Page 404 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

398 History and Science of Knots

I dreamed the silk cords at our waists
Were bound together in a true Lover's knot.

Towards the end of the sixth century a True Love Knot appeared in the
official Sui Dynastic history [7], mentioned in a record of a love affair between
Yang Ti, son of a Sui ruler, and Hsuan Hua, a concubine of the ruler.
In the 1880's the Mexicans of the Lower Rio Grande had firm faith in
the power of a lock of hair, with knots tied in it, to retain a maiden's affection
[5]. This comes very close to a practise which Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19
B.C.), known as Virgil in English, describes from his days during the Roman
Empire. It is obvious from these examples that knots were already replete
with symbolic connotations centuries ago, and certainly not confined to any
specific people.
The most-asked question concerning the True Love Knot is about its
identity- What form does it take? Much has been said on this topic. As the
knot's name stands for a symbolic concept, no agreement on any answer can
ever exist. There is a demonstrably large number of different knots which
somewhere, at one time or other, have been called True Love Knot. More-
over, as Hjalmar Ohrvall noted, the True Love Knot covers several classes of
interhuman relationships [36]. In this chapter I shall be concerned with as-
pects of the emergence of the True Love Knot phenomenon . There are many
names under which it occurs. In the following, unless quoting, I shall adhere
to True Love Knot. Geographically I restrict this study to Europe, where, in
a crude chronological ordering, there seem to have been: (i) Love Knots; (ii)
Friendship Knots; and (iii) Betrothal Knots.

Classical Love Knots

The earliest traceable development of the knot as a love symbol dates to clas-
sical times. Virgil, the great classical writer of Latin poetry, described the
efforts of a lovesick Roman maiden to regain the love of her love Daphnis [36].
She does so by means of an image of wax, a coloured woollen cord, the mystic
number three, charmed knots and a spell, thus:
Around his waxen image first I wind
Three woolen fillets, of three colours join'd;
Thrice bind about his thrice-devoted head;
which around the sacred altar thrice is led.
Unequal numbers pleasure the gods. -My charms,
Restore my lovely Daphnis to my longing arms.
Knit with three knots the fillets; knit 'em straight;
And say, `These knots to love I consecrate'