47: The Mumming Mafia

In this episode Eirik takes a deep dive into the ritualized home invasions once part and parcel to the Scandinavian yuletide celebrations, and the trollish mafiosi associated with it. Starting out with ill-advised discussions about unfounded heathen-ish speculations about secretly ancient (but actually modern) elements of the season as an expression of a sort of independent and nebulous "ur-pagan" reflex, after railing against logical positivism gone mad, we consider Catholic pragmatism as contrast to the war on Christmas as waged by protestant state zealotry in 18th century Denmark-Norway. Ultimately we somehow manage to make it to the yule goat/yule buck mummer's play and its variants across Fenno-Scandinavia, with local variants such as the Norwegian Lussi and Sami Stállu, with an entire bastard of a segment dedicated to the intricacies of barnyard spirits, domestic cult, obscure Norwegian dwarf lore, unspeakable Norswedian snake cults, and ample helpings of esoteric nissemaxxing and tomtebissing in between. GET YOUR BOOKS 'n' GEAR, AND SUPPORT THE SCANDIFUTURIST PROJECT: https://https://linktr.ee/brutenorse