Frey at Yule

by Seawalker

FreyThorskeggaWhen I was a child and the winter holidays

Drove round with their music and lights,

If you’d said, Elves, I would have said,

Of course. Elves and gift-givers, gold balls,

Roasted nuts and the boar’s head I saw

In the book on times past when it was all

Done much better than today, or so

The wistful pictures said. When I had children

I hung the boughs, put up the tree, the lights,

Made songs and cookies. When the house

Emptied of young life, years later, I gave up.

Elves, balls, trees, these were for children

Or so I thought. For sober grownups

Who are the ones to deck the halls

And take down every weary piece

Of faded glitter, sweep up the scattered needles,

Such things quickly become burdens.

Yet somehow I did not notice when my mood

Became sour and dry, sharp as a knife’s edge

When the world outside was chimes and reindeer

And inside the house was business as usual.

 

Frey, you simply smiled, made me notice

That one ornament in the store, that one bit

Of red-berried bough that it wouldn’t hurt a bit

To break and bring inside. No trouble, that,

You said gently. See how little trouble it is.

See how little it takes to lift the darkness,

Drive it back with a candle and song—

Not sung in choir, no, merely hummed

While doing dishes and staring out over snow.

Little by little it grew, and now I go humbly

Every year to deck the house like an altar

To the Gift-Giver with the elves and gilt

Who is not Santa. You have taught me

About light in darkness, Lord who descends

And rises again. I hang your gold, I sniff

The scent of green eternal life, perhaps this year

I may even try for the boar’s head,

O Lord of gentle joys who never laughs

At my stiff and foolish errors of the heart.

 

Artwork by Thorskegga Thorn. She writes, "...The ship, boar, and sword are Frey's treasures mentioned in the myths ... the boar also has strong fertility connections. An antler was used by Frey to defeat the giant Beli. The stars are Ursa Major, 'the wain', the wagon being another symbol of the god ... The sword bears the Anglo-Saxon rune that is named after him ... The courting couple are copied from the corner of the Bayeux Tapestry."