There is one medieval Nordic allusion to the practice: Sólarlióð 41, ‘I saw
the Sun; it seemed to me as if I saw the magnificent God. To her I bowed
for the last time in this mortal world.’ Bavarian farmers in the Oberpfalz
were observed in the nineteenth century to raise their hats to the rising sun.
Greetings and prayers to the rising and setting sun are attested also from the
Baltic lands, Belarus, the Ukraine, and southern Poland.^75
Remarkable survivals of the custom, including some actual chants in Scots
Gaelic, are recorded from the Western Isles.
The people addressed invocations to the sun, moon, and stars. Men and women
saluted the morning sun and hailed the new moon.... The reciter, Mór MacNeill of
Barra, said: –– [Gaelic version] –– ‘In the time of my father and of my mother there was
no man in Barra who would not take off his bonnet to the white sun of power... And
old persons will be doing this still, and I will be doing it myself sometimes. Children
mock at me, but if they do, what of that?’^76
Old men in the Isles still uncover their heads when they first see the sun on coming
out in the morning. They hum a hymn not easily caught up and not easily got from
them. The following fragments were obtained from a man of ninety-nine years in the
south end of South Uist, and from another in Mingulay, one of the outer isles of
Barra.
Sùil Dhé mhóir, The eye of the great God,
Sùil Dhé na glòir, the eye of the God of glory,
Sùil Rìgh nan slògh, the eye of the King of hosts,
Sùil Rìgh nam beò. the eye of the King of the living,
Dòrtadh oirnne pouring upon us
gach òil agus ial, at each time and season,
Dòrtadh oirnne pouring upon us
gu fòill agus gu fial. gently and generously.
Glòir dhuit fhéin, Glory to thee,
a ghréin an àigh. thou glorious sun.
Glòir dhuit fhéin, a ghréin, Glory to thee, thou sun,
a ghnùis Dhé nan dùl. face of the God of life.^77
I commented earlier on the Indo-European lexical character of the phrase
sùil Dhé. One might perhaps recognize further in sùil Rìgh nam beò a title
akin to one predicated of Indra and Varuna in the Rigveda (3. 46. 2 = 6. 36. 4;
- 3): vís ́vasya bhúvanasya ra ̄ ́ja ̄, ‘king of all existence’, that is, of all
creatures.
- 3): vís ́vasya bhúvanasya ra ̄ ́ja ̄, ‘king of all existence’, that is, of all
(^75) C. F. A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube (2nd edn., Berlin 1869), 12; Gimbutas (1963),
201; ead. (1971), 165.
(^76) Carmichael (1928–59), iii. 274, cf. 287.
(^77) Ibid. 306 f.; further examples ibid. 309, 311.
216 5. Sun and Daughter