Barnacle goose myth

Gerald of Wales[7] provided the basis for the dissemination of the myth before being referenced by medieval bestiaries. He may have been the first to record in Latin folk tales or myths about spontaneous generation or transformation of young barnacle geese from rotten wood via the goose-necked barnacle (Cirripedia) to fledgling geese. In 1177 the future English king John (the younger brother of Richard the Lionheart) was appointed Lord of Ireland and the English rule was set in these territories. As a royal clerk and chaplain to King Henry II of England, Gerald of Wales accompanied Prince John between 1183 and 1186 on an expedition to Ireland. After his return, in 1187 or 1188, he had published a manuscript with the description of the new Irish lands called Topographia Hibernica.

His views on Ireland in Topographia Hibernica [8] include the following passage:

“ … there are many birds called barnacles (bernacae) … nature produces them in a marvellous way for they are born at first in gum-like form from fir-wood adrift in the sea. Then they cling by their beaks like sea-wood, sticking to wood, enclosed in a shell-fish shells for freer development…. thus in the process of time dressed in a firm clothing of feathers, they either fall into the waters or fly off into freedom of the air. They receive food and increase from a woody and watery juice…… on many occasions I have seen them with my own eyes, more than a thousand of these tiny little bodies, hanging from a piece of wood on the sea-shore when enclosed in their shells and fully formed. Eggs are not produced from the copulation of these birds as is usual, no bird ever incubates an egg for their production … in no corner of the earth have they been seen to give themselves up (to) lust or build a nest ….”[9]

In the 12th and 13th centuries, scholars such as Gervase of Tilbury and Alexander Neckam frequently referred to myths or folklore about the natural world. Both Gervase and Neckam repeated earlier stories about the origin of the goose. Neckam wrote of a bird called the "bernekke".[10][11]

The Duck Tree by Duret (1590)

In 1435, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus (later Pope Pius II)[12] travelled to Scotland to encourage James I of Scotland to assist the French in the Hundred Years War. He spent several months travelling around Britain, and recorded these travels in his book entitled "de Europa". A short section of the book is devoted to Scotland and Ireland. He described James as “… a sickly man weighed down by a fat paunch ...”. He noted the cold inhospitable climate of Scotland and “ .. semi-naked paupers who were begging outside churches (and) went away happily after receiving stones as alms…”. [13]

Continuing in this vein, he records the following story:

" …I / We… heard that in Scotland there was once a tree growing on the bank of a river which produced fruits shaped like ducks.[14] [15] "When these were nearly ripe, they dropped down of their own accord, some onto the earth, and some into the water. Those that landed on the earth rotted away, but those that sank into the water instantly came to life, swam out from below the water, and immediately flew into the air, equipped with feathers and wings. When I eagerly investigated this matter, I learned that miracles always recede further into the distance and that the famous tree was to be found not in Scotland but in the Orkney islands…"

It is believed that this story from Pope Pius II is the first recorded account of the Barnacle Geese myth in Scotland. [16]

Bellenden's Account of Thule or Tile University of Aberdeen, Special Collections

Some 75 years after Pope Pius II, Hector Boece in his "Scotorum Historiae a Prima Gentis Origine"[17] gave further credence to this story with an account of a discussion he had with his friend and colleague Canon Alexander Galloway[18] on an island called Thule.[19] The event, if it occurred, would have to have been sometime between c.1506-1520. Boece allows Galloway in the narrative to give two contrasting accounts of the geese story. Boece records:[20]

" …. It remains for me (Boece) to discuss those geese commonly called clacks, (claiks) [21] which are commonly but wrongly imagined to be born on trees in these islands, on the basis of what I have learned from my diligent investigation of this thing. ….. I will not hesitate to describe something I myself witnessed seven years ago… Alexander Galloway, parson of Kinkell, who, besides being a man of outstanding probity, is possessed of an unmatched zeal for studying wonders… When he was pulling up some driftwood and saw that seashells were clinging to it from one end to the other, he was surprised by the unusual nature of the thing, and, out of a zeal to understand it, opened them up, whereupon he was more amazed than ever, for within them he discovered, not sea creatures, but rather birds, of a size similar to the shells that contained them …. small shells contained birds of a proportionately small size….. So, he quickly ran to me, whom he knew to be gripped with a great curiosity for investigating suchlike matters and revealed the entire thing to me…..”

The Claik or Clack Geese, sometimes clag-geese,[22] as they were known to Boece, survived scrutiny during the Scottish Enlightenment. The age of the myth and the lack of empirical evidence on bird migration led to other erroneous accounts of the origins of barnacle geese being common until the 20th century. [23]

As noted, many of the accounts of the myth can be traced back to Hector Boece and from there back to The Exeter Book of Riddles. In the 20th century the most detailed account of the nature of this myth and its interpretation can be found in a paper by Alistair Stewart (1988)[24] As noted above, there are a variety of accounts from Boece: some perpetuated by Thomas Dempster (1829)[25] In this 20th century telling, Stewart quotes John Bellenden's Scots vernacular speech.[26] In this Bellenden had Boece write:

“…. because the 'rude' and 'ignorant' people saw oft-times the fruits hat fell off the trees which stood near the sea converted within (a) short time in(to) geese, they believed that these geese grew upon the trees hanging by their 'nebs', just as apples and other fruits hang by their stalks. But their opinion is not to be sustained for, as soon as these apples and fruits fall from the tree in(to) the sea-flood they grow first worm-eaten, and 'by short process of time', are altered in(to) geese....”.

So allowing Stewart to conclude:

“…. Bellenden's Boece (gave) a fresh lease of life to the tale; …(recently)… naturalists ha(ve) located the barnacle geese nurseries in Greenland and ha(ve) a rough idea of the migration routes….But parallel to scientific advances the old versions continued to have a folklife existence....”

Almost all of the references in published literature follow a tradition exemplified by Stewart[27] and Müller[28] with regard to where the myth may have emerged. In The Jewish Encyclopaedia, the entry for “Barnacle-Goose” suggests a strong Jewish connection in addition to a largely western Christian tradition. The source is referred to in a volume of manuscripts collected by Solomon Joachim Halberstam in c. 1890, the Ḳehillat Shelomoh. [29] The question of slaughtering Barnacle Geese is referenced to Isaac ben Abba Mari of Marseilles (יצחק בן אבא מרי ) (c.1120–c.1190) in around c.1170. Such a date is a century before Gerald of Wales. Further, the Jewish Encyclopaedia extends the non-Western source to c. 1000 in a work by Al-Biruni, that is Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (CE 973–1048).

Canon Alexander Galloway