On the Second Blog of Christmas

The Fantasy & Enchantment Blog gives you two little mysteries in a single package.

Once a year in Abbots Bromley, a little village in England's West Midlands, twelve dancers set out from the St. Nicholas Church. Six of them carry reindeer antlers--three racks of black horns and three racks of white. The other six are stock figures from pantomime--Maid Marion (always played by a man in a dress), Hobby Horse, Fool, a boy with a bow and arrow (Cupid?), a boy with a triangle and a musician.


The twelve follow a fourteen-mile circuit from the church to Blithfield Hall and back again. At various sites along the way they stop to perform a winding circle dance. Finally, around 8 p.m., the dancers return the horns to the church and stay for Compline.


Mystery One is the is the origin of the dance. One theory says it originated in 1226 when the local lord granted certain villagers the right to hunt on his land. (This was a very big deal in the Middle Ages, as any fan of any version of Robin Hood can tell you.) But the year and the date of the original performance is subject to dispute. One group associates it with Barthelmy Fair (aka Bartholomew Fair), held in late August or early September, depending on your choice of calendar. Another tradition says it was originally performed at Christmas, which makes a lot of sense if St. Nicholas and reindeer equals Yule.


Mystery Two concerns the horns themselves. Radiocarbon dating puts their age at around 1065 A.D., about two hundred years before the grant but long after reindeer had disappeared from the England. They were probably imported from Scandanavia, but that doesn't explain why.


And if that doesn't get your plot bunnies hopping, you might try feeding them a couple of these links:


Wikipedia


Abbots Bromley Web Site


Abbots Bromley Horn Dance (created by one of the dancers)


Happy writing!