Apple bobbing

As October draws to a close, winter creeps through the apple trees.

The last of the leaves have become brittle and fallen to their final resting place on the orchard floor, leaving the trees’ skeletal arms bare. Clusters of twigs gathered at gnarled branches resemble old brooms tied by Anglo-Saxon besom squires. Scattering the floor, windfall apples lay wizened and rotting, blisters of white mould growing on wrinkled, sagging skin.

Thoughts turn to Halloween celebrations and games for excited little ones dressed as ghouls, witches and wizards. In houses up and down the country half barrels and tubs will be filled with water and apples, as revellers are invited to don a blindfold, have their hands toed behind their back and then plunge their faces into the water, searching frantically with open mouths to clasp an apple between their teeth and be declared the winner.

The game seems at odds with today’s ghostly-related Halloween festivities, but it harkens back to our Celtic roots and the festival of Samhain, a celebration to mark the end of the harvest season and to acknowledge the oncoming winter. Apples and apple trees were first brought to the U.K. by the Romans and introduced to the Celts who inhabited Britain at the time. The Celts were entranced by the fruit; particularly because when you slice an apple widthways the seed formation mimic a five-point star - similar to the pentagram, a symbol which was extremely significant. The apple was declared a sacred fruit with magical qualities. It represented life and rebirth and the Celts would bury apples as provisions for the dead. As the Romans began to bring their goods over to Britain, they brought their beliefs too, and things began to become intertwined. The Roman goddess Pomona was the goddess of the orchards and a festival to celebrate her was was said to be held November 1st, so the two festivities were blended. There is actually little evidence of this, but it makes for a romantic story. Over time, traditions twist and change, and whilst we don’t actually know when bobbing for apples started, or what the reason was, it features as a drawing in the 14th century manuscript, “The Luttrell Psalter”, so we know that by then the game was well under way.

At some point apple bobbing, also known as ‘apple ducking’, took on romantic notions, but there are various different versions. The game was apparently aimed at young, unmarried people. In one version whoever successfully bobbed first would be the first to get married. In another version young people who Bob for the apple of their beloved. If they were successful on the first bite, the relationship would be a loving one. Two bites of would be passionate, but brief. Three or more and it would be doomed to failure. Today’s version leans towards friendly competition and a simple bit of fun. 

But the game puts me in mind of a more serious ‘dunking’. In the 17th century, ‘dunking’ or ‘swimming’ was the practice of plunging women and men suspected of being witches into bodies of water. The accused would be dragged to a river or lake, stripped and then, as in apple bobbing their hands would be bound, often to their feet, before they would be thrown into the water. The idea was that if the person floated, they were being rejected by the water as James I stated in his book Daemonologie (1597) “that God hath appointed ... that the water shall refuse to receive them in her bosome, that have shaken off them the sacred Water of Baptisme, and wilfully refused the benefite thereof."

If this happened, the accused would be pulled from the water and hanged or burnt for a witch. If they sank however, they were declared innocent, and would be pulled from the water and freed - providing they hadn’t drowned in the process. 

Whilst some historians claim dunking wasn’t actually practiced, Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins himself admitted to partaking in the barbaric exercise, however he claimed that he never initiated dunking, rather the victims had requested it, persuaded by the Devil that they would pass the test and be able to continue His work undetected. Hopkins associate, John Stern, backed up his claims, stating that they never dunked anyone unless they pleaded for it, and when the custom did take place, it was only ‘at such a time of the year when none took any harm by it’, as though drowning is of little risk in the summer months. The abhorrent custom continued, and the last record of someone being thrown into water accused of witchcraft was in 1864, when a Mr Smith was mobbed into the water. He initially survived the ordeal, however he died a short while later and the post mortem cited the ‘immersion’ as the cause.

And those accused of witchcraft had to be wary of apples too. In 1657, Jane Brooks was said to have knocked on the door of the Jones’ in Somerset, asking for food. When 12-year-old Richard Jones gave her some bread, she gifted him an apple. Shortly after, Richard suffered from what we now believe was a stroke, which resulted in a series of mystifying events. Witnesses claimed they watched as Richard ‘flew’ 300 yards when Brooks (invisible to all but Richard) lifted him into the air and on another occasion he was ‘pinned to the ceiling’ when an unseen Brooks held him there. It was decreed there was enough evidence against the elderly lady and Jane Brooks was charged with witchcraft, convicted and hanged on March 26, 1658.

Apples have continued to have an association with witches and ‘evil’. In the tales of King Arthur, Guinevere gives an apple to St Patrick who dies, leaving Guinevere accuses of witchcraft and almost burnt at the stake. In Snow White the Queen, disguised as a witch, feeds an apple to Snow White in order to poison her. In Christianity, in The Garden of Eden it was Eve feeding Adam an apple from the forbidden tree that led them to be cast out into the world. And at The Judgement of Paris, it was the Golden Apple of Discord that was thrown as a prize of beauty, sparking the dispute that led to the Trojan War. 

Despite the negative connotations, the apple has many positive associations. The apple orchard is important to our countryside and the fruit remains sacred to those practicing paganism or witchcraft today. 

And if apple bobbing isn’t for you, you could always raise a glass of strong, warmed apple cider - also known as ‘Witches Brew’ in some northern counties of the U.K., and toast this humble fruit, whose simple existence has led to love, war, death and a game that has lasted centuries.