A bidding stick (sometimes also referred to as a budstikke,Simon, Jeffrey. 1988. ''NATO-Warsaw Pact Force Mobilization''. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, p. 520. war arrow, or stembod) is a term for a wooden object, such as a club or baton, carried by a messenger and used by Northern Europeans, for example in Scotland and Scandinavia, to rally people for ''things'' (assemblies) and for defence or rebellion.

Scotland

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, such a token (

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

: ''crann-tara'', translated as "fiery cross"''The Royal School History of Scotland''. 1873. London: T. Nelson and Sons, p. 247. or "cross of shame") was used to rally

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...

members to arms. The practice is described in the novels and poetry of Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

. A small burning cross or charred piece of wood would be carried from town to town. A widely known use was in the

1715 Jacobite rising The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts. At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, lo ...

, although it was used more recently among Scottish settlers in Canada during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. In 1820, over 800 fighting men of the Scottish

Clan Grant Clan Grant is a Highland Scottish clan. History Origins One theory is that the ancestors of the chiefs of Clan Grant came to Scotland with the Normans to England where the name is found soon after the conquest of that country, although some h ...

were gathered, by the passing of the Fiery Cross, to come to the aid of their Clan Chief and his sister in the town of Elgin. The name ''Crann Tara'' was used for a

current affairs programme on

Grampian Television Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and now named STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Highlands (except Fort William and ...

(

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

) and a political magazine edited by Norman Easton between 1977 and 1982.

Scandinavia

When an enemy had arrived, bidding sticks (

Old Swedish Old Swedish (Swedish language, Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken fro ...

: ''buþkafle'' (sg.)) were sent in all directions. In

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, they consisted of clubs, or just wooden chunks; in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, there were repurposed arrows. Sometimes the bidding sticks had a string attached to one end and were charred on the other end;

Olaus Magnus Olaus Magnus (October 1490 – 1 August 1557) was a Swedish writer, cartographer, and Catholic ecclesiastic. Biography Olaus Magnus (a Latin translation of his birth name Olof Månsson) was born in Linköping in October 1490. Like his elder ...

(1555) relates that those who did not bring the club to the next village would be hanged and their homesteads burnt down. When the people were assembled to a

thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

, the object was in the shape of an

axe An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many for ...

, or if the meeting concerned

blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religiou ...

, it was a cross. The objects were signed with

runes Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...

or other marks in order to indicate the reason for the assembly (e.g. election of king at the

Stone of Mora The Stones of Mora () is a historic location in Knivsta, Sweden. Several Medieval kings of Sweden were proclaimed at the assembly of Mora near modern Uppsala. It was moved in the 15th century and was considered to have been lost. However, ther ...

), and who had sent them. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, using ''buþkaflar'' was the official method of assembling people, and they were only allowed to be carved by certain officials, e.g.

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

s and

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

s. They were especially efficient, however, when they were used to levy people against royal oppression and high taxes. After the Dalecarlian rebellion of 1743, strong checks were placed on the use of bidding sticks. In Sweden, the bidding stick was standardized during the village reorganizations in 1742, and it was at the village level that they were frequently used. During the 19th and 20th centuries, more specific messages were attached to the clubs or inserted into a hollow space. Still in the early 20th century, there was a paragraph in Swedish law that stated that the bidding stick would be sent between the villages if there was a forest fire. — Similar paragraphs were also present in the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

legislation concerning the correct use of ''arpakapula'', or ''budkavle'' in Finland’s Swedish, till the 20th century.Hakkila, Esko (ed.): ”Arpakapula.” ''Lakiasiain käsikirja'', p. 40. Porvoo: Werner Söderström Oy, 1938. — The most prominent regulations were in the

Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...

of 1889 (chapter 44, §§ 23–24).

Newspapers

The concept of the bidding stick has been used as the name for several newspapers, including the Norwegian papers ''

Budstikka ''Budstikka'' (The Bidding Stick), prior to 2004 known as ''Asker og Bærum Budstikke'', is a daily local newspaper published out of Billingstad in Asker, Norway. It covers the municipalities of Asker and Bærum, and is the only newspaper issued ...

'', ''

Budstikken ''Budstikken'' (The Bidding Stick) was a Norwegian newspaper. It was started as a weekly newspaper by a governmental commission on 14 April 1808, to counter rumours and false information that arose because of the Gunboat War (1807–1814). Its f ...

'', and ''

Bremanger Budstikke ''Bremanger Budstikke'' (The Bremanger Bidding Stick) is a local Norwegian newspaper published in Svelgen in Vestland county. ''Bremanger Budstikke'' covers events in the municipality of Bremanger. The newspaper was founded by and is edited by G ...

'', and the Faroese paper ''

Tingakrossur ''Tingakrossur'' was a Faroese newspaper. The first copy of the paper was published on January 1, 1901Wylie, Jonathan. 1987. ''The Faroe Islands: Interpretations of History''. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, p. 157. and it ceased publ ...

''.

References

{{reflist, 30em History of telecommunications Scottish folklore