Page 411 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

The The Love Knot 405

`love', but formed from the Danish verb Trulofa, fidem do, I plight
my troth, or faith. Thus we read in the Islandic Gospels, the fol-
lowing passage in the first chapter of St. Matthew, which confirms,
beyond a doubt, the sense here given-til einrar Meyar er trulofad
var einum Manne &c.; i.e to a virgin espoused, that is, who was
promised or had engaged herself to a man Pc. Hence, evidently,
the bride favors or the top-knots at marriages, which have been
considered as emblems of the ties of duty and affection between the
bride and her spouse have been derived. [7, pp. 108-109]
These notes are of great interest, but give no indication about the Be-
trothal Knot itself. The (Nordic) literature generally lacks information about
its appearance, but we are afforded indications of knots which people believed
to be representative. The betrothal rings eventually became acceptable and
Love Knots form the crowns in 18 carat gold rings, which emerge in the 14-15th
century in Britain and Lubeck, Germany [35].

Fig. 4. A knotted betrothal ring
Such expensive traditions existed also in Great Britain [21]. In the in-
ventory of the effects of Henry Howard, K.G., Earl of Northampton, 1614, is
recorded:
a golde ring sett with fifteene diamondes in a true lover's knotte,
with the words "nec astu, nec ense".
Not only did these rings eventually become more expensive, but also more
intricate. The ancient matrimonial jimmal, or gimmal, was a kind of curiously
made double ring. There were links within each other, and though generally
double, they were, by further refinement, made triple, or even more compli-
cated. Thus Robert Herrick in his Hesperides of 1648 can write [21]: