A time of friendship and celebration

ALDA has heard of a local schoolteacher telling children that Father Christmas does not exist.

Shame on her for spoiling their Christmas dreams — she clearly lacks the wisdom for teaching.

Nevertheless, I say to her, “Merry Christmas!” for this is a time of joy to all people. The mid-winter festival which we Vikings knew as Yuletide, and you now celebrate as Christmas, pre-dates both Islam and Christianity by thousands of years. So you see, it doesn’t matter what your beliefs are — just enjoy this special time and spread some goodwill.

When we Vikings first arrived in this district, we missed home and it was important to keep our religious ceremonies and festivals. One of the greatest was Yule and it was the children’s favourite because of its fun and frivolity.

Yuletide celebrated the midwinter solstice when daylight is shortest and the sun is due for re-birth. Twelve days of merriment, singing, drinking and general feasting — fantastic!

Legend

Down at Limeside, a wild boar was sacrificed to Frey — our god of fertility and farming — to assure a good growing season in the coming year.

The meat was eaten at a great feast and washed down with much spiced ale.

In Greenfield, we cut down the Yule log; a large Oak log which we decorated with sprigs of fir, holly and yew.

It was then used to create a great fire representing the sun’s re-birth but it was vital to save a piece of the log with which to light the following year’s fire.

While sat around the roaring fire in the Chew Valley, the elders recounted old tales. One concerned the Yule Goat — its origin is contained in a legend about Thor who rode the skies in a chariot pulled by two goats.

Is it any co-incidence that nowadays, you have a mystical man called Santa pulled in the sky by reindeer? Another fireside tale surrounded the mythical Mistletoe — another god had been killed by a mistletoe arrow but he was resurrected when his mother’s tears turned the Mistletoe berries from red to white.

On yet another day of fine feasting at my cousin’s home in Scouthead, the children would decorate an evergreen tree with pieces of fruit, cloth and small statues in thanks to the tree spirits.

My speciality was dressing up as Old Man Winter and visiting homes in the area.

You should have seen the bewilderment, then joy, on children’s faces when this old man with a long beard and dressed in a hooded fur coat passed by and gave them gifts in a leather pouch — you can’t tell me Father Christmas doesn’t exist!

As I have written before, we Vikings have left many a hidden mark on this world — you only have to look for them.

The winter solstice has been celebrated throughout world history and it had become such an intrinsic part of the human psyche that the new Christian religion simply could not stop the mid-winter pagan festivities.

Accordingly, in the year 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. The new religion went down a bit easier once the pagans knew that their feasts would not be taken from them and so Christmas was born.

As I stated earlier, however, your beliefs matter not, for this is a special time of friendship and celebration — we even used to fraternise with Angles and Saxons at mid-winter!

So, to everyone in the finest borough in the land — whatever your race or beliefs — a very merry Christmas and Yuletide from Alda and his fellow Viking spirits.




Author’s Footnote: The Chronicles of Alda are based on historic fact with a little conjecture and a sprinkling of poetic licence.