This Honestly Looks Like Something Out Of A Story Book

Glögg: an ancient drink!🍷

✒️Hello everyone! Today I bring you a bit of European history and gastronomy, focusing on an ancient Scandinavian drink called "Glögg", which I had the pleasure to taste last night. Sources can be find at the end in APA formar!

What is Glögg?

Glögg or glogg (Danish: gløgg, Norwegian: gløgg, Swedish: glögg, Icelandic: glögg, Faroese: gløgg, Finnish: glögi, Estonian: glögi) is a spiced, usually alcoholic, mulled wine or spirit. It is a traditional Nordic drink that has been drunk since ancient times during the cold winters, and later, to celebrate Christmas.

Nowadays many people drink this drink at "Christmas", the Christian celebration, however, we know very well that it was an appropriation of pagan festivities.

In the Nordic countries, drinking mulled wine is a tradition that dates back to the 16th century. It was drunk especially by messengers and postmen who travelled on horseback or skis in cold weather.

How the Nordic countries gave us Christmas:

Long before Christianity had come to the Nordic regions, the pagans and other ancient Germanic peoples would celebrate the winter solstice each December, the time of year when the days were the shortest and the night's the longest. Friends and relatives would get together and enjoy food and drink in a festival known as Yule.

As Christianity swept across Germanic Europe centuries ago, many Yuletide traditions were adopted and absorbed into the Christian faith, mixing together to create the modern Christmas we celebrate today.

Source: UK History blog.

Traditional Swedish Glögg recipe:

You can find the recipe right here!🍷🍂

Sources:

How the Vikings gave us Christmas. (n.d.). Sky HISTORY TV Channel. Retrieved September 2, 2021, from https://www.history.co.uk/articles/how-the-vikings-gave-us-christmasWikipedia contributors. (2021, July 31). Glögg.

Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gl%C3%B6gg

Compilation of disturbing witches, wizards, sabbath and monsters in art.

I AM A WIND IN THE SEA I am a sea-wave upon the land I am the sound of the sea I am a stag of seven combats I am a hawk on a cliff I am a tear-drop of the sun I am the fairest of flowers I am a boar for valour I am a salmon in a pool I am a lake in a plain I am the excellence of arts I am a spear that wages battle with plunder I am a god who forms subjects for a ruler Who explains the stones of the mountains? Who invokes the ages of the moon? Where lies the setting of the sun? Who bears cattle from the house of Tethra? Who are the cattle of Tethra who laugh? What man, what god, forms weapons? Indeed, then; I invoked a satirist... a satirist of wind. The Book of the Takings of Ireland tells the story of six races that came to the island: the Cessarians, the Partholónians, the Nemedians, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and lastly the Milesians, who were the ancestors of the modern Gaels. According to the legend, the bard Amergin Glúingel, one of the seven sons of Mil, recited this poem as he set his foot upon the land of Ireland for the first time.

The Song of Amergin is the most famous example of old Irish rosc poetry, and its vivid, cryptic imagery has captured imaginations for centuries, inspiring theories, stories, and songs of its own.

(Translation adapted from the Celtic Heroic Age by Koch & Carey)

Does anyone else on the pagan community feel genuine love for their deities? Not in the romantic sense, but more in the way you love a family member. It's especially strong coming from a religion where you never felt a genuine connection to "your" God. You felt fear, obligation, confusion, curiosity, and maybe love on some level, but this love is different.

It is finally understanding the feeling people around you described from being in church every Sunday. It's growing up finding the congregation's hands in the air, the singing and crying, the raw emotion to be... unusual, strange. What were they feeling? How can I feel this way? You try to forge that connection, but you're never successful. You start to doubt the God you grew up with. You wonder if he hates you, or if you're not trying hard enough — if you're broken.

...Then, one day, you find what you've been searching for all this time, somewhere else. You experience the feeling of finally meeting your soulmate, finally finding your place or your tribe. You experience the pure joy, the peace, the childlike wonder, the longing, the wisdom, the bond, the reverence, the admiration. You experience an unfamiliar tightness In your chest when you pray to them or make offerings.

I've never felt more in love than I am with my gods. Ive never felt more at home, more at peace.

I hope to feel this way for the rest of my days, because what is life without the gods? What is life without something beyond this world, yet at the same time, an integral part of understanding the meaning of existence on this physical plane — on this planet?

Elijah in the Wilderness, Frederic Leighton, created: 1877–1878

Juniper

Juniper is known for its stimulating and mind-clearing properties and its cleansing and purification of the atmosphere. Its also known for its calming and relaxing effect on the nerves, and its sharpening of mental awareness and alertness.

When burned Juniper clears negative energies but it can also create a safe, protective, positive and healing space when that negative energy is removed.

In Scottish folk magic juniper was used to sain (bless, purify) objects, people, places and livestock. This purification process was there to remove influences that might be overlooked or to remove negative spirits. Juniper is the most used plant to sain with but Rowan was also used regularly. They would usually sain a new house by burning juniper in every room enough to fill the whole house with smoke and they would sit in the house until they coughed from the smoke, this was also done every new year as well.

Wolves of Nuada

It is said that the descendants of Nuada of the Silver Hand, the first king of the Tuatha de Danann, could transform into wolves.

The god Lugh was worshiped in Ireland as a deity of the sun. This connection with the sun may explain his name (it means “shining one”), and it also may account for the attributes that he displayed: he was handsome, perpetually youthful, and had a tremendous energy and vitality. This energy manifests itself especially in the number of skills he had, according to legend, mastered. In fact, there was a tale that related Lugh’s myriad abilities at arts and crafts.

As told in the Battle of Magh Tuiredh, the god traveled to Tara, and arrived during a tremendous feast for the royal court. Lugh was greeted at the door by the keeper of the gate, and was immediately asked what talent he had - for it was a tradition there that only those who had a special or unique ability could enter the palace. The god offered his reply: “I am a wright”. In response, the gate keeper said: “We already have a wright. Your services are not needed here”. Still, Lugh, not to be so easily dismissed, continued: “I am a smith”. Again, the guard retorted that the court had a smith that was quite adequate; but the god was not to be dissuaded. In short order, he noted that he was also a champion, a harper, a hero, a poet, an historian, a sorcerer, and a craftsman. To this list, the gate keeper merely nodded his head, and stated matter of factly that all of these various trades were represented in the court by other members of the Tuatha de Danaan. “Ah, but you do have an individual who possesses all of these skills simultaneously?”, was Lugh’s clever and inspired reply. The guard was forced to admit his defeat, and so Lugh was allowed to enter and join the festivities.

According to Celtic mythology, Lugh was the son of Cian and Ethlinn. After the god Nuada was killed in the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh, Lugh became the leader of the Tuatha De Danaan (the term for the gods and goddesses who descended from the goddess Danu).

Keiths Tower, Aberdeenshire, Scotland