Post #75

One such tradition, also heavily under attack, is Black Pete (Zwarte Piet) in the Low Countries, a tradition stemming from the Germanic Wotan cult. The current way Black Pete is depicted is based on images of Moors from the 13th century, which were widely known in Europe back then. However, the origin of both Black Pete and Saint Nicholas in this tradition, which he accompanies, dates back to Germanic times. Jan de Vries, linguist and researcher of Germanic mythology, connected the figure of Zwarte Piet to the Einherjar of Norse mythology: Odin’s army of the dead in the Wild Hunt. The ‘Harii’ described by Tacitus in Germania as warriors painting their faces black as part of a cult, can be very well connected to the Einherjar known from Norse mythology.