A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Brettiva
St. Brettiva, Jan. 11 (Brictiva, Brittifa, Broteva, Brykke). Supposed to be Irish, but worshipped chiefly in Norway and Iceland. From the 11th century her name appears there in the catalogues of saints’ days to be kept holy. Broteva is still found as a name in Iceland, and popularly understood to mean the guilty Eve. In the Norwegian calendars a horse is the sign for St Brettiva’s day. The word brette means to turn violently, to double up. A farmer drove out for hay on that day. Being warned that it was Brette Messe, he obstinately and profanely made a pun on her name, by answering, “Turn me this way, turn me that, I’ll turn me home a load of hay.” But his horse fell and broke its leg. The pictured horse, therefore, stands in the calendar as a warning. The festival is also called Brykke Messa and Brokkis Messa, from the custom of the remnants of the Yule fare being stewed and eaten on that day. Report xx. Antiquarian Society of Cambridge.