Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Olentzero is the Basque myth par excellence. The figure of the pre-Christian coal miner living like a hermit in the forest that embodied the attachment of the Basque to the land and all emanating from it, has endured a transformation process from the symbolism of evil featured by its darkness of skin —due to the charcoal he extracted from the mines that mirrored the black will within—, demonic red eyes and vampirelike predatory behavior at night as he searched for awake children to prey, into the tender and fatherlike good spirit of Basque Christmas providing the natives of the land with happiness and feeling of belonging. Evil was conquered by a myth that responds to the racial discourse of whiteness and masculinity characterizing Christianity as of the Middle Ages. Moreover, the pagan myth of the coal miner adopted the kindness and loveliness of Christmas tender spirit, which served Christian precepts of matrimony —Mari Domingi, became his wife, though her link to Olentzero is yet unclear— and white masculinity of Protestant origin adapted to the contemporary capitalist Basque Country, which politically and ideologically serves the purpose of providing the Basque with a mythical identity through the use of symbolism and children seen as the future feasibility of the mythical past and future. Nevertheless, Olentzero still retains evil elements that link to demonic and vampirelike European and American myths, such as Krempus or Sandman, among others for which the current research study accounts.