Obama says he'll accept Nobel as 'call to action' - Yahoo! News

Friday, October 9, 2009 at 12:11pm

Obama says he'll accept Nobel as a call to action - Yahoo! News President Obama's road to winning the Nobel Peace Prize started long ago. If you people would read both of the books he wrote, you would gain a greater understanding. He does deserve the award and that much more.Buy the book! Buy the book Eighteen Months and Short Stories, Real Life today!

German Folklore and Santa Part II

Friday, September 4, 2009 at 8:37am

Similarities between Norse Mythology, German Folklore and Santa Claus

by Leslie McCloud

The minds of children are filled each Winter season with tales of Santa Claus and his reindeer racing across the night sky, delivering gifts to good children and keeping a bag of coal or snuff for all of the bad. As they grow older, they lose interest. However, the story of Santa seems similar to Germanic mysticism tales of the Wild Hunt and a god named Woden--a fact older children may enjoy learning.

Buy the book! Buy the book Eighteen Months and Short Stories, Real Life today!

Santa as a German god

In Christianised Anglo-Saxon England, Woden was rationalized as a historical king, and remnants of worship were continued into modern times as folklore. Woden features prominently in both English and Continental folklore as the leader of the Wild Hunt and as a precursor of Santa Claus, according to information found on the on line encyclopedia, Wikipedia.com and many others, like David L. Jeffery who is the author of "People of the Book: Christian Identity and Literary Culture". He writes that western German tribesmen practiced sacrificial death upon a tree as a part of an Odin cult ritual, between the seventh and ninth centuries. Odin or Woden was considered a battle god and thought of as the "arch-deceiver."

The tale of the Wild Hunt and Woden has been transcribed from many Caucasoid cultures across the globe and it is all tied to myths and cultural mysticism--according to some, for a hidden purpose. In this case, the Wild Hunt as described on Wikipedia, is led by the Germanic god Woden/Wuotan/Odin (namesake, Wednesday--a day of the week).Through the centuries, others who find misfortune by witnessing the event or being chosen, have taken his place.

Woden was worshipped as a god until the 7th or 8th century, when Germanic paganism was gradually replaced by Christianity. Woden is mentioned in an Old Saxon Baptismal vow in Vatican Codex pal. 577 along with Thunear (Thor) and Saxnot. The 8th or 9th century vow, intended for Christianizing pagans, is recorded as: "I renounce all the words and works of the devil, Thunear, Woden and Saxnot, and all those fiends that are their associates."

History of the Wild Hunt Across Europe

Throughout the years, each leader has a turn at being commander of the Wild Hunt. Medieval legends, according to sources found on Wikipedia.com, of the Wild Hunt are mostly from the area encompassed by modern-day Germany. Historical figures reported to have participated in the Wild Hunt were St. Guthlac (683–714), and Hereward the Wake (died ca. 1070).

Found on Northvegr.org and entitled "The Religious Practices of Pre-Christian and Viking Age North" by Alfta Svanni Lothursdottir "a great majority of customs from modern day Christmas have their roots in the Northern rite of Jól or (Yule) which was a multi-day event."

The author goes on to explain how Jól was also a time of year when the borders between the world of the living and dead were at its thinnest.

"It was during Jól that Othinn's Wild Hunt was conducted, which was thought to be a procession of the dead lead by Othinn. These processions of the dead were thought to occur all during the twelve days of Jól."

"The Christians decided it wiser to incorporate the Jól traditions into their Christmas instead of trying to wipe them out altogether. There is little doubt that such Christmas traditions as the Yule-log, the Christmas Tree, the song "the Twelve Days of Christmas" and even ole Santa Claus have their roots in Northern traditions," the author Lothursdottir opinions.

The Santa Compaña ("Holy Company") is a deep-rooted mythical belief in rural Galicia and Asturias (Spain) where it is called Güestia. This is according to a Web site about the paranormal, mundoparanormal.com where the Pilgrimage of the Dead is discussed . It is also known under the names of "Estadea", "Estantiga'" (estantigua means phantom, apirition) in Spanish from Latin, "hostes antiquus", meaning enemy of the state, or of mankind, with "hostes" defined as a company of men or body or crowd.

Estamtogua in a truer sense, means a procession of ghosts which is a contraction of the old Spanish "hest antigua" which means ancient host where "hest" comes from Latin "hostis" which translates to stranger, foreigner, an enemy, foe and public enemy according to the online Latin dictionary, latinlexicon.org and as explained on page 149 in the book Cervantes and Modernity: Four Essays on Don Quijote by Eric Clifford Graf, Rosemont Publishing and Printing, 2007. It is also named "Rolda", "As da noite" [The Night Ones], "Pantalla", "Avisóns", "Pantaruxada" All of these are terms show the presence of the dead in the world of the living however, as discussed on the site, the oral history of the ancient folkloric incident is considered a thing of legend. Notwithstanding, all tales considered draw close ties with the legend of Santa Claus.

References

David L. Jeffery People of the Book: Christian Identity and literary Culture, pg. 118

The Religious Practices of Pre-Christian and Viking Age North" by Alfta Svanni Lothursdottir

S.H. Houston, "Ghost Riders in the Sky" Western Folklore, 23.3 1964:153-162.

Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Wild Hunt", 437.

K. M. Briggs, The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature, p 49-50 University of Chicago Press, London, 1967

Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy, p 307.

Wikipedia.com

Buy the book! Buy the book Eighteen Months and Short Stories, Real Life today!

German Mysticism and the Wild Hunt Part I

Friday, September 4, 2009 at 8:29am

How the Wild Hunt, Woden and Christmas Cross Paths

by Leslie McCloud

All over the world, there is a tale of Santa. By learning about cultural folklore and legend as it relates to holiday celebrations, bonds are made among people.

Buy the book! Buy the book Eighteen Months and Short Stories, Real Life today!

Tales of Santa Claus have delighted children all over the world throughout the ages. However, upon closer inspection of historical data, some found on Wikipedia.com an on line encyclopedia, the legend of a German god named Woden seems to have survived the centuries, evolved and draw similarities between itself and the legend of Santa Claus and his elves and the Wild Hunt.

Culture Changes the Name

The Wild Hunt (also known variously as Woden's Hunt, Herod's Hunt, Cain's Hunt, the Devil's Dandy Dogs, and in North America Ghost Riders) was a folk myth prevalent in former times across Northern, Western and Central Europe, according to Wikipedia. The fundamental premise in all instances is the same: a ghostly group of huntsmen with horses and hounds in mad pursuit across the skies or along the ground, or just above it.

Dogs and horses were commonly among the procession of the Wild Hunt. Dogs have long been connected with death throughout Northern Europe and the horse has taken many a rider between the nine worlds of Norse Mythology, according to Alfta Svanni Lothursdottir, author of "The Religious Practices of Pre-Christian and Viking Age North," found on Northvegr.org.

Researchers on Wikipedia say that the hunters may be the dead, or the fairies (often in folklore connected with the dead). The hunter may be an unidentified lost soul, a deity or spirit of either gender, or may be a historical or legendary figure like Dietrich of Berne, the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag, Woden (or other reflexes of the same god, such as Alemannic Wuodan in Wuotis Heer ("Wuodan's Host") of Central Switzerland, Swabia etc.), or Arawn.

The leaders of the Wild Hunt were known by many names, including Wodan (or Woden), Knecht Ruprecht (or Krampus), Berchtold (or Berchta), Holle (or Hulda), and Selga. It depended on what group of people repeated the oral history. The Wild Hunt is known from the post-medieval folklore of Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, and to a lesser extent Norway and the chasse-galerie, or the flying canoe of Québec that contained fur pirates who made a deal with the Devil, as written on Wikipedia.

Harlequin, a mute character in traditional pantomime, typically masked and dressed in a diamond-patterned costume comes from obsolete French, from earlier Herlequin or Hellequin, the name of the leader of a legendary troop of demon horsemen; perhaps ultimately related to Old English Herla, a mythical figure sometimes identified with Woden, writes Elizabeth Knowles in the Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

Herla and the Wild Hunt Legend

According to the twelfth century writer, Walter Map in his book De Nugis Curiallium, Herla was a legendary king of the ancient Britons who became the leader of the folkloric Wild Hunt after a visit to the Otherworld, only to return some two hundred years later, after the lands had been settled by the Anglo-Saxons.

Herla and a dwarf king with a great red beard and goat's hooves who is mounted on a goat, make a pact: if the latter attends Herla's wedding, Herla will reciprocate precisely one year later, according to the book.

On the day of Herla's marriage, the dwarf attends with a vast host, bringing gifts and provisions. The dwarf king's followers attend to the wedding guests so efficiently that Herla's own preparations are untouched. The otherworldly king then reminds Herla of his promise, and departs.

A year later, the pygmy king sends for Herla, who summons his companions and selects gifts to take to the other's wedding. The party enters an opening in a high cliff, passes through darkness, and then enters a realm seemingly lit by lamps.

After the wedding ceremony, which lasted for three days in the pygmy king's realm, was over, Herla prepares to depart. The dwarf gives him hunting animals and other gifts; in particular, he presents Herla with a small bloodhound, advising him that no man should dismount his horse before the dog leaps down.

Rip Van Winkle Effect

An elderly shepherd described a legend of a very ancient queen of the Britons bearing the name mentioned, the wife of a King Herla, who had disappeared with a pygmy king into that very cliff and was never seen again. The shepherd also added that currently the Saxons had been in possession of the kingdom for the last two hundred years, and had driven out the native Britons.

Herla, who thought he had been away for just three days, is so amazed he can barely stay in the saddle. Some of his men jump down from their horses, only to crumble quickly into dust. Herla warns his remaining companions not to dismount until the dog alights. But the dog, Map says wryly, has not yet alighted, and Herla and his host have become eternal wanderers. Another legend recounted how King Herla was warned not to step down from his horse until the greyhound he carried jumped down and he and his men are still riding, because the greyhound has yet to jump down.

Tricked by a Dwarf

As stated on Wikipedia, and Reference.com and several other books on elves, "Vættir" were similar to elves and wights which are nature spirits in the Norse religion. These nature spirits divide up into 'families', including the Álfar (elves) and Dvergar (dwarves). The term 'families' (ættir) is often translated as 'clans' or 'races'. By extension, the dead are grouped among the families of Vættir, especially when understood as being in the Underworld (Hel).

According to Reference.com, during the 19th century, Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe compiled the folk tales among Norwegians. These stories reflected the 'folk belief' that preserved earlier elements deriving from the Viking Era but strongly influenced by the medieval Christian cosmology of Germany, Britain and France.

Prominent are stories that reflect later views of the Vættir, usually called the Huldrefolk (of old Norse) meaning 'concealed people' and referring to their otherworldliness or their power of invisibility.In addition, the world of humans as a family is also counted among these worlds.