Bidding stick

A bidding stick[1][2][3] (sometimes also referred to as a budstikke,[4][5][6][7] war arrow,[7] or stembod[8]) is a term for a wooden object, such as a club or baton, carried by a messenger and used by Northern Europeans, for example in Scotland and Scandinavia, to rally people for things (assemblies) and for defence or rebellion.

[14] The name Crann Tara was used for a Scottish Gaelic current affairs programme on Grampian Television (ITV)[15] and a political magazine edited by Norman Easton between 1977 and 1982.

The objects were signed with runes or other marks in order to indicate the reason for the assembly (e.g. election of king at the Stone of Mora), and who had sent them.

Still in the early 20th century, there was a paragraph in Swedish law that stated that the bidding stick would be sent between the villages if there was a forest fire.

[citation needed] — Similar paragraphs were also present in the Finnish legislation concerning the correct use of arpakapula, or budkavle in Finland’s Swedish, till the 20th century.