Aldsidu is Old Saxon Heathenry. The post-Christian Icelandic Misseri calendar has nothing to do with historical Saxon Heathenry. The Misseri calendar was never adopted in Norway, Denmark, nor Sweden. Sweden is telling, as Sweden was far more Heathen in the 10th century, as Iceland was fully converted by 1,000 AD/CE. What do we know about the Misseri Calendar? The Misseri Calendar began in Iceland in the 10th century. The Iceland Althing was mostly christian at this time. The Iceland Althing in the 10th century ended the lunisolar pre-Christian Heathen calendar of greater Scandinavia, only within Iceland. The lunar moons were discarded in favor of twelve 30-fixed day "months." (a lunar cycle is a "month" as the word "month" means "lunar cycle.") A Leap Week between 4-7 days was inserted into the summer so that the year would not be 360 days, but between 364 and 367 days. Individual moons (now fixed 30 day months) were moved around: Einmanuthr (first moon, one moon) was separated from Tvimanuthr (second moon), and then became five moons apart. Distingtungl was also dropped from the calendar. Most of the other moons were moved forward one moon/month due to one of the two Yule moons (Ylir-manuthr) being dropped from the calendar. The remaining Yule Moon was moved to be the equivalent of mid-November to mid-December in our modern months. This was done in the spirit of Hakon the Good and the christianization of Yule (moving Yule from the full moon of Jolmanuthr, or Yule moon (Ylir-manuthr in Iceland), to be on the Julian Calendar's winter solstice (Dec 25th, but Dec 14th in the 10th century.)) Why Dec 14th you ask? Because the Julain Calendar got 11 days off from the actual solar calendar, and the Gregorian calender would fix this in October 1582, when it replaced the Julian Calendar.). Please note though, in the 10th century, the actual solstice would have been around December 16th.
**The Misseri Calendar is post christian-Icelandic. Therefore, Aldsidu should stick with the pre-Christian Heathen calendar, not only known in Old Saxony, but also throughout the Germanic/Scandinavian world!** The Sagas use the term "misseri" 8.9 times per every time the word "year" occurs. A Misseri is a half year. So, in a sense, all Germanic tribes did have two seasons: Winter and Summer. Old Saxon uses the term "year" and not "misseri." Some people tranlsate "misseri" as "semester", but maybe "half year" is a better translation. Or maybe just "season." Please note, per the Misseri calendar, Yule is done at Xmas, and Winter Nights and Sigrblot are dropped. Also, Winter does start in late October and Summer starts in late April. (See the image below.) But "Mid-Winter" gets moved to mid-November to mid-December (Ylir-Manuthr means "Yule Moon.") Mid-winter in this system is no longer in the middle of Winter (which begins in October.)
Evidence Yule was on the full moon of Jolmanuthr (Yule Moon) Yule was moved by Hakon the Good in Norway to coincide with the Julian Calendar Solstice (Dec 25): Chapter 15 of the saga "Hakon the Good": "King Hakon was a good Christian when he came to Norway; but as the whole country was heathen, with much heathen sacrifice, and as many great people, as well as the favour of the common people, were to be conciliated, he resolved to practice his Christianity in private. But he kept Sundays, and the Friday fasts, and some token of the greatest holy days. He made a law that the festival of Yule should begin at the same time as Christian people held it, and that every man, under penalty, should brew a meal of malt into ale, and therewith keep the Yule holy as long as it lasted. Formerly the first night of Yule was hǫkunótt, that is midwinter night, and Yule was held for three nights. It was his intent, as soon as he had set himself fast in the land, and had subjected the whole to his power, to introduce Christianity. He went to work first by enticing to Christianity the men who were dearest to him; and many, out of friendship to him, allowed themselves to be baptized, and some laid aside performing blot. " The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg Chapter 17 (circa 1000 AD): "As I have heard odd stories concerning their ancient mid-winter sacrifices, I will not allow this custom to be ignored. The middle of that kingdom is called Lederun (Lejre), in the region of Sjælland, all the people gathered every nine years in January, that is after we have celebrated the birth of the Lord [Christmas], and there they offered to their gods sacrifices…” Dr. Andreas Nordberg, the world’s foremost scholar on Norse Holidays, makes clear in his book on the dating of Yule that “The pre-Christian Yule feast occurs at the first full moon after the first new moon following the winter solstice, while the disting took place at the third full moon according to the same method of calculation.” (Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning Kalendrar och kalendariska riter i det förkristna Norden Uppsala 2006, P.4) Dr. Andreas E Zautner in his book: "The Lunisolar Calendar of the Germanic People's: reconstruction of a bound moon calendar from ancient medieval and early modern sources"Chapter 10.2.2: "It is a common misinterpretation to think it happened (midwinter) on the winter solstice. According to the primstaff, the midwinter feast was celebrated in the so-called 'hökunótt' on January 12, this it has been a calendar fixed date in the middle of the Julian month. Applying a lunar calendar, this is the full moon date, also in accord with the Jól moon and Disting rules, this time in the first lunar moon (of the year, begining after the solstice)." Bede states in De Temporum Ratione, Ch 15 (725 AD): "Thus, the moon by which they began their winter season was called “Winterfylleth”, a name compounded of the terms for winter and full moon, because from the full moon of that moon winter was thought to begin." It is very clear that the Anglish Winter Full Moon (corresponding to Norse Winter Nights) began on a full moon. This was the method of dating for all Germanic tribes. What do scholars say? Kristín Bjarnadóttir from the University of Iceland has the following to say in her work: "Misseri-Calendar: A Calendar embedded in Nature, Society, and Culture": "Although there is no definitive written evidence as to why Icelanders abandoned the lunar months, reflecting on the visibility of the moon as an inhabitant of Iceland suggests several plausible speculations. For example, the moon is often low in the sky at northern latitudes, and the sky itself is frequently cloudy. The nights in Iceland also remain light from April until late August, so that the moon can rarely be seen in the summer, even when it is full. Reasons such as these may explain why counting the lunar months in summer was abandoned, and counting the summer weeks was instead adopted." (page 2) Íslendingabók [The Book of Icelanders, Libellum Islandorum], was written by Ari the Learned in the period 1122–1133 AD/CE. It survives in manuscripts from the seventeenth century. According to this book, an agreement was reached at the yearly parliamentary gathering in the year 930 to meet again after 52 weeks, or twelve 30-day months and four extra nights. Time keeping by means of counting the weeks and the standardization to 30-day months appears thus to have been formally agreed upon simultaneously. In accordance with this new calendar, the year was divided into two terms, or misseri, with the summer-misseri to last six months, the winter-misseri another six months, and the four extra nights were added in summer (a leap week.) [Benediktsson, J. (ed.), 1968. Íslendingabók. Íslensk fornritI, 1. pp. 9–11. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska fornritafélag.]. What is most important, the Misseri Calendar also ditches the full moon blots, in favor of fixed date blots. The Icelandic Gragas laws prove this: “The first day of summer is to be a Thursday; from then three months of thirty nights and four nights in addition are to be counted to midsummer. From midsummer there are to be three months of thirty nights to winter. The first day of winter is to be a Saturday and from then there shall be six months of thirty nights to summer; and ten weeks of summer are to have passed when men come to the General Assembly. Throughout the calendar a day precedes a night."
— The Laws of Early Iceland: Grágás I [Dennis et. al. trans., 2014] The 10th century Iceland Althing (post-christian) calendar is pictured below, with 12 different 30 day fixed months, completely detatched from the lunar moons. Notice Einmanuthr (one/first moon) is five moons away from Tvi-manuthr (second moon.) Notice that Ylir-Manuthr (Yule moon) starts in November, and ends in December. This is a blatant christian attempt, to make Yule moon end around the time of the solstice, despite the fact that in pre-Christian Heathen times, Yule was on a full moon in January, not on a new moon at the end of Yule Moon. Please note, Thorrablot, was a blot invented in Copenhagen by students, in 1873. The Orkneyinga Saga states that Kvens offered a yearly blot to Þorri (Thorri) at mid-winter. (Yule). The students in Copenhagen, in 1873, who started Thorrablot, were really trying to do a pre-Christian Yule blot, as Christmas is the post-Christian Yule, so by adding a Thorrablot in January, they get to celebrate both the Xmas Yule in December and the Pre-Christian Heathen Yule in January with the title "Thorrablot." Therefore, Thorrablot is another title for the pre-christian Heathen Yule, though this title (Thorrablot) started in 1873, so Thorrablot (to be blunt) is not a pre-Christian Heathen blot. Yule at this time, was the pre-Christian Heathen blot.
Please note in the jpeg above, that Summer starts in the END of April, and Winter begins at the END of October. Yule in Icelandic is "Ylir". Ylir ends at the end of December, i.e. around the time of the Julian Calendar's Sosltice. Therefore, Xmas, is not a mid-way point between the end of October and the end of April. In other words, Yule, in the Misseri calendar, cannot be "mid-winter."
Please also note, the moving of the calendar moons, one moon forward, is the reason why people get Disting, two full moons after Yule's Full moon, and Sigrblot, three full moons after Yule Full Moon, mixed up. Even Wikipedia gets confused as to whether Disting or Sigrblot occured in the Swedish pre-christian moon of Goa, or in Iceland's post Christian moon of Goa. (Go to Wikipedia and look up "Disting.") Disting stands for "Disir-Thing". Disting is a Thing, and not a blot.
Here is a (not well translated) passage from Wikipedia’s article on Disting, from the Sagas: “In Svithjod[6] it was the old custom, as long as heathenism prevailed, that the chief sacrifice took place in Goe month[7] at Upsala. Then sacrifice was offered for peace, and VICTORY to the king; and thither came people from all parts of Svithjod.” ---So, this Saga passage quoted on Wikipedia, is CLEARLY A BLOT FOR VICTORY AND TO THE KING. This is Sigrblot, and it was in Goa in PRE-CHRISTIAN times, but later, Goa was moved, so in Snorri’s time, Goa was not when Sigrblot was, but when Disting was. Therefore, we have confusion, due to post-Christian Iceland abandoning their pre-christian heathen calendar. And this is not debatable, Sigrblot in Swedish means "victory blot", and therefore this is a BLOT and not a THING. Here is a better translation:
Heimskringla Olaf’s Saga Helga 77 “In Sweden there was an age-old custom whilst they were still heathen that there should be a blot in Upsala during Goa (a moon in pre-christian times close to April). Then they would blot for peace and victory for their king. People from all over Sweden were to resort there.”
Please note, Dr. Andreas Nordberg, also agrees that the Goa moon of Snorri's time, was not the Goa moon of pre-Christian Heathen times. Dr. Nordberg states:
"As well as Yule, the time of the disablot in Uppsala has also been the subject of much discussion. According to Adam of Bremen this event took place at “about the time of the vernal equinox”, whilst Snorri instead says that the event was held in the month of Gói, which lasted from mid-February to mid-March in the Icelandic calendar during Snorri’s lifetime. However, it is likely that the information given to Snorri did not refer to the Icelandic month, but the Swedish lunar month called Göje or Göja." (Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning Kalendrar och kalendariska riter i det förkristna Norden Uppsala 2006, P.157)
The Seven-Day Week:
Post-Christian Iceland, and all of Europe for that matter, adopted a foreign period of time known as "the seven day week." While many assume wrongly this started with the Hebrew Bible, middle-east cultures had a seven day week long before the Hebrews wrote their bible (which christians call "the old testament.") Nonetheless, Old Saxon poetry does not have the word "week" (later 'uuika' in later Low German). This was a foreign concept brought into Europe. Even the Greek and Roman world did not have a word for "week" in the first and second centuries, and this is not something that can be debated. The New Testament was written in Greek in the first century. Not only does the Greek New Testament not have a word for "week", but even the Chruch fathers in the second century did not use a word for "week", as this word did not exist yet.
The Greek New Testament doesn't have a word for seven day week, but uses "sabbath" to mean "sabbath" and "days from the sabbath, like in the jpeg below. This is CONSISTENT throughout the entire New Testament and the writings of the church fathers in Greek and Latin. The word "sabbaton" (meaning "sabbath") is used for both the word Sabbath, and the word for "week", i.e. one day from the sabbath, two days from the sabbath, etc. Here is Matthew 28:1, when Christ rose from the tomb on Sunday. Notice that the Greek word for "Sabbath" and "Sunday" are exactly the same! Sunday is "eis mian sabbaton" (one day from the Sabbath). In other words, the Greek Language had to count the days this way, because the Greco-Roman world had not yet adopted a "week" yet. In the late second century, the Roman world would first adopt an 8 day week (christ rose from the dead on the 8th day in their mind), which was later reduced to a seven day week. This can easily be verified with just a little bit of research! The point of this, is to state that Europeans, and Proto-Indo-Europeans, and Heathen Saxons in pre-Christian times, did not know of a period of time called a "week." Weeks are clearly a foreign concept brought by Christianity into Europe. Therefore, Icelanders, who were already Christian, moving Yule to be the same time as Xmas, and discarding their lunisolar (lunar based) pre-Christian Heathen Calendar, were clearly influenced by Roman fixed day "months" (having nothing to do with the moon, which is "odd" by definition of the word). These peoples were removed from their Heathenry, being christians, and the post-Christian Icelandic Misseri calendar with its seven day week is clearly not Heathen.
PS-Even the early church fathers were 100% consistent in counting days from the sabbath, as there was no Roman/Greek word for "week." Justin Martyr (died 165 AD) wrote in his "Dialogue with Trypho": "The first day after the Sabbath, remaining the first of all the days, is called, however, the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and [yet] remains the first." -- This is a clear pattern in first and second century Greek and Roman writings! First an 8 day week was adopted (when no period of a week was known before), and then later this changed to a 7 day week.
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