Maiden's garland

{{Short description|Crown-shaped garland used as a funeral memento for virgins}}

File:Virgins' Crown, Church of St Mary the Virgin, Abbotts Ann - geograph.org.uk - 1161322.jpg

A maiden's garland, also known as a virgin's crown, crants or crantsey, is a crown-shaped garland used as a funeral memento for, usually female, virgins.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1080/0015587032000145388| title = The "Innocent and Touching Custom" of maidens' garlands: A field report| journal = Folklore| volume = 114| issue = 3| pages = 355–387| year = 2003| last1 = Morris | first1 = R. | s2cid = 162295903}}{{Cite book|chapter=Maidens' Garlands: A Funeral Custom of Post-Reformation England|first=Rosie|last=Morris|title=The Archaeology of Post-Medieval Religion|year=2011|publisher=Boydell Press|location=Woodbridge|isbn=978-1-8438369-3-3|editor-first1=Chris|editor-last1=King|editor-first2=Duncan|editor-last2=Sayer|pages=271–282}} They are generally made of paper flowers, rosettes and ribbons fixed to a wooden frame.{{Cite web|title=Maidens' Funeral Garlands, Holy Trinity Church, Ashford|work=GENUKI|first=Rosemary|last=Lockie|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100506053911/http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DBY/Ashford/Crantz.html|archivedate=6 May 2010|date=15 November 2009|url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DBY/Ashford/Crantz.html|accessdate=28 February 2014}}{{Cite web|first=Julie|last=Bunting|title=Take a Look At: Maidens' Garlands and Memorials|work=GENUKI|date=15 November 2009|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100710035350/http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DBY/TakeaLook/Crantz.html|archivedate=10 July 2010|url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DBY/TakeaLook/Crantz.html|accessdate=28 February 2014|id=First published 25 June 2001, The Peak Advertiser (Bakewell) p.13}} Many are also adorned with white paper gloves, and may be inscribed with verses of poetry and the name of the deceased.{{Cite web|title=Funeral Garlands in Matlock Church|first=Ann|last=Andrews|work=The Andrews Pages|url=http://www.andrewsgen.com/matlock/church_gar.htm|date=20 July 2013|accessdate=28 February 2014}}{{Cite web|title=Church history and the architecture of Holy Trinity Church, Ashford in the Water|work=Holy Trinity Parish Church|url=http://www.ashfordparishchurch.co.uk/holy-trinity-history.aspx|date=13 August 2012|accessdate=28 February 2014|archive-date=10 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810160516/http://www.ashfordparishchurch.co.uk/holy-trinity-history.aspx|url-status=dead}}

Practice

The garlands are carried before, or on, the coffin during the funeral procession and afterwards displayed in the church.{{Cite web|title=The Crantses|work=St. Giles, Matlock|url=http://www.stgilesmatlock.co.uk/history/the-crantses.html|accessdate=28 February 2014}} W. R. Bullen, writing in The Tablet in 1926, reports that the "practice of carrying garlands at a maiden's funeral was common in England, Wales and Scotland before the Reformation and after it for two hundred years or more, but the custom has now almost entirely fallen into disuse."{{Cite web|first=W.R.|last=Bullen|title=Virgins' Garlands|work=The Tablet|volume=147|issue=4483|location=London|date=10 April 1926|page=7|url=http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/10th-april-1926/7/virgins-garlands|accessdate=28 February 2014}} Shakespeare refers to the custom in his play Hamlet, when describing the burial of Ophelia:

{{poem quote|

here she is allow'd her virgin crants,

her maiden strewments, and the bringing home

of bell and burial.Shakespeare, Hamlet Act V, Scene i, Lines 249–256}}

Surviving examples

The oldest surviving garland was made in 1680 and is hung in the Priests' room at St Mary's Church This is an anteroom which is not generally open for public viewing. It can be accessed on church open days Beverley, Yorkshire. The largest collection of garlands (43, ranging between 1740 and 1973) is held at the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, Abbots Ann, Hampshire, and the most recent example was made in 1995 at Holy Trinity Church, Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire.{{Cite web|title=The Virgins' Crown |first=Pamela J. |last=King |url=http://www.little-ann.co.uk/church/virgins.htm |accessdate=28 February 2014 |work=St. Mary's Church, Abbotts Ann |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330021940/http://www.little-ann.co.uk/church/virgins.htm |archivedate=30 March 2012 }} The parish church of Holy Trinity, Minsterley, houses an internationally famous collection of maiden's garlands. Examples have also been found in France: Edward J. G. Forse, writing in 1938, observed: "The paper rosettes and wreaths at Abbotts Ann I found paralleled in August 1919 at Montsoreau, near Saumur, and in July 1932 at La Malène on the river Tarn."{{Cite book|title=Ceremonial Curiosities and Queer Sights in Foreign Churches |first=Edward J. G. |last=Forse |publisher=The Faith Press |location=London |date=1938 |chapter=III: "THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD": Rarities not absolutely unique! |url=http://anglicanhistory.org/england/forse1-5.html |accessdate=28 February 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114194346/http://anglicanhistory.org/england/forse1-5.html |archivedate=14 November 2007 }} There is a collection of garlands on display in Old St Stephen's church in Robin Hood's Bay, including a list of the ladies who have had them at their funerals. The latest date on the list is that of Eleanor Mennell who died in 1955 aged 90. It is not clear whether her garland is one of the ones on display or not.The list contains 167 names of which 17 are groups of sisters

Etymology

The name crants, used most commonly in Derbyshire and the north, is believed to be derived from late Old Norse krans ({{IPA|/krans/ [kʰʁ̥ɑnˀs]}}) or Old High German kranz ({{IPA|/kʁants/}}), both meaning "wreath". Samuel Johnson, in Notes to Shakespeare, Volume 3: The Tragedies (1765), wrote: "I have been informed by an anonymous correspondent, that crants is the German word for garlands, and I suppose it was retained by us from the Saxons. To carry garlands before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them over her grave, is still the practice in rural parishes."{{Cite book|title=Notes to Shakespeare, Volume 3: The Tragedies|year=1765|last=Johnson|first=Samuel|authorlink=Samuel Johnson}}