The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1917-12-20

to DO Baluur no narm. EN-
erything 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 ram
and snow, all agreed never TO harm
Baldur.
go forth and weep no more, daugh-
ter" said Wodln to Mamma, mo marin
can now come to your husband, my
son." and Mamma went forth happy.
After that all the gods used 10
amuse themselves hurting 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 mt 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 dor Mamma laughed scorn-
fully.
The old woman hurried away. or
course II was Loki in disguise. She
got a twig of mistletoe and hardened
it by charming the outside before the
fire, fitted the point to lance and
hurled 1t at Baldur, whereupOn it
pierced his heart and he fell dead.
Dedicated to Love and Affection.
AS a peace offering the gods dedl-
Gated the mistletOe to love and affec-
ton and peace just so long as 1t 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 II Is
used by suspendng it above the floor
or ground.
ain and Scandinavia lay their claim TO
mistletoe customs and the origin of
suspending a branch of 1t beneath
which youth may kiss There is little
bpubl buA NiiuN Ailt NhNlpiii wac 80 'NN
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 mistletoe
today, TO Scandinavia also belongs
much credit When those brave and
romantic Scandnavians 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.
II became the custom, on observing
Thor's day, to build great fires. These
were called "Juul" fires. As everyone
knows, the Scandinavian ~ 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 Scandinavians used Ia
gather to pay honor TO the great god
Thor, the greater pleased was Thor
and 50 1t became necessary TO pick
out the best of wood tC burn.
Then men would so into the forest
looking for "Juul" logs, and they soon
learned that the trees upon which
much mistletoe chung would give the
brightest fires. They did not know
the reason for this, and believed that
ii was due 10 the work of the great
Thor himself who caused the mistle
toe to grow on those trees without
roots solely az means of letting his
people know which trees were best
for burning III his honor.
And SO Raeuever anyone met under
the mistje.oe In the great forests, NJ
matter bow great enemies they We're
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
tnelr tribute In memory OF lnOf.
A Fetish of Good Luck
They began to take bits Of the mis-
tletoe into their homes and hang II
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 misiletoe with al
embrace or kiss, and at great indoor
feasts the mlstletoe was hung up In
the room and the people greeted each
other with kisses.
Later this mistletoe hanging al
feasts came to be put in use only al
the Christmas feast and from that
grew the custom of hanging up the