Folksede :ᚠᚩᛚᚴᛋᛁᛞᛖ:

"Every person should act like this: when he meets a person more qualified than himself, he should be very pleased; when he meets someone less qualified than himself, he should be compassionate toward him; and when he meets someone equal to himself, he should make friendship with him. In this way one is never affected by the threefold miseries of this material world." (Srimad Bhagavatam, 4.8.34)

We find another piece of evidence that gives us a hint at the pre-Christian dating of Yule in the Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg, chapter 17:

“Sed quia ego de hostiis eorundem antiquis mira audivi, haec indiscussa praeterire nolo. Est unus in his patribus locus, caput istius regni, Lederun nomine, in pago qui Selon dicitur, ubi post VIIII, annos mense Ianuario post hoc tempus, quo nos theopaniam domini celebramus, omnes convenerunt, et ibi diis suismet LXXXX et VIIII homines et totidem equos, cum canibus et gallis pro accipitribus oblatis immolant, pro certo, ut praedixi, putantes, hos eisdem apud inferos servituros et commissa criminal apud eosdem placaturos.”

“Because I have heard strange things about their ancient sacrifices, I will not allow these to pass by unmentioned. In those parts, the center of the kingdom is a place called Lederun [Lejre], in the region of Selon [Zealand]. Every nine years, in the month of January, after the day on which we celebrate the appearance of the Lord [6 January], they all convene here and offer their gods a burnt offering of ninety-nine human beings and as many horses, along with dogs and cocks – the latter being used in place of hawks. As I have said, they were convinced that these would do service for them with those who dwell beneath the earth and ensure their forgiveness for any misdeeds.”

This described account is strikingly similar to that of Adam of Bremen, who reports of a similar sacrifice done on a "nine-year" basis in spring in Uppsala. People of all Swedish provinces would attend and gather together to celebrate publicly. But note that here we see the sacrifice being explicitly done after Christmas, circa in the month of January.

Woden in his role as Wish-Lord from 'The Saxons in England, Volume 1 by John Mitchell Kemble'

One of the names of Odin in the Old-Norse mythology is Osk, which by an etymological law is equivalent to the German Wunsch, the Anglo Saxon Wisc, and the English Wish. Grimm has shown in the most convincing manner that Wunsch may be considered as a name of Wuotan in Germany; and it is probable that Wúsc or Wísc may have had a similar power here. Among the names in the mythical genealogies we find Wúscfreá, the lord of the wish, and I am even inclined to the belief that Oisc, equivalent to Ésk, the founder of the Kentish line of kings, may be a Jutish name of Wóden in this form,—ésc, or in an earlier form óski, i. e. Wunsch, Wýsc. In Devonshire to this day all magical or supernatural dealings go under the common name of Wishtness: can this have any reference to Wóden’s name Wýsc? So again a bad or unfortunate day is a wisht day: perhaps a diabolical, heathen, accursed day. There are several places which appear to be compounded with this name; among them: Wishanger (Wíschangra or Wóden’s meadow), one, about four miles S.W. of Wanborough in Surrey, and another near Gloucester; Wisley (Wíscleáh) also in Surrey; Wisborough (probably Wíscbeorh) in Sussex; Wishford (probably Wíscford) in Wiltshire.

Yule is coming up next Full Moon (Jan. 6-8) and therefore it is a good time to remind ourselves how do we know that Yule takes place at this time. One of our most ancient sources is the work by an Anglo-Saxon monk Bede (the Venerable, ?-735), who describes in great detail the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon Germanic calendar in his work De Temporum Ratione [The Reckoning of Time]. We learn from him that:

“Item principaliter annum totum in duo tempora, hyemis, videlicet, et æstatis dispartiebant, sex illos menses quibus longiores noctibus dies sunt æstati tribuendo, sex reliquios hyemi. Unde et mensem quo hyemalia tempora incipiebant Vuinterfylleth appellabant, composite nominee ab hyeme et plenilunio, quia videlicet a plenilunio ejusdem mensis hyems sortiretur initium.”

“Originally, they divided the year as a whole into two seasons, summer and winter, assigning the six months in which the days are longer than the nights to summer, and the other six to winter. Hence, they called the month in which the winter season began ‘Winterfylleth,’ a name made up from ‘winter’ and ‘full Moon,’ because winter began on the full Moon of that month.”

From this passage, we have learned that the seasons begin with a Full Moon, thus it is reasonable to assert that a mid-season would be on a Full Moon as well. Also, earlier he assigns the month of Winterfylleth the Julian equivalent of October. Given that Yule is celebrated at Midwinter, and Winterfylleth is the beginning of Winter, we can easily place its celebration exactly 3 months later given that he tells us that the pre-Christian Winter lasts 6 months and it begins with the Full Moon roughly in October. This places the Yule Full Moon roughly in the Julian January.

Another important passage that we read is:

“Menses Giuli a conversione solis in auctum dici, quia unus eorum præcedit, alius subsequitur, nomina accipiunt.”

“The months of ‘Giuli’ [Yule] derive their name from the day when the Sun turns back [and begins] to increase, because first [of these months] precedes [this day] and then comes the second [month].”

Many modern readers quickly assume that what he meant here by the word Yule was the winter solstice. This would then be the only historical record that places Yule on the date of the winter solstice. But that would be wrong, because the first Yule-month (in which the winter solstice takes place, because he assigns it the Julian equivalent of December) specifically precedes the date of Yule itself. Neither does he use the word solstice (solstitium), and he doesn’t mention light or daylight (lux, dies). He could have simply said the word solstice if that’s what he meant, in fact, we see him use the word solstice many times throughout the work.

So this leaves us only with one option. The first of the Yule-months includes the winter solstice, and it completely precedes Yule. The second Yule-month must therefore include Yule, which takes place on its Full Moon. Simply put, Yule takes place on a Full Moon, after the New Moon, after the Winter Solstice.