

 give a blessing if thus employed, or according to other 

 customs if thrown into the midsummer fire, St. John's 

 wort is one that preserves the memory of this custom. 

 Fennel, marjoram, green birch, are others of those magi- 

 cal herbs mentioned by different writers. In Sweden, 

 besides lighting the midsummer fire, they in most places 

 raise, or used a year or two ago to raise, a pole like a 

 Maypole, and this was hung with garlands, which were 

 no doubt originally, if they are not still, made up of 

 these mao-ical herbs. We read in some accounts of 



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