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Just a quick message, I hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you a safe and fun New year !!

Thank you for all the views and shares I really appreciate it ! 

🦇Happy New Year 🦇

M🦉

Santa Clause The legend of St. Nicholas

 

 

 

 

                                         Santa Clause and St. Nicholas..
                                   (LAST POST FOR 2021)

The legend of  Santa Clause has existed in some form or another throughout Europe for century's.

Though the modern  image of Santa we know today as a jolly fat man clad in red and white is largely thanks to a marketing ploy by the Coca Cola company in the lat 1800's and early 1900's.

 

In old Norse traditions Odin would arrive on his eight legged horse Sleipnir and leave gifts for good children.

The Dutch have  Sinterklaas.

Italy has the Christmas witch La Bafana.

there are several other traditions involving a magic figure bearing gifts, but for today we will focus on St.Nichols.

St.Nichols, Nicholas the Wonderworker, Saint Nicholas of Myra, Nicholas of Bari, Saint Nick etc..

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Saint Nicholas was a Greek saint from the early days of the Christian Church, born during the third century Roman Empire in the village of Patara At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey.

He lived from 15 March 270 – 6 December 343.

St.Nicholas is known as the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, prostitutes, children, brewers, pawnbrokers and unmarried people.
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The earliest accounts of his life were written centuries after his death and recount several miracles attributed to him.


He is believed to have been born in the Greek seaport of Patara, Lycia to wealthy Christian parents who raised him to be a devout Christian, His parents died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus’ words to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor,” Nicholas used his inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.

in one of the most well know story's  Nicholas comes to the aid of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman’s father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man’s daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries.
 
The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas.

 

One of the oldest stories showing St. Nicholas as a protector of children takes place long after his death. The townspeople of Myra were celebrating the good saint on the eve of his feast day when a band of Arab pirates from Crete came into the district. They stole treasures from the Church of Saint Nicholas. As they were leaving town, they snatched a young boy, Basilios, to make into a slave.

The emir, or ruler, selected Basilios to be his personal cupbearer, as not knowing the language, Basilios would not understand what the king said to those around him. So, for the next year Basilios waited on the king, bringing his wine in a beautiful golden cup. For Basilios’ parents, devastated at the loss of their only child, the year passed slowly, filled with grief. As the next St. Nicholas’ feast day approached, Basilios’ mother would not join in the festivity, as it was now a day of tragedy. However, she was persuaded to have a simple observance at home—with quiet prayers for Basilios’ safekeeping. Meanwhile, as Basilios was fulfilling his tasks serving the emir, he was suddenly whisked up and away.

St. Nicholas appeared to the terrified boy, blessed him, and set him down at his home back in Myra. Imagine the joy and wonderment when Basilios amazingly appeared before his parents, still holding the king’s golden cup. This is the first story told of St. Nicholas protecting children—which
became his primary role in the West. 

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                                                        Nicholas and the sea.

 

During his youth, Nicholas made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

To walk where Jesus walked in order to  experience Jesus’ life, passion, and resurrection.

Returning by sea, a mighty storm threatened to wreck the ship. Nicholas calmly prayed. The terrified sailors were amazed when the wind and waves suddenly calmed, sparing them all. later he would be named  the patron of sailors and voyagers.

Nicholas also saved his people from famine, sparing the lives of those innocently accused, and more.

Throughout his life he did numerous kind and generous deeds all in secret, expecting nothing in return.

Within a century of his death he was celebrated as a saint.

Today he is venerated in the East as a  miracle worker and in the West as patron saint of children, mariners, bankers, pawn-brokers, scholars, orphans, laborers, travelers, merchants, judges, paupers, marriageable maidens, students, children, sailors, victims of judicial mistakes, captives, perfumers, even thieves and murderers! He is known as the friend and protector of all in trouble or need


Sailors carried stories of Nicholas along their travels, claiming St. Nicholas as patron, and told  of his favor and protection far and wide.as a result several St. Nicholas chapels were built in many seaports.

As his popularity spread during the Middle Ages, he became the patron saint of Apulia (Italy), Sicily, Greece, and Lorraine (France), and many cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Belgium, and the Netherlands (see list). Following his baptism, Grand Prince Vladimir I brought St. Nicholas’ stories and devotion to St. Nicholas to his homeland where Nicholas became the most beloved saint.
 

Nicholas was so widely revered that thousands of churches were named for him, including three hundred in Belgium, thirty-four in Rome, twenty-three in the Netherlands and more than four hundred in England.




Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. 

The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, and deacons, there was no room for the real criminal—murderers, thieves and robbers. After his release, Nicholas was said to have attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. Later legends claim that he was temporarily defrocked and imprisoned during the council for slapping the heretic Arius.

Nicholas's attendance at the Council of Nicaea is attested early by Theodore the Lector's list of attendees, which records him as the 151st attendee. 

However, he is never mentioned by Athanasius of Alexandria, the foremost defender of Trinitarianism at the council, who knew all the notable bishops of the period, nor is he mentioned by the historian Eusebius, who was also present at the council. Adam C. English notes that lists of the attendees at Nicaea vary considerably, with shorter lists only including roughly 200 names, but longer lists including around 300. Saint Nicholas's name only appears on
 the longer lists, not the shorter ones. Nicholas's name appears on a total of three early lists, one of which, Theodore the Lector's, is generally
considered to be the most accurate.


Nicholas Death..

 

He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a
unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave. This liquid substance, said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas.
 

The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day, December 6th (December 19 on the Julian Calendar.
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Other versions of Santa

 

St. Nicholas’ feast day, December 6th, is celebrated with stories of his generosity.
In Germany and Poland, boys dressed as bishops begged alms for the poor—and sometimes for themselves!
 

In the Netherlands and Belgium, St. Nicholas arrived on a steamship from Spain to ride a white horse on his gift-giving rounds. December 6th is still the main day for gift giving and merrymaking in much of Europe. 

In the Netherlands St. Nicholas is celebrated on the December 5th, the eve of the day, by sharing candies (thrown in the door),chocolate initial letters, small gifts, and riddles. Dutch children leave carrots and hay in their shoes for the saint’s horse, hoping St. Nicholas will exchange them for small gifts.
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Less than 200 years after his death, the St. Nicholas Church was built in Myra under the orders of Theodosius II over the site of the church where he had served as bishop, and his remains were moved to a sarcophagus in that church.

 

In 1087, while the Greek Christian inhabitants of the region were subjugated by the newly arrived Muslim Seljuk Turks, and soon after their church was declared to be in schism by the Catholic church, a group of merchants from the Italian city of Bari removed the major bones of Nicholas's skeleton from his sarcophagus in the church without authorization and brought them to their hometown, where they are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Nicola. The remaining bone fragments from the sarcophagus were later removed by Venetian sailors and taken to Venice during the First Crusade.  

The Nicholas shrine in Bari was one of medieval Europe’s great pilgrimage centers and Nicholas became known as “Saint in Bari.” To this day pilgrims and tourists visit Bari’s great  Basilica di San Nicola.

Today his legend lives on in the hearts of children worldwide who eagerly await a visit from Santa Claus.

Merry Christmas Everyone and have a great New Year.🎄🎅🎄

Nordic Skraeling, Tiny people of the north pole

                                        The Skraeling

 

 The first written accounts of Arctic elves come from Viking Sagas- texts written by medieval Norsemen in ancient Nordic and Germanic history. 

Among the most famous of these is the saga of Erik the Red.

Erik the Red, a  Norse farmer who lived in Iceland in the late 10^th Century. 

In 982 A.D., he was banished from Iceland for committing a murder. 

Accompanied by a handful of  friends and relatives, he left his home and headed out to sea, bound for a mysterious land to the west which had been spotted by Icelandic sailors blown off course.

Erik the Red and his crew spent three years exploring this new land, and discovered that it had areas which were suitable for farming. 

In 985, he returned to Iceland and told  tales of what he dubbed “Groenland”, or “Greenland”. Having convinced a number of Norsemen to help him settle this new territory, Erik the Red returned to Greenland that year and established a colony there.

In 999 A.D., one of Erik the Red’s sons, called Leif Eriksson, traveled to Norway, his father’s birthplace, where he converted from Norse paganism to Christianity. 

 

Determined to bring the Christian religion to Greenland, he headed out into the North Atlantic. During his voyage, he was blown off course, and landed on a strange shore where wild grapes grew in abundance. 

He called this New World “Vinland”, or “Wineland”, and later returned there to establish a colony of his own. Some historians believe that Leif Eriksson’s Vinlandic colony was what we know today as L’Anse aux Meadows, a cluster of Viking ruins discovered on the northern tip of Newfoundland.

 

 

Icelanders  told of Erik the Red and Leif Eriksson’s adventure in New World.

 

This collection of story's would later become the Icelandic Sagas.

Many of the Sagas mention the Norsemen's  encounter with small humans in the New World, in both Vinland and Greenland. 

 

The Vikings called these people “Skraeling”. According to the 13^th Century Saga of Erik the Red, the Skraeling “were short in height with threatening features and tangled hair on their heads. Their eyes were large and their cheeks broad.”

Many historians believe that the Skraeling were the Thule people, the ancestors of the modern Inuit. , Inuit folklore even contains some references to bearded, sword-wielding giants called “Kavdlunait”, believed by many to be Viking explorers. 

Others claim that the Skraeling were the ancient Dorset people, whom the Inuit eventually displaced.

Though some maintain that the Sagas’ references to Skraeling constitute the first written records describing a lost tribe of Arctic dwarfs, remnants of which, some say, still inhabit the Northland to this very day.(see captain foxes discovery in previous post)

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🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

next weeks post will be the last one for 2021...

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

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 So what do you think, is it possible there is still a hidden race of small people living the arctic to this day?

Captain Luke Foxe and the Norther Elves..

 

 

 Elves Dwarves Skraeling faý little people fairy's gnomes and the list goes on it seems every culture has at least one legend or myth evolving small human like beings sometimes only a few inchs tall others 3-4 feet in height

During an arctic expedition in the 16  hundreds one captain and his crew may have discovered an "eleven" burial sight.

elf by tess eisinger
 https://www.deviantart.com/tess-eisinger/art/Elf-859514719

🎄🎄🎄🎆🎇✨🎄🎄🎄

Captain Luke Foxe and the Norther Elf's

 

Captain Luke Foxe, was  a 17th Century English explorer and adventurer who followed in the footsteps of Martin Frobisher and Henry Hudson, and set sail on the icy waters of Northern Canada in search of the Northwest Passage. 

Captain Foxe's first and only Arctic expedition was during  the spring of 1631. 

Beginning in  Kirkwall, Orkney, he and his crew sailed west across the Atlantic to Frobisher Bay, situated near the northern lip of Hudson’s Bay. 

 

He sailed through the Hudson Strait and, after visiting the crew of Welsh Captain Thomas James, who was also searching for the Northwest Passage, headed west

 

 On July 27, 1631, Foxe and his crew disembarked at Southampton Island, a large island located at the northern end of Hudson’s Bay. There, they discovered a strange above-ground cemetery the final resting place of a number of small coffins made from wood and stone. 

 

Inside these coffins were “tiny" human skeletons only four feet in length, surrounded by bows, arrows, and bone lances. They were all adults, and there is some implication that not all of them were skeletons, but might have been whole frozen bodies.”

 

 

 

The first part of Foxe’s report, which he included in his personal journal, went as follows:

“The newes from land was that this Island was a Sepulchre, for the Savages had laid their dead (I cannot say interred), for it is all stone, as they cannot dig therein, but lay the Corpses on the stones, and wall them about with the same, coffining them also by laying the sides of old sleddes about which have been artificially made. The boards are some 9 or 10 foot long, 4 inches thicke. In what manner the tree they have bin made out of what cloven or sawen, it was so smooth that we could not discerne, the burials had been so old.

“And, as in other places in those countries, they bury all their Vtensils, as bows, arrows, strings, darts, lances, and other implements carved in bone. The longest Corpses was not above 4 foot long, 2 with their heads laid to the West. It may be that they travell, as the Tartars and the Samoides; for, if they had remained here, there would have been some newer burials. There was one place walled 4 square, and seated within the earth; each side was 4 or 5 yards in length’ in the middle was 3 stones, laid one above another, man’s height. We tooke this to be some place of Ceremony at the buriall of the dead.”

In a footnote, Foxe added, “They seem to be people of small stature. God send me better for my adventures than these.”.....

 

Another  winter/Christmas post next week🎄🎇🎆✨🎄

Norse Lullaby by Eugene Field

 

Winter is here, cold nights and snowy days, at least in most places. So here is a Norse lullaby by Eugene Fields no cryptids or monsters technically but still a nice addition to my posts. and it showcases the spirit of winter so still kind of paranormal lol 🙂

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The sky is dark and the hills are white

As the storm-king speeds from the north to-night,

And this is the song the storm-king sings As over the world his cloak he flings:

  "Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;"

He rustles his wings and gruffly sings:

  

"Sleep, little one, sleep."

On yonder mountain-side a vine

Clings at the foot of a mother pine;

The tree bends over the trembling thing, And only the vine can hear her sing: "Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep; What shall you fear when I am here?

  

Sleep, little one, sleep."

The king may sing in his bitter flight, The tree may croon to the vine to-night,But the little snowflake at my breast Liketh the song I sing the best,—

  

Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;

Weary thou art, anext my heart

  Sleep, little one, sleep.

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more winter / christmas themed posts soon😃🎄🎄🎄🎄