Mistletoe – an Unromantic History
Hello and Happy Christmas,
With only a few days to go until Christmas 2020, it feels like the right time to chat about the rather unromantic history of the classic Christmas evergreen, mistletoe. You probably know the tradition of kissing underneath it, but trust me there’s more to it than that when you dive into its word history.
The word mistletoe comes from mister (the name of the shrub) plus an Old English word for twig. The origin of mistle isn’t very romantic though. It was German originally and either comes from mist (dung) or mash (the malt and water mix using in brewing). These are for earthy reasons. The dung connection is because the plant spreads its seeds via bird droppings and the mash connection is because the berries are so sticky.
The origins of the mistletoe tradition springs more from Viking and yuletide celebrations than Christmas and it involves a touch of murder.
Odin, as you may recall, was the head of the Viking gods. His wife Frigg had a son called Baldur, known as Baldur the brave and the beautiful. He was beloved by all but as a result his half-sibling Loki, yes the one from Avengers, was jealous. When Baldur began having nightmares about his own death his doting mother made every animal, vegetable, and mineral in the universe swear never to hurt him. The only thing she didn’t bother with was mistletoe which grew close to the ground and looked weak.
Afterwards the other gods enjoyed throwing spears, arrows, rocks, and other items at Baldur and watching them fall away at the last moment thanks to their vow. When Loki discovered the mistletoe exception he made a short javelin of the mistletoe and tricked one of the other gods into throwing it and it killed Baldur. Since that day the plant is banished to grow high in the branches of trees and always to be hung high in our homes when used as a decoration at this time of year.
If you’re still keen on kissing under the mistletoe after the stories of bird droppings and murder you should be aware of the most important rule. With each kiss a berry is removed from the bunch and when they are all gone, no more kisses may be stolen beneath it.
Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace (@Wordfoolery)
