Yule

Yule months

Yule is attested early in the history of the Germanic peoples, and over a wide geographical range; the earliest of such records is a Gothic calendar, found in the c. 350 CE Codex Ambrosianus, that mentions the month fruma jiuleis ("the month before the Yule-month"), implying a subsequent unrecorded *jiuleis ("Yule month").

Two adjacent months named after Yule are recorded by the English historian Bede in The Reckoning of Time, dated to c. 726 CE. Bede writes that before his time, the heathen Anglo-Saxons had reckoned their months based on the phases of the moon, and that they had called both December and January Giuli (the months of Yule). A 10th-century English text refers to these two months as se ǽrra Geola and se æftera Geola, "the earlier" and "the latter Yule month". Bede further writes that the heathen English started their year on 25 December, when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, and says that they called this Modranecht ("Mothers' night"). This day likely fell between the two months of giuli. Bede further says the night got its name from the ceremonies he believed they performed then; the mothers are typically interpreted as goddesses, possibly the dísir.

Old Norse sources also record two Yule months: Jólmánuðr ("Yule month") and Ýlir, a term with the same root that is likely pre-Christian. The Icelandic Bókarbót, usually dated to around 1220, places Ýlir from the middle of November to the middle of December in the Julian calendar, and Jólmánuðr following afterwards into the middle of January. After the official Christianisation of Scandinavia, the Church gradually introduced the Julian calendar, with it being largely established by the middle of the 1100s. Nonetheless, a lunisolar time-reckoning was practiced in Sweden as late as the early 1900s, where the Jultungel ("Yule moon") was the moon that was seen during Epiphany and the Dísting market was held on the following full moon.

Given the large geographic area over which there is evidence for moon-based calendars with two Yule months, it has been suggested that they originated substantially earlier than their first attestations, when the relevant Germanic peoples lived closer together. This may be before the migrations of the Goths from the Baltic coast, and possibly the Angles from southern Scandinavia to Britain. An early dating would further support the development of the calendar in a heathen context, before the adoption of Christianity.

Timing of heathen Yule celebrations

The exact timing of the pre-Christian Yule celebrations is unclear and debated among scholars. The earliest record of a seasonal celebration in Scandinavia is given by the 6th century historian Procopius of Caesaria who writes of the Heruli who lived in "Thule" (likely around modern day Norway). He describes how the sun is not seen there for 40 nights in winter and that their greatest festival of the year is celebrated 20 days after the winter solstice, when the sun appears again. This would be mid January in the Gregorian calendar. Scholars since the 17th century have suggested this is describing heathen Yule celebrations. The nature of Procopius' account, including the possibility that he is describing Sámi rather than Germanic peoples, complicates interpretations of the source.

Bede in the 8th century says that the two Anglo-Saxon Yule months (Giuli) are linked to the winter solstice. He writes that they "derive their name from the day when the Sun turns back [and begins] to increase", with one month before the solstice and one following it. In surviving Anglo-Saxon calendars, the winter solstice was generally deemed to be December 25, following the Julian calendar. According to Andreas Nordberg, an issue with this is that the heathen Anglo-Saxons used a lunisolar calendar, which Bede describes, in which each month lasted a full waxing and waning of the moon. The two Anglo-Saxon Yule months would therefore move relative to the winter solstice and it could not always fall in the middle of them.

In Old Norse sources, the only exact timing of the Nordic Yule (Jól) is found in Hákonar saga góða. It describes how the Nordic heathen Yule began on hǫkunótt, which is equated with miðsvetrarnótt ("Midwinter Night"), and continued for three days. Although the English midwinter referred to the time of the winter solstice the Scandinavian Midwinter Night was about one month after the winter solstice. Winter in Scandinavia is deemed to last longer than in southern Germanic regions. In Old Norse sources that divided the year into two seasons, winter was deemed to begin with the "Winter Nights" in mid-October and to end in mid-April. Hǫkunótt only occurs in this passage, and is alternatively spelt hǫggunótt in Fríssbók. The etymology of hǫkunótt is not clear but various interpretations have been put forward, including relating it to the verb hǫggva ("to hew", "to slaughter") in reference to the sacrifice of animals at the blót that took place at that time.

Scholars have argued that the Nordic heathen Yule feast took place at the winter solstice, despite Snorri Sturluson not placing it then. Andreas Nordberg proposes, instead, that the Nordic heathen Yule was celebrated on the full moon of the lunar month following the winter solstice (the lunar month starting on the first new moon after the solstice). This could range from 5 January at the earliest to 2 February at the latest in the Gregorian calendar. Nordberg places the Nordic Midwinter Nights on 19 to 21 January in the Gregorian calendar, falling roughly in the middle of his range of Yule dates. In addition to Snorri's account, Nordberg's dating is consistent with the account of the great blót at Lejre by Thietmar of Merseburg. This interpretation has received scholarly support.

Historical Nordic traditions

Blót, feasting and drinking

In medieval Scandinavia, blót often took place during Yule celebrations, whereby animals were sacrificed to the gods and their meat cooked and shared among those present. This was typically accompanied by ceremonial drinking of ale or mead.

Communal eating was central to Yule, which is seen in the use of jól in skaldic poetry to mean 'feast' in the kenning for 'battle': hugins jól ('a raven's (Yule) feast'). Jólaveizlur ("Yule-feasts") are also widely attested in medieval Old Norse accounts of pre-Christian celebrations, including the Yule-feast of King Halfdanr svarti in his eponymous saga, where all the food and ale was made to disappear by a Sámi man. Another notable example is in Hákonar saga góða, where Hákon the Good is forced to take part in blót-feasts in Mære and Lade, including eating meat from the sacrificed horses, as part of his responsibilities as a king. Yule has further been identified by some scholars with the álfablót ("elf-blót") recorded in Ólafs saga helga, though this has been rejected by others as álfablót were likely held in autumn, not winter.

Drinking ceremonies also likely took place at Yule, consistent with their prominence in Germanic paganism more widely. Early evidence of this is found in Þorbjǫrn hornklofi's Haraldskvæði, written around 900 CE, where Harald Fairhair "drinks Yule", or "drinks to Yule":

Here, "drinking Yule" seems to be synonymous with celebrating it. At the feast in Mære, King Hákon also drinks toasts that were poured for him, consistent with the importance of ritual drinking at Yule.

The importance of drinking at Yule is likely reflected in surviving customs after Christianisation. Den ældre Gulathings-Lov, an early law code from Norway, imposes punishments for incorrect preparation of ale for jól ('Yule' or 'Christmas'). The required practices include brewing in groups, unless one lives very remotely, and hallowing the ale to thank Christ and St Mary til árs. oc til friðar ("for prosperity and peace") - a ritual formula that likely originated in heathen contexts. This has been interpreted as an example of missionaries Christianising a heathen custom by replacing heathen gods with Christian figures. Furthermore, Hákonar saga góða says that in King Hákon's effort to Christianise Norway, he shifted Yule to Christmas time. He also imposed a fine on anyone who did not have a measure of ale at Yule (estimated to be around 16.2 litres), and made it law for the holiday to continue as long as the ale lasted.

Heitstrenging

The swearing of solemn vows, Heitstrenging, on Yule-Eve are attested in Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar and Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, the first of which reads:

Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks similarly takes place on Yule-Eve and describes people placing their hands on a pig referred to as a sonargöltr before swearing solemn oaths at the bragafull ('toast', 'libation'). Some manuscripts of the text explicitly refer to the pig as holy, that it was devoted to Freyr and that after the oath-swearing it was sacrificed at a blót.

Games and performances

Games during Yule are widely attested in the Old Norse record, including glíma in Króka-Refs saga, knattleikr in Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar and tug-of-war in Hjálmþés saga ok Ölvis. Performances and plays, possibly such as those depicted on the Sutton Hoo helmet, may also have been connected to the pre-Christian festival.

The earlier discussed stanza from Haraldskvæði uses the term "Frey’s leikr", which may be a Yuletide ritual dedicated to the god. Leikr, and the verb leika, typically refer to an activity such as a "game", "dramatic performance" or "dance" . The phrase is, however, also used in the later Ragnars saga loðbrókar as a kenning for battle and this may be the meaning intended in Haraldskvæði. This interpretation has alternatively been suggested to be a misunderstanding of the earlier meaning. Furthermore, leikr is cognate with Old English: lāc, which has diverse meanings from 'play', 'sacrifice', 'gift' and 'battle'.

A further possible attestation is the gothikon, a performance described in the 10th century Byzantine Book of ceremonies as taking place on Twelfth Night. The performance consisted of two groups of men, each performing a circle dance, one circle inside the other, while accompanied by two pairs of men wearing masks and skins. Throughout the dance, the performers hit their shields with sticks, while shouting "Toúl" ("τούλ"). This word's meaning is debated but is widely identified as a misspelling or misunderstanding of jól ("Yule"), and the performance as part of a Yule tradition. While the text identifies the dancers as Goths, these are not elsewhere attested in Constantinople after around 500. It is possible they were instead Scandinavians, possibly from Gotland or Götaland, who are widely attested as Varangians. This description has been noted for its similarity to a fresco of two fighting warriors on the ceiling of St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. One has a round shield and an Dane axe, likely intended of a visual marker of their identity as a Varangian and a Scandinavian elite. The other fighter has the head of a dog, possibly a mask like in the Book of ceremonies, that may derive from heathen religious dramas connected to berserkir. Notably, two felt animal masks dating to the 10th century have been discovered in Hedeby.

Supernatural visitations

Yule visits from supernatural beings, such as berserkir, trolls and undead draugar, are widely attested across Northern Europe in modern folklore. Given their early attestations, without clear Christian underpinnings, it has been proposed such ideas were present before Christianisation. An early account of these visits is in Eyrbyggja saga, in which the farm on Breiðafjörður in Iceland is taken over by ghosts of those who have died both at land and sea. This motif is also seen with the arrival of the half-etayn Green Knight in the c. 14th century Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and in later tales, such as the balads of Åsmund Frægdegjeva and Steinfinn Fefinnson.

Often the visits result in conflict, as in Grettis saga, in which Grettir beheads the undead shepherd Glamur, who had been haunting the area at Yule. Another Yule, a troll-woman who was attacking a hall is driven back to her waterfall home by Grettir, who then kills her. This section of the saga closely resembles tales such as the Old English poem Beowulf and is likely part of a shared tradition. Strong similarities are also seen between these tales and folktales recorded in the 18th century in Iceland, such as Sagan af Grimi Skeljungsbana. Changes are seen over time, however, with an overall shift from the hero defeating the visitor with his own strength, to relying on external factors like calling on Jesus or the light of dawn. Furthermore, there is a general increase in the number of invading beings and in Iceland, they are huldufólk or elves, rather than the older trolls and ghosts.

The Wild Host

A specific type of supernatural visitations that have been connected to the heathen Yule and the winter solstice is the Wild Host (or Wild Hunt). This is a constructed academic category for a diverse collection of traditions found throughout North-Western Europe for groups of supernatural beings travelling across the landscape, often in winter or around Christmas. Names for these customs vary greatly between regions, including the Norwegian Oskoreia, Juleskreia ("the yule host"), Julereia ("The yule/Christmas ride") and Julesveinane ("the Yule lads"). Traits of the variants are largely independent of the name of the host or its leader. The beings of the host are often noisy and harmful dead, but may also include goats (in particular Julebukkane ("the Yule billy-goats"). According to folktales, as they travel through the land, they invade farms in their way, stealing Christmas food, Christmas ale, and sometimes even people or horses. Taken horses are almost ridden to death while people may be thrown down after a time, either where they were abducted or far away. In the 20th century, tar crosses were painted on farmhouse doors in Western Norway for protection against them.

The host is variously led by a diverse range of figures, for example the figures from Germanic heroic legend, Sigurd Svein and Guro Rysserova. In several regions of northern Europe, Odin leads the hunt (or the similar Wodenjäger or Odinjœgeren). Old Norse sources also describe Odin and his group in a way that closely resembles almost all aspects of Wild Host traditions, such as his leading of a host of the dead einherjar, along with valkyrjur, who collect the newly dead. Odin is recorded as stealing Yule food in Flateyjarbók's Haralds þáttr hárfagra, similar to in later accounts of the host. Furthermore, he is often equated in historical sources with Mercury, a Roman god who has a role in guiding the dead to the afterlife. Odin's role as leader of the Wild Host may be the origin of his name, which literally means "lord of frenzy" or "leader of the possessed". Similar to Norwegian traditions of leaving out food and drink for the Wild Host, in Southern Scandinavia, the last sheaf cut in harvest or grass during haying would be left for Odin's horse or horses around Christmas.

Guising

The supernatural host cannot be separated neatly from the interlinked tradition of hosts of costumed humans travelling the countryside around Yule or Christmas and performing similar acts recorded in the modern period. The ambiguity between the two groups is seen for example in how the supernatural host is sometimes flying in the sky but could also walk along roads as the guised humans would. The costumed figures could also be the same as those in the supernatural host, for example the julebukk ("Yule-goat"), in which the top half of the guiser was dressed as a goat. Other figures include the halmgubbar ("strawmen"), who were wrapped in straw or corn. Similar to the supernatural host, they often travelled between buildings, variously grunting like animals, singing, dancing and being given food and drink. Guisers sometimes would jokingly whip with brushwood those who refused to give them what they demanded. Sometimes these offerings were nearly compulsory, with the visitors not leaving until a "tax" had been paid. The figures could also have sexual facets, sometimes having penises as part of the costume and kissing young men and women. In one account from Trøndelag, the julbukker became so angry they butted people with their horns and it was said the first person each one butted was to become their wife. These traditions resembles those of the Sámi Stallo, an ugly costumed figure who would poke girls with a stick (sometimes shaped like a penis) until he was paid to leave.

The origins of such practices are debated. Some visitations have clear Christian imagery, such as the Stjärnspel in which the figures are the Three Kings bearing a star, while others lack obvious Christian or foreign influence. The traditions also developed over time, and between regions, with figures such as the julbukk never being homogenous throughout Scandinavia. An early attestation of a practice resembling late guising traditions is given in Þorleifs þáttur jarlsskálds, found in the late 14th century Flateyjarbók manuscript. It tells how one Yule in heathen times, the skald Þorleifur visits the Norwegian ruler Hákon Jarl at a feast to get revenge on him for a previous insult. To avoid being recognised, he goes disguised as a food beggar, wearing a goat beard, placing a leather bag behind it, and using crutches such that he walked on all four legs. When the jarl invites him to eat, he secretly puts the food into the leather bag rather than his mouth, before saying a ritual curse to Hákon which makes him lose hair from his head. Though the disguise traditions are typically attested late, they do closely resemble visitations by figures such as Grýla, groleks and skeklers that may in turn have roots heathen ritual dramas and are found across a large geographical area, including Shetland, Iceland and Sweden. Similar to the julebukk, people dressed as these figures sometimes spoke in reverse speech, in which sound is made while breathing in, and could have a wooden penis as part of the costume. Notably, Grýla is attested in 13th-century sources such as the Prose Edda's þulr of troll-women, Íslendinga saga and Sverris saga. Comparisons have also been drawn between these customs, particularly those of straw figures, and Freyr, who in Gunnars þáttr helmings travels around Sweden in winter between farms, partaking in feasts and ensuring good harvests.

Academic reception

Significance and connection to other events

As early as the 1600s, researchers identified Yule as a solstice festival, possibly being a feast for the newborn sun. By the 1890s, this had become generally accepted among scholars. This theory became challenged later on, particularly through the belief that the pre-Christian Germanic peoples were not culturally sophisticated enough to know about solstices. Part of the reasoning for this is that 'solstice' is a Latin word. Germanic terms seemingly independent of Latin do seem to exist, however, including sólhverf ("sun-turning") and solhof ("sun-heightening"), and it is now widely accepted that solstices were known about by these peoples before Christianisation. However, the evidence has been interpreted as indicating variation by region and period, rather than a single uniform heathen midwinter festival fixed exclusively to the solstice date. More recently, Yule has been variously argued by scholars to be part of the cult of the dead, a fertility festival and a new year festival. Interpretations typically draw attention to the liminality of the time, including the threat from supernatural forces, and the prominent darkness in the middle of winter. In Scandinavian contexts, midwinter observance is described as being shaped by environmental constraints and risk management, including reliance on stored provisions, restricted mobility, and vulnerability of livestock and households. Scholarly discussion has also emphasised the role of midwinter customs in reinforcing household order and social cohesion during prolonged indoor confinement.

The Yule log, Yule boar, Yule singing, and other late customs may have connections to pre-Christian Yule traditions and have been proposed by Simek to indicate the importance of the festival before Christianisation.

Existence of pre-Christian Yule

British historian Ronald Hutton wrote of the term "Yule" that there is "doubt over whether it was originally attached to a midwinter festival which preceded the Christian one [of Christmas]". It is suggested that the Vikings who settled in England introduced or popularised 'Yule' as a name for Christmas among the Anglo-Saxons. The Gothic form of 'Yule' is, however, attested in a calendar from c. 350 CE, while Bede writes it in its Old English form in The Reckoning of Time, written in the 8th century. Hutton further writes that the earliest Scandinavian literature, before Snorri, makes no reference to Yule as a pagan feast. The typical view in scholarship is that Yule was indeed a heathen winter feast in North Germanic communities that was later applied to Christmas as Christianity became established. Yule feasts feature extensively in Old Norse texts such as Heimskringla, written in the early 13th century and based on earlier sources. These include Haraldskvæði, composed around 900 CE in praise of a heathen king who "drinks Yule".

It has further been stressed that, even disregarding all speculation about the nature of pre-Christian Yule celebrations, it is very unlikely that Germanic peoples did not have seasonal or midwinter festivals when Christian missionaries arrived.

Contemporary traditions

Relationship with Christmas in Northern Europe

As Christianity became established among Germanic peoples, Yule slowly merged with the Christian festival of Christmas. Ágrip, for example, tells that Ólaf Tryggvason Christianised Norway, Iceland, Shetland, Orkney and the Faroes in the late 10th century. In the account, he banned blót and blót-drinking, replacing these with holiday feasts at Yule, Easter and ale at St John's Mass and Michaelmas. Similarly, Hákon the Good, according to Hákonar saga góða, passed a law in Norway to make Yule celebrations take place at the same time as the Christians celebrated Christmas. These actions have been compared to Pope Gregory's recommendation in 601 to Augustine to convert the heathen English by renaming existing traditional practices and taking over holy sites rather than trying to eradicate them. In England, Yule was used to refer to Christmas by the second half of the 9th century, where it is attested in the Doom book of Alfred the Great (c. 890) as gehhol, and the Old English Martyrology (c. 800-900) as geolum. Some later Old English texts call Christmas Day Geohel-dæg (Yule Day).

Today, variants of "Yule" are the main names for Christmas in the North Germanic languages as well as in the Finnic languages. "Yule" and "Yuletide" are alternative names for Christmas and Christmastide in English. Traditionally, Yule or Yuil is also the main name for Christmas in Scots.

Modern paganism

As contemporary pagan religions differ in both origin and practice, these representations of Yule can vary considerably despite the shared name. Some Heathens, for example, 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 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:

Generally meeting in covens, which anoint their own priests and priestesses, Wiccans chant and cast or draw circles to invoke their deities, mainly during festivals like Samhain and Yule, which coincide with Halloween and Christmas, and when the moon is full.