Yule (also called Jul, Julblot, jólablót or "Yule time" or "Yule season") is a festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples.
Scholars have connected the original celebrations of Yule to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and the pagan Anglo-Saxon .
Later departing from its pagan roots, Yule underwent Christianised reformulation, resulting in the term Christmastide.
Some present-day Christmas customs and traditions such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others may have connections to older pagan Yule traditions.
Cognates to Yule are still used in the Scandinavian languages as well as in Finnish and Estonian to describe Christmas and other festivals occurring during the winter holiday season.
Etymology
Yule is the modern version of Old Norse  and  one of the names for Odin.
The Old English derivates  or  and  or , indicates the 12-day festival of "Yule" (later: "Christmastide") and the latter indicating the month of "Yule", whereby  referred to the period before the Yule festival (December) and  referred to the period after Yule (January).
Both words derive from  Gothic  (); Old Norse, Icelandic, Faroese and Norwegian Nynorsk , , ; Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian Bokmål , and are thought to be cognate with Proto-Germanic .Bosworth & Toller (1898:424); Hoad (1996:550); Orel (2003:205) The etymological pedigree of the word remains uncertain, though numerous speculative attempts have been made to find Indo-European cognates outside the Germanic group, too.For a brief overview of the proposed etymologies, see Orel (2003:205).
The noun Yuletide is first attested from around 1475.Barnhart (1995:896).
The word is conjectured in an explicitly pre-Christian context primarily in Old Norse.
Among many others (see List of names of Odin), the long-bearded god Odin bears the name  ('the Yule one').
In , written in the 12th century, Christmas,  is interpreted as coming from one of Odin's names, .
In poetic language, a plural form (Old Norse ) may also refer to the gods collectively.
In Old Norse poetry, the word is found as a term for 'feast', e.g.  (→ 'a raven's feast').Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1874:326).
It has been thought that Old French  (→ French ), which was borrowed into English in the 14th century as 'jolly', is itself borrowed from Old Norse  (with the Old French suffix ; compare Old French  "easy", Modern French  =  "feast" + ).T. F. Hoad, English Etymology, Oxford University Press, 1993 ().
But the Oxford English Dictionary sees this explanation for  as unlikely."
jolly, adj. and adv."
OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2019.
Accessed 9 December 2019.
The French word is first attested in the Anglo-Norman , or "History of the English People", written by Geoffrey Gaimar between 1136 and 1140.Site CNTRL; Etymology of joli Germanic paganism
Yule is an indigenous winter festival celebrated by the Germanic peoples.
The earliest references to it are in the form of month names, where the Yule-tide period lasts somewhere around two months, falling along the end of the modern calendar year between what is now mid-November and early January.Orchard (1997:187).
Attestations
Yule is attested early in the history of the Germanic peoples; in a Gothic language calendar of the 5–6th century it appears in the month name , and, in the 8th century, the English historian Bede wrote that the Anglo-Saxon calendar included the months  or  corresponding to either modern December or December and January.Simek (2007:379).
While the Old Norse month name  is similarly attested, the Old Norse corpus also contains numerous references to an event by the Old Norse form of the name, .
In chapter 55 of the Prose Edda book , different names for the gods are given; one is "Yule-beings".
A work by the skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir that uses the term is then quoted: "again we have produced Yule-being's feast [mead of poetry], our rulers' eulogy, like a bridge of masonry".Faulkes (1995:133).
In addition, one of the numerous names of Odin is , referring to the event.Simek (2007:180–181).
The Saga of  the Good credits King Haakon I of Norway who ruled from 934 to 961 with the Christianization of Norway as well as rescheduling Yule to coincide with Christian celebrations held at the time.
The saga says that when Haakon arrived in Norway he was a confirmed Christian, but since the land was still altogether heathen and the people retained their pagan practices, Haakon hid his Christianity to receive the help of the "great chieftains".
In time, Haakon had a law passed establishing that Yule celebrations were to take place at the same time as the Christians celebrated Christmas, "and at that time everyone was to have ale for the celebration with a measure of grain, or else pay fines, and had to keep the holiday while the ale lasted."
Hollander (2007:106).
Yule had previously been celebrated for three nights from midwinter night, according to the saga.
Haakon planned that when he had solidly established himself and held power over the whole country, he would then "have the gospel preached".
According to the saga, the result was that his popularity caused many to allow themselves to be baptized, and some people stopped making sacrifices.
Haakon spent most of this time in Trondheim.
When Haakon believed that he wielded enough power, he requested a bishop and other priests from England, and they came to Norway.
On their arrival, "Haakon made it known that he would have the gospel preached in the whole country."
The saga continues, describing the different reactions of various regional things.
A description of pagan Yule practices is provided (notes are Hollander's own):
It was ancient custom that when sacrifice was to be made, all farmers were to come to the heathen temple and bring along with them the food they needed while the feast lasted.
At this feast all were to take part of the drinking of ale.
Also all kinds of livestock were killed in connection with it, horses also; and all the blood from them was called  [sacrificial blood], and , the vessel holding the blood; and , the sacrificial twigs [‌aspergills‌].
These were fashioned like sprinklers, and with them were to be smeared all over with blood the pedestals of the idols and also the walls of the temple within and without; and likewise the men present were to be sprinkled with blood.
But the meat of the animals was to be boiled and served as food at the banquet.
Fires were to be lighted in the middle of the temple floor, and kettles hung over the fires.
The sacrificial beaker was to be borne around the fire, and he who made the feast and was chieftain, was to bless the beaker as well as all the sacrificial meat.Hollander (2007:107).
The narrative continues that toasts were to be drunk.
The first toast was to be drunk to Odin "for victory and power to the king", the second to the gods  and  "for good harvests and for peace", and third, a beaker was to be drunk to the king himself.
In addition, toasts were drunk to the memory of departed kinsfolk.
These were called .
Theories and interpretation
Scholars have connected the month event and Yule period to the Wild Hunt (a ghostly procession in the winter sky), the god Odin (who is attested in Germanic areas as leading the Wild Hunt and bears the name ), and increased supernatural activity, such as the Wild Hunt and the increased activities of —undead beings who walk the earth.Simek (2007:180–181 and 379–380) and Orchard (1997:187).
, an event focused on collective female beings attested by Bede as having occurred among the pagan Anglo-Saxons on what is now Christmas Eve, has been seen as further evidence of a fertility event during the Yule period.Orchard (1997:187).
The events of Yule are generally held to have centered on midwinter (although specific dating is a matter of debate), with feasting, drinking, and sacrifice ().
Scholar Rudolf Simek says the pagan Yule feast "had a pronounced religious character" and that "it is uncertain whether the Germanic Yule feast still had a function in the cult of the dead and in the veneration of the ancestors, a function which the mid-winter sacrifice certainly held for the West European Stone and Bronze Ages."
The traditions of the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar (, still reflected in the Christmas ham), Yule singing, and others possibly have connections to pre-Christian Yule customs, which Simek says "indicates the significance of the feast in pre-Christian times."
Simek (2007:379–380).
Contemporary traditions
In modern Germanic language-speaking areas and some other Northern European countries, historical cognates to English yule denote the Christmas holiday season.
Examples include  in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway,  in Iceland and the Faroe Islands,  in Finland,  in Friesland,  in the Netherlands and  in Estonia.
Neopaganism
As forms of Neopaganism can be quite different and have very different origins, these representations can vary considerably despite the shared name.
Some celebrate in a way as close as possible to how they believe Ancient Germanic pagans observed the tradition, while others observe the holiday with rituals "assembled from different sources".
In Germanic Neopagan sects, Yule is celebrated with gatherings that often involve a meal and gift giving.
In most forms of Wicca, this holiday is celebrated at the winter solstice as the rebirth of the Great horned hunter god, who is viewed as the newborn solstice sun.
The method of gathering for this sabbat varies by practitioner.
Some have private ceremonies at home, while others do so with their covens.
LaVeyan Satanism
The Church of Satan and other LaVeyan Satanist groups celebrate Yule as an alternative to the Christian Christmas holiday.
Yule in LaVeyan Satanism is not celebrated with the same rituals as in contemporary paganism or Heathenry.
See also
, an event attested from Old Norse sources as having occurred among the pagan Norse
Julebord, the modern Scandinavian Christmas feast
Koliada, a Slavic winter festival
Lohri, a Punjabi winter solstice festival
, an event attested by Bede as having occurred among the pagan Anglo-Saxons on what is now Christmas Eve
, an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity Saturn, held on 17 December and expanded with festivities through 23 December
Yaldā Night, an Iranian festival celebrated on the "longest and darkest night of the year."
Notes
References
Barnhart, Robert K. (1995).
The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology.
Harper Collins.
Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898).
An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995).
Edda.
Everyman. .
Hoad, T. F. (1996).
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
Hollander, M. Lee (Trans.) (2007).
Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway.
University of Texas Press.
Orchard, Andy (1997).
Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend.
Cassell. .
Orel, Vladimir (2003).
A Handbook of Germanic Etymology.
Leiden: Brill Publishers.
pg.
205. .
Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall.
Dictionary of Northern Mythology.
D.S. Brewer
External links
