"... Tynwald... has always been a powerful and visible reminder that the Isle of Man is an ancient kingdom, enjoyin
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English Pages [28] Year 1957
Table of contents :
Tynwald: Symbol Of An Ancient Kingdom - Front Cover
Title Page / Line Drawing: The Manx Sword Of State
Sketch Map Of The Isle Of Man Showing Tynwald Hill, St. John's
The Tynwald Of 1770
The Norsemen
plate p.04a - Tynwald 1774
The Norse Open-Air Assembly
The Manx Constitution
The Tynwald
The Hill
Tanistry
The Temple Of Thor
plate p.08a - Aerial View From The North-East
The Oath
Procedure At Tynwald
The Tynwald Feast
plate p.10a - Procession From Chapel To Hill
plate p.10b - Swearing-In The Coroners
Thor
Midsummer Day
The Tynwald Of 1417
plate p.12a - Procession From Hill To Chapel
Later Tynwalds
The Tynwald Chapel
The Tynwald Of To-Day
plate p.16a - H.M. King George VI Presides At Tynwald, 1945
Conclusion
Printer's Imprint
Rear Cover
TYNWALO SYMBOL OF AN
ANCIENT KINGDOM
PRICE
-
ONE SHILLING
TYNWALD By
DAVID
CRAINE, M.A.,
C.P.
THE M4NX SWORD OF ST4TE
TYNWALD I+ILL
UGLAS
of
Mon
TYNWALD
THERE
are
Man
at
which
least two no
Manxman
without
contemplate Tynwald
Isle and the On the
some
island at Peel
coming
of historical interest in the Isle of
with
a
of
spark
stir of emotion.
imagination
They
are
can
St. Patrick’s
John’s.
at St.
there
is
a
continuous
history
in datable
tenth century. it is connected by tradition of Christianity and the greatest of the Irish saints,
architecture from the ninth
with the
places
or
and its ancient cathedral is dedicated to his
disciple.
In the Round
Tower it possesses the most considerable early Christian monument in Man. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was a residence of the
native
Kings of Man; and its extensive circumvallation testifies defensive importance in the days when raiding fleets brought
to
its
death
and destruction from the North. But the
Tynwald
makes
a
somewhat different
appeal.
It links the
the stage on which is survivals in the world:
past with the present. It is not
annually set only to the Manx political it has always been a powerful and visible reminder that the Isle of Man is an ancient kingdom, enjoying its own government, making its own laws, levying its own taxes and controlling their expenditure; and the scene of a ceremony whose disappearance would mark their end as a one of the most remarkable
nation.
THE Such
a
fear
arose
of Atholl sold his
TYNWALD
in the
OF
1770
eighteenth century,
when in 1765 the Duke
of Man to the British Crown. For five years John’s, and it was only when the Governor
Lordship Tynwald was held at St. the people’s representatives suggested its renewal that the Keys absorbed in the problems created by the change of government, showed any signs of interest in the Annual Assembly. no
3
Meanwhile, the Manx country people
filled
were
by
the fear that
Tynwald and all it stood for had gone for ever. And when at length the traditional ceremony took place once more on July 5th., 1770, the the
Governor
describing the tremendous enthusiasm the resumption had evoked, and estimating that half the population of the Island had gathered on the Tynwald Green. Fifty-seven years later, a Jurby crofter, Thomas Kelly, reveals the attachment and reverence with which the country people viewed the Field at St. John’s. Driven by economic stress and the importunities of his friends, he emigrated with his family to America, where he wrote
to
Whitehall
eventually died. His diary betrays his life-long yearning for his native land. He left for Liverpool
day: to
see
last time the
one
secretly
to
take
from its lowest round,
which has seen, on
July 6th, 1827, and writes of the previous daylight, I stole away to St. John’s, for ancient ceremonies on Tynwald Hill, and
on
“This morning, before
and heard
maybe,
one
more
little handful of that earth
history
than any other spot
the Island.”
THE The
tenacity their
and success,
own
dislike
institutions
political land,
at
ere
southwards in their
war
to
which the Manx have
introduced
by King
first
of the rule of
NORSEMEN
by
pressure of
clung
the Norsemen. Driven out of
over-population,
Harold Fairhair, the Norse
galleys
with such
in search of
plunder
and
and later
by
Vikings sped new
homes.
At the end of the eighth century they bad colonised the Orkneys and Shetlands, and thereafter fleets of raiders yearly set out from
They
Scandinavia.
made
their
followed by the Danes, led more
dangerous
ninth century
were
and
by the fury of slaying.
marauding fleets by landtakers,
followed
and married the The
Viking
daughters
which laid who
of the
adventurers
by two main routes. The first, English Channel. The longer and Orkneys, Hebrides and Irish Sea. The their attacks, as they moved southward
way the
way was the full
saw
plundering, burning But the
to
waste
brought Celts they
the
had
bloodthirsty
were
4
Hebrides
and
Man
with them Norse customs
dispossessed. and
cruel
taking
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pleasure
in
a
and drink, and
battleground filled greedy for gold.
The race, however,
attractive
qualities.
and self-control in
to
which
with the dead
they belonged
gluttonous
had other and
The Norsemen admired above all
adversity,
in food
more
things patience
and courage in the face of certain death.
intelligence and skill were displayed in wood and metal crafts, in shipbuilding and seamanship. They were extremely enterprising and ready to seize upon new ideas where there was hope of advantage. A an Irish episode of the ninth strange example of their adaptability is Norsemen not only prayed for victory to their century, when the pagan much to the own gods but also invoked St. Patrick to aid them Christian of their opponents. indignation
Their
THE NORSE OPEN-AIR ASSEMBLY
extraordinary aptitude for lawmaking and the organisation of government, and wherever they settled they brought the conception of an open-air assembly of freemen, where the old laws were recited, new laws submitted for approval, judgment given on lawbreakers and punishment immediately following. But above all the Norsemen had
an
knowledge of the legal system which the Vikings introduced into Man comes largely from Icelandic literature. Iceland was colonised in the ninth and tenth centuries partly by immigrants from Norway, but mainly by people of mixed Norse and Celtic blood from the Our
Scandinavian settlements in Man, Ulster and the Hebrides.
In 930
A.D.
established
they
called word
a national assembly, the Aithing. It met at a place Thing-your (i.e., “Parliament field “), the original form of the “Tynwald,”and had many features similar to those of the Manx
institution. In 1930,
on
the invitation of the
Aithing, Tynwald sent two delegates, Speaker of the Keys, to take part in the founding of the Icelandic parliament,
the Deemster Farrant and the the
millenary
celebrations of
and to represent what a famous Norse scholar has described as the most marked example of a Norse Viking realm which has preserved the characteristics of its old constitution
wholly
till modern times. “Asa folkthing
after the old Norse fashion,” he said, “the constitution in Man has its rank in age
by
the side of those of Iceland and the Faroes.” S
THE There Worse
written records in existence to tell of the date at which
are no
political attending
MANX CONSTITUTION
were
customs
introduced
into
the
Isle,
the circumstances
or
their appearance.
The excavations at Ballateare and the Cronk Mooar in
Jurby
a
few years ago reveal, however, the existence there of prosperous pagan Viking landowners in the last half of the ninth century. It is thought that at that time the six
dominated
by
Sheadings
or
districts had each its
the local landowners and
dealing
Assembly,
with local affairs; and
developed two separate central assemblies for each with its own Lawman. the Northside and Southside respectively that from these there
There
are
traces
of this dual administration in the former titles of the
Lawmen’s successors,
the
Deemsters,
one
of
whom
was
called
the
Northern, the other the Southern, Deemster until recent times. There
signs,
are
too, of a difference in the customary law, as in the
case of married women’s estates: a variation
the
outcome
1098
A.D.
time
in
of
And 1577,
traditionally
attributed to
a
battle
a
curious old “breast” law, written down for the first
forbids
fought the
between North and South at Santwat in
Southside
and Northside
sheltering
each
other’s felons.
THE TYNWALD The Icelandic
open-air assembly
was
abandoned
years ago, and of all the similar institutions one has survived in function as well as St.
set
up
name
a
by
hundred and the the
fifty Vikings only Tynwald at
John’s.
early human settlers in Man established gravel and sand deposited in the glacial age drained well and by nature, it provided an excellent site for habitation; and its central position and accessibility from north, south, east and west made it a convenient rallying place for political and religious purposes. On it, or near by, several prehistoric funeral mounds survived Here
on
this
plateau
the
themselves. A moraine of
until the first half of the nineteenth century; and the remains of a Bronze Age tumulus 3,000 years old are to be seen on the edge of the
Bollagh Vanannan,
the “Roadof Manannan,” where it skirts the Hill. 6
Tynwald has the essential features of the old Worse Thingvollr: joined by pathway on the east to a Court-house, all enclosed and surrounded by a green; and a place of worship. In the course of time the name “Tynwald”has come to mean the Assembly itself as well as its meeting place. The
a
Law Hill
John’s first saw a Thing representing the “Tynwald”first occurs in the scanty Manx records in 1228 A.D., when a battle was fought at Tynwald, resulting in the death of the Manx King Reginald. No
knows when St.
one
whole Island, but the
name
THE The Manx name of the
HILL
Tynwald
Hill is Cronk Keeill Eoin, “Hill
record to confirm the story that it John’s contains earth from all the seventeen ancient parishes; but it is not
of
Church.” There is
unlikely
that token
portions
mound, in accordance with
no
of soil from each
parish
were
added to the
of the Norse settlers in Man.
known
practice high, by four stages or circular platforms, each about three feet higher than the next lower. The diameter of the base is seventy-six feet. For more than two centuries a protecting canopy has been raised over the topmost platform during the annual assembly. The Processional Way is three hundred and sixty feet long. a
It is twelve feet
On Midsummer
Chapel
aisle
also)
the pagan Celtic altar of the
Day
are
the
custom of
sea-god
pathway
and
covered with rushes
offering
platforms (and formerly a
the
survival, it is believed, of
bundles of green
bent-grass
at
the
Manannan.
TANISTRY The Hill has of
never
been excavated, but it is
chieftain of the Bronze
place following Celtic proclamation of be inaugurated a
custom, became new
at
a
Age (1700
centre
for tribal
rulers and their heirs. It
such
a
place standing
on
the burial
probably
B.C.); and later, gatherings and the
B.C----400
was or
stone; and his heir apparent, known as the Tanist, people for their acknowledgment at the same time.
usual for
a
chief to
sanctified
touching was presented
One such stone, called the Liath Fail, still stands
a
on
the Hill of
Tara and is said to have been used in the installation of the Irish 7
to the
High
King. A stone found some years ago at the ancient site of Castle Ward, near Douglas, may have been used for a similar purpose. It has a footshaped hollow and thus resembles the stone in which the Lord of Islay (who claimed descent from the Manx Kings) placed his foot and swore to deal justly with his people. Tanistry persisted in Man. In 1392, Sir William Lordship of Man, appeared on the Hill Scrope, for acceptance by the Assembly, and his heir, Sir Stephen Scrope, stood with him as his Tanist. Sixteen years later, when the Scropes had been superseded, Sir John Stanley was proclaimed King in his absence, and his son was presented as heir apparent. The usage was, of course, due to the need in turbulent times of securing the succession in case of the sudden death of the reigning lord. The custom of
who had obtained the
The
practice
of
holding
assembles and
the
courts in
open air was existed which
very common in ancient times. As a rule no building would hold all those having the right to be present. Again there
always
of sudden
the
was
and the stab in the back, which
treachery danger place more easily within walls and out of sight of the multitude. And lastly, and this applied particularly to Norsemen, there was fear of witchcraft, which, they believed, was much more potent
could take
the
when operating under
a
roof.
THE TEMPLE
OF
THOR
Less than twenty years ago, ancient graves
were
uncovered
of the
southern flank of the
on
the
Tynwald plateau. Weapons Viking Age suggesting a heathen burial; and supporting the the early days of the Norse domination, a temple god Thor stood on or near the Chapel site; for the
were
associated with them, tradition that in
dedicated
to
the
pagan assemblies the gods.
were
invariably precedede by religious
observances to
Excavations in Iceland have thrown
heathen
places
of
worship
such
as
light upon characteristics of have existed in Man before the may
conversion of the Norse conquerors.
temple consisted of a pillared hall for the worshippers, with long fires burning in the centre, and benches ranged along the walls. At the end was a partition low enough to give a view of the circular The
8
z ci) (1)
cci
ci)
C (‘I ci)
0 C.) -Q 0 0 .0
F Cl) 4::
H 0 z
H
0
On it twenty
the
lay
in
ounces
were
oath-ring weight, on
bracelet of
or
which oaths
the blood of the sacrifice. It
was worn on
of offences:
the
ready for priestly chief or king.
arm
political
system
OATH
for its maintenance
depended
a
sin for which there
was
civiisation in which every within reach of his hand, weapons with
no
one
the
One of the most
involved in to
important
some
was
armed and
vindictiveness value of
the truce-oath,
murderous feud
swore
to
an
the
slept by
with his
eye for every self-
an
oath which could
by which quarrelling keep the peace.
witness that I take the oath and the
on
the blackest
in which the rule of
eye practised greatest respecting member of the community, the be depended upon was enormous. was
was
forgiveness.
man went
a
“I call
sometimes
after it had been
sworn
of the oath. To break one’s solemn oath
inviolability
parties
jointless silver,
were
the Assembly, by the officiating priest-lord; the always performed by the political leader
The Norse
an
which fire burned, lit
for the
THE
In
on
of steel, and consecrated.
use
dipped into use, during duties
with its iron-bound altar
beyond,
sanctuary
without the
on the ring: swore God,” Almighty
a
lawful oath,
the oath-taker,
Frey, Njörd help repeated a long and detailed formula calculated to cover every contingency. Even when the Isle of Man had reverted to Christianity, the truce-oath was still necessary. In Kirk Braddan a fragment of a cross of the late tenth century bears part of a runic inscription which reads “...ButHrosketil betrayed in a truce his own oath-fellow...,”which hints at some dark deed of treachery and a broken oath which called for a sentence of outlawry. me
so
and
The centuries not
old
custom
after the
till 1429 that
of private vengeance persisted for nearly two disappearance of the native kings of Man, and it was a special Tynwald held at Keeill Abban in Baldwin
as it was called, should end, and the avenger of blood and the settlement of disputes by combat make way for trial by the Deemsters.
declared that Prowess,
PROCEDURE AT TYNWALD In the temple sanctuary the images of the gods named in the oath Frey, god of fertility, and Njörd, god of navigation and
invocation
9
stood around in a semi-circle, with Thor, the thunder-god, in the midst. The blood of the sacrifice was placed in a great copper bowl; and the priest-king, with a consecrated twig, sprinkled the blood
prosperity,
upon the
and
bystanders
images
and the sanctuary walls.
rites had been
the
King and his chief men held Court in the hail where the fires burned, the high-seat of the King prominent with its carved posts and placed against the auspicious south wall. Having discussed the business before them and come to After the
religious
decisions, they moved in procession
pronounced judgment
on
completed
to
the offenders
the
There the Lawman
Hill.
waiting
on
the north
or
side of the Mount, recited the ancient laws and announced new ones
for the
Punishment followed in Iceland there
and
a
circle of
which —in
There is the
slopes
on
assembly
the
of free
judgments.
stone on which
At the
criminals
Thing-your
were
executed,
Doom Ring twenty-five feet in diameter—the jurymen or doomsmen.
of such
trace
of Slieau Whallian,
ring or overlooking a
doom-stone at St.
the
Tynwald
have
John’s.
always
associated in tradition with executions in which the criminal
down its steep face in seat of
proposed
men.
rocks
the twelve
no
swiftly
sacrificial
was a
rough
sat
of the whole
approval
sinister
spiked
a
was
barrel. At Duntuim Castle, in
rolled
Skye,
government of the Lords of the Isles whose territory had
been part of the Kingdom of Man, there is a Hill of of Rolling, down which the condemned were cast,
Justice as
in
But
been
a
once
Hill
and
a
the
Slieau
Whallian story.
legend of suspected witches being tried by ordeal Curragh Glass near Tynwald. If the suspect floated she was if she sank, innocent: an unsatisfactory conclusion for the guilty; harmless victim. But it pleased the onlookers in pagan times, for the disappearance of the sacrificial victim in the water meant that the gods were appeased, and that the water spirits had taken charge of the offering. There is, too, the
of water in the
THE After the end of the
returned
to the
temple.
boiled in cauldrons
over
TYNWALD
FEAST
public business the King, Lawmen and chiefs they feasted on the meat of the sacrifice
where
the hail fires, and drank consecrated ale from
communal horn. 10
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On the green outside the sacred enclosure the rest of the freemen feasted and drank. The animals they had brought to the fair had been
sprinkled with blood from the temple bowl and they themselves were Odin, King of the gods with his eating baked images of the gods the Cock of Valhalla, and most important of all, horse, his wife Frigga, the god Thor. THOR Thor,
of Odin,
son
dedicated their
temples
was to
the favourite
deity
of the
Vikings. They
him and often held their Assemblies
on
his
agriculture, protector against sickness, pictured him in the prime of life, strong and merry; with a red beard, in which the lightnings played when he was angry. He rode about the south-western sky in a day, Thursday.
He was
god
of
sorcery, and all other dangers. His devotees
goat-wagon which thundered through the clouds. Good fortune on
Thursday,
was, it was
from ancestors who name more
Thorljotr,
believed, likely
and most, if not all,
than
a
were
people
dedicated
to wait on
marriages
of Manx blood
to the
thousand years ago. For
are
made
descended
god and given his protecting example, Corlett comes from
“Warlike Thor “;Corkil from
Thorketill, “Thor of the
Cormode from Thormodr, “Thor’s wrath.” Cauldron “; The memory of the beneficent god still lives in Manx folklore. His mighty hammer, with which he fought against the forces of evil and struck thunder out of the
sky, is recalled in the hammer-shaped bone sheep’s tongue, used up to recent times as a talisman and for a straying travellers. And the crosh-cuirn, a cross made from guide or mountain ash, Thor’s sacred tree, was a specific against cuirn the witchcraft and all malign influences. taken from
a
MIDSUMMER DAY The annual
open-air Tynwald at St. John’s was held on Midsummer when the summer solstice was celebrated in association 24th, June Day, with the Assembly and a fair on the Green with popular diversions. This great heathen festival, which was common to Celt and Norsemen, centred round the Sun-god, Balder, god of fIre and light, and his Celtic counter— part,
Lugh. Symbolical
fires
were
lit
11
on
Midsummer Eve, and
on
that
night
until the
of the
practice
beginning of the nineteenth century, when the significance had been long forgotten, the Manx hills were ablaze with
the Balder fires. When the calendar
and
the
date
apparently ignored St.
John’s
on
was
advanced the
corrected
Act of Parliament in
eleven
the
by adjustment,
Old Midsummer
THE
by days,
Tynwald
with the result that it
Day, July
of the now
1752
time
meets at
5th.
TYNWALD OF
1417
The first description in any detail of a Manx Tynwald was given in 1417, at the request of the second Stanley King of Man, when the Deemsters and Keys recalled the customary procedure in the time of
Orry (or Godred) who won the battle of Scacafell, near Ramsey, in 1079, making himself King of Man and the Isles, and founding a native dynasty which lasted for two centuries. before
Long
Orry’s
time the
temple
of Thor had
given place
to
a
church, but the main features of the ancient ceremonial of been retained, and are to the present day. The King came had Tynwald in royal array and sat on the topmost level of the Hill facing the east. Christian
power, was held before him point upward, his barons and chief officers. On the next level were
His sword of state, emblem of
and around him
the
Keys
or
Kiare-as-feed, the “Twenty-four,”who
the worthiest yeomen of
were
men
of the
standing.
Below them
Kingdom.
The six Coroners, who in
the
and sword, and
were
early
freeholders and the
times
clergy and were probably
armed with battleSheadings, for the responsible keeping of the peace in
in command of the militia of their axe
were
were
came
Assembly.
Sheading of Glenfaba the Tynwald stands, “fenced”the Court, threatening with hanging and drawing any violent disturbers of the proceedings. Of the ecclesiastical Barons whose duty it was to appear at the The senior Coroner, in whose
Mount in medieval times Sodor and Man.
only
one
now
had extensive
remains: the Lord
holdings. They including the greater part Onchan and Lezayre. The Prioress
Bishop
of
The Abbot of Rushen
controlled 9,000 acres,
of Malew and
of German,
of
Douglas
portions
had lands
in Braddan, the Prior of Whithorn drew rents from German and Marown, 12
0
Cl) (
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0 0
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and the Abbot of
and
Bangor
Point. The
Dalby
and Sabal had 700
Bishop
acres
alone retained his
between Glen
Barony,
of
Maye
over
3,000
acres, after the Reformation. The Keys corresponded
to
the
landowners
and advisers in the Icelandic
was
written down, but
in
sat
as
a
bench of
Assembly. In early times the Law by the Deemsters and kept their breasts, and was known as Breast Law. When a legal point was doubt the Deemsters consulted with the Twenty-four and after
jurymen
in
who
not
was
memorised
agreement declared the law.
“Keys,”is of debatable origin, among the unlocked the secrets of the law; that “Key”
Their alternative name,
that
explanations being they is a corruption of Kvid, a highly placed Norse jury; that it comes Kjosa, “chosen“;or from “Quest,”that being for long one of most important functions.
from their
In the presence of the King on Tynwald stood three chaplains bearing the Three Reliques of Man, objects believed to have remarkable derived
from
religious associations. They were the oath-ring. Oaths were sworn on them, and their appearance before the ruler added to his prestige. What they were is not known, but it is possible that one of them was the Staff of St. Maughold, which the monks of Rushen credited with miraculous powers. They disappeared in the sixteenth century. qualities
their
Christian substitutes for the pagan
LATER There
are
TYNWALDS
vivid accounts of Midsummer
Day
at
St.
John’s
in the
eighteenth centuries. Each Parish Captain, with four parish, rode armed to Castletown, the old capital, to escort the Lord or his Deputy to the Hill. The picturesque cavalcade, swollen by members of the Lord’s Council and officers, and moving to lively music, rode up the highway to Foxdale and St. John’s, where seventeenth and
horsemen of his
Bishop, Deemsters, Keys It had become the
and
people
practice
to
awaited it. deal
with
controversial
business
beforehand, and after service in the Chapel, the members of the Court made their way to the Hill. On the rare occasions when the Lord of the Isle was
present he
was
preceded by 13
the Governor,
bearing
his staff
of office,
fencing
white rod six feet in
a
The Manx Gaelic
length.
of the Court and in other announcements, the
understood
by
most of the
people
on
was
used in
only language
the Green.
Lordship of Man was vested in the British Crown there exceptional cases in which judgment was delivered and punishment
Until the were
given at the Hill. On Midsummer Day in 1680, a Lonan landowner who had spoken disrespectfully of the Governor was put into stocks set up in the midst of the fair on the Tynwald Green, with a paper on his breast naming his offence.
outlawing from the Hill took place in 1755, when a Ballaugh suspected of sheep-stealing and fled before he could be arrested. each of the six Sheading courts in turn the Coroner read out the name the fugitive, and called upon him “tocome forward and stand trial.” The last
man was
In of
There
was no
Finally, once
response.
Tynwald
at the
he failed to answer,
goods
forfeited
Hall
in the
summoned him to
more
following July, come
the Coroner of Glenfaba
and abide his trial; and when
the Southern Deemster declared his
body
and
to the Lord of the Isle.
Caine, in
one
of the Hill in
an
—that is,
one
who
judgment
at
the
of his earlier novels, “TheDeemster,” makes
episode was
where the
Governor
Tynwald.
The
as
wayward well
Bishop
as
son
of the
Bishop
use
Sword-Bishop brought for
is
pronounces excommunication
on
the offender and banishment to the extreme south of the Island.
Although the incident could never have happened in the way or the place he describes, the author conjures up a moving and dramatic picture of the scene, the great gathering of people motionless under the threatening sky, the broken.hearted Bishop, torn between love and duty, and the repentant prodigal making his way through the silent crowd to banishment.
THE TYNWALD CHAPEL There is
given to
the
*
no
reference
to the
of St. John in recent times earlier than 1577. The dedication
Chapel
the status of Parish Church Saint
was
in
agreement with the practice of
early
Christian
Now of Manx bog-oak, and used only at the installation of a new Lieutenant Governor. 14
missionaries when faced with of their
hearts
saint’s festival.
In this
Midsummer feast of the
The
god
or
festival dear
to
the
linked the pagan feast with
a evangelisers were weaned from the worshippers away Sun-god to the Christian celebrations of St. John.
stands
on
or
near
the site of
one
erected at
thousand years ago. This is suggested by the discovery of part cross which now stands in the Chapel porch. The broken
a
of
Runic
cross
heathen
case
Chapel probably
least a
a
converts. The
shaft is in the
in the tenth century. inscription in runes:
style of the great sculptor Gaut of Kuli, who lived Running up one edge of the stone is an incomplete
“Inosruthr:
raist: runar: thsar”
“ButOsruth carved these runes.” The
primary function of the Chapel was that of Court-house, and its upkeep was regarded as a charge on the public funds; but at the end of the eighteenth century it began to be used regularly to minister to the growing population of the district. Often patched up, the ancient building was, however, falling into irreparable decay, and in 1845 a committee of public-spirited inhabitants of Kirk German was formed with the aim of erecting as they said: “Anew chapel, decent and convenient, for the worship of God and for the meeting of the Tynwald Court.”
They were backed by Tynwald, and Whitehall, which at that period kept a tight grip on the Island finances, was persuaded to release threefifths of the total cost of £2,535. The Barrule
new
edifice
was
built of South
in 1849. It has
and
opened granite special seating arrangements for the accommodation of the Tynwald Court, and has been enriched in recent times by the beneficence of the late W. H. Collister, a native of St.
John’s.
The erection of the
new
church
was
accompanied by
the construction
wall, four feet high, supporting the ancient bank fiat-topped which marked the enclosure of the Hill, Processional Way and ChapelCourt. The noble National War Memorial standing to the north of the of
stone
a
designed by the famous arch2eologist, P. M. C. Kermode, and contribution—unsurpassedin proportion to the population —which the Island made to the British fighting services in the Napoleonic and First and Second World Wars; for “this little quiet nation,” as Bishop Rutter affectionately called it three centuries ago,
Way
was
recalls the
15
has
been
always
of its obligations
unwavering
THE Time has no
but
longer
in its
loyalty
Crown, and mindful
the
to
member of the British
as a
community
of nations.
TYNWALD OF TO-DAY
brought changes.
The Lieutenant-Governor,
rides from Castletown with
a
for
example.
hundred horsemen in his train,
police escort from Douglas, which has supplanted capital. proceedings, which are admirably follow the order the guard of on founded ancient tradition organised, honour for the Queen’s representative, the religious service, the procession comes
by
motor
with
car
But the
the old
Hill, with the thirteenth century Sword of State carried point There is, too, the revival of the old custom of wearing sprigs upward. to the
of the Bollan-Vane
valued
as a
or
BoIIan-feailleoin, “herb of John’s feast,”
protection against
the forces of evil which
were
active
once
during
the festival. The Lieutenant-Governor sits the Council around him. It has
Bishop, Deemsters, two members and four elected by the Keys. That
on
the Hill summit,
changed
in
nominated
popularly-elected body,
headed
facing east, with composition and consists of by the Lieutenant-Governor
by
their
Speaker,
sit
on
the
of the people,” as a writer second tier. “Thefathers and protectors described them in 1643, they have always been leaders in the Manxman’s .
.
.
long struggle for greater political freedom. They last of their judicial duties a century ago, and their The next
occupied by
the Vicar-General,
magistrate),
Clergy
platform
is
the
High
were
divested of the
function is Bailiff
legislative.
(a stipendiary
the Heads of Local Authorities,
the
and Free Church Ministers.
On the fourth tier
The Coroners, who
the
Captains companies.
are
commanders of the militia
are
of the Parishes, who
officials of Court, stand
as
were once
of old at the foot
of the Hill, and the Court is
the Coroner of Glenfaba, who
“fences” it. He and his five
staves of office,
and take their oath in
opened by colleagues surrender their ancient form on reappointment.
The laws which have been enacted
proclaimed.
Until the First World War, *
The title
during no
law
the past year are then of force until it had
was
Governor”was not used after 1830. 16
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14:
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promulgated. At one time new laws were read out in full in English, but since 1865 only a summary is given. The Senior Deemster reads the English and the official Lbaihder, “Reader,”the Manx; and the Royal Assent to the Act is announced. been thus
Manx and
The Deemster then calls upon the Freemen of Man to
cheers for the Queen, and the return is made to the Lieutenant-Governor and
Legislative
the
Council
Keys between the transepts, hold for purely formal business.
a
sitting meeting of
Chapel.
give
three
Here the
in the Chancel and the
Tynwald
Court
Since 1765, the double role of
presided
over
King of England has been Lord of Man, and in his Sovereign Lord and Lord of the Isle, H.M. King George VI the Tynwald Court in 1945. CONCLUSION
present-day Tynwald, an aspect almost as surprising as the survival of the open-air Assembly, is the enduring racial of those who take consistency part in it. Of the Legislative Council, Parish and Coroners, Keys, Captains nearly eighty per cent. have native names found in Man at least four or five centuries ago, and illustrating that fusion of Celt and Viking which made the Manx nation. One aspect of the
As
walk
they
on
with them in their has
a
the
the
where their ancestors trod,
beyond
animal
an
they
carry
The First Deemster
the Christian
era
to
a
time when the Celtic tribes had
totems.
The Manx may well be and of the
persistence. adaptability
its
of
history. royal name, Olaf, his colleague the name affray at Tynwald in 1238. The Rev. Reader’s romance
Gaelicised form of the
of two chiefs slain in goes
pathway
names
to
the
proud of these evidences of their racial continuing vitality of their political system and changing demands of the times.
9th August, 1957.
17
Published
by
THE GOVERNMENT PROPERTY TRUSTEES FOR THE ISLE OF MAN
Printed by Isle of Man Examiner Limited, Douglas