One of the figures who supposedly led the Wild Hunt was ‘Old Nick’. In English lore, Old Nick or Old Harry was said to be the devil. However I doubt this was the christian devil but a demonised heathen god, namely Woden. The church often referred to our gods as demons, the Old Saxon Baptismal Vow names Thunor, Woden and Seaxnot and their followers as devils.

The name Nick may well be connected to Woden’s name of Hnikarr. The name Harry has Norman origins but the English word harry comes from herġian meaning army and scholars including Rudolf Simek suggest this is connected to the (ein)herjar which included the followers of the Wild Hunt.

The Alpine goddess Frau Perchta is known by many names including Berchta, Bertha, Berhta as well as the noscript ‘the White Lady’. She is likely an aspect of Frīg and we find cognates to Berhta in the OE names Berþa and Berhte which both mean ‘the bright one’.

Artist unknown.

Jölfaðr or Yule-father is a byname used by Woden.

The Silver Birch at Slinde (Sogn Og Fjordane, Norway) was regarded sacred and no one was allowed to cut any branch from it. It fell in 1874 but prior to that the local farmer would pour ale over the roots of the tree every yule, in a ritual similar to the English custom of wassailing.

Painting - Thomas Fearnley's Old Birch Tree at the Sognefjord,1839

"Odin and two of his Ulfhedinn companions" by Valhyr on Instagram.

Stormy weather over England. Perhaps Woden, in his guise as the Herla King leds the Wild Hunt! The Wild Hunt was once known in England as the Herlaþing meaning 'Herla's assembly' and his followers the Herlethingus meaning ‘Troops of Herla or Herla's Host’.

It’s our family-hearths tradition to observe Mōdraniht (Mother’s Night) on the Sunstead eve, Mōdraniht falling on the new moon this year.

Bede made the claim that the English celebrated gēol (yule) on the solstice but claimed Mothers’ Night was celebrated on christmas day (25th Dec). This was something that the church would often do, equate our holidays with theirs in an attempt to convert the pagans. However, once England was thoroughly christianised the opposite applied and the church did all it could to separate christian holidays from their heathen origins. In around 1010AD the christian priest Byrhtferð set the record straight and in his writings puts the heathen celebrations back on the solstice, making a clear distinction between the old ways and the teachings of the church.

Wassail is a common toast made during Yule, from the OE Wæs hæl, 'be healthy' or Wæs þu hæl, ‘be thou whole’. The Norse used the similar ‘ves heill’ meaning ‘be healthy’ and the phrase was even adopted into Welsh as gwasael. The reply to this gesture is the attested ‘Drinc hæl’ or 'drink hail'.

Hit is the wone
Ine Saxe-londe,
That freond saith to his freond,
Wan he sal drink
'Leofue freond wassail,
The other saith 'drinc hail.'

It is the wone (want)
in Saxon land
That friend says to his friend,
When he drinks in the hall
‘dear friend wassail’
The other says ‘drink hail'.

art Joseph Feely

“Midvinternattens köld är hård,
stjärnorna gnistra och glimma.
Alla sova i enslig gård
djupt under midnattstimma.
Månen vandrar sin tysta ban,
snön lyser vit på fur och gran,
snön lyser vit på taken.
Endast tomten är vaken.”

English translation:
“Harsh is the cold of Midwinter's night,
the stars sparkle and twinkle.
All asleep in lonely farm,
deep during midnight hour.
The moon wanders its silent path,
the snow gleams white on pine and fir,
the snow gleams white on the roofs.
Only the tomte is awake.”

The first segment of the Yule poem "Tomten" by Viktor Rydberg.

The colour red is often associated with the runes and rune-stones. To redden the runes implies the addition of blood in the dyes used to create them. One of the more common ingredient used to redden the runes was the OE tēafor or red ochre, (the name sometimes used for other red dyes) however red ochre was widely used and also known for its magical properties in its own right. The OE tēafor had cognates in the Dutch ‘toverij’, German ‘zauber’ and Icelandic ‘töfrar’, all of which mean ‘magic’. All these words come from the root *taubrą meaning magic or spells. The way we create the runes and the materials used are perhaps as important as the way we use and read them.

Veistu, hvé rísta skal? Veistu, hvé ráða skal?
Veistu, hvé fáa skal? Veistu, hvé freista skal?
Veistu, hvé biðja skal? Veistu, hvé blóta skal?
Veistu, hvé senda skal? Veistu, hvé sóa skal?

Tomorrow sees in the first full moon of the year, at around 10am UK time. As Sagnamaðr Stark points out in his post here, this moon is known as Wolf Moon, amongst other names. In OE we find this in the name wulf-monaþ, when hunger forced wolves to chance encounters with shepherds and farmers. The plant we know as teasel (OE tæsel) was once also known as wulfes-camb or wolf's comb and if you've ever brushed your skin against a teasel head you'll know it feels like a bristly comb. I've no doubt that the same shepherds and farmers would have, in years passed, walked the outskirts of their fields looking for wolf hair trapped in the teasel, which would indicate their presence.

Old Norse and Germanic Graves by J Hoynck van Papendrecht depicting (1) Old Nordic megalithic tomb of the Young Stone Age (3000 B.C.) (2) Barrow of Leuningen. Early Bronze Age. First half of 2nd Millennium B.C. (3) Tree Trunk Coffin from Jutland. Middle Bronze Age. Midst of 2nd Millennium B.C. (4) The royal tomb of Seddin. Late Bronze Age around 800 B.C. (5) Ashes graves of the Iron Age. 800-500 A.C. (6) Tomb of Leuna. Early Iron Age around 300. A.C. (7) Oseberg-grave. Viking-Age. Around 900 A.C.