The Carlisle independent., 1917-12-20

10 tl1 IDGt0QI no IltltLLi. EN- erythiug animate and in-
 animate. the animals and
 men and fish and birds, the water and earth and rocks and trees. the winds and clouds and rain and snow. all agreed never to harm Balaur.
 ..Go forth and weep no more. daugh= ter said Woain to Nanna. nc harm can now come to your husband, ny son" and Nanna went forth happy.
 After that all the gods used te amuse themselves hurltng stones and axes and spears tt Baldur and he Stoad and laughed at them. because neither wood nor petai nor anything could harm him. L was great sport for everyone One day while at this sport an old woman asked Nanua why they were trying to kill Baldur.
 Everything has promised never co harm him" she explained.
 'Eyerything27 queried the old wom- an.
 Except the mistletoe, what can that Iittle shrub do?' Mamma laughed scorn- fully.
 The old woman hurried away. Of course it was Loki in disguise. She got tWig Of mistletoe and hardened it by charring the outside before the fire, fitted the point to q lance and hurled it at Baldur, Whereupon it pierced his heart and he fell dead.
 Dedicated to Love and Affection.
 As a peace offering the gods dedi cated the mistletoe to love and affec- ton and peace just so long as it never touched Lold's territory. the ground. Ever since then the mistletoe has grown without roots far away from rhe ground, and even to this day it is used by Suspending it above the floor or ground.
 And SD it is that both ancient Brit ain and Scandinavia lay their claim to mistlet0e customs and the origin of suspending branch of it beneath which youth may kiss. There is little doubt but what the custom was in use a thousand years before he origin of Christmas. While the story of the maIdens who lured back to their camps, and to themselves, the young men who were about 60 become Druid priests, gives good account of our GUS tom of kissing beneath the mistlet0e today, 10 Scandinavia also belongs much credit. When those brave and romantic Scandinayians looked for ward to YalhalIa IS their heaven, and worshiped the gods Thor and Wodin on Thor's day and Wodin's day (which is where we get our Thursday and Wednesday,, they used to have cer- tain great feast days for their gods.
 II became the custom, on observing Thor's day, to build great fires. These were called "Juul" fires. As everyone knows. the Scandinavian "J' is pro- nounced quite like our pronunciation of the letter ..Y :" consequently those fires were spoken of as "Yule" fires.
 The brighter the fires. the higher the flames lowered through the for ests where the ScaHdinayians used 10 gather to pay honor 10 the great god Thor. the greater pleased was Thor, and SD it became necessary to pick out the best of wood tc burn.
 Then men would go into the forest booking far "Juul" logs and they soon learned tLaf the trees upon which much mfstietoe cluuS would give thc brightest fires. They did net know the reason for this. and believed thar ii was due u the work Of he great Thor himself who caused the mlstle- toe to grow ou those trees without roots solely as means of letting his people know which trees were best for burning in his aauef.
 And go whenever anyone met under the mistletoe h the great forests. no matter how great enemies tlpy were. they dropped their weapons and greet ed each other kindly. nor would they take up arms against each other until the sunrise of another day. This was their tribute in memory ef Thor.
 4 Fetish Of Good Luck.
 They began 10 take bIfs of the ufs- ltetoe lHto Helr homes and hang il over the doorways, and # any enemies came, they could not enter the houses beneath the mIstletoe without BecoIn- ing friends 10 the people inside so long as they remained there. From this came the habit Of greeting people who stepped under the mistletoe with an embraee or kiss and at great indoor fsasts the mistIet9e WAS hung up in the room and the people greeted each other with kisses.
 Later this mistletoe hanging at feasts came 10 be put in use only at the Christmas feast and from that grew the custom of hanging up the