Boar's Head
Preserved but no longer current.
The Old English custom of serving this as a Christmas dish is said to derive from Scandinavian mythology. Freyr, the god of peace and plenty, used to ride on the boar Gullmbursti ; his festival was held at Yuletide (winter solstice),, when a boar was sacrificed to his honour.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Boar's Head” mean?
The Old English custom of serving this as a Christmas dish is said to derive from Scandinavian mythology. Freyr, the god of peace and plenty, used to ride on the boar Gullmbursti ; his festival was held at Yuletide (winter solstice),, when a boar was sacrificed to his honour.
Is “Boar's Head” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.