11-07-2017, 08:34 AM
In the WDL e-facsimile of the Sachsenspiegel, it includes illustrations with both the branch and a large ring just above and next to the section on the Morgengave/Morgengabe.
I just located some more information on the morning gift from Between Betrothal and Bedding by Korpiola which might explain some of the vessels in the drawings...
"The Importance of the Morning Gift in Medieval Sweden
The morning gift, given as its name suggests on the morning after the wedding night, was, besides the dowry, the other of the two most important exchanges of marital property in medieval Sweden. Though geographically on the decline since the High Middle Ages, the morning gift was, or had been, known in former Germanic lands ranging from Northern Italy* and Northern France to England, German territories and Scandinavia. In sixteenth-century Augsburg, for instance, the morning gift was still customary although its symbolical and financial value was not as high as formerly. Like bedding, the morning gift was of Germanic origin and had no direct equivalent in Roman law.
...
It was customary at noble weddings that after the morning gift had been confirmed, a spear was thrown out of a window into the courtyard... According to some accounts, the groom drank his bride's toast when he arrived at the wedding house and promised her the morning gift. Moreover, after the morning gift had been given, the young wife, now with her hair covered, moved among the wedding guests, offering them drinks from a silver goblet as a sign of her new status as mistress of her household.
Although the morning gift was known all over Scandinavia, the late medieval practice had regional variations... In Sweden, morning gifts were by no means limited to aristocratic marriages... To sum up, the institution of the morning gift was strong and persistent in medieval Sweden."
* [which was Lombardy at the time]
I just located some more information on the morning gift from Between Betrothal and Bedding by Korpiola which might explain some of the vessels in the drawings...
"The Importance of the Morning Gift in Medieval Sweden
The morning gift, given as its name suggests on the morning after the wedding night, was, besides the dowry, the other of the two most important exchanges of marital property in medieval Sweden. Though geographically on the decline since the High Middle Ages, the morning gift was, or had been, known in former Germanic lands ranging from Northern Italy* and Northern France to England, German territories and Scandinavia. In sixteenth-century Augsburg, for instance, the morning gift was still customary although its symbolical and financial value was not as high as formerly. Like bedding, the morning gift was of Germanic origin and had no direct equivalent in Roman law.
...
It was customary at noble weddings that after the morning gift had been confirmed, a spear was thrown out of a window into the courtyard... According to some accounts, the groom drank his bride's toast when he arrived at the wedding house and promised her the morning gift. Moreover, after the morning gift had been given, the young wife, now with her hair covered, moved among the wedding guests, offering them drinks from a silver goblet as a sign of her new status as mistress of her household.
Although the morning gift was known all over Scandinavia, the late medieval practice had regional variations... In Sweden, morning gifts were by no means limited to aristocratic marriages... To sum up, the institution of the morning gift was strong and persistent in medieval Sweden."
* [which was Lombardy at the time]