Passing through rituals involving holes in stones and trees are widespread in Europe and beyond and are related to rituals that involve looking through a hole to see spirits. In this video we look at the passing through rituals associated with megalithic structures in Britain and Ireland, and the arboreal passing through rituals associated with oak and ash trees all over Europe, known as träddragning in Nordic countries. We also look at the related customs of looking through holes among the Sami and the Welsh, the Odinic ritual of looking through an arm akimbo as described in the Viking saga of King Hrólfr Kraki, and at the hagstone or adderstone tradition from Britain and the associated magical practices.
Animations by Castor and Bollux animation:
Thomas Cormack - Elf blot
Christian Sloan Hall - Odin
Graman Folcwald - Anglo-Saxon burial
Christopher Steininger - Odin
Sources:
Camden, W., ‘Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland’ (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610) Copyright 2004 by Dana F. Sutton.Campbell, J. G., ‘Witchcraft & second sight in the Highlands & islands of Scotland’ (1902). Davies, J. C., ‘Folk-lore of West and mid-Wales’ (1911).
Evans, George E., ‘The Pattern Under the Plough’ (1966).
Guðmundsson, H., ‘Handan hafsins’ Háskólaútgáfan (2012).
Hand, Wayland D. “‘Passing Through’: Folk Medical Magic and Symbolism.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 112, no. 6, 1968, pp. 379–402. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/985938.
Kuusela, T., 'He met his own funeral procession': The Year walk-ritual in Swedish folk tradition. Chapter in: "Folk Belief and Traditions of the Supernatural". Edited by Tommy Kuusela & Giuseppe Maiello. Beewolf Press 2016. Pp. 58-91.
Saxo Grammaticus. Gesta Danorum: the History of the Danes I, ed. Karsten Friis-Jensen, and trans. Peter Fisher (Oxford, 2014), book 2, ch. 7, pp. 138–39.
Marwick, E. (1975) The Stone of Odin. In Robertson, J. D. M. (1991) An Orkney Anthology: The Selected Works of Ernest Walker Marwick (Vol 1). Scottish Academic Press: Edinburgh.
McDowall, Sue ‘PASSING THROUGH & UNDER: A RITUAL HEALING IN ENGLAND’ Folklore Thursday blog.
National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5009137/4990205/5100637 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5009301/5005811/5133480 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922361/4874175 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5009277/5003835/5131790
Ryan, Derek ‘Hag Stones, are they an example of authentic Irish folklore or a neo-pagan import?’ The Tipperary antiquarian blog (2019)
Rydving, Hakan. (2010). The 'Bear Ceremonial' and Bear Rituals among the Khanty and the Sami. Temenos. 46. 31-52. 10.33356/temenos.6940.
Skott, F., ‘Passing Through as Healing and Crime’ (2014).
Thoms, William J. “Divination by the Blade-Bone.” The Folk-Lore Record, vol. 1, 1878, pp. 176–179. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1252358.
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