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tilly_stratford) wrote2012-12-17 01:52 pm
tilly_stratford) wrote2012-12-17 01:52 pm
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Tangent: Viking Christmas [14/100]
A tangent is where I don't talk about Norse mythology per se, but things that are closely related. The mythology didn't spring out of a vacuum, after all. And because you don't spend your formative years being obsessed with Norse mythology without picking up a few facts about the vikings.
So, pop quiz: What does the song 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' have to do with viking worship?
Answer: The term "yule-tide". As in;
In the viking era, yule, or jól, wasn't celebrated on December 25th or even Winter Solstice, but 28 days after Winter Solstice: Midwinter day, which was believed to be the coldest day of the year. It was also called jólblót ("midwinter day sacrifice/worship"), torreblót ("midwinter month sacrifice/worship") or hökunót ("hook-night").
I've translated blót with "sacrifice/worship", but in fact it's the term for the specific holidays the vikings celebrated several times a year in honour of the gods (some blót were in honour of specific gods, others to the gods in general). They sacrificed food and ritually slaughtered animals (such as horses, cattle, pigs, dogs and chickens - outsider sources claim they even killed humans, but that's outsider sources for you) in special houses called blót-hús. The blood was sprinkled on statues of the gods, the participants, and the walls. Afterwards the meat was cooked and served at a feast.
And that's jól for you. Remnants of this winter sacrifice are still present in Scandinavia today, when sometimes an extra bowl of Christmas porridge is offered to the guardians of the homestead or farm, a land wight or gnome known as the nisse or tomte. I remember when I was a child we did this in my kindergarten.
Another very old custom you can still spot in Scandinavia is the yule goat, a Christmas ornament of straw and red ribbons in the shape of a ram, like so:
It's believed these were originally kept in honour of Thor (who rides a chariot drawn by goats), but ask the common Scandinavian who has one of these in their house at Christmas time and I think chances are they'll just say it looks decorative. (There's a giant one built outdoors in Gävle, Sweden every year that's usually lit on fire a few days after it's unveiled - either by vandals, or tourists who thinks it's supposed to be lit. It's not.)
As it happens, "to go yule goat" (julebukk in Norwegian) is the Scandinavian form of Christmas caroling, where the performers dress up (traditionally in home-made costumes) and go from house to house caroling and are paid by the audience with candy or cakes. Again, I remember doing this as a child (usually dressed up as a mouse with cardboard ears pinned to my hat and wearing one of my grandmother's old fur coats), but sadly this tradition seems to be dying out in favour of American Halloween. A common carol is På låven sitter nissen med sin julegrøt ("In the barn sits the nisse with his Christmas porridge").
And in case you were wondering: The tradition of the yule-log is probably a fairly recent one, and not connected to Scandinavia.
A common viking prayer at midwinter was Til árs ok friða; "For a good year and peace". In case you needed a cool toast on Christmas eve.
So, pop quiz: What does the song 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' have to do with viking worship?
Answer: The term "yule-tide". As in;
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the yule-tide gayYule-tide, that's a viking word: Jóltíð. I'm not entirely sure when it made its way into the English language. I figure it was either the Canute reign when the cultural exchange between vikings and Britons was at an all-time high, or much later in the Nineteenth Century when a lot of Scandinavians migrated to America (In Scandinavia we still say jul instead of any Christianity-derived word like Christmas).
Next year all our troubles will be miles away
In the viking era, yule, or jól, wasn't celebrated on December 25th or even Winter Solstice, but 28 days after Winter Solstice: Midwinter day, which was believed to be the coldest day of the year. It was also called jólblót ("midwinter day sacrifice/worship"), torreblót ("midwinter month sacrifice/worship") or hökunót ("hook-night").
I've translated blót with "sacrifice/worship", but in fact it's the term for the specific holidays the vikings celebrated several times a year in honour of the gods (some blót were in honour of specific gods, others to the gods in general). They sacrificed food and ritually slaughtered animals (such as horses, cattle, pigs, dogs and chickens - outsider sources claim they even killed humans, but that's outsider sources for you) in special houses called blót-hús. The blood was sprinkled on statues of the gods, the participants, and the walls. Afterwards the meat was cooked and served at a feast.
And that's jól for you. Remnants of this winter sacrifice are still present in Scandinavia today, when sometimes an extra bowl of Christmas porridge is offered to the guardians of the homestead or farm, a land wight or gnome known as the nisse or tomte. I remember when I was a child we did this in my kindergarten.
Another very old custom you can still spot in Scandinavia is the yule goat, a Christmas ornament of straw and red ribbons in the shape of a ram, like so:
It's believed these were originally kept in honour of Thor (who rides a chariot drawn by goats), but ask the common Scandinavian who has one of these in their house at Christmas time and I think chances are they'll just say it looks decorative. (There's a giant one built outdoors in Gävle, Sweden every year that's usually lit on fire a few days after it's unveiled - either by vandals, or tourists who thinks it's supposed to be lit. It's not.)
As it happens, "to go yule goat" (julebukk in Norwegian) is the Scandinavian form of Christmas caroling, where the performers dress up (traditionally in home-made costumes) and go from house to house caroling and are paid by the audience with candy or cakes. Again, I remember doing this as a child (usually dressed up as a mouse with cardboard ears pinned to my hat and wearing one of my grandmother's old fur coats), but sadly this tradition seems to be dying out in favour of American Halloween. A common carol is På låven sitter nissen med sin julegrøt ("In the barn sits the nisse with his Christmas porridge").
And in case you were wondering: The tradition of the yule-log is probably a fairly recent one, and not connected to Scandinavia.
A common viking prayer at midwinter was Til árs ok friða; "For a good year and peace". In case you needed a cool toast on Christmas eve.