The Christmas Goat in Scandinavian Tradition
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- Опубликовано: 5 дек 2023
- Talking about the Christmas Goat (Julbock, Yule Goat) in Scandinavian tradition, and its origins within an agrarian-animistic system of beliefs. Hope you enjoy it!
Bibliography at the end of this video.
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#animism #christmascelebrations #yulegoat
Concening straw figures (and dolls) as substitutes for animal sacrifices, and the animal sacrifice as substitute for human sacrifice, and the case of cruelty I've expressed in this video:
Animals were regularly sacrificed in different ways to mark the cutting of the last sheaf. There's a differentce here between animals for consumption and animals for sacrifice (which could also then be consumed after the sacramental act). What I'm pointing concerning cruelty is the fact that the sacrificed animal that embodied the Corn Spirit was brutally killed, here's an example:
"A cat was placed under the last bundle of the corn that had to be threshed, struck dead with the flails and roasted as a Sunday holiday meal" (Frazer 1890)*.
It took a lot of time for these animals to be killed for the purpose of sacrifice, and were beaten several times until dead. The killing and eating of sacrificial animals is part of any farming culture, since agriculture and husbandry are essentially about putting food on the table. However, the specifically sacrificed ones for such events suffered greatly. It was brutal and cruel. I have to point out that it used to be human sacrifice, then people stopped sacrificing humans in these celebrations and it was exchanged by animals, and then again the sacrifice of animals also changed and there's now dolls and figures made out of the remains of the crops, and serve the same purpose live sacrificed animals used to, which is the embodinment of the harvest spirits.
Frazer (1890) also points out: "These customs clearly bring out the sacramental character of the harvest supper. The corn-spirit is conceived as embodiment in an animal; this divine animal is slain, and its flesh and blood are partaken by the harvesters. (...) [the animals] as substitutes for the real flesh of the divine being, bread or dumplings are made in his image and eaten sacramentally… the death of the corn-spirit is represented by killing either his human or his animal representative; and the worshippers partake sacramentally either of the actual body or blood of the representative (human or animal) of the divinity, or of bread made in his likeness".
Things, fortunately, change and we find substitutes for everything. Human and animal sacrifice progressively came to an end.
*Frazer, J.G. (1890). The Golden Bough. A Study in Comparative Religion, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.
I can't tell you where I read this but a good number of modern scholars have shown that at least in Celtic druid culture, there's no direct evidence of human sacrifice. In fact all evidence now points to No, they weren't sacrificing people. I've been around a while and most of my younger life we all thought that Druids were into human sacrifice. I also have a really hard time trusting old writing like the one here because it was written in a still very hardcore "Christian" time in history, when people were conditioned to think of people in the elder times as cruel and barbaric. Basically any culture that wasn't Christian was viewed this way as you know. I'm sorry to digress. I am a cat person and just reading that made my stomach turn and got my Irish up.
@devilgopheripsissimustaeil6650I once saw a documentary on a Jain sect that had an establishment in India where injured animals were brought and cared for . One of the animals was a pigeon that had lost both feet . It was hobbling around on its leg bones , clearly distressed and in considerable pain . I was quite young and I thought to myself how much worse this was for the bird than putting it out of its misery . Life is not necessarily good and death isn't necessarily bad . Sometimes killing is merciful . Why do humans fetishize things and ideas until we make them toxic ?
Thanks for explaining genetics so succinctly I almost choked on my coffee 😂😂😂
I did choke on mine.😅
My ancestors were more equal opportunity lovers.
😂 on point!
SAME LOLL
I wish you all wonderful holidays and celebrations!
You have great comedic timing. Your response to your viewer’s question made me laugh out loud.
Me too! Very funny!
A good company in these 7 years, as we got used to Wednesday day video of Mr. Arith beautiful work. Thank
Thank you :D you are very kind! Here's to more years together!
Happy yule everyone, Blessed Be.
Great overview. As a Swedish-American, I was the only kid in the neighborhood with a straw Christmas goat which got quite faded and tattered by the time I was in high school. You touched on the symbolism of straw as what was left after harvesting grain. Prior to the introduction of the potato in the mid 1600s, grain (complimented with what could be locally foraged) was the lifeblood of the community. Thus it was not merely a symbol of wealth, but survival as well. I also want to to point out some common confusion related to the word corn or korn, which means "predominant local grain" in many languages. In England and Scandinavia, it refers to barley, whereas in the US it means maize, which traditionally doesn't grow in Scandinavia.
Good morning Mr. Arith today is clearly very Christmassy🎄
Great information. Thank you for your “no bullshit” delivery. Merry Christmas.
Thank you Arith! Love your jersey/cardigan....it's beautiful. Been listening to your older videos, a gold mine of information begging to be put in book form.....please Arith. Would be nice to have such a reference book. Thank you for your dedication and hard work. As always greetings from sunny South Africa😊
Just what i needed!! Thank you❤
You're the GOAT. Merry Christmas 🎄
You have such a great sense of humor! Wishing you a Merry Yule and Happy Christmas!
Yeah!!! 7 years lucky . . and thankyou for that recommendation.
I really like that goat will actually try to make one for my daughter for Christmas. I would think the person dressed as the goat must be watched so as to not run away or try to act out its fertility aspect.
I certainly have enjoyed and learned from your channel these past six Yules! Have you done a video yet on Gryla and the Yule Cat (in honor of Mr. Tico and your current two, of course)? And how is Mr. Thorstein?
Dec 21! 🎉 that's my birthday 🎂🎆
🎉
Wonderful 😊 🎉
Lovely ❤️ is perfect, a very comfortable setting! Congratulations
Fu
Thanks Arith. Happy winter to you from Florida in the US. I love Sweden as that is where my sweet grandmother came from. Ive just visited Sweden for the first time this past summer for Midsummer. I participated in decorating the maypole and the festivities. It felt like i was home.❤
Thank you for yet another great educational video!
This was both interesting and informative, since I live in the Southern Hemisphere I know very little about northern Christmas traditions.
This episode answers many of my questions. It was, for me, very illuminating. Thank You for that.
I hope you have a merry Christmas, I hope you enjoy the season. May the coming year be a happy and prosperous time. Many, many Yule time Blessings to you and yours and to anyone who reads this.❤,❤, 🌲,🎉.
Very nice video, Arith!! Just this monday I was checking with my father a Swedish christmas book for the recipe of Lussekatter (saffron buns made tipically for the 13th of December), and the explaination for such a bizarre name was a bit strange to me, but it now makes sense (here it Is: during the Catholic middle ages there was a folk belief that saint Nicholas went around and shared sweet things with children accompanied by a devilish figure. This devil was called also Lucifer. People thought that he could also show himself in the shape of a cat, and it was this character who gave the name to lussekatterna - "lusse" as a short for Lucifer, while I've always thought it was short for Lucia, and "katt" that means "cat" in Swedish -. The devil character changed with the times, and it became the "jolbocken", that comes with presents for the children before Santa Claus' time). Please note that I don't think this book has an actual anthropologic research behind, it's a book with recipes, songs and games for christmas time, but it was funny to read.
And about the pronunciation of Mari Lwyd, we should ask Jimmy from the Welsh Viking channel. He is Welsh, he's an archeologist and a reenactor, he's well into medieval history, and he's a pleasant guy with a passion for nuance. A collaboration would be great, I believe 😁
In Austria we call the companion of the nikolaus, krampus. It is a Nature spirit also connectet to bears and goats. Also it goes with the perchta, Frau Holle
@@littlejohn1140 I know about the Krampus...I don't know if in the book they mean something similar to them or not...but it's surely interesting to note the similitudes
Congratulations on these years that have been fantastic with so much information and lessons! Wishes for continuation in this excellent way! Congratulations
Every one of your videos is fantastic - we learn so much information without feeling overloaded, and also enjoy your humorous deliveries. How you ONLY have 133K subscribers is mind-boggling and we wish you continued growth. Thank you, Arith, for what you share with us, and how you share it. It's given us inspiration to look deeper into celebrating what matters most to us.
Julbock ❤
Jimmy from The Welsh Viking has a great video about Y Fari Lwyd, if you haven't already seen it. And he's a Welsh speaker :D
I got Welsh in the House from from great-greats fu
Amazing video! Love the history and your long journey and dedication on youtube ❤️🙂 hail! And happy Odins day to you and the entire community my friend!
"... and give it a good time." Normally, such a turn of phrase wouldn't discomfort me. He's talking about a proxy goat, though, and that little laugh?..
Looks like an angel. Talks like a docker. What (dare I ask) is meant by 'a good time'?
Fabulous talk as always, Arith. I found that very informative. Interestingly, it's quite similar to the English Corn Dollies, made with the last gleanings of the harvest. I love the little corn goat you waved around quite freely, lol. :)
Very interesting and surprising. Thankyou for your charming way of educating. And Happy Holiday.
Since I first read Frazer's Golden Bough my eyes were opened to a lot of the agrarian origins of various customs, and I wonder if the goat was used mostly because of how human they look. To me, it seems they are like a messenger or emmisary to the underworld, and in Ireland we have rituals around them as well, when the harvest comes in, as with Halloween rituals, when there's a kind of portal open to the underworld, and all kinds of spirits roam above ground, temporarily. They are thought of as potentially malevolent spirits, as far as I know, which must be appeased by being honored in some way (find it cruel myself, mind you, as the animal must be a bit frightened by all the noise and his weird throne in the sky): hence, Puck Fair, where a goat is raised high above ground level, while a celebration of the harvest takes place. Part of the metaphorical appeasement seems related to your goat figure, because a young village girl is elected to be "Puck Queen" for the goat ( referring back to the licencious nature of Puck, which I think might just be that with the harvest in, people's thoughts turn to courting, marraige, and making babies to have in the summer, when it's warmer and more clement weather). Manly P Hall and Joseph Campbell are both wonderful at pointing out the human capacity to tell stories through mythology, and some stories have been passed down, even if they morph a bit. Maybe I'm missing lots of other things, but that's what your wonderful videos are for, filling in knowledge gaps a bit.
Loved this presentation! I was taught that making wheat figurines was meant to house the spirit of the wheat after the harvest. The harvest takes its home away, so you give it a home to sleep in during the non-growing months.
Your viewer submitted question was funny, because it reminds me of a result I got on my DNA test: a random 2% Finnish that surprised me. I've done a lot of family tree research and I thought I was very familiar with most of the names/histories in my Norwegian family. I speculate that this was a Finnish or Sami person who had a Norwegian name in the records. Or it's just a fluke of the test, because those tests are not very reliable!
I remember those early videos! How time flies
Happy Yule! Thank you Arith for the 7 years of knowledge you have shared with the world. Love your sense of humor
Totally love your sense of humor about the sucks and f&$?s. 😂 i am the same way on other social media, mainly telling people to get off your lazy butt and look it up/find out. Not this hard these days…
Thank you for another informational video and sharing your humor.
Do you think the bigger the Yule Goat’s horns the bigger the umm, harvest? ☺️😉
Very Nice. The goat looks like an ancient Ibex.
Happy Jule to everyone hope everybody has a Great Holiday
I damn near spat my morning coffee out - genetics a wonderful topic
Your videos are a wealth of information.
Hailing from the North East of England and my Farther would say to me as a young fella. "Stop acting the goat" if I was being stupid.
Brings a whole new meaning to me now.
Thank you.
Nice Princess Bride drop!!!!
A man of culture, I see ;P
My experience in helping spirits leave earthplane is that this is easier during and soon after winter solstice. I'd like to suggest a theory that animistic societies performed ceremonial soul release celebration and sacrificed a goat as offering.
Muito bom!
Obrigado por compartilhar e pela sabedora!
Grande abraço
Fique na paz e saúde
Estou em momentos difíceis.
Leonardo de Soure ilha do Marajó Pará Brasil
Obrigado amigo. Um grande abraço e tudo de bom! Boas celebrações para aí!
thank you Arith :)
Salutations de France!
Thanks for your videos✋🏻
That was a piece of information I never knew. Now I need to see if I can locate said Yule goat to go along with my nisse. Happy rule!
Arith. Are you back at Mr. Thorstiens House?
reminds me of some UK Corn Dollies also the Strawmen in Shetland
Thank you for this explanation. I remember my Danish grandparents talking about this but I didn't understand the full meaning.
Love the video, but I miss Mr. Thorstein 😂
The Swedes have the straw goat (and stars, angels), Norway not so. We've adopted it, as well as the Lucia celebration, from Sweden over the past 40-odd years.
Did the goat have a place in Norway before? Maybe, but there was no trace of it when I grew up; other than the julesang-singing julebukk group going door to door to sing and get cookies for their concert, but that died out before I was 10.
I like how Heathens put jul into Christmas
It began with King Hakon l of Norway, which pulled Jól into the 21st of December, the Christian celebration before it was rectified by the Gregorian calendar six centuries later. So there was a time the celebration was held on the same day for both Christians and Heathens.
3:00 - Actually corn sheaf -
First thought - SPOILER ALERT: We got a new world crop, it's not old at all.
Second thought - Oh, right, in Europe, corn doesn't necessarily mean maize. Well, still.
are you familiar with the Bock Saga...they draw a direct line to the importance of the goat
“Corn” means wheat in Europe. Corn as we know it in America came from the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Before Europeans colonized the Americas they called wheat “corn”.
Corn has kernels, the word Kern means Grain/Seed
1:56 minute mark: Do you have any Scandinavian in you? Would you like some? ;)
I still gave one to Thor, I hope he likes it
Same! Heathenry is a living religion, so no reason why newer traditions can't be incorporated. Besides, the christians took so much from us that there is nothing wrong with taking something back (if the goats were originally a christian practice.)
12:00 I think all those evil nights are just things old people made up to need with youngsters heads! lol that reminds me of the need to leave Santa some milk Anna cookies on Christmas Eve. That was truly creepy! lol
I think the reason for the genetic question is the following: We have been told that Scandinavia was populated from the South, and little attention was given to the fact that there was a lot of travel directly from Asia to the Nordic countries in the North. This idea is quite eurocentric and an obstacle to understanding our history. It has been convenient due to colonialism and geopolitics to forget the strong direct ties between the Nordic countries and Asia. Among other things, the idea was used for centuries to justify Danish domination, as we are meant to believe that people in the Scandinavian peninsula all descend from Danes, and so that is where the roots of our culture lie. Thanks to modern DNA research, we now know better.
Loood
If you decide to leave social medias, your channel will still be here so we can revisit, right? It's just that you won't post anything new. You will be missed. I learned a lot. Best of luck from Vietnam
Yo you heard of the new discovery archolgoist found of pre viking buriel in norway
Lmao 😅 ab Ancestry! Being of mostly Irish ethnicity and some German apparently my ppl didn’t stray too much out of the Celtic and Norse according to my family tree vs my 23andme; it’s scarily accurate.
You keep mentioning corn, a mew world crop. When did this crop reach Scandinavia?
Corn means wheat in Europe; maize is used, and rightfully so, for corn 🌽
@worm_vaquero oh thank you for that clarification!
Could the Yule Goat have some connection to Capricorn?
I am not 100% Scandinavian blood but what I have come to believe awaits is real to me ,some may say I am crazy some stupid but for me it’s real. A lot if not most of what we know about “Viking life” is down to the person reading a book written 500-1000 years later and also has been tainted but Christianity…….the old gods still live within some.👊
So, the goat is a corn dolly?
The first Julbocks were made from CORN? Not other cereals? That seems very strange?🤷♀️. If they did start as "corn" figures, when? And do you mean corn "husks"?
9 out of 10 dentists!!
🍑👀😂💀
Pan: The Fertility (Goat) God.
Very well researched, Please arrive more rapidly to your several points 😂.
.. animistic system and of the agrigan/agrarian animanic.
Isaiah55:6&7,"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts.Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon."
Repent, receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior today.This is God's invitation for redemption, Jesus loves you so much and he is the only WAY to eternity.God bless you
I disagree. It has nothing to do with crops. It has to do with eating the animals, which is not cruel. The goats have kids every spring. In the summer you cut and dry all the hay, which then has to last the whole winter. By mid-winter, you have to slaughter the male goats. They are sacrificed and eaten around mid-winter because by that time they are big enough to be worthwhile food and they are also eating too much of the hay. This is the only way to survive when you live in a place with very limited crops. It is all about the animals.
I agree, in part, that it had also to do with the animals, which were regularly sacrificed in different ways to mark the cutting of the last sheaf, therefore, to do with the crops. There's a differentce here between animals for consumption and animals for sacrifice (which could also then be consumed after the sacramental act). What I'm pointing concerning cruelty is the fact that the sacrificed animal that embodied the Corn Spirit was brutally killed, here's an example:
"A cat was placed under the last bundle of the corn that had to be threshed, struck dead with the flails and roasted as a Sunday holiday meal" (Frazer 1890)*.
It took a lot of time for these animals to be killed for the purpose of sacrifice, and were beaten several times until dead. The killing and eating of sacrificial animals is part of any farming culture, since agriculture and husbandry are essentially about putting food on the table. However, the specifically sacrificed ones for such events suffered greatly. It was brutal and cruel. I have to point out that it used to be human sacrifice, then people stopped sacrificing humans in these celebrations and it was exchanged by animals, and then again the sacrifice of animals also changed and there's now dolls and figures made out of the remains of the crops, and serve the same purpose live sacrificed animals used to, which is the embodinment of the harvest spirits.
Frazer (1890) also points out: "These customs clearly bring out the sacramental character of the harvest supper. The corn-spirit is conceived as embodiment in an animal; this divine animal is slain, and its flesh and blood are partaken by the harvesters. (...) [the animals] as substitutes for the real flesh of the divine being, bread or dumplings are made in his image and eaten sacramentally… the death of the corn-spirit is represented by killing either his human or his animal representative; and the worshippers partake sacramentally either of the actual body or blood of the representative (human or animal) of the divinity, or of bread made in his likeness".
As I said, things change and we find substitutes for everything. Human and animal sacrifice progressively came to an end.
*Frazer, J.G. (1890). The Golden Bough. A Study in Comparative Religion, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.