The Benson signal., 1917-12-29

to do Baldur no harm. Ev-
erything animate and in
animate, the animals and
men and fish and birds, -
the water and earth and rocks and
and snow, all agreed never to harm
Baldur.
''GO forth and weep no more, daugh-
ter" said WOdin to Mamma, mo harm
can now come to your husband, my
son." and Mamma went forth happy.
After that all the gods used to
amuse themselves hurling stones and
axes and spears at Baldur and he
stood and laughed at them, because
neither wood nor petal nor anything
could harm him. 1t was great sport
for everyone. One day while at this
sport an old woman asked Mamma why
they were trying to kill Baldur.
Everything has promised never to
harm him." she explained.
"Everything?" Queried the old wom-
| an.
Except the mistletoe, what can that
little 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 a lance and
hurled it at Baldur, whereupOn it
pierced his heart and he fell dead.
Dedicated to Love and Affection.
AS peace offering the gods dedi-
Gated the mistletoe to love and affec-
tion and peace just so long as it never
touched Loki's territory, the ground.
Ever since then the mistletOe has
grown without roots, far away from
the ground, and even to this day it is
used by suspending it above the floor
or ground.
And so it is that both ancient Brit
ain and Scandinavia lay their claim to
mistletoe customs and the origin Of
suspending a branch of it beneath
which youth may kiss. There is little
doubt but what the custom was in use
thousand years before the origin Of
Christmas. While the story of the
maidens who lured back to their
camps, and to themselves, the young
men who were about 20 become Druid
priests, gives good account Of our GUS
! tom of kissing beneath the mfstletoe
today, to Scandinavia also belongs
much credit. When those brave and
romantic Scandinavians looked for
ward to Valhalla as 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 GER
tain great feast days for their gods.
1t 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
ests where the Scandinavians used to
gather to pay honor to the great god
Thor, the greater pleased was Thor,
and so it became necessary to pick
out the best of wood tC burn.
Then men would go into the forest
looking for "Juul" logs, and they soon
learned that the trees upon which
much mistletoe clung would give the
brightest fires. They did not know
the reason for this, and believed that
it was due to the work of the great
Thor himself who caused the mistle-
toe to grow on those trees without
roots solely as a means of letting his
people know which trees were best
for burning in his honor.
And so whenever anyone met under
the mistletoe in the great forests no
matter how great enemies they 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 Of Thor.
A Fetish of Good Luck.
They began to take bits of the mis-
tletoe into their homes and hang it
over the doOrways, and if any enemies
came, they could not enter the houses
beneath the mistletoe without becom-
ing friends to the people inside SO long
| as they remained there. From this
came the habit of greeting people who
stepped under the mistletoe with an
embrace or kiss, and at great indoor
| feasts the miStletOe was hung up in
the room and the people greeted each
other with kisses.
Later this mistletoe hanging at
feasts came to be put in use only at
the Christmas feast and from that
grew the custom of hanging up the