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Many of the localities where their worship was observed in this country
can still be identified through the names which these places still bear.
One or two are here given, because they refer to sun-worship:--
Grenach (in Perthshire), means _Field of the Sun_.
Greenan (a stream in Perthshire), means _River of the Sun_.
Balgreen (a town in Perthshire and other counties), means _Town of the
Sun_.
Grian chnox (Greenock), means _Knoll of the Sun_.
Granton, means _Sun's Fire_.
Premising, therefore, that sun-worship and Druidical customs form the
original base of all our old national festivals, we will now direct
attention to the great festival of
_YULE._
The term _Yule_ was the name given to the festival of the winter
solstice by our northern invaders, and means _the Festival of the Sun_.
One of the names by which the Scandinavians designated the sun was
_Julvatter_, meaning _Yule-father_ or _Sun-father_. In Saxon the
festival was called _Gehul_, meaning _Sun-feast_. In Danish it is
_Juul_; in Swedish _Oel_. Chambers supposes that the name is from a root
word meaning _wheel_.
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