I have proposed a simple attribution of the four gallows glyphs to the solstices and equinoxes, the four quarters of the solar year, thus:
[t] = winter solstice
[k] = summer solstice
[p] = spring equinox
[f] = autumn equinox
How would this scheme play out in the text over-all?
On the whole, I think it is coherent and matches the observable behaviour of the gallows glyphs in the text.
* * *
First, a general justification:
There is a set of four.
This itself is debateable because some researchers include the benched gallows in a larger set of eight.
I count the four unbenched gallows as the main set and the benched forms as modifications, a sub-set, and so place them aside for the time being – function undetermined.
My surmise is that they mark the four half-quarter days (Beltane etc.) between the solstices and equinoxes, the eightfold year, and so extend the system I propose thus:
Be that as it may, I am not considering the benched gallows here.
Other researchers will count scribal variants as distinct glyphs but I also count these as modifications of an identifiable main set of four (and I give an account of some of them, see below.)
So, there are four gallows: [t], [k], [p] and [f].
Now, in any late medieval (or almost any premodern) work with cosmological themes we must suspect that the gallows mark some familiar system of four, such as the four elements.
The four quarters of the year is an even more basic system of four, and just as likely, or more, in a work with botanical and meteorological themes. (And in any case the four quarters of the year correspond to the four elements.)
They are systematic differentiations.
There is a system because there is a sequence, and it is marked by the graphic transformations of the glyphs. They are a related set of glyphs. They share a common design. From [t] to [k] and [p] to [f] elements of the glyphs change. Two legs become one. Two loops become one. There are systematic differentiations.
So we have a set of four with a common design marked with a sequence of systematic differentiations.
Again, this might suggest the four elements, or temperaments, or similar, but just as easily the solstices and equinoxes.
The four are in two pairs.
Further, the set of four is clearly differentiated into two pairs: two with two legs, two with one.
The ‘legs’ match a solstice/equinox distinction because the solstices are “gates” or “doors”.
A set of four with two pairs, one of the pairs with two legs: this pattern would conform to two solstices and two equinoxes.
Gallows glyphs never cluster or double but always stand distinct.
Whatever the gallows stand for, they are distinct and never double and cluster. This would follow if they represent distinct quarters of the year, time or direction markers.
Gallows are subject to scribal exaggeration.
I have given an account of the elaborate flourished gallows glyphs found throughout the text as solstitial symbolism, here.
In that post I set out the relevant symbolism of the solstices.
I think my reading of those elaborate glyph forms is correct. (It is as good an account of those glyphs as any other on offer, and far better than most.)
They are conspicuous and important: central.
Finally, they are obviously of central importance in the text, just as the four cardinal points, solstices and equinoxes, are of central importance to the YEAR.
I think all of this amounts to a good general case for the gallows glyphs representing the quarters of the year. It is not improbable, anyway.
* * *
Looking at their frequency and distribution:
For a start, [t] is more common than [k] in ‘Labelese’.
This means that the Label text is more concerned with the winter than the summer solstice.
This would follow because the winter solstice (in the Christian scheme, Christmas) is primal and cosmogonic.
But [k] is more common throughout the general text.
Interpretation: more of the text concerns the summer than the winter solstice.
This would follow because the text is botanical. Winter is not the growing season. The main body of the text concerns the light half of the year and hence the summer solstice.
For Labels, the text goes back to the winter solstice, the beginning.
[f] is the least common of the gallows glyphs.
The autumn equinox receives the least attention in the work.
This might follow from autumn being a fallow season, the decline of the year and of vegetation and herbage. Autumn is the least relevant season to a treatise on the growth of herbs.
[p] is more common than [f].
Interpretation: The work is more concerned with the spring than the autumn equinox.
This is consistent. We would expect the spring equinox to be more important in this work than the autumn equinox.
Gallows glyphs often mark the beginnings of paragraphs (in linguistically redundant ways, Grove words.)
This would announce the quarter of the year with which the paragraph is concerned.
Initial (and redundant) gallows glyphs marking paragraphs (like pilcrows) require an explanation. What is their function? What (system of four) do they mark? They conceivably mark a season, a quarter of the year.
[p] is most commonly found on the first lines of paragraphs. These signal the spring equinox.
This is consistent. We would expect the spring equinox to be the subject of many paragraphs in such a text. Generally, the [p] glyph = spring equinox, is interesting.
* * *
Overall, we see that the frequencies and distribution of the gallows glyphs would make some sense if we accept the attributions I have provided.
The work is predominantly concerned with the spring and summer seasons – the glyphs [k] and [p] are dominant in the text - as we might expect.
The proposal provides a good explanation for the function of gallows glyphs as paragraph markers and for other features of their behaviour.
R.B.
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