Tardis Texan

OKAY BUCKLE UP CHILDREN

Santa? Is Odin. With a bit of the Turkish Saint Nicholas plastered over top to make him more acceptable to Christianity. 

Let’s wind this back a bit. 

So. In Norse tradition, Odin rose with the wild hunt on Midwinter. Children would leave out offerings of hay or root vegetables in their shoes for Slepnir, Odin’s horse. In norse tradition, all gifts create an obligation that must be returned in kind, so if Odin found the offerings pleasing he would leave treats and sweets in return. 

So. We have a magical bearded man riding through the sky on a winter feast day and leaving treats for children in footwear if they pleased him. Sound familiar? Yeah.

As for Slepnir, Odin’s mount? He has eight legs. So. Bearded man with powerful magic flying through the air on an eight-legged steed on a winter feast day and leaving treats for children in their footwear if they pleased him. 

Yeah. 

Enter Christianity. Now, the midwinter season is important to all cultures that live in cold climates. The passing of the worst of the hard times and the beginning of the longer days and the promise of the return of life and light and fertility is a powerful thing. There were Christian festival days around the same time as Midwinter was celebrated in many polytheistic faiths. Christians found that they couldn’t get people to stop celebrating the feast days they’d been celebrating for several thousand years, so opted instead to just absorb those traditions into their OWN midwinter festivals. It was a far easier and more effective way of convincing people to convert.

So. The tradition of Odin leaving gifts hung on, in a far different form. This was helped by the legend of Saint Nicholas, a Turkish man who inherited a large amount of wealth and who was known and beloved for his habit of slipping money to poor people via leaving it in their stockings as they were hung out to dry after wash day, or by dropping it down their chimneys. This was similar enough to the old Odin myth of leaving gifts in footwear to paste right over top of the older stories with relative ease. So, the man delivering gifts became not Odin, but St. Nick, who delivered gifts via stocking and chimney. 

However, the idea of him flying through the sky, being associated with elves, possessing powerful magic, and the eight-legged steed stuck. (reindeer, incidentally, are an animal with a lot of symbol and power in Norse tales. Ullr, the god of the hunt, had ties to reindeer, and at some point the eight legged horse became eight reindeer.)

Incidentally the image of Santa as a chubby little jolly man didn’t come around until modern advertising began depicting him that way. Before that? A tall, strong man, usually with a staff (echoing Odin’s staff or spear). 

So. There you have it. Santa, the jolly bearded old man of beloved childhood Christmas memories? If you ever wondered where he came from in a ‘Christian’ holiday, there’s your answer. He didn’t. He’s the amalgamation of an ancient Norse god and a Middle Eastern saint, filtered through the lens of pop culture. 

Jim Butcher actually did this very well in the Dresden Files, where Odin makes several appearances, one wearing the mantle of Father Christmas. 

River: ”Oh, but there is. There’s one force that can counteract hate.” Brooke: ”Oh? Love? Why, you — You’re gonna love him back to life?” R: ”Yes, I am.” The Doctor: ”W-what’s happening…?” R: ”See? It’s working already.” B: ”No! I hate the Doctor, I hate the Doctor, I hate the Doctor!” R: ”Oh, that’ll never be enough. Because I’m thinking of Asgard and the Byzantium and Demon’s Run. And never in the universe will you be able to summon up enough hate to wipe out everything he’s been to me.”

—The Diary of River Song 3.2: A Requiem for the Doctor

River loving the Fifth Doctor back to life was commissioned of me by Sandra Lilith Eden. Thank you! :)

nice hair, clever, has her own gun, shouldn’t like that

Short filmography - Colin Firth

as Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water

as the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth

as Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth

as the Angel of Death in Hellboy II: The Golden Army 

as Billy Butcherson in Hocus Pocus

as one of the Gentlemen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

as Edith’s Mother, Lady Sharpe in Crimson Peak

as Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

as Saru in Star Trek: Discovery

…in Budapest, with my daughter Maddy, long long ago in 2007. From http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2007/07/circus-drums-in-distance.html?m=1

Doug isn’t just a human special effect because he acts well under latex. He inhabits each of his roles, at a level of discomfort and with a lack of sleep that I would find murderous. (Think how early he needs to be in in the morning to have that latex glued on. Think how late filming can go. Doug has rights he sometimes elects not to use, in order to keep a production moving. I’ve seen him asleep propped up in order to keep a movie on schedule.)

Romans: ceasar is such a dick

Loki: stab him idk

Loki:“then get rid of the prick”

New Fan-Art Prints and Pre-Orders up in my Etsy Shop! 

Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy XV and XIV, Doctor Who and more! Plus all my original fantasy art, coloring pages and books, of course. <3

Update: To help with my kitty’s vet bills, I have also just listed several pencil and watercolor artwork ORIGINALS! Mostly older fantasy work, but some fanart pieces, too.

All physical Etsy orders of my MeadowHaven Fantasy Art Coloring Book will also come with a surprise bonus gift–signed art prints, grayscale pages or maybe even a sketch by me. :) There’s less than 200 copies left now until sold out forever!

“Okay, I know. You’re testing them. You said you were gonna be testing them.”