medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Not just Saxon, perhaps. We get clooties left at the Holy Wells here in
> west Cornwall, scraps of usually cloth, but also tinsel and plastic ribbon, tied
> to twigs and branches of overhanging trees. Rarely the effect is pretty,
> mainly it's messy; neither is the point, I dare say. My understanding is that
> they are meant as gifts of value, but I suspect that nowadays the meaning is
> lost and people just do what they 'always' did. I further suspect that the
> practice, locally at least, is actually of recent origin.
These are practices that were, and are, alive on the continent, as well. The "Arbre
Saint-Claude" near Neuville-Coppegueule in Picardy still has many bits of cloth
attached to it. I've never heard them called "clooties"; do you know whence this
word derives? It is possible that there are two separate aspects to this practice.
Votive offerings to springs, trees and rocks were being made in western Europe
before the coming of Christianity. I have often wondered, however, whether this
particular form of votive offering, consisting of strips of cloth, is related to
"brandea", i.e. contact relics consisting of such strips of cloth. It certainly wouldn't
surprise me if it were such a synchretic phenomenon.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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