Yule

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The Yule Festival is a Northern European festival that is celebrated between the winter solstice and the beginning of February , depending on the religious affiliation . In Swedish , Danish and Norwegian , Christmas today is jul , in Icelandic jól , in Finnish joulu , in Estonian jõulud . In English is Yule , in Dutch joelfeest the old Germanic word on. Correspondences can also be found in various dialects of the North Frisian language , for example in Sylt Frisian it is called Jül or Jööl .

Linguistic

The oldest mention of the word can be found in the Gothic calendar fragment Codex Ambrosianus A from the sixth or seventh century AD. In it, November is headed Naubaimbair: fruma Jiuleis , which can be "November: the first month of July" or "November: the month before Julzeit ”. In the sense of the second variant, the word “ Prosabbaton ” in the Gospel of Mark ( Mk 15.42  EU ) was also translated as fruma sabbato ; The Old English "æftera Geola" for January seems to have a similar meaning .

In Old Norse are júl and jól demonstrated in Finland, the loanwords juhla "Celebration," and include plural joulu "Christmas". In its broader meaning, the Old Norse jól also included the feast in general, as evidenced by the kenning "Hugins jól" ("Raven drinking binge"). The same tribe includes the derivatives jóln (neutrum plural) "gods" and jólnir , an epithet of Odin , whose possible meanings include "lord of the gods" and "lord of the Jólfest". The Icelandic manuscript collection Flateyjarbók (around 1500) reports that the pagans celebrated Yule in honor of Odin.

The etymology of the word remains in doubt. According to an older view, it belongs to Old Norse él "snow flurries " and to a reconstructed * jehwla - "time of snowstorms". The word has recently been derived from the Germanic * jehwlą "celebration, festival". The church later tried in vain to replace the word with other terms (for example in Old Norse with the expression Dróttins burðar tíð or in Old Swedish with the phrase gudz födzlo hötidh ).

Dating of the pre-Christian feast

In the 13th century Snorri Sturluson reported in the Heimskringlasaga of the life and deeds of Håkon I , the good (around 920-960). According to this, Håkon, as the baptized ruler over pagans and Christians, is said to have united the pagan Jul and the Christian Christmas on December 25th.

" Hann setti þat í lögum at hefja jólahald þann tíma sem kristnir menn, ok skyldi þá hverr maðr eiga mælis oil, en gjalda fé ella, en halda heilagt meðan jólin ynnist; en aðr var jólahald hafit Hökunótt, þat var miðs vetrar nótt ok haldin þriggja nátta jól. "

“He (Hákon) stipulated that Yule should be held at that time like the Christians, and every man was ordered to brew beer under threat of a fine to sanctify Yule; but before that the Yule festival started on Hacknacht, that was midwinter night and Yule was held for three days. "

- Snorri Sturluson: Heimskringla , translated by Felix Niedner

Overall, Snorri names three annual festivals of the pre-Christian northern people: one at the beginning of the winter period, a second at mid-winter and a third in summer, probably at the beginning of it.

Það he yður satt að segja konungur ef eg shall segja sem he að inn um Þrándheim he nálega allt fólk alheiðið í átrúnaði þótt sumir menn séu þar skírðir. En það er siður þeirra að hafa blót á haust og fagna þá vetri, annað að miðjum vetri en hið þriðja að sumri, þá fagna þeir sumri. "

“I must tell you this truthfully, King, if I am to tell how things are. In all of Inner-Drontheim almost all of the people are pagan in their beliefs, even if some men are baptized there. Now it is their old custom to celebrate a festival of sacrifice in autumn to greet winter, a second in mid-winter and a third in summer to greet summer. "

- Snorri Sturluson: Heimskringla , Óláfs ​​saga helga , chap. 109, translated by Felix Niedner

Snorri gives midwinter night as the date of the pre-Christian Yule festival. However, it is not certain whether Snorris "midwinter" referred to the middle of winter (around January 14th) or rather the longest night of the year, i.e. the winter solstice. Different dates are therefore available. Some researchers believe that the date of the mid- winter festival of the original Germanic lunisolar calendar has its equivalent in the Roman Ides , which means that the July or mid-winter festival originally took place on the full moon of that month, which begins immediately after the winter solstice. Recently January 15th is mentioned. The saga criticism has pointed out that scald poems and sagas are literary texts, only indirectly historical sources.

If one assumes that the midwinter or Yule festival was in the month Ýlir named after him , then further considerations arise. The old Icelandic calendar lived on next to the church calendar for a while after Christianization and was only gradually adapted to the Julian calendar, essentially by the 12th century. According to a 1250 written computistical treatise the month name referred Ylir to the period from 14 November to 12 December.

Harald Ehrhardt, on the other hand, concludes from the Gothic calendar fragment quoted above that Jul was a time in November. However, it is controversial whether a festival took place at all during this time. An exact dating of the festival remains difficult. The Gothic and Old English names of the months or seasons Jiuleis and Geola (see above under Linguistics ) have already been adapted to the Roman calendar. With some certainty it can only be deduced from the different names that the Yule Festival was between mid-November and mid-January. According to Beda Venerabilis , the old English giuli time denoted December and January. Even in the legends about families, Jul is mentioned here and there. But here the timing is almost certainly already influenced by the Christian festival calendar.

Other researchers rely on the agrarian course of the year and consider the Germanic and Scandinavian Yule Festival to be identical to the festivals that took place after the autumn animal slaughter ( Álfablót ) and at the end of the autumn threshing work from mid-November to mid-December. However, no historical source reports that Germanic groups held large blóts on the solstices .

history

The beginnings

Prokopios of Caesarea already reports in the 6th century about a great festival on Thule for the time when the sun was visible for the first time after the long winter darkness. His statements of 40 days of winter darkness and 40 days of midnight sun seem to refer to Lofoten . Around 700 the monk Beda Venerabilis reports in De temporum ratione that in England of his time the year began on January 8th ("from octavo Calendarum Januariarum the") and that that night, which the Christians now call "the most holy of all", of called the pagans "with the name módra nect , ie night of the mothers", which is probably related to the West Germanic matron cult . Thietmar von Merseburg reports on a cult celebration among the Danes that took place in "January, on the day on which we celebrate the Lord's arrival". Both Beda and Thietmar were referring to the Epiphany Festival.

The Haraldskvæði , which was created around 900, is the only skald poetry before 1100 in which the Yule festival is mentioned. There the poet contrasts the July celebration in the country with the drinking of the sea warriors. The sixth stanza says: "The king wants to drink the Jul outside (on the sea) and begin the game of Freyr". The phrase "Yule drinking" suggests that drinking was an integral part of the Yule festival. In this context, the poet mentions “Freys leikr”, ie Freyr's games, without any further explanation. Freyr rites at the time of July, which later sources also report, seem certain.

The early history of the Yule Festival is very controversial. The opinions range from the denial of a pre-Christian Yule festival to extensive attempts at reconstruction from later customs. According to Wilhelm Mannhardt , one of the founders of modern research into myths , “when Christianity was introduced among all German tribes, the Yule festival was exchanged for the Christmas festival” and the content of the new religion was fulfilled, with many pagan festivities being preserved. The Reformed theologian August Ebrard wrote in this sense: “The heathen were left with their gods and their feasts; they were baptized only by name, like the Gentiles themselves ”.

More recent research, however, has indicated that the conclusion from later customs to earlier ones is opposed to the strong adaptability of customs and their ability to appropriate other elements. Thus, customs that were linked to the Roman Kalendae festivals were soon incorporated into popular Christian celebrations, in order to spread throughout Europe as far as the north in the course of Christianization. This includes customs with disguise and the custom of giving presents on New Year's Eve, which later went over to Christmas. The Gothic, Old English and Old Norse documents all come from Christian times and are almost entirely in a Christian context. It is therefore difficult to get a picture of the various festivals from the scarce sources of Norse literature . This applies to the Scandinavians' Jul and Álfablót as well as to the módra nect (“Night of the Mothers”) of the Anglo-Saxons.

Above all, the reliability of the Old West Norse sources is rated differently. There is no consensus on the truth of Snorri's account of the victim in Trondelag, whose participation King Håkon the Good was forced to take part. Other sacrificial rituals described by Snorri and others are also not regarded as authentic representations. The portrayal of the victims is now considered to be literary constructions. At most, the vows that one made by hand on a boar, which was later sacrificed to Freyr , seem to represent an authentic pre-Christian element, even if the tradition is relatively late. Locally, the Yule Festival in Norway seems to have been preserved as a purely social event after Christianization, which indicates that the emphasis has always been on the social significance of the gathering and the strengthening of community.

" Hann var því vanur meðan heiðni var að hafa þrjú blót hvern vetur, eitt að veturnóttum, annað að miðjum vetri, þriðja að sumri. En er hann tók við kristni þá holds hann þó teknum hætti um veislur. Hafði hann þá um haustið vinaboð mikið og enn jólaboð um veturinn og bauð þá enn til sín mörgum mönnum, þriðju veislu hafði hann um páska og hafði þá og fjölmennt. Slíku holds hann fram meðan hann lifði. Sigurður varð sóttdauður. Þá var Ásbjörn átján vetra. Tók hann þá arf eftir föður sinn. Hélt hann teknum hætti og hafði þrjár veislur á hverjum vetri sem faðir hans hafði haft. "

“As long as paganism prevailed, he was used to holding three sacrificial festivals every year: one at the beginning of winter, another in mid-winter, and a third towards the beginning of summer. And when he became a Christian, he kept the same habit of holding festivals. In the fall he always invited a lot of friends, and in the winter he asked for a Yule festival. Then he invited people again. He held a third festival at Easter. And then again he asked a lot of people to come to him. And he stuck to this habit all his life. "

- Snorri Sturluson: Heimskringla , Óláfs ​​saga helga , translated by Felix Niedner

From pre-Christian times in addition to the described Jultrinken also want Julbock come, a braided straw goat. This can perhaps be traced back to the billy goats of the god Thor who pull his chariot. He still brings the presents on his back in Scandinavia today.

The twelve Rauhnächte (Rauhnächte) , which are known today in Christianity , and which follow on December 25th, between July and Epiphany, are said to have been known to the Germanic tribes. At this time, Wodan's annual wild hunt is said to have taken place in the Germanic imagination , in which the spirits of the deceased were supposed to roam the country with Odin. The belief that the spirit realm was open at that time led to customs such as leaving food for the spirits or taking food to the megalithic complexes . Food was also placed outside the door for Odin's horse Sleipnir . Also in the Rauhnächten the fairy tale about Frau Holle takes place , who has clear references to the Germanic death goddess Hel .

A Byzantine source of the 10th century reports of the ceremonies of the emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos on the ninth day of a period of twelve days between July and Epiphany, in which two groups of men dressed as "Goths" and hung with furs danced around the table and incomprehensible ones with Latin Text interspersed with words sang and struck shields with sticks. It is believed that they were soldiers of the Viking bodyguard who sang about the Byzantine victory over the Goths in the 6th century and mixed this with remnants of local customs.

middle Ages

The royal power and the church refrained from breaking too quickly and too radically with the cult traditions in a transitional period. Håkon the Good moved the festival to December 25th by stipulating that the jólahald should be celebrated at the same time as the Christian mælisøl . The word brandajól referred to Christmas with four or five consecutive holidays. According to the "greylag goose" , an old Icelandic law, nobody was allowed to light a fire or carry logs home during the July period.

Only Olav Tryggvason was able to forbid pagan customs thanks to the established position of the church. But in order to meet the people, he left some old festivals, namely the ceremonial drinking of beer at July and Easter, at midsummer and autumn. In the older Gulathings-Lov it is determined about the ølgerð on July night in § 7 that the farmer and his wife drink the beer and speak the blessing "for the good of Christ and St. Mary for a good year and peace" ("signa til Krist þacca og Sancta Mariu til árs oc til friðar "). The ancient Scandinavian drinking formulas in amorem or caritatem bibere referred to as þacca , which was later adopted in the Nordic rituals. The intoxication had a sacred meaning, as it established a connection to the gods. Til árs referred to food and referred to grain growth and fishing. Friðr referred to the cohesion in the clan, but also included the entire household with the cattle, but also had a sexual connotation in that harvest and reproduction were also taken into account. The blessing text can therefore be considered pre-Christian. In the oldest historical text , the Ágrip (see History of Norway ), Jól is reflected on as follows: “It is appropriate to answer the question asked by the Christians here, what the Gentiles with regard to the fact that our Jól came into being with our Lord's birth, mean with Jól. Pagan people make a feast in honor of Oðin, who has many names. His name is Viðrir, his name is Hár, Þriðji and Jólnir. Jól got his name from Jólnir. ”The Flateyjarbók is more correct , where it is said that the pagans derived the Oðin name Jólnir from Jól.

From all of this it follows that reliable news about the pre-Christian Yule festival cannot be obtained. In any case, it can be said to be wrong that Christmas was put on the Yule Festival, which is what popular scientific descriptions keep asserting. Rather, the reverse process is plausible, that the Yule festival was postponed to Christmas Day. Customs have not been carried over from the pagan Yule Festival into Christmas either. Because the pagan Yule Festival was, according to all the sources, essentially a feast.

Developments from the Middle Ages

Dragging a Yule log out of the forest, illustration from 1832

In the Middle Ages and modern times, the July customs continued to develop in Scandinavia. In Sweden, Norway and Finland, but also on the continent, there was “Julstroh” until well into the 20th century. The straw was spread on the ground in houses and churches. There are trolldom described ( "magic") and Oracle with straws. There was also the custom of sleeping in the Yule straw before leaving the bed to invisible guests. Furthermore, the drinking of July in the Middle Ages is well documented, even the drinking vessels are described.

In addition there was the Julbrot, which played a special role in the rural Jól. A special type of bread is described for this, round, thick and as long as a five-year-old child. It was distributed to strangers on Christmas days. A similar custom is documented for Bohemia around 1400. A sermon in 1515 criticized the superstitious rites around the Yule bread, suggesting that this bread was ascribed supernatural powers. In the Christmas night or even during the whole Julzeit a table for invisible guests were met. They left a large bread and a knife on the table so that the gods (now demons) could eat them. Also the dead or the angels or in German regions Perchta and in France les bonnes dames , which were called dominae or bonae mulieres or parcae in the Middle Ages , were so considered in more recent times.

Possibly it was a question of Celtic-Germanic influences in connection with the Matronae , mother goddesses from the Roman period, and these are associated with Beda's "Night of Mothers" in England. There should be a Jull light on the table at night and a big Jule fire outside. This Jullicht is documented in a ban from Denmark from 1562, in which it is forbidden to ask for a Yule fire on Yule evening, New Year's Eve or the evening of the Epiphany . There were still many customs that did not have a direct Christian content, but focused on all elements of the previous religious ideas.

The Yule Festival in modern times

Scandinavian Christmas or Jul

Yule rams made of straw as tree decorations in Scandinavia

In Scandinavia in particular , many of the medieval customs have been preserved and are maintained at Christmas, which is still called jul there . One wishes for “God jul!” (“Merry Christmas!”). The Yule goat has also been preserved there, which is usually placed under the Christmas tree and carries the presents. There has been a stronger recurrence of this item since the Swedish furniture store Ikea has the straw buck in its range at Christmas time, as this is an integral part of Christmas in Sweden.

The real focus on Christmas Eve is eating together. After dessert, the Julklapp parcels are taken out of their hiding places. In the custom of the Julklapps , a gift wrapped in many layers of wrapping paper (each of which is labeled with a different name of those present) is thrown into the room and “Julklapp! Yulklapp! ”Called. Then they are unpacked layer by layer and passed on to the current target person. With these gifts, the material value is less important than the trifle or the verse, which is always positive or negative for the person receiving the gift. Nobody is allowed to unpack without reading the gift. When the laughter has settled over these rhymes, when the presents have been examined, then there is dancing around the Christmas tree.

On Christmas Day we go to church, with burning candles in the windows of the rural communities lining the path. In contrast to the previous days, this day is rather calm and contemplative. The neighbors and friends visit each other, the children are busy with the new toys or go from house to house and wish "God Jul".

The Yule Festival under National Socialism

Julleuchter based on the Nazi model

In the 1930s and 1940s there were attempts by the National Socialists to redesign the Christian festivals in such a way that they corresponded to the National Socialist ideas of what appeared to be a “Germanic heritage”. Thus, the Christmas festival should also be replaced by a National Socialist interpretation of an “old Germanic” Yule festival. Accompanied by the question of the supposed “Germanic roots” of Christmas, the Christian churches were accused of having appropriated and exploited some pre-Christian pagan customs related to the Yule festival.

Julbogen (1938), a Christmas decoration from the Nazi era, based on the North Frisian Jöölboom

The dates in the festival calendar of the Nazis ( " day of the seizure of power " on 30 January, May Day , summer solstice , the Nazi Party , Reich Thanksgiving and Winter Solstice ) should completely replace the Christian holidays and their traditions. For the larger celebrations, a "species-specific customs" should be developed, which u. a. through research institutions like the SS- Ahnenerbe under Heinrich Himmler should be realized. For the celebration, Himmler gave so-called Julleuchter from the Allach porcelain factory to SS members. From 1935 onwards, various publications on the subject appeared, including official instructions from the party offices, training materials for the Hitler Youth , the Nazi teachers' association, and the Nazi community Kraft durch Freude with vivid images for public Christmas celebrations as the basis for re-education of the people in the spirit of the National Socialists .

Christmas books with suggestions for private festivities were also published for families. The Christmas tree was to be renamed "Jultanne" and Mrs. Holle should replace Nicholas and the Christ Child as the bearer of gifts. Christian symbols such as the cross and poinsettia should be replaced by the swastika or the sun wheel.

The Yule Festival was celebrated in the open air for the first time in 1935 with the typical fire and light symbolism of the National Socialists. In the vicinity of the party, the transformation of the Christmas season was largely achieved. In the propaganda Christmas ring broadcasts from 1940 to 1943 on Großdeutscher Rundfunk, Christmas was also decoupled from its Christian roots.

The Yule Festival in neo-paganism

Burning cross at the winter solstice

In the Nordic-Germanic neo-paganism (e.g. Asatru , Firne Sitte , Urglaawe ), the Germanic Yule Festival is one of the three most important festivals of the year and one uses what folklorists consider pre-Christian customs (e.g. wild hunt , resp. Rauhnächte ) to reconstruct the July period and the mid-winter festival. Here it is celebrated as a midwinter festival, sometimes on the astronomical date of the winter solstice, December 21st, or on the date assigned by Hákon the Good, December 25th, but also on the originally pagan date, the full moon that can be observed first after the Rough Nights is ( Julmond ). The re-strengthening of the sun and the lengthening of the days are celebrated, since this change has been vital for life since time immemorial, especially for the sowing and harvesting. The Julmond, which is also called Nytungl (New Moon) or Nykung (New King), is greeted with the ritual drinking of Yule. It marks the beginning of the new year. One sees the rough nights between the winter solstice (Mother's Night) and the thirteenth day ( Perchtennacht ) as a twelve-day period of peace in which the houses are adorned with evergreen branches such as boxwood , yew , spruce , fir , holly , pine , ivy , juniper , which are protected and healing Attributes powers. The house is smoked with the words "happiness in the house - misfortune out," and the "yule goat" described above is also used. Hospitality is said to have been an important element of the July period, so the house is said to have been open to guests who went in and out and were richly entertained. It is also a custom to fetch a large log - the Yule log - from the forest and let it burn for twelve days and nights. Comparable to the popular custom of rolling fire wheels or Easter wheels from mountains, burning sun wheels, wood covered with straw or braided, are rolled down from hills.

Also in the Wicca witch religion, the Yule festival is one of the eight festivals of the annual cycle, on which with the winter solstice the rebirth of the sacrificed god of the year or the death of the holly king (god of the decreasing year) and his replacement by the oak king (god of the increasing year) is celebrated.

See also

literature

  • H. Celander: Förkristen julenligt norrönakällor . 1955.
  • Jacob Grimm : German Mythology . Marix, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-86539-143-8 (first edition: 1836).
  • Arni Bjørnsson: High days and Holidays in Iceland . 1995.
  • PV Glob : Danske oldtidsminder . Copenhagen 1967.
  • Anders Hultgård : Jul . In: Heinrich Beck (ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . tape 16 . de Gruyter, Berlin 2000.
  • Andreas Nordberg: Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning. Kalendrar och kalendariska riter i det förkristna north Författare. (= Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi , 91). Kungliga Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur, Uppsala 2006, ISSN  0065-0897 , ISBN 91-85352-62-4 ( full version ).
  • Folke Ström: Nordisk hedendom . Gothenburg 1961.
  • Alexander Tille : The story of German Christmas . E. Keil, Leipzig 1893.
  • Alexander Tille: Yule and Christmas . Their place in the Germanic Year. D. Nutt, London 1899.
  • T. Troels-Lund: Dagligt Liv i Norden i det 16.Aarhundrede VII . 1903.
  • Hermann Usener : Religious historical investigations II. Christian festive practice . In: Folklore Sources . Olms, Hildesheim / New York, NY 1972, ISBN 3-487-04347-5 .
  • Lily Weiser-Aall : Jul . In: Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelader . tape 8 . Copenhagen 1963.
  • Lily Weiser-Aall: Julehalmen i Norge. Småskrifter from Norsk Etnologisk Gransking nr. 3 . 1953.

Web links

Commons : Julfest  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Julfest  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Grimm 1984, Vol. 28, p. 710.
  2. See Johannesson 1956.
  3. a b Olav Bø and Ina Louise Stovner: Jul . In: Store norske leksikon . ( snl.no ).
  4. ^ Snorri Sturluson: Heimskringla , translated by Felix Niedner. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Düsseldorf and Cologne 1965 ( Old Norse original online ). The term "Hacknacht" is an incorrect translation. "Hökunótt" is unclear, but probably means "superfluous night" and can be traced back to the old Scandinavian calendar .
  5. See also Óláfs ​​saga helga , chap. 117; Ynglingasaga , chap. 8. The information in the Olaf saga relate to Trøndelag, the information in the Yngling saga relate to the Malar region in Sweden to judge from the context. According to the editors of the Icelandic edition, the three festival dates are October 14th, January 12th and April 12th.
  6. ^ Andreas Nordberg: Jul, disting och förkyrglig tideräkning. Kalendrar och kalendariska riter i det förkristna Norden (= Acta Academiae Regiae, Gustavi Adolphi 91). Uppsala 2006.
  7. a b Lily Weiser-Aall: Jul . In: Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for nordisk middelalder . tape 8 , 1963, Sp. 6-14.7 . Sam Owen Jansson: Julmånad . In: Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for nordisk middelalder . tape 8 , 1963, Sp. 22-23 .
  8. Celander 1955; Weiser-All 1963, p. 6.
  9. Harald Ehrhardt: Jul . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . tape 5 , 1991, Sp. 799 .
  10. Gro Steinsland: Norrøn religion . 2005. Anders Hultgård: Jul . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA) . tape 16 , p. 100-105 .
  11. Beda: De Temporum Ratione , chap. 15th
  12. Bjørnsson 1995; Celander 1955; Tille 1893.
  13. ^ Wilhelm Mannhardt : Christmas flowers in custom and legend . Franz Duncker, 1864 ( google.de [accessed December 3, 2016]).
  14. a b Hultgård, p. 102.
  15. a b Hultgård, p. 103.
  16. ^ Wilhelm Mannhardt: Christmas flowers in custom and legend . b. Franz Duncker, 1864 ( google.de [accessed December 3, 2016]).
  17. The Dogma of Holy Communion and Its History . Heinrich Zimmer, 1845 ( google.de [accessed December 3, 2016]).
  18. a b Hultgård, p. 101.
  19. Hultgård, p. 100.
  20. Heimskringla . Ólafs saga helga , Kap 117, German by Felix Niedner.
  21. See Glob 1967.
  22. Hultgård 2000, p. 100 ff.
  23. Jóhannesson 1956, p. 97.
  24. Ældre Gulathings-Lov
  25. Ström p. 45.
  26. See Usener 1889
  27. See Weiser-Aall 1953
  28. Troels-Lund 1903, p. 28 ff.
  29. Angela Brown: From the "Germanic Yule Festival" to the "Festival of the Dead". Christmas and Winter Aid Badges under National Socialism. ( Memento of February 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), In: Deutsches Historisches Museum (Ed.): DHM , 5th year 1995, No. 14, accessed on March 30, 2008.
  30. Steinbock, Fritz: The holy festival, rituals of traditional Germanic paganism in today's time. Daniel Junker Verlag 2004, p. 125
  31. a b Die Firne Sitte (Forn Siðr) - Germanischer Jahreskreis In: firne-sitte.net , accessed on December 13, 2017.
  32. Reena Perschke: Oak King and Holly King: The Origin of a "Celtic" Myth in the 20th Century . In: Harm-Peer Zimmermann (Ed.): Lust am Mythos. Cultural studies new additions to a popular phenomenon . Zurich writings on narrative research and narratology (ZSEN), No. 1 . Jonas-Verlag, Marburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-89445-505-7 , pp. 288-297 .