Santa = Wildman
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 21st, 2006
Are these the real Wildmen? If you dare, click on the image for a larger version of Jeffrey Vallance (on the right) and me. Taken June 2006.
Since the Christmas season of 2002, I’ve been mentioning that people might wish to read the LA Weekly’s entertaining and insightful article by artist Jeffrey Vallance. (Here’s another, backup version over at The Fortean Times).
Arriving to be an art professor for three years at Umea University in northern Sweden, Vallance wrote that he "was puzzled by the enigmatic heraldic symbol of Lapland, the Wildman — a hairy, reddish, bestial character dressed in leaves, wielding a gnarled club."
He reflected: "To me he looked like a typical prehistoric caveman or the Jolly Green Giant. I collected vague reports of an actual Swedish Wildman (Snömannen), a Yeti-like creature believed to inhabit the remote areas of the forest. One day when wandering through the wilds of Lapland, I beheld an astonishing thing: a colossal statue of the Wildman painted bright red with a snowy white beard. From a distance it looked like Santa Claus. As I stood at the base, staring up at the Herculean statue, it hit me like a hunk of red-hot ejecta from Mount Hekla: Santa Claus, the Wildman and Snömannen must spring from the same ancient source. I determined to find the connections between these enigmatic characters."
Vallance is a friendly and funny fellow, whom I met for the first time in 2005 at the Bates Cryptozoology Symposium and whose art is featured in the current traveling art exhibition in Kansas City. His LA Weekly essay is a merry discovery chase through the Lapland woods in pursuit of how the old stories of the Wildmen and Snowmen (Snömannen) are interwoven into those of Santa Claus.
"The Wildman of the Middle Ages was described as a grotesque, bestial, ape-like creature, dark, filthy and bearded. Its body was covered in thick, matted hair and gave off a foul odor," he continues. "The habitat of the wildman was the northern woods where he lived in a cave or den. His traditional beast of burden was the reindeer. The Wildman shares all these traits with the Yeti….Over the ages, the brutal Wildman figure evolved into a character more like a clown or holiday fool. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss follows a classic Wildman scenario: The Grinch is a hairy, Bigfoot-like creature that lives in an alpine cave in a mountain similar to the Matterhorn."
In the 2000 motion picture adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Director Ron Howard has Jim Carrey, as the green Grinch, pose like Bigfoot in the classic Patterson-Gimlin 1967 film position. The Wildman is drawn full circle in art, folklore, fiction, legend, and popular culture.
Enjoy Vallance’s article and reflect on how Santa Claus and Wildmen are interrelated. Read elsewhere about what I’ve written on Wildmen and cultural icons, and for an especially thoughtful examination of this topic, devour the wonderful book, Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas, Spanning 50,000 Years by Phyllis Siefker.
Happy Wildman Yule Days.
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- Similar Phenomena:
The Grinch is really just me in the morning before caffeine.
Hhhmmmmm….. if Santa is a ‘right jolly old elf’ and folklore about elves is based on primitive hominids then….
Doggone it! Now I have to buy another book!
Well, maybe the line “Jingle Bells, Santa Smells…” is closer to the truth than we ever knew.
Ho ho ho, jolly olde Saint Squatch!
Right…all the more reasons to scare the kiddies.
I’ve always been turned off by the idea of a fat-man where I have to sit on his lap to ask him of presents…and who knows if I’m naughty or nice…WHAT A PERV!!!
That’s it…I’m sleeping with my shotgun this x-mas!
I have heard that theory before. But I don’t know if I want to leave a stocking out for Bigfoot to fill.
I’d read about the Santa/Wildman story on About.com Urban Legends & Folklore, a couple of years ago. Pretty wild (no pun intended) stuff. Kinda cool.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
The Yoopy
That explains a lot. But what about the fact that he is supposed to live in the North Pole? Shouldn’t he be white in coloration as to camouflage himself better?
What about the elves? A smaller sub-species of Bigfoot that are exploited by him?
I think you would make a very good Santa Claus Mr Coleman, you have the build, the hair color and the beard.
Riptor, it may not be that Santa is a Bigfoot, but rather a neanderthal, like the Almas. I’ve sometimes thought that the woodwose / wildman was a relict homonid, but not necessarily BF. If he was a neanderthal, he could well wear a heavier furs and such to help keep warm, and the worker elves could be the children of the clan. Yes, this idea is a bit tongue in cheek, but it’s a fun speculation, I think.
A relict population of neanderthals, homo habilis, or a descendant of one of them, might well view children as a resource. Reindeer being the native herd beast in the tundra of Lapland and other arctic type areas, they are the logical choice for the pullers. In this speculative hypothesis, ‘the north pole’ is a generalization and misunderstanding of the true location, being instead a remote and isolated place in the Eurasian North. Of course, if we get truly wild and wooly in our thoughts, how about Santa and his band of hairy folks living in the Hollow Earth, coming out through the ‘hole at the pole’ on Christmas Eve?
Ceroill,
I can see why reindeer would be used. You’re right about that.
But I have to contradict one thing: 150 years!?
“North Pole” is indeed a misunderstanding, Lapland is the country of origin of the Santa Claus story I believe. Correct me if I’m wrong.
In this fun little constructed myth it is easy to see how someone not familiar with the geography would call it ‘the north pole’.
Yes, YourPTR!, my life has been most reflective of both a wildman and a Santa, especially with the weight gain since I broke my back in 1993 (rockclimbing). However, my sons have voted against any extended (white) beard growth like Adrian Shine’s long (grey) one. So for now, I’m just going for the elfin look that I sport most often, as shown.
I’m a little skeptical about the notion that the Bishop of Myra was a sasquatch.
I think to truly understand the wildman legend and santa claus, we would need a more in depth knowledge of the Saami and their cultural influences.
I have several friends who are either scandanavian or students of viking history, yet they know very little about the Saami…and yet these people werent the dwellers in the woods (lapps) they played an important part in Scandinavian life and culture, and several times married into various royal families…These weren’t nobodies.
(Tengu doesn’t believe in santa claus…in spite what her Scandinavian relatives told her)
hey loren wonderful informative new article, hey cryptomundo etc have a very safe MERRY CHRISTMAS… thanks bill next year should be a bigger time for bigfoot & other cryptozoology animals just be patient…