Sigewif

Wið ymbe nim eorþan, oferweorp mid þinre swiþran
handa under þinum swiþran fet, and cwet:

Fo ic under fot, funde ic hit.
Hwæt, eorðe mæg wið ealra wihta gehwilce
and wið andan and wið æminde
and wið þa micelan mannes tungan.

And wiððon forweorp ofer greot, þonne hi swirman, and cweð:

Sitte ge, sigewif, sigað to eorþan!
Næfre ge wilde to wuda fleogan.
Beo ge swa gemindige mines godes,
swa bið manna gehwilc metes and eþeles.



The above is an Anglo-Saxon metric charm for a swarm of bees. It is one of a very few bits of Anglo-Saxon thought to originate from Heathen days before all writing was done by Christian clerics so all literature and events were seen through Christian eyes and recorded with Christian bias. The word in the first line of the last stanza, sigewif, means victory women or victorious women and is a kenning for honeybees. All the working bees in a swarm are, of course, female.

Today while coming up at noon from the Freeman's Garden, I heard the unmistakable drone of swarming bees. I had begun to be concerned. Two of the hives were ripe for swarming and June is waning fast. The old saw tells us:

A swarm in May is worth a ton of hay
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm in July ain't worth a fly.

The bees must swarm by the end of June to have a reasonable chance of surviving the first winter. This was a pretty strong swarm which had left the hive not half an hour before I came on it. The bees were circling in a ten foot sphere and had not yet formed a cluster. I got an empty hive ready and donned the bee suit. The suit wasn't entirely necessary; swarming bees very rarely sting. By the time I got back, they had formed the cluster about 20' up in a yellow pine so I went back for a saw.

With Heathen thoughts of tankards of mead to come, I charmed them and coaxed them into the hive.

The charm goes like this:


Take earth, cast it with thy right hand under thy right foot, and say:

I put it under foot; I have found it.
Lo, the earth can prevail over all creatures,
And against injury, and against forgetfulness,
And against the mighty tongue of man.

Cast dust over them when they swarm, and say:

Alight, victorious women, descend to earth!
Never fly wild to the wood.
Be as mindful of my good
As every man is of food and home.

Faith as a Turnip Seed

"If ye have faith as a grain of turnip seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." Luke 17:20

OK, OK, it says mustard not turnip but it's small odds because a turnip seed looks exactly like a mustard seed the two of them being very closely related botanically.

I thought about what the turnips had to say as I was in the garden today gathering things for supper. A lightening storm was brewing so I was keen to get the greens gathered and get out of there. I noticed how vigorous the tops of the turnips were and with the intensive gardner's eye chose the one that would best relieve the crowding in the bed. It was wanted to round out the pot of greens so we cut up the bulb and snacked on it while we were cooking. Here was this sizeable vegetable, not the largest in the patch by far, and it had started out as a tiny speck of a seed planted last March, a seed we'd saved from last years turnips when the remnants went to seed.

The ground in which this turnip grew has been nurtured with organic material for sixteen years now. So when I am in the garden here in early June, I see reminders of where I was and what I was doing in March. Someone once defined luck as when opportunity meets preparedness. I guess that about says it. Or else we might refer back to the Writ where we find "Be not decieved, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal 6:7)

Ruth Stout, the celebrated proponent of no-till mulch gardening put it a little more earthily: If you plant a good turnip seed properly a turnip is what you will get every single time.

Now, it has been my observation, and I've paid more than passing attention to it, that where we find ourselves in our lives is the sum total of how we have prepared the ground and when and what seeds we have planted. You might not be able today to go down to your garden and pull out half a meal from a turnip hole, but you can plant a tiny turnip seed. Time it for early to late July depending on you latitude and you will get however grand a turnip your soil will yield about the time the first light frosts of fall magically transform the turnip's flavor.

I say you can grow turnips. A more noted authority says nothing shall be impossible unto you. All for the sake of a turnip seed.