In the Old Norse religion (Asatru), the twelve main deities gathered in Freya’s Hall every Freya’s Day (Friday) to drink beer and play games.

    Frigga heard a prophecy that her son Baldur (the Sun God) would be killed by a wooden weapon piercing his heart. Frigga went to every tree and got their promise not to hurt her son, but she overlooked woody mistletoe as too small to make a serious weapon.

    One of the drinking games was to throw wooden spears at Baldur’s chest. The wooden spears would always divert their path, in keeping with their promise to Frigga.

    One Friday the gruntle was distrubed by Loki. Gruntle is an Old English word meaning the pleasant sound of people happily drinking on a cold winter night (the laughter, soft murmur of voices, clinking of glass, etc.). The modern word disgruntle is from anything that disturbed the gruntle (such as a bar fight).

    Loki had double checked with every tree, to see if Frigga had missed any. Loki discovered the mistletoe oversight and fashioned a small wooden dart from the vine.

    Loki bursting into the room with twelve supreme Norse/Germanic deities on Freya’s Day created 13 deities in Freya’s Hall, this myth being the origin of Friday the 13th being unlucky.

    Loki convinced Baldur’s blind twin brother, Hod, to throw the mistletoe dart at his brother. The mistletoe dart flew true and pierced Baldur’s heart, killing the sun (a reference to solar eclipses and the Winter Solstice).

    After three days, Frigga was able to bring her son back to love through the shear power of her divine maternal love.

    The reason we still kiss underneath the mistletoe is to offset the bad fortune of mistletoe and demobstrate the life-giving power of love.

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