Ærra Líða is the „before-Litha", first of two Litha months. Bede glosses Líða as „gentle" or „navigable": now the winds are soft, the sea smooth – the time of voyages.
Name & Meaning
Bede writes that Líða means „gentle" or „navigable", because in both Litha months the airs are calm and gentle and one was wont to sail the smooth sea. German Brachmond means the month in which the fallow field is ploughed.
Work & Custom
The calm sea makes early summer the great season of travel and trade – the Vikings, too, put out to sea now. At the month’s end stands the summer solstice, the longest day. On the fields the fallow is broken and the hay-harvest prepared; the scythes are whetted.
Bede’s Testimony
Líða means „gentle" or „navigable", because in both months the calm of the breezes is gentle and one was wont to sail the quiet sea.
— Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15.
Sources
Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15; Faith Wallis (transl.), 1999.