Abstract

The Burning of the Clavie is a calendar custom traditionally associated with the ancient Pictish seaport of Burghead, but fishermen in north-east Scotland had their own ‘needfire’ version of the Clavie, used to instantly remedy spells of poor catches believed to have been caused by evil spirits, witches, or other forms of ill-luck. This article aims to delineate the maritime or fishermen’s Clavie as a reactive ritual rather than a calendar custom. The Clavie will be compared against other beliefs held and rituals re-enacted by the fishing communities, demonstrating that the fishermen had a specific set of ‘crisis’ rituals thought to rid them of ill-luck at sea. This article also offers, by its use of oral reminiscence, a snapshot of the contemporary belief concerning the Clavie found in mid twentieth- to early twenty-first-century fishermen in north-east Scotland and Shetland.

摘要

燃烧 Clavie 是传统上与古老的皮克特海港 Burghead 相关的日历习俗，但苏格兰东北部的渔民拥有自己的“needfire”版本的 Clavie，用于立即补救据信造成的不良捕获被恶灵、女巫或其他形式的厄运所害。本文旨在将海事或渔民的克拉维描述为一种反应性的仪式，而不是一种日历习俗。Clavie 将与渔业社区所持有的其他信仰和重新制定的仪式进行比较，证明渔民有一套特定的“危机”仪式，被认为是为了摆脱海上的厄运。这篇文章还提供了，通过使用口头回忆，