Edgeways -  Lost Jutish and Anglo Saxon Yule
Channel: The Sacred Isle - Folklore and Storytelling
Date: 2021-12-23

Talking Points:
- Jutish / Anglo-Saxon Yule (Geola)
- Mother's Night: Modraniht
- The Three Mothers: Modræ
- The Winter Solstice: the Hweol and Eftwyrd
- The Story of Hengist and the Kingdom of Wiht and Woden Horse
- The Story of The Log and Þori (Thori)

How much do you think we know about Pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon and Jutish Yuletide traditions? I am going to start out by saying we know virtually nothing! If anyone ever tells you that they are an expert on it then they are either a liar or they have about 10 minutes worth of content to talk about. Sounds like it will make for a rather short talk, right? Well... I think, if we use our imaginations and we use what we do have we can come up with something that an Early Middle Ages person may not know, but would surely recognise in part. 

Let me say though, before we start that there are not straight lines here, there are no arrows showing us the way. Everything is crooked, everything is hidden behind mists and layers and lenses that distort and trick us. Every bit we uncover is out of focus and subject to massive interpretation. An historian is dispassionate, but a storyteller is not constrained by that rigid definition.

So let us travel back to the 5th century, what we now call Great Britiain is in chaos, calling to pieces. An invading force of Germanic tribes are making their way into the land and with them, their belief systems and their traditions.

Everyone has heard the story of the sons of Woden, Hengest and Horsa and how they concurred the Kentish people and setup the beginnings of the Germanic kingdoms. They were Jutish. Horsa was killed, but Hengists survived and setup his Kingdom.