need-fire
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Noun
need-fire (plural need-fires)
- (paganism) A ritual fire created by friction.
- 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 10, page 278:
- In Silesia, also, need-fires were often employed for the purpose of curing a murrain or preventing its spread.
- 1993, Our Troth, page 660:
- Fire - divided into need-fire (kindled by friction - discussed under 'Waluburg's Night') and 'struck fire' (sparked by flint and steel - discussion under Thonar).
- 1998, Darien Hamilton, “Kindling in the Yuletide”, in Heathen Journal, volume 2, number 3:
- I built up the kindling in various stages in the base of the stove as I prepared to make my need-fire.
- 2003, Brian Froud, Ari Berk, The Runes of Elfland, page 51:
- When great pestilence is upon the land, old folklore tells of using a bow drill to make the need-fire, which is then used to cure cattle of their illness.