Wassail

Wassail (/ˈwɒsəl/, /-eɪl/ WOSS-əl, -⁠ayl, likely from Old Norse "ves heill")[1] is a beverage made from hot mulled cider and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, a medieval Yuletide English drinking ritual and salutation, customarily intended to ensure a good cider apple harvest the following year.[2] The drink is now increasingly popular from the Internet as a historical Christmas-time beverage.

This article is about the drink. For English folk culture event, see Wassailing. For the Big Big Train EP, see Wassail (EP). For the choral work, see Wassail! Carols of Comfort and Joy. For the educational measurement system, see WASSAIL.

A pot of simmering wassail, infused with citrus fruit slices and cinnamon sticks.

Etymology

The term "wassail" is first attested in the mid-12th century, in early Middle English (of which it appears in records in many spellings — wæshæil, whatsail(e), washail(e), etc.) The general consensus for its etymology is from Old Norse "ves heill" (an identical reconstructed phrase is seen in Old Icelandic), from a "drinking phrase" or toast arisen by the Anglo-Danes of the Danelaw settled in early-medieval Northern England.[1] According to the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, "[the toast] then spread, so that by the 12th cent. the usage was considered by the Normans to be characteristic of Englishmen (Anglo-Saxons)".[3][4] However the Oxford English Dictionary explicitly rejects this, saying:

"As an ordinary salutation (= ‘hail’ or ‘farewell’) the phrase, or an approximation to it, occurs both in Old English (hál wes þú , and in plural wesað hále : see be v. 4 θ. forms) and in Old Norse (plural verið heilir). But neither in Old English nor in Old Norse, nor indeed in any Germanic language, has any trace been found of the use as drinking formulas, of the phrases represented by wassail and drinkhail.".[5]

Such phrases and cheers with social alcohol consumption are anciently native to Germanic cultures, even non-Nordic such as German "prost!". Similar utterances are attested in Old English, such as "wes þu hal and was hal ('be [thou] hale (healthful)')", but are not recorded as drinking salutations per se, and thus any direct link is tenuous. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries claims the original Middle English use to be from "wæs hæil ('be in good health!')", but as a borrowing from Old Norse — not descended from Old English.[3] The English interjection hail itself is both the cognate of the likely etymon of the second part of "wassail", and shares probable influence by the aforementioned Old English phrase.[6]

By c. 1300, the sense had extended from a salutation to "liquor in which healths were drunk", especially spiced ales used for Christmas Eve celebrations. By c. 1600, it is first seen that "wassail" acquires a sense of "carousal, reveling", and by 1742 the verb "wassailing" as "custom of caroling house-to-house around Christmastide" is recorded.[1][4]

Beverage
A Christmas Eve 1842 issue of the Illustrated London News, depicting Father Christmas in a wassail bowl.
The "Wassail Butler" of Chepstow in blackface, holding a wassail bowl.

Wassail is a hot, mulled punch often associated with Yuletide, often drunk from a 'wassail bowl'. The earliest versions were warmed mead into which roasted crab apples were dropped and burst to create a drink called 'lambswool' drunk on Lammas day, still known in Shakespeare's time.[7] Later, the drink evolved to become a mulled cider made with sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, topped with slices of toast as sops and drunk from a large communal bowl.[8] Modern recipes begin with a base of wine, fruit juice or mulled ale, sometimes with brandy or sherry added. Apples or oranges are often added to the mix, and some recipes also call for beaten eggs to be tempered into the drink. Great bowls turned from wood, pottery or tin often had many handles for shared drinking and highly decorated lids; antique examples can still be found in traditional pubs.[9] Hence the first stanza of the traditional carol Gloucestershire Wassail; variations of which were known to have been sung as far back as the 1700s,[10] and possibly earlier:[11]

Wassail! Wassail! All over the town,
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown;
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree;
With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink unto thee.

At Carhampton, near Minehead, the Apple Orchard Wassailing is held on Old Twelfth Night (17 January) as a ritual to ask the gods for a good apple harvest. The villagers form a circle around the largest apple tree, hang pieces of toast soaked in cider in the branches for the robins, who represent the 'good spirits' of the tree. A shotgun is fired overhead to scare away evil spirits and the group sings the following being the (last verse):

Old Apple tree, old apple tree;
We've come to wassail thee;
To bear and to bow apples enow;
Hats full, caps full, three bushel bags full;
Barn floors full and a little heap under the stairs.[12]

Lamb's wool

"Lamb's wool" or "lambswool" is an early variety of wassail, brewed from ale, baked apples, sugar and various spices.[13][14]

Next crowne the bowle full of
With gentle Lambs wooll [sic],

Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
With store of ale too,
And thus ye must doe,

To make the Wassaile a swinger.

— Richard Cook, Oxford Night Caps, 1835

British-Irish antiquarian Charles Vallancey proposed that the term "lambswool" is a corruption of the name of a pagan Irish festival, "Lamas Ubhal", during which a similar drink was had.[15] Alternatively, the name may derive from the drink's similar appearance to the wool of lambs.[16] Ale is occasionally replaced by ginger ale for children, especially around Halloween and New Year.

Culture

Wassailing
Main article: Wassailing

Here's to thee, old apple tree,
That blooms well, bears well.
Hats full, caps full,
Three bushel bags full,
An' all under one tree. Hurrah! Hurrah!

Here's to thee, old apple-tree,
Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow,
And whence thou mayst bear apples enow! [enough]
Hats-full! Caps-full!
Bushel, bushel sacks-full!
And my pockets full, too! Hurra![17]

In the cider-producing counties in the South West of England (primarily Cornwall,[18] Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire) or South East England (Kent, Sussex, Essex and Suffolk) as well as Jersey, wassailing refers to a traditional ceremony that involves singing and drinking to the health of trees on Twelfth Night in the hopes that they might better thrive. The purpose of wassailing is to awaken the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the Autumn.[19] The ceremonies of each wassail vary from village to village but they generally all have the same core elements. A wassail King and Queen lead the song and/or a processional tune to be played/sung from one orchard to the next; the wassail Queen is then lifted into the boughs of the tree where she places toast soaked in wassail from the clayen cup as a gift to the tree spirits (and to show the fruits created the previous year). In some counties the youngest boy or "Tom Tit" will stand in for the Queen and hang the cider-soaked toast in the tree. Then an incantation is usually recited.

A folktale from Somerset reflecting this custom tells of the Apple Tree Man, the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard, and in whom the fertility of the orchard is thought to reside. In the tale a man offers his last mug of mulled cider to the trees in his orchard and is rewarded by the Apple Tree Man who reveals to him the location of buried gold.[20][21]

Modern music

British folk rock band Steeleye Span opened their third album Ten Man Mop, or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again (1971) with an extended, minor-key version of "Gower Wassail", Tim Hart singing the traditional verses and the others joining the chorus.

The British rock band Blur released a song titled "The Wassailing Song", with each member taking a verse. The release was limited to 500 7-inch pressings, which were given out at a concert in 1992. The version of "The Wassailing Song" performed by Blur was later adapted in a recording by The Grizzly Folk, who have stated that the arrangement bears a close resemblance to the "Gloucestershire Wassail".[11]

In her song "Oh England My Lionheart", on the 1978 album Lionheart, Kate Bush sings "Give me one wish, and I'd be wassailing in the orchard, my English rose."

The alternative rock band Half Man Half Biscuit from Tranmere, England included a song named "Uffington Wassail" on their 2000 album Trouble over Bridgwater. With its references to the Israeli Eurovision contestant Dana International, the Sealed Knot English Civil War re-enactment society, and also to the skier Vreni Schneider, the meaning of the song's title in this context is a little obscure.

In 2013 Folk Rock musician Wojtek Godzisz created an arrangement of the traditional Gloucestershire Wassail words with original music for the Pentacle Drummers' first Annual Wassail festival (2013), simply called "Wassail".[22]

For the Pentacle Drummers' second Wassail festival (2014) the pagan rock band Roxircle also wrote a Wassail song especially for the event called "Wassail (Give Thanks to the Earth)". The Pentacle Drummers encourage their headline acts to write a song centered around wassailing, a way to keep the tradition alive.

The English neo-progressive rock band Big Big Train[23] released an EP entitled "Wassail" in 2015, named for the title track.

Yorkshire-based folk singer Kate Rusby included the track "Cornish Wassail" on her 2015 album, The Frost Is All Over.[24]

Television

Wassail was mentioned in the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo ask Mike Nelson to provide some, and when asked to further explain what exactly wassail is, they admit to having no idea, though they offer a guess that it might be an "anti-inflammatory". Upon actually getting some, they describe it as "skunky", discovering it to be a 500-year-old batch.

It was mentioned and explained to Bing Crosby by Frank Sinatra in a special episode of the Frank Sinatra Show entitled "Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank" released 20 December 1957.[25][26]

In 2004, the alternative Christmas message was presented by The Simpsons who close out with a cup of "traditional British wassail". When the director cuts, they spit it out in disgust, with Bart remarking that it tasted "like hurl".

Wassail was featured on the BBC Two special Oz and Hugh Drink to Christmas, which aired in December 2009. Oz Clarke and Hugh Dennis sampled the drink and the wassailing party in Southwest England as part of their challenge to find Britain's best Christmas drinks.

During the episode "We Two Kings" on the NBC sitcom Frasier, the title character's brother Niles asks to borrow his wassail bowl; when Frasier's father Martin asks why they can't just use a punch bowl, Niles retorts, "Then it wouldn't be Wassail then would it?" In response, Martin looks up 'wassail' in the dictionary, defined as 'a Christmas punch'.

In the Good Eats holiday special episode "The Night Before Good Eats", Alton Brown is given a wassail recipe by St. Nicholas which he then must make to appease a mob of angry carolers.[27]

See also

References
  1. Harper, Douglas R. "wassail (n.)". Online Etymological Dictionary. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  2. Martin, Scott C. (16 December 2014). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives. SAGE Publications. p. 1804. ISBN 9781483374383. A wassail can be performed on any date between Christmas Eve and Old Twelfth Night (January 17).
  3. "wassail - verb". Oxford Learner's Dictionaries. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  4. "wassail - Middle English Compendium". quod.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  5. "Oxford English Dictionary". www.oed.com.
  6. Harper, Douglas R. "hail (interjection, etc.)". Online Etymological Dictionary. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  7. BBC Early Music Show, Here We Come a-Wassailing, broadcast 28 December 2014
  8. Zimmerman, Jereme. "The Communal Origins of a Festive New Year's Drinking Tradition" – via www.yesmagazine.org. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. Brown, Alton (2009). "Good Eats: Twas' The Night Before Good Eats". foodnetwork.com. Good Eats. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  10. Husk, William Henry. Songs of the Nativity, London: John Camden Hotten, Chiswick Press, 1884, p. 150 https://archive.org/details/songsofnativityb00husk/page/150
  11. Wilks, Jon. "Wassail All Over the World". The Grizzly Folk. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  12. Christian, Roy (1972). Old English Customs. Pub. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-5741-7. P.113.
  13. http://recipewise.co.uk/lambswool Authentic Wassail Drink Recipe – RecipeWISE.
  14. "drinking lambs-wool". Wovember. 4 November 2011.
  15. Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicus, Vol. III, by Charles Vallencey, Published 1786
  16. Robert Nare's Glossary of the Works of English Authors, Published 1859
  17. Bellinger, Robin. "Wassailing". the Paris Review Daily. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  18. "Cornish Wassailing". Archived from the original on 24 October 2014.
  19. "Wassailing". England in Particular. Common Ground. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  20. Briggs, Katharine (1976). An Encyclopedia of Fairies. Pantheon Books. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-0394409184.
  21. Briggs, Katharine; Tongue, Ruth (1965). Folktales of England. University of Chicago Press. pp. 44–46. ISBN 978-0226074948.
  22. Godzisz, Wojtek (January 2013). "Wassail".
  23. "Home page". Big Big Train.
  24. "CD: Kate Rusby - The Frost Is All Over". The Arts Desk.
  25. "Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank" – via www.imdb.com.
  26. "Happy Holidays With Bing and Frank (Classic)". Vimeo.
  27. "The Night Before Good Eats". www.foodnetwork.com.

Bibliography
  • Bladey, Conrad Jay (2002). Do the Wassail: A Short Guide to Wassail, Songs, Customs, Recipes and Traditions: How to Have a Fine Geegaw of a Wassail!, Hutman Productions, ISBN 0-9702386-7-3.
  • Gayre, Robert (1948). Wassail! In Mazers of Mead: an account of mead, metheglin, sack and other ancient liquors, and of the mazer cups out of which they were drunk, with some comment upon the drinking customs of our forebears, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., London.
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