October
By Nichole
Most of October corresponds to the Icelandic Harvest Month. Winter-Nights, which marked the end of the harvest season, fell around the middle of October in Iceland. In England, the name Winterfylleth or "Winter-Full-Moon" for this month suggests that Winter-Nights may have been celebrated on the first full moon after the autumn equinox.
In the Orkney Islands, in Scotland the Norse heritage of the early Scandinavian settlers is particularly apparent in the surviving harvest traditions, The most prominent of the harvest traditions are those which are related to the “cutting of the last sheaf”, which is also known as the wolf sheaf. The last sheaf was considered to house the spirit of the grain and thus reaping it was viewed to be unlucky or portentous. The individual responsible for harvesting the last sheaf was symbolically killing the harvest.
One particular Orcadian tradition regarding the harvesting of the last sheaf was the use of the corn cut from the last sheaf to manufacture a straw wolf, which in known as the “bikko”. The name bikko is thought to be derived from the Old Norse “bikkja”, meaning bitch.
While the significance of the Orcadian straw dog or wolf has been lost the residents of Orkney believe that the wolf is related to both the spirit of the grain and to the god Wodan. In parts of Germany, Denmark and Sweden the last sheaf was left for Wodan’s or Odin’s horse. Additionally, the name of the symbolic last sheaf has been known by names such as Wode and Wode’s fodder, signifying the connection to Odin.
October is widely regarded as the time of harvest, however modern heathens who live in different climates from those of our forebears might choose to synchronize Winter-Nights with the actual end of the harvest of locally grown crops, or with the first feeling of chill in the air.
-TRK-
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