The Lover’s Knot
As many of you know, I have an ongoing fascination with knots, and the symbolism found in the form of the knot. Since it is Valentines Day, it seemed appropriate to post a little history about the symbolism of the knot, and how it relates to human relationships that we are celebrating today.
The knot has been used symbolically to represent human relationships in nearly every culture around the world. The simple idea of the bonding nature of knots—they are most often tied to bind something together—makes them a beautiful symbol to represent the bonding nature of love. It is common today to speak of “Tying the Knot” to refer to marriage or bonding in a relationship.
John Brand acknowledged the tradition in his book “Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britan.”
A knot among the ancient northern nations seems to have been the symbol of love, faith and friendship, pointing to the indissoluble tie of affection and duty. Thus the ancient Runic inscriptions, as we gather from Hicke’s Thesaurus, are in the form of a knot. Hence among the northern English and Scots, who still retain, in a great measure, the language and manners of the ancient Danes, that curious kind of knot, mutual present between lover and his mistress, which, being considered as the emblem of plighted fidelity, is therefore called a true-love knot: a name which is not derived as one would naturally suppose it to be, from the words “true” and “love”, but formed from the Danish verb “Trulofa, fidem do, I plight my troth, or faith. Thus we read in the Islandic Gospel, the following passage in the first chapter of St. Matthew, which confirms, beyond a doubt, the sense here given—til einrar Meyer er trulofad var einum Manne &c.; i.e to a virgin espoused, that is, who was promised or had engaged herself to a man &c. Hence, evidently, the bride favors or the top-knots at marriages, which have been considered as emblems of the ties to duty and affection between the bride and her spouse have been derived (pp. 108-109)
The symbol of the knot has been used in other contexts—from knots tied in clothing and rings, to intricate drawings printed on cards or engraved in stone—all with the common symbolism of expressing love in a relationship.
A Valentine’s Day gift decoration from 1641 taken from Witt’s Recreation.
A particularly interesting Valentine’s Day tradition during the mid 17th century involved the gifting of expensive presents to loved ones. These gifts were often decorated elaborate, hand painted knots. These knots were single stranded (endless), and had endless lines of words expressing sentiments of love.
Today, it might be difficult to find a “lover’s knot” to decorate the gift to your lover, but you can always take the opportunity to symbolically “tighten the knot.”
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