The Summer of the Great Secret by Monica Edwards

Yanadix, Tanadix, Tetherdix, Metherdix, Bumfit Here are the words from Swaledale, for instance. In Yorkshire, for instance, the words might vary a little from one dale to the next, but even in areas distant from each other similarities can be detected. Perhaps yan, tan, tether was even used in large families, to do a head count of children.Įvery sheep-rearing area had its own sheep counting words, all reckoned to be closely related to the Celtic Breton and Cornish languages. Knitting was a likely pastime for shepherds in the winter, when the sheep had been brought down off the moor. Traditionally they'd count them last thing at night and again at first light, to see if any were upside down in a thorn hedge or had been taken by wolves. If there's a way to come to grief you can depend on a sheep to find it. And not surprisingly, the same system was adopted for counting stitches on a knitting needle. Shepherds have always needed to know how many sheep they have, whether for mediaeval grazing rights or EU livestock subsidies. Not the opera by Harrison Birtwhistle, but the ancient counting system.

You may already have heard of Yan Tan Tether. Like a dog, I must sniff at every research lamp-post I pass. I sometimes worry that my lack of erudition shows up like a gorilla costume at a Buckingham Palace garden party, but then I think there must be a few readers who don't mind my dilettante tendencies. The History Girls are an impressive bunch of scholars and writers.

The Summer of the Great Secret by Monica Edwards