Nov 17 2008
Odin and Santa Claus?
Some friends and I have been chatting today, about the possibility that Odin might have been one of the European ancestors of the figure that we know, today, as Santa Claus. I knew Santa had European forebears, but I had never thought of Odin as one of them.
Now, after doing a bit of reading, I think it’s likely. And the great thing is that as I was thinking of Odin, I could simply grab a book and start rummaging through it, for some of the info I wanted.
I’ve had Kevin Crossley-Holland’s The Norse Mythsfor more than twenty years. I can’t count how many times I’ve read it. Crossley-Holland retells the major Norse myths in the larger part of the book, but he also wrote an extensive Introduction giving the history of their development, and also added commentary and notes for each myth at the end of the book. So as well as learning the myths themselves, the reader gets a brief but quite detailed education on their historical context. Crossley-Holland retains some of the style of the original myths — that is, they don’t read like a mere prose narrative, but more like poetic tale-telling — but he makes sure they’re readable and interesting.
So I could look up the colour of Odin’s eight-legged steed, Sleipnir. (It’s grey, by the way.) I could read how Odin sacrificed one eye for a drink from the pool of wisdom under one of the roots of Yggdrasill the World Tree. And of course, I re-encountered my favourite figure in Norse mythology: Ratatosk the squirrel, who scurried up Yggdrasill conveying insults from the dragon, Nidhogg, who gnawed at its roots, all the way up the tree to the eagle in its topmost branches. The very thought of Ratatosk has always filled me with glee and delight.
But meanwhile…Odin as Santa? Maybe not “Santa Claus” precisely, but the European Father Christmas, certainly. They have similar ways of dressing, in that long coat, and Odin often wears a hat with a brim. (Think Gandalf, from Lord of the Rings.) And an interesting thing that was pointed out to me today is that Odin’s son, Thor, often rides a chariot across the sky, pulled by goats. Is it much of a stretch to picture that chariot gradually becoming a sleigh pulled by other horned animals - reindeer?
So it may be plausible. More reading is definitely needed. And what better place to start than with Crossley-Holland’s book?
There may be something to this. The goat-drawn chariot sealed it for me. Eight tiny reindeer, hmm - a goat could be mistaken for a tiny reindeer.
Well this is one book I’d at least be curious to skim through, if not read outright. I sometimes feel as if these old Norse myths are my true cultural heritage, rather than the Christian one I grew up in.
I’ve always been really drawn to Norse myths too. Those, and the Celtic, once I learned of the existence of that myth system as well.
Kate, yes, I really perked up my ears at the chariot/sleigh parallels. I’d never thought of that before.