Ordering Yule stamps 2008

The Yule stamps cost 30 Danish kroner (circa 4 Euro / 5 US $) per sheet, including postage to any destination. Sheets can only be delivered as long as the limited inventory lasts.

First send an email to us on this mail address, with your address and payment details. Then send the money to IBAN DK 0930 0000 1667 3544, and we will ship the sheets to you.

Below is an explanation of the Yule stamps 2008 motifs.

Description

Since the year 1903 special Yule stamps have been sold in Denmark for the benefit of people in need. The Yule-stamps from Forn Siðr are our very own attempt to join this good old Danish tradition.  The stamps are designed by the young and skilled artist Ian Ibæk Møller. Each member of Forn Siðr will receive one sheet with stamps for free with the December issue of our quarterly Magazine, “Vølse”. Additional sheets can be purchased at Forn Siðrs trading post at the price of 25 kroner/4 Euro/6 USD for each sheet incl. postage while stocks last.

The income from the Yule-stamp for 2008 will be used to ensure that we'll be able to release of a Yule stamp in 2009 also. From 2009 and onwards we expect that the profit from the sale will be used for charity among needy people in the pagan environment of Denmark.

Ian Ibæk Møller himself has written about the process and his choice of motifs:

In the summer of 2008 I was asked to design and illustrate the first sheet of Yule-stamps ever for Forn Siðr - to be used in December 2008. After quite a while of thinking, I decided to make a sheet containing a lot of pagan Yule traditions .which you can then tear of the sheet, affix to your Christmas/Yule cards and send to someone who seems worthy of a pagan Yule-greeting.

I began to research online (on the Internet), I was looking in old issues of “Vølse” and history books – I was really looking everywhere for traces of pagan Christmas traditions. When I thought I had found enough material, I planned how the different motives should be placed on the sheet. That was quite bit of a puzzle.

When the puzzle was finally solved, I had to choose a visual style of the sheet. It was also a bit of a challenge, since hardly any images of pagan motives exist from the pre-Christian era. I did however feel that the style of the motives needed to be inspired by truly pagan material. I therefore decided to draw the designs in the style of the images on some well known picture stones from Gotland (island located east of Sweden in the Baltic Sea). Last year I had used the very same graphic style for comic strips in the now defunct heathen magazine “Valravn”. I thought that it would work well with this project also and I hope that you agree with me on this.

Description of the motifs:

First row: Frey and Freya on their boars / Thor is riding his chariot drawn by his goats / Odin is riding on his eight legged horse Sleipnir / The ravens of Odin, Hugin and Munin, are flying out to gather information.

Second row: Valkyries and Einherjer at horse – on their way to feats / The Forn Siðr logo – the sun wheel...

Third row: At Yule tide men and women will travel to feast with kinsmen. / The goods are invoked and hailed / More people kinsmen on their way to their kinsmen at Yuletide.

Fourth row: A sheaf of corn/grain is hung in the tree for the benefit of the horse of Odin, Sleipner / Oaths are given while hands are on the boar (of Frey) / The Yule-gathering is gaining momentum. Gods and forefathers are hailed, food and meat are enjoyed / The mead is taken from the huge barrel prepared for the 12 nights of Yule.

Fifth row: The Yule-pig and a fowl are slaughtered / The Yule-pig is roasted / Gifts are exchanged between kinsmen / The Yule-goat made of corn/grain – for Sleipner / Forn Siðr logo - sunwheel / A Danish Yule/farm pixie (really the spirit of the forefather) is eating the porridge offered to it in the stable.