Page 414 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

408 History and Science of Knots

This is a suitable place to quote an early reflection on the origin of the
True Love Knot. It comes from Sir Thomas Brown (1602-1682), a man who
held an opinion on many a subject. In his Vulgar Errors (Works II, p. 82) of
1646, he says the following [26],[33]:

The true lover's knot is very much magnified, and still retained
in presents of Love among us; which though in all points it doth
not make out, had perhaps its original from the Nodus Herculanus,
or that which was called Hercules his knot, resembling the snaky
complication in the cadaceus or rod of Hermes; and in which form
the Zone or woolen girdle of the Bride was fastened, as Turnebus
observeth in his Adversaria.

To this Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor and father to the architect
of St. Paul's cathedral, adds the remark [33]

The true lover's knot is magnified for the moral signification not
esily untyed; and for the naturall,-bycause itt is a knot both wayes,
that is two knots in one.

Whether Wren's note is an allusion to the complexity of love, or whether
it is just mention of a mechanical property of a badly jammed utility knot,
such as a Reef Knot, we cannot determine.
A comment from Turnebus, written in 1581 [32], supports Brown's opin-
ion, thus:

He who wants to know how the Hercules knot looked like should see
the Caducea on which the serpents are entwined to form a Hercules
knot.

He refers to the place in the works of Macrobius (from the end of the 4th
and start of the 5th century A.D.) which we mentioned earlier.

St. Valentine's Influence

Midway through the 18th century Love Knots appeared in print in more
than one way. No longer were they confined to lyrical words, but became
embodied in drawings on Valentine cards. In his 1766 novel The Vicar of
Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith describes the following customs of his contempo-
raries [16]: