Hi Tim!

>Hi Keth! And hi all! :-)
>
>> The old Anglo-Saxon calendar is also interesting.
>> Perhaps you would like to compare the calendar
>> that you posted, with the Anglo-Saxon one ?
>
>Yes, I would like to compare them. :-) Please...
>
>And thank you very much for your comments... May be I put them on my
>page.

Sure. But maybe you should edit it, so that it fits in with
the rest.

>Well, the sources of the month names I took here:
>1) Snorra Edda (I have Old Norse and Russian version of it)

Aha! Yes, that is one of the sources of the month names.
There is another one that is not es well known as the Edda,
which differs slightly from Snorri.

>I do not know Norwegian, so I took only names from there, and I do
>not know about accuracy of this source, though... (Don't call me
>silly, ok? ;-)))

You always have to watch out for spelling errors, especially on
the web, because quite often things are published without
proof-reading. (good and patient proof readers are hard to find)

>> You translated to Russian ? Help !
>
>Oh, no-no! I have russian site and tried to translate my calendar
>page to English for you here. :-) You've seen this yet.

No, I didn't log in yet. I use mostly email.
(web is too slow, especially the graphics I hate :(

About the calendar of the Anglo-Saxons (or maybe it was just the
Angles), I recall reading that the years usually had 12 months,
but every third year or so (c.f. the approximate 3-year Lunar cycle)
they inserted a 13th month. However, contrary to what most people
seem to think, the extra month was not inserted in-between the winter
months, but in-between the summer months.

(my own note: this actually makes sense, because it would artificially
lengthen the summer season, perhaps a bit like we like to artificially
lengthen the summer days by using "daylight saving time".)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quotes from an earlier post:

I also found a table of the English months, according
to which they had the following names:

1. Giuli 7. Litha
2. Solmonath 8. Weodmonath
3. Hrethmonath 9. Halegmonath
4. Eosturmonath 10. Winterfilleth
5. Trimilchi 11. Blodmonath
6. Litha 12. Giuli

Two months were called Giuli (in our system January and December).
There were also two summer months that had equal names. These
correspond to *our* June and July. Apparently, when they inserted
a thirteenth month in order to adjust the calendar, it was inserted
in between the two summer months that are called "Litha".

Does any one have etymologies for these month names?

Note also, how German the names sound.
(cf.modern German "Monat" = month)
Also, around Easter time, there is the month
"Eosturmonath", which is almost exactly like modern
German "Ostermonat". It is actually not a bad idea at
all to look more closely at old English traditions.
That is because the Anglo-Saxons were among the first
to become christianized in Northern Europe. That means that
they also learned the art of writing early on (writing came
with Christianity). Thus we can count on the Anglo-Saxon
traditions that we learn about in the oldest sources, are
much older than the corresponding Norse traditions. What we
see is, however, though I hope to look more closely at that,
the Anglo-Saxon traditions are not exactly the same as the
later Norse traditions. They also seem to differ from what
we find in Tacitus.

Best regards
Keth