Free in Freemasonry and King Athelstan in England
By: Arvid Ystad
There are three documents from the Middle Ages that have long puzzled Freemasons in the British Isles, the Halliwell poem, the Cook manuscript and the Dowland manuscript.
These documents tell how King Athelstan transformed and “revived” the Craft, Freemasonry. Here we learn among other things, that King Athelstan himself was a Master, and that he loved the masonry and masons and gave them charges and names. [1]
Could Adalstein really have transformed and “revived” Freemasonry? He was king of England in the first half of the 900s, long before the Templars or the cathedral stone masons with their building lodges came to England.
According to common belief, it was precisely from these lodges that the masons, with their characteristic aprons, developed their rituals and held their meetings.
In my book The Freemasons in the Viking Age, I show, however, that there is an Old English (OE) text that tells how King Athelstan could have initiated a man into freemasonry.
The text is entered in a blank space in a gospel book, and tells how King Athelstan freed, (gefreode), Eadhelm very soon after he first became king.
British scholars mean Athelstan freed the slave Eadhelm since the word frēogan is used in the text. I claim, however, that the Old English word frēogan has been misinterpreted. Can King Athelstan instead have initiated Eadhelm into freemasonry?
Since the 600s Scandinavians have settled in northern and western Scotland and Ireland, and during the Viking Age (793-1066) armies with Scandinavians conquered large parts of eastern and northern England.
The Old English language was massively influenced by the Old Norse language and religious practice, as I show in my book. We should therefore look at the original meaning of the Germanic and Old Norse words in Old English.
Athelstan became king of the Anglo-Saxons in 924 and king of the English from 927. King Athelstan altered the Norse initiation rites into the freemasonry as we know it today.
Let us now have a closer look at the gospel book Royal 1. B. VIII in the British Library. The inserted text is probably written in Northumbria in the first half of the 8th century.
At the ceremony, Athelstan “freed” Eadhelm, and witnesses were Ælfheah the mass-priest, “the hired”, (=the royal household or more particularly it’s religious part), Ælfric the reeve, Wulfnoth the White, Eanstan the prafost (= officer), and Byrnstan the mass-priest. [2]
We shall later come back to this ceremony and discuss the two last sentences in the Royal 1. B. VIII text.
Areas of Scandinavian settlement in the Viking Age
IMAGE LINKED: wikimedia Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Areas of Scandinavian settlement in the Viking Age [3]
Let’s first have a closer look at a few words connected to “free” and “freedom”.
Frēogan means «set free, love», past frēode. and is developed from *frīo-. according to A. Campbell’s Old English Grammar. [4]
The word for freedom frēols, stems from two words, free + hals (neck) <*fri-hals (Norse *frija-halsa”) “which has a free neck”, presumably a freeborn as opposed to a slave (chained around the neck). The “h” in “hals” became mute => frēols [5].
The Norwegian linguists Bjorvand and Lindemann says: The Germanic *frija- is handed down in Old English frēo, frīg, English “free”. The adjective *frija- belongs etymologically to words with the meaning “to love”, “dear” and “love”, as in Gothic frijōn, “love”, Norse, frjá “love”, Old English frēogan, frēon “love”, “embrace”. Old Norse fríj “lover”, “husband”. [6]
Note that these two linguists say that frēogan means “love” and “embrace”, not “free”.
The linguist, Professor Sara M. Pons-Sanz at the Cardiff University, does not mention the word frēogan at all in her extensive work, but confirms that frēo meant “free”. [7]
The Old English word liesan, “to loosen, release, redeem”, is used in a treaty between King Alfred and Guthrum (878, or later), where the same amount of money should be paid for the Danes’ freedmen (“heora liesengum”) as for the ceorl who occupies rented land”. [8]
Liesan or Old English lysing, “freedman”, that can be associated with Viking Age Norse “løysingi”, “freedman”, is not used in the British Library Royal 1.B VIII about Athelstan’s freeing of Eadhelm as perhaps could be expected since the king had close contact with the Scandinavian community. There could, however, be “dialectal distribution” in using the words.[9]
Simon Keynes, the author of King Athelstan’s books, claims that the inserted text in the gospel book “must have been written in the south of England” some two hundred years (“first half of the tenth century”) after King Athelstan’s manumission of Eadhelm, “to judge from an old English text entered in a blank space…”.
However, later in the article, Simon Keynes changes his mind: “…it seems more likely that the manumission was entered in Royal 1. B. VII because this manuscript belonged at the time to the king; in which case we could infer that the document was written by a scribe in his service”.
Could it perhaps be the use of the word frēogan, that caused Simon Keynes to assume it was written in the south of England some two hundred years later? And, could the two last sentences: “He who averts this – may he have the disfavour of God and of all the relics which, by god’s mercy, I have obtained in England. And I grant the children the same as I grant the father”, point to those who meant that the king’s initiating of Eadhelm into freemasonry, the originally heathen rite of a Scandinavian’s goddess, was a shame?
What relics had to do with manumission of a slave, is difficult to say, but relics are extensively used in freemasonry. Does the second sentence about the grant of the children, point to the fact that sons of freemasons were very welcome in the rites, as is the case today?
When King Athelstone gefreode Eadhelm, he might well have “embraced”, “loved”, Eadhelm and initiated him into freemasonry’s first degree which used to be initiation to the goddess Freya, probably pronounced frija in Old Norse.
Freya’s name may be of Indo-European origin, the Old Indian (Sanskrit) priyā, “beloved”, can easily be led to the understanding of a loving Lady or goddess.
Among the Germanic people, the word frī- had an extended meaning different from what it means today, namely “the one that belongs to the family or tribe, as well as being protected”. [10]
The holy wedding to Freya takes place at the wall or mūr. The young man became her husband at the altar. The Old Norse word for a husband or lover was frīi. He became her frīi at the mūr. The holy wedding to the mother goddess is well known from many cultures’ religious history.
Free in freemason may thus point to either Freya, frija, or to her frīi, her husband or lover. The word mūr was a loan word from Latin in Old Norse as well as in Old English. [11]
Later the Old Norse/Old English word mūr in “frīimūrer” or “frijamūrer” was replaced by the French “mason”. It was written “frie mason” in Scotland in the 1500s. [12]
But frēa can also mean “lord” in Old English (proto germanic= frawon. ) [13]
This word was used in pedigrees for titles for deceased Anglo-Saxon kings, where we find Freawine, Frealaf, Frithogar, Friothulf. In a royal Danish pedigree recorded by Sven Aageson c. 1190, Frotho appears. [14]
However, the symbolism of freeing a slave is still central in freemasonry’s first degree as the picture from Duncan’s Ritual of Freemasonry (below) shows. The rope is taken off the candidate’s neck at the altar after his initiation. [15]
IMAGE LINKED: wikimedia Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
If Athelstan was to free a slave, the Old English loan-word from the Scandinavians, liesan, could have been used.
Now to King Athelstan’s role in transforming the Norse rites to freemasonry. The Norse King Sigtrygg of Dublin and York, married king Athelstan’s sister the year before he died.
King Athelstan then took over York and Northumberland, probably without a fight. This could mean that the king was accepted by the Scandinavian settlers and that they knew his rule, so that they trusted him. He was known as a gentle man.
The king established larger councils of leading men from all parts of his kingdom, probably inspired by the ting tradition that the Scandinavian settlers had established.
King Athelstan created rituals that were meant to unite the Christian English and the pagan Scandinavians, with he himself as the supreme king. Religion is an excellent way to control people.
I have already mentioned the documents from the Middle Ages that points to King Athelstan as the reformer of the Craft (freemasonry); the Halliwell poem, the Cooke manuscript, and the Dowland manuscript. [16]
The Halliwell poem is an English script from around 1390. The poem is written in Middle English: lines 61-87 describe how King Athelstan in the year 926 convened an assembly in the city of York, “revived the Craft and gave it new laws”.
To this day, the Craft is synonymous with freemasonry in the English language. The word Craft, Norse kraptr, was common in Germanic, but I have argued that freemasonry’s use of the word is connected with the sacred craft, the handicraft that took place at daytime in the ceremonial rooms in the great halls and hörgr in Scandinavia. [17]
Freya’s hörgr and Odin’s Valhalla were now replaced by King Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem.[18]
I claim that King Athelstan may have initiated Eadhelm into freemasonry and that free in this context points to the old etymological meaning of the words that is found in the rites to the gods and ancestors.
Here the meaning of free points to “free”, “love” and “embrace” of the goddess Freya, “belonging to the family” and “being protected” and possibly to “lord”; those who were initiated to the goddess. As in the word “freemason” itself today.
If my theory is correct, the inserted text in Royal I. B. VII shows that the freemasons meeting was an initiation of Eadhelm. In this ceremony, King Athelstan was the Worshipful Master, Ælfric the reeve was Senior Warden, Wulfnorth the White acted as Junior Warden and the two mass-priests were the Senior and Junior Deacon.
Eanstan the prafost (=officer) was perhaps the Tyler, as the two crossed swords symbolize the Tyler in Duncan’s Ritual of Freemasonry. [19]
Second degree in freemasonry is called “fellow craft”, the word fellow is of Norse origin. The OE fēolaga, “partner, associate; fellow, comrade” stems from Old Norse felaga, compare Old Icelandic félagi, older runic inscriptions filaki. “The Old English fēolagascipe, which may be a native new formation instead of a Norse-derived loan-blend, is attested not much later than OE fēolaga”. [20]
The two basic initiation rites in freemasonry probably had names of Norse origin, perhaps called frijamūr-scipe (?) and fēolagascipe. Their secret meetings may have been the husting in Old English and Old Norse, the word “may have been culturally associated with the Scandinavians and their activities”. [21]
It was probably King Athelstan (king 924-939) who gave freemasonry legitimacy for posterity.
Footnotes
References
[1] Albert Mackey, The History of Freemasonry, The York Legend, 1996, New York, p 95-110.
[2] Simon Keyes, King Athelstan’s books, in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England, Cambridge, 1985, p 185-189
[3] From The Times Atlas of World History, p 110
[4] Other OE forms are frēa, free, and the older *fria, reflects fri + a, A. Campbell, Old English Grammar, Oxford, 1959, §238.1, §761.4, p 335, frēols, §238.2. Frīo §120,3, p. 47, means free.
[5] “Compare Old Icelandic frjálsgjafi, a freedman who’s right to dispose of property was lower than that of the leysingar” … Sara M. Pons-Sanz, p 417. Bjorvand and Lindemann, Våre Arveord, 2007, Oslo, p 304, frels.
[6] Harald Bjorvand og Fredrik Otto Lindemann, Våre Arveord, Oslo, 2007, p 304,305. The Old English frēols meant “freedom”. The first term in this composition is the adjective for “free”, Germanic *frija-, which has already been replaced by frjáls in Old Norse.
[7] Sara M. Pons-Sanz, The lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English, 2013, Turnhout, p 417
[8] LawAGu 2. Sara M. Pons-Sanz, The lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English, 2013, Turnhout, p. 209
[9] Sara M. Pons-Sanz says about a Freedman: OE lysing: The Thesaurus of Old English gives OE frēolæta, frēolsmann, and frēotmann as (near)synonyms of OE lysing, “freedman”. Of them OE frēotmann seems to have been the core member of the lexico-semanitic field, for the Dictionary of Old English does not record OE frēolsmann, and all occurrences of OE frēolæta are restricted to glossaries. Given the distribution of the Norse-derived term, the difference between it and the main native equivalent seem to lie in their dialectal distribution”. Sara M. Pons-Sanz, 2013, p. 87. “It is noteworthy that the specific association of OE lysing with the Scandinavians and their practices is emphasized. “The term “løysingi”, seems to refer to a social class of the Scandinavian newcomers; the løysingar being the highest of the two categories of manumitted slaves. The term is only recorded in texts from the period when the Anglo-Scandinavian linguistic contact was already taking place”. Sara M. Pons-Sanz, 2013, p. 87
[10] Jan de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte II, 1970, § 533, p 305.
[11] A Campbell, 1959, §505
[12] Berhard E. Jones, Freemasons Guide and Compendium, 2006, p. 158
[13] A. Campbell, 1959, § 120, 2,3, p 46, and Sara M. Pons-Sanz, 2013, p 422.
[14] Kenneth Simsam, Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies, In Proceedings of the British Academia, 1953, vol 39, p 299-339.
[15] Duncan’s ritual of Freemasonry, New York, picture p.28, rope off neck, p. 36
[16] Albert Mackey, The History of Freemasonry, The York Legend, 1996, New York, p 95-110.
[17] Arvid Ystad, The Freemasons in the Viking Age, 2023, Oslo, Amazon.com, p. 356,376
[18] Arvid Ystad, 2023, p. 66
[19] Duncan’s Ritual of Freemasonry, p. 8
[20] “Compare Old Icelandic fēlagskapr “partnership, fellowship; friendship, companionship”. Sara M. Pons-Sanz, 2013, p 95
[21] Sara M. Pons-Sanz, 2013, p 176
Article by: Arvid Ystad
Arvid Ystad has been a freemason in the Swedish rite, Den Norske Frimurerorden, from 1984 to 2016 and an honorary Member of the lodge Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart in Turin Italy from 2018-
Arvid Mechanical Engineer, NTNU; Trondheim, Norway and Master of Business Administration, INSEAD; Fontainebleau, France
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