The Kissing Ring.
The most amazing thing about mythology–to me–is that so much --even
jewelry–can trace its beginnings to those tales of gods and heros.
The year: A time when gods still spoke with man. Frigga…wife of
Odin…goddess of love and marriage in Norse mythology. In a moment
of fear for the life of her son Baldur…Frigga extracted a promise
from fire and water and iron and all living things that none of them
would do any harm to Baldur. And they all agreed …all that is
except for one little shrub that grew on the eastern side of
Valhalla…which Frigga did not extract the oath from for she
thought the shrub to be too young and feeble. It’s name was
Mistletoe.
The Art Nouveau movement held within it bosom artists in every field
that created incredible beautiful pieces. The jewelers of the time
were no exception…many of them were the forerunners of their time.
An unknown artist who lived around 1900 created a beautiful Mistletoe
Ring. I do not know his name. I do not know the value of the ring. I
do not even know if the ring is made of gold…though I assume it
must be. I do know–however–why we kiss under the Mistletoe. And I
do believe that if you owned this ring…and held it above the head
of your beloved …your beloved would feel compelled to kiss you.
Alas…poor Baldur…he was pierced through and through by a
mistletoe thrown by an innocent…Hodur–Baldur’s brother–and guided
by the evil Loki. Baldur fell down dead. His death led to the
beginning of the Battle of Ragnarok–Norse equivalent of Armageddon.
After Ragnarok Baldur arose from his grave to rule the new world.
Frigga was so happy her tears of joy turned into the white berries
of the mistletoe and she is said to have kissed from that time forth
any human who happened to pass under its boughs. Kissing under the
mistletoe from that time forth symbolized the protection of the love
people expressed for each other. And now folks–to quote the Great
One–you know the rest of the story.
Quick disclaimer here folks. While researching this little
episode…each book and paper and article I read rendered a slightly
different view. I picked a mixture of the best versions suited to my
tale.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Tidbits…and then click on the link that says: Kissing Ring…where
you will see a graphic of a bejeweled representation of Mistletoe.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch you all
next week. Benjamin Mark
http://www.tyler-adam.com