In this January almanac episode, I share about how English Plough Sunday and Plough Monday rituals dovetail with pagan midwinter worship of Odin to present a quandary as rich today as ever:

How do we hold sacred the human capacity to employ technologies that multiply our power, while dancing on the delicate balance between service and domination?

How do we bless the hard work of human hands where it meets the life of the world?

This episode delves into traditions of chasing out the spirits of Yule, as well as blessing of apple trees, ploughs, and ultimately ploughboys as representatives of the overflow of human passion and physical power.

Sign up for UNEARTHED, my course on the roots of imperialism in the Christian Middle Ages: https://rustic-waterfall-641.myflodesk.com

Listen to the January Almanac playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2lcgJz369QMIDmN8J4LEAq?si=96bd3fac66c8482f

Contact me by email fairfolkcast [at] gmail.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danica.boyce/

Music in this episode:

January Man by Lau & Karine Polwart
Buy it:
https://lau-music.bandcamp.com/track/january-man

Apple Tree Wassail by Jon Boden
Buy his albums https://hudsonrecords.co.uk/shopfront/jon-boden

Ploughboy’s Dream by Janice Burns and Jon Doran
Buy it:
https://bandcamp.com/download?cart_id=97060025&sig=7770feb4eddf1844063928c397bc5b88&from=checkout

Ploughboy’s Glory by Lisa Knapp
Buy it:
https://lisaknapp.bandcamp.com/track/ploughboys-glory

Instrumental track:
St. Agnes’ Eve by Carol Wood
Buy it:
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/st-agnes-eve/130331483?i=130332115

Opening theme: Forest March by Sylvia Woods
Buy Sylvia Woods’ music:
www.harpcenter.com/category/harp-cds

Sources and Resources for this episode:
Rune Hjarno Rasmussen’s St Knut / Odin parallels video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l99YoPiPLrg

The Nordic Animist Year (book) by Rune Hjarno Rasmussen: https://shop.nordicanimism.com/shop/9-books-and-calendars/9-the-nordic-animist-year/

The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain by Ronald Hutton (book)

“The Winter Goddess: Percht, Holda, and Related Figures” By Lotte Motz
dokumen.tips/documents/motz-lot…s-1985.html?page=5

“Perchta the Belly-Slitter and Her Kin: A View of Some Traditional Threatening Figures, Threats and Punishments” by John B. Smith
www.scribd.com/doc/17325747/Perc…itter-and-Her-Kin

Lyrics to folk song "Ploughboy’s Glory"
http://www.joe-offer.com/folkinfo/songs/362.html

Episode Image: by John Bauer from story "The Ring," by Helena Nyblom, 1914

Transcript:
This is the January Almanac episode of Fair Folk in which I will be discussing the folklore and pagan roots of January celebrations with an emphasis on nourishing traditions we can bring forward and apply to our modern lives, to help us connect to land and to history in productive and empowering ways.

This month I'll be focusing on the new cycle of years changing over the end of the Yule season and our relationship to labour and technology, which was a focus that arose for me while I was researching this January episode. That hasn't arisen for me before, but it definitely is an emphasis of English and Nordic tradition, and it'll explain more as we go ahead.

Other themes that arise in January folklore are the continued divination and predictive quality for the year ahead that we've may have already seen in December. Folklore also the supernatural and the feminine visiting from the wilds beyond, because it is still winter and these forces still rule.

There's often a theme in January songs especially of weather, bad weather, loneliness, cold and love, longing as metaphorically associated with those sensations of coldness and isolation in the wintertime. And of course, the slow return of the sun is being observed across European folklore, which is what I always focus on.