Frey at Yule
by Seawalker
When 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."