Die Gartenlaube (The Garden Arbor) by Otto Fikentscher 1880.
Featuring many Pagan / Heathen motifs.

One of my favourite Yule stories…

A peasant was walking home from town through a forest, when he heard the Wild Hunt in the clouds, and the shouts of the huntsmen and the barks of the hounds, and with a shout of “midden in den weg!” Woden swooped down riding a white horse.
Woden asked if he was strong, and threw him a chain and challenged him to pull against him, warning that he’d pull him up into the clouds if he wasn’t strong enough, where he’d join the Wild Hunt.
But, the peasant wrapped the chain around an oak. Woden flew into the air fast as lightning, the hounds barked, the horses neighed, and the oak twisted and the roots cracked, but it stood fast.
Woden congratulated him; “Well pulled! Many’s the man I’ve made mine, you are the first that ever held out against me, you shall have your reward!”
As the peasant turned to leave, Woden threw a down a stag in front of him, and leaped down from his horse. “Thou shalt have some blood and a hindquarter to boot”, he said, and cut off a hind leg for him.
“My lord”, said the peasant, “thy servant has neither pot nor pail.” “Pull off thy boot” said Woden, “now walk, with flesh and blood, to wife and child”.
At first, terror lightened his load, but as he walked, his load grew heavier. And when he reached his house, he found his boots were filled with gold, and the leg was a pouch filled with silver. He realized it was no human huntsman, but Woden, who had shown himself to him.

This was collected by Jacob Grimm in Mecklenburg, where he also observed a very Pagan custom of leaving a section of rye unharvested for Woden’s horse. They would braid the tops together and sprinkle them with water, take off their hats and bow, and recite thrice;

"Woden, take care of your horse now, with thistle and thorn,
so next year we may have better corn!"

During winter nights, it was said Woden could be heard roaming the fields with His hunting dogs (Freki and Geri).

Hail Jólföðr! 𐃏

I truly hope all my followers are having a Glad Yule, Merry Christmas, and will have a glorious New Year!

The Wild Hunt by Kaspar Braun.

It is a terrible lie that our pre-Christian Pagan ancestors in ancient Europe were promoters of selfishness, immorality and hedonism.

This lie is spewed by those living a life completely unrestrained by morality, yet shackled by the backwards degenerate mentality of the modern world that promotes evil, vice, defilement and corruption as something "good".

Our Pagan ancestors were champions of moral virtue. They did not believe in "hookup culture", immodesty, or shameful, dishonourable behaviour. We know this from a handful of sources, namely: Vǫluspá, Fáfnismál and Gylfaginning in the Eddas, and notes on traditional Germanic culture by the Roman historian Tacitus in his book Germania.

You can read my in-depth look on objective morality in Germanic Paganism here. And further reading on my Substack in Judgement and Punishment in Norse Mythology.

Follow me on Instagram
Subscribe on Substack

jǣsī

Just Hail Woden!

In 1625, an Icelander named Jón Rögnvaldsson was burned at the stake for merely writing runes on paper.

His neighbour Sigurður accused him of summoning a ghost to haunt his son and chase away his horses, and his house was searched, where papers with runic characters were found.

Jón denied all allegations, but his brother came forward, admitting the runes were indeed magical, but he insisted that Jón only ever used them for healing. Still, he was charged with witchcraft and burned at the stake.

In the following years, five more men were executed for using oak boards with runes carved on them, which they said were for healing, keeping away evil spirits, ghosts and sorcery, and preventing foxes from attacking livestock.

…things to keep in mind when people say things like “the runes are just letters”. ᛘ