Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—B

Boar's Head

[The Christmas dish.] Freyr, the Scandinavian god of peace and plenty, used to ride on the boar Gullinbursti; his festival was held at Yuletide (winter solstice), when a boar was sacrificed to his honour.

The Boar's Head.
This tavern, made immortal by Shakespeare, used to stand in Eastcheap, on the site of the present statue of William IV. It was the cognisance of the Gordons, the progenitor of which clan slew, in the forest of Huntley, a wild boar, the terror of all the Merse (1093).

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Board
Boar's Flesh
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