Javanese machete??

[Billman]

The origins of the Golden Sickle probably lie in the bronze bladed sickles that preceded those made of iron, as in this reconstruction (from Germany) the bronze blade is golden when polished - note the caulked billhook type of handle, common in northern Europe and Britain:

[fearn]

Originally Posted by Billman

The origins of the Golden Sickle probably lie in the bronze bladed sickles that preceded those made of iron, as in this reconstruction (from Germany) the bronze blade is golden when polished - note the caulked billhook type of handle, common in northern Europe and Britain:

That's one possibility, but you do know that they could tell the difference between bronze and gold, right?

There's a couple of things here. One is that the golden sickle is a Roman story, and we don't know if it was real. That said, a modern-day druid actually did try to cut mistletoe with a golden sickle (9 carat sheet gold--he was a jeweler), and yes, the gold sickle did cut the mistletoe. It cut about two stems before it broke. Mistletoe wood is pretty brittle. So it could have been done.

Additionally, we have to look at the symbolism:
gold=metal of the sun
sickle=crescent of the moon
...and the ritual took place on the summer solstice, the time of maximum sunlight.
Mistletoe is sacred because
--it grows in the "air," not in the ground,
--it tends to be green when the tree it's on has shed its leaves (a symbol of eternal life and/or the spirit?)
--the berries look like semen (white and sticky)
--the fruiting stem looks like a phallus, especially since the two berries at the base of the straight, rigid stem are typically the last two to fall off
(Yes, this is why you kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas. It's a fertility rite).
And finally, most English mistletoe grows on apple, not on oak, and mistle-oaks are quite rare. And yes, oak was sacred to the druids.
--As I recall, the mistletoe was caught on a bull hide, too, and bulls were one of the major sources of wealth in the ancient world (if you know the origin of "capitalism," you know what I'm talking about).

Add up all the symbols, the sun-moon of the golden sickle cutting a supernatural/fertility symbol/toxic plant on the day of maximum sunlight from a sacred tree, and it's caught on the skin of a slaughtered, valuable animal...

I don't know if the ritual ever happened, or whether they used a gold sickle or a gold plated sickle, or whatever. The things we do know are that it could have happened as stated, and regardless, there's a lot of symbolism hidden in that story.

Best,

F

[Billman]

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_..._and_mistletoe you really need to go back to Pliny's original latin text and see what he actually wrote ref the 'golden sickle' and how else it could be translated.....

"But he was a Roman, and scholars have always treated Roman descriptions of the world with caution" see: http://www.spiegel.de/international/...536402,00.html

[kronckew]

the latin was falce aurea, a golden sickle. rather than falce aurum, a gold sickle. like billman said, could have been polished bronze of a golden color, or even gold plated iron, which the romans did know about...

[Billman]

Originally Posted by kronckew

the latin was falce aurea, a golden sickle. rather than falce aurum, a gold sickle. like billman said, could have been polished bronze of a golden color, or even gold plated iron, which the romans did know about...

Many thanks for that - one of the great things about a forum such as this is the vast range of expertise available....

[fearn]

Agreed on the falce aurea, although I'd love to see more examples of bronze being called "golden."

To grind in the point, whether the falx was gold or gold-plated is irrelevant, because even gold will cut mistletoe. However that myth got started, it will work.

F

[kronckew]

i came across a reference to someone who actually made a gold sickle - 9 caret - and used it to cut mistletoe, they did say it worked, for a couple of cuts, before it deformed and needed resharpening & was in general not up to the job.

i do remember gathering mistletoe from my BIL guerney's farm in no. alabama a number of years ago. rather than a golden sickle, he used a browning 12ga. to shoot the infested branch off. we could easily peel it off the oak branch. the berries are rather gooey & sticky i recall.

one of the more constant threads in mythological and fantastic historical fiction is that iron poisons magic, and/or can weaken or kill magical creature like the fair folke (fairies) and elves. the more educated modern wiccans prefer bronze in their ceremonial items to avoid disturbing the magic.

iron IS strange and magical stuff.

iron is only produced by the exothermic decay of radioactive higher elements formed by fusion in high mass stars, every higher radioactive element eventually decays to iron, and it's very energy hungry if you try to make it from fusing lower elements. iron will not engage in either fusion or fission. the iron in our bodies was once in such a star that exploded and distributed it's iron long before the earth was formed. iron is the most common element forming our planet.