Since my days of research on the first English settlers of the US did not attract much interest, I think I’ll go back to the medieval world.

Today, July 15th, is St. Swithin’s Day. It was on the weather report and everything. Swithin was a ninth-century bishop in Wessex, who may have been a tutor of King Alfred, who saved his kingdom from the Danes and is considered to be the base for what is now England.

He became popular in Ireland because of his association with the weather.

“St. Swithin (or Swithun) was the Bishop of Winchester in England in the 9th century between 852 and 862. He was known for building churches and restoring old ones. He preferred to travel on foot.When he hosted banquets he would invite the poor peasants, rather than the rich.Just before he died in 862, he asked to be buried outside the Winchester Cathedral, so the rain would fall on his grave and the people of Winchester would walk above him. He wished to be buried as an ordinary man in the graveyard and not a fine tomb. His wishes were granted.However, nine years later on 15 July 971, Bishop Ethelwold and his monks moved Swithin’s remains to a new shrine, ordered by King Edgar, inside Winchester Cathedral. A great storm was said to have developed during the moving of his body and it continued to rain for 40 days.The forty days of rain were said to be due to offending St Swithin by moving him away from the ordinary people, and his curse was forty continuous days of rain.This led to the legend that if it rains on St Swithin’s Day it will rain for the next 40 days in succession, and a fine 15th July will be followed by 40 days of fine weather.” https: Ireland Calling

This St. Swithin’s Day it is pouring rain, sometimes sideways, since the wind is fierce. I’ll report if we continue to have rain until the end of August. This is Ireland, so it’s not impossible.

It wasn’t until centuries after his death that Swithin became associated with the weather and there is no logical explanation for it. The choice of forty days of either rain or drought may come from the length of Noah’s flood. This is just another of the legends that last longer than the history they sprang from. We need to feel that there are patterns in nature. Somebody or something must be controlling our lives, otherwise we are left with chaos. And I, for one, have all I can take of that.