A YULE-CELEBRATION IN THE TIME BEFORE CONVERSION

I quote here from the Saga of Hákon the Good, the first Christian king to rule over all Norway. Hákon góði Aðalsteinsfóstri was the youngest son of Harald Hairfair who had almost managed to unite all the tribes of Norway into one country. Most of his sons turned out even more unpopular than he had been because they took away a lot of the democratic rights and liberties that people had been used to for thousands of years. Then Hákon turned up from his exile, and after a great election campaign where he promised to return ancient land-rights to the people, he was elected king of Norway in 933 AD, and remained there until his death in 961. Having grown up as a fosterling of the English king Aethelstan, whom the Norse knew as Aðalsteinn, he was a Christian, and he was the first king to try and introduce Christianity to the Norwegian people, who were still deeply Heathen. Some sources to “Germanic” history claim that if a king was converted, his entire people would follow. This is not true. A king´s example was important, but only if the free people agreed with him. The sagas of the Norwegian kings show time and time again that the Heathen people of Norway were used to a great deal of democratic partaking in the law-making and execution of laws, and to the right to own land independently of the king, and to the right of dismissing a king and even punish him if he failed to live up to their expectations.

Hákon King never succeeded with his Christian mission due to the still powerful democratic institution of the Parliament, which had elected him as king, and which had the power to overthrow him. This passage offers unique insight into both the public Yule-sacrifices which happened at the end of the Yule month (12th/13th of December until 12th of January), as well as into the true power of the people that these early kings had to contend with before they finally (and much later) managed to achieve dictatorial power after having worked on introducing the “one god – one ruler” sort of mentality that was needed for them to achieve their goal: Absolute power and an enslaved population.

THE CHRISTIANITY OF HÁKON KING
Hákon King was a good Christian when he came to Norway. But the entire country was Heathen, and there were a lot of Blóts and many noblemen, and he needed to show himself helpful and beneficial to the people, and therefore he chose to be secretive about his Christian faith, but kept the Sundays and the Friday fast. He made a law that Yule should begin at the same time as it did among Christian folks [25th of December instead of 12th of January when the great Jólablót (Yule Sacrifice) marked the end of the Yule month], and that each man should have beer from one measure of malt, or else pay fines, and holiday should be for as long as the beer lasted.
Before, the Yule-Blót (Blót) had begun on Hökunight, and that was Midwinter´s Night [12th of January], and then they kept Yule for three nights. He thought that when he held a good standing in the country and had safely made the whole land his own, then he would start to preach Christianity. He did this first by enticing those men who were his dearest, and because he was good at making friends, many let themselves be baptized, and others stopped sacrificing. He was often for a long time in Throndheim [today the county of Trøndelag in Norway], for there was the greatest strength of the country. When now Hákon King believed that he had enough support from the local noblemen to preach Christianity, he sent for a bishop from England and a few other priests, and when they came to Norway, Hákon King let it be known that he would bid Christianity across the whole country. The Märe and the Roms-valley people said they would follow the example of the Thronds, and that they should answer this difficult case.

OF THE BLÓTS (– a bloody business!)
Sígurð Hlaðir-Earl [earl of the Thronds] was a great Blót-man [Blótmaðr], and so was his father Hákon. Sígurð Earl held all the sacrificial banquets on behalf of the king there in Throndheim. After Heathen custom [forn siðr], all the Bonds [free peasants who owned land] should gather there by the temple when there was a Blót, and they should bring food and drink for as long as the banquet lasted. All should carry beer to the banquet, and they butchered all sorts of small cattle and likewise horses, and all the blood that came from them was called Lautr, and the vessels that they kept the blood within were called Lautr-bowls; and with the Lautr-brushes – they were made just like the brushes used for holy water – they should color the walls outside all red with blood, and likewise on the inside of the temple, and they should pour them over the people attending. The butchered animals should be cooked as food for the guests. There should be fireplaces along the middle floor inside the temple, and kettles above them. A drink should be carried around the fireplace, and the one who kept the banquet and was chief, should bless the drink and all the power of the Blót, first should they drink for Óðinn, they drank that to the victory and might of their king – and then came Njǫrd´s drink and Frey´s drink for a good year and peace [“til árs ok friðr”]. There were many who used to drink the Bragi-drink after; some also drank for their relatives and friends, those who were dead and the mound-dwellers, this was called the Drink of Memory. Sígurð Earl was generous and he did something that made him very famous, he held a large banquet at Hláðir and paid all the expenses himself (in order to divert the peoples´ attention from the fact that their King failed to do this plight).

FROSTA-PARLIAMENT
Hákon King came to the Frosta-parliament, and there had the Bonds gathered in large numbers. When the parliament had begun, Hákon King spoke. He opened his speech by saying that it was his bidding and his wish that Bonds and those who rented land, big and small, and the entire population, young and old, rich and poor, women and men, that all should let themselves be baptized and believe in one god, Christ, Mary´s son, and stop the sacrifices and the Heathen gods, keep holy every seventh day from all sorts of work, and fasting every seventh day. But when the king had held his speech before the parliament, there was immediately much resistance, loud spoken, the Bonds shouted that the King wanted to take their work from them, and this was no way of building the country (Norway had only recently become a country, made of many different tribes before), and working people and thralls said they could not work when they were not fed (the fasting issue), and then they began to say that Hákon was not generous, he and his friends, that they were stingy with food even if they were generous with gold (being stingy with food was very bad for a great man).
Ásbjörn from Medalhus in Gaula-valley stood up and replied to the speech, he said; “We Bonds, Hákon King, we believed this,” he said, “that time when you kept parliament the first time here in Throndheim, and we had elected you to be our king and had our land-rights returned to us [this was why they had elected him as king – his predecessors had tried to take the private land-rights away from his peasant subjects], we believed then that we had grasped heaven with our hands [been fortunate]. But now we no longer now how it is, if we have been given back our freedom from you, or if you again wish to enslave us in this peculiar way, that we should leave that faith which our fathers have had before us, and all our ancestors before that, first in the Age of Cremation [Brunaöld], and then now in the Age of Mounds [Haugsöld]…”

(Norse Heathens counted their religious history in ages, after how burials were done, and believed their religion had begun with the Age of Cremation – Interestingly, the end of the Stone Age in Scandinavia saw changes from an earlier culture where people were buried in mass graves, and a new culture where people were cremated and buried individually, and may have been when their Indo-European, later Norse, religion was introduced).

“…and those men (our ancestors) were much greater men than we are, but this faith has still helped us too. We have shown you much loyalty, so much that we have let you rule us in all that has to do with laws and country justice. It is now our will to keep the laws that our ancestors set here for us at the Frosta-parliament, and that we all agreed upon, and the Bonds all agree on this; we will all follow you and keep you for our king for as long as we live, even to the last man who stands here at this parliament, IF you, King, will treat us with consideration and care and not demand more of us than what we can do for you, and which is not unrealistic.
But if you are so bent on this case that you will use violence and might against us, then we Bonds are in agreement that we will all divorce ourselves from you (the King´s power was like a marriage with the land, which the Bonds represented), and we will elect another chieftain, one who will help us and keep our faith in peace such as we wish. Now, King, you must choose here, before the Parliament ends.”
When it was finally possible to be heard again (after all the cheering), said Sígurð Earl; “It is the wish of Hákon King that an agreement is reached between him and the Bonds, and never divorce himself from your friendship.” The Bonds said that they wanted the king to sacrifice for a good year and peace for them, just as his father had done. Now the displeasure ceased, and the Parliament was dissolved.
Afterwards, Sígurð Earl spoke to the King and said that he could not refuse to do as the Bonds wished, nothing else would work, he said, “And as you yourself may hear, King, this is the wish of the chieftains and of all the people. We must find good counsel here, King,” and on this the King and the Earl agreed.
…
Hákon King never managed to turn the country over to Christianity. On the next great Blót, the autumn-sacrifice, the Bonds forced him to eat of the horsemeat that had been sacrificed. And on the following Yule-celebration, the tension was high as people were trying to make the King perform the Blót, the way kings had always done.
Without compromising himself, Hákon finally had to suspend his plans for the Christianization of Norway and never succeeded in this mission. It would be another hundred years before more ruthless kings made sure that the new faith was finally accepted - and not without a lot of fighting. But as long as Hákon respected the beliefs of the people, they respected his, and he was popular among both Christians and Heathens alike, remembered forever as the Good.