LL-L "Traditions" 2005.09.03 (08) [E/German]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 03.SEP.2005 (08) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Theo Homan <theohoman at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2005.09.03 (01) [E]

> From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
> Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2005.09.02 (03) [E]

> BTW: not far from here, going up the river Elbe just
> a couple of miles,
> there's near Hamburg the region called 'Altes Land'.
> It's an old Dutch settlement as I mentioned several
> times before, and there
> they haven't got 'gable-horses', but 'gable-swans'
> to decorate their
> wonderful old houses.
> I never have seen anything like that in any Frisian
> region- I guess it to be
> an answer to the traditions of their Saxonian
> neighbours.
----------------------------

Hallo,

Concerning the gable-swans:  In the Netherlands [and
you were talking about a Dutch settlement] the
Lutherans used to use a swan to indicate they were a
Lutheran and not a Calvinist. So in the old villages
around the IJsselmeer {Zuiderzee} you will find
stone-swans above front-doors, telling us: here lives
a Lutheran and not a Calvinist (and the Calvinists
were the majority). And I happen to know a Lutheran
church having  a swan as a weather-vane on the roof,
insteadof a horse or cock.

Why they used the swan-symbol I don't know.

vr.gr.
Theo Homan

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Traditions

Hoi, Theo!

Thanks.  That's fascinating!  I never knew about those swans (even though I 
was a certified Lutheran already before I could open my eyes).

Might this be an indication that the "Dutch" people that settled in Jonny's 
neck of the woods (and there are many other "Dutch"-founded places) were 
Lutherans, that they had left the Netherlands as minority members to join 
their majority brethren in Northern Germany?

We know that many "Dutch" people (many of whom were assumedly Low Saxons) 
moved to what is now Northern Germany because they were seeking more 
plentiful land -- or so the usual story goes.  If this swan thing is any 
indication, there might have been other reasons as well, such as 
denominational ones.  And we know, of course, that that applied to the early 
Mennonite ancestors who migrated eastward from all over the Northern 
Netherlands due to alleged Calvinist intolerance.

> Why they used the swan-symbol I don't know.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the motto _Cygnis Insignis_ 
("Distinguished by its swans") of Lutheranism, and those "seven swans 
a-swimming" (in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas") which are supposed 
to refer to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Aha!  I found something:

<quote http://www.archiv-heinze.de/rhaude/kircheRh/gebaude/gebaude.html>
Bei dem Konzil von Konstanz Anfang des 15. Jahrhunderts wurde der 
tschechische Reformator Jan Hus verurteilt und unter Bruch der von Kaiser 
Sigismund gegebenen Zusicherung freien Geleits als Ketzer verbrannt. Auf dem 
Scheiterhaufen soll er - nach einer späteren Legende - gesagt haben: "Ich 
bin nur eine arme Gans (tschechisch: Hus); aber nach mir wird ein Schwan 
kommen, den werdet ihr nicht rösten können."
</quote>

In brief, the legend goes that, when he was about to be burnt at the stake 
as a heretic in Constance (Southern Germany), the Czech Protestant Jan Hus 
(1369-1415) said, "I might only be a poor goose [Czech _husa_], but I will 
be followed by a swan that you will not be able to roast."  At later times, 
this came to be seen as a premonition of Martin Luther's campaign.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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