Who are the Holly King & the Oak King?

The Holly King & the Oak King—you may have heard of these two mythical, pagan figures, but who are they and where do they come from? One of the trickiest things when it comes to modern paganism is understanding the origins of our rituals, folklore and belief. So today, I wanted to look at the story of the battle between the Oak King & the Holly King through two different lenses. First we’ll discuss this story within the Wiccan tradition, and then we’ll look at it from a European traditional witchcraft perspective.

In this Wiccan version of this tale the Holly and Oak kings are dual aspects of the Wiccan God and they personify the changing wheel of the year. The two kings engage in an endless "battle" reflecting the seasonal cycles of the year by representing solar light and dark. At the Winter Solstice, the Oak King conquers the Holly King, and then rules until the Summer solstice. Once the Summer Solstice arrives, the Holly King returns to do battle with the now old Oak king, and this time the Holly King defeats the Oak King.

Often, these two entities are portrayed in certain ways— the Holly King frequently appears as a woodsy version of Santa Claus. He dresses in red, wears a sprig of holly in his tangled hair, and is sometimes depicted driving a team of eight stags. The Oak King by contrast is portrayed as a fertility god, and occasionally appears as the Green Man or other lord of the forest.

So it’s a pretty simple story and a good reflection of the power of the sun as we move throughout the year. But where does this story come from? As with most legends, the actual origins of the Oak King and the Holly King are unknown. Since being introduced into Wicca by Janet and Stewart Farrar in the late 1970s, this story has become a significant part of understanding the cycle of the God & the seasons within Wiccan belief. So you might be asking—did this legend exist before the late 1900s? Well if you look up the Holly King & Oak King online you’ll find plenty of people saying it’s from Celtic mythology. Yet, none of the articles I’ve found give any specific references to Celtic texts or artwork that would indicate this was an integral story among the Celtic Pagans. Like most aspects of Wicca, this story was most likely “inspired” by Celtic & Druidic beliefs. Though if you went back in time and started talking to a Druid about the story of the Holly King & Oak King, it’s unlikely they would have any idea what you're talking about.

Theres also a signifiant issue here—the solstices were not actually celebrated by the Celts. So if the story is based around the rise and fall of the sun’s power during the Winter & Summer solstice, this story is not very Celtic. The Celts celebrated four fire festivals, or cross-quarter days, which are evenly spaced throughout the year and celebrate the transition of the sun throughout the agricultural seasons. These are outlined in the “The Wooing of Emer,” an ancient manuscript of stories set during the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.

These cross-quarter festivals consist of:
- Samhain, when the summer goes to rest and marks the end of the harvest
- Imbolc, when the sheep are milked at the beginning of spring
- Beltane, which marks the beginning of summer
- Lughnasadh, which denotes the beginning of autumn

These cross-quarter festivals have been combined with festivals associated with the solstices and equinoxes, which come from Norse, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon sources. It was the authors Robert Graves and Aidan Kelly who combined all eight festivals together to form the modern Neopagan Wheel of the Year. Now just because the story of the Holly & Oak King may not necessarily have Celtic Pagan origins, that doesn’t mean that this story should not be included in modern Celtic Paganism. It does a great job anthropomorphizing the movements of the Sun during the wheel of the year and this story helps provide a framework for educating others about Pagan belief structures.

Next let’s look at this story from a different lens using a Traditional Witchcraft perspective. Like Wiccans, many traditional witches incorporate the story of the Holly and the Oak king. However, they change it up a bit so that the battle takes place at the Equinoxes. This means that the Oak King is at his strongest during Midsummer, and that the Holly King is at his height during Yule. From a folkloric and agricultural standpoint, I think this interpretation seems to make more sense. When I first learned of this story I was really confused because the Wiccan concept of the Holly King losing his battle on the Winter Solstice didn’t make sense to me.

In traditional witchcraft the folklore is based predominantly based on the land and the cycles of the seasons. The holly plant blooms year round but the Oak tree drops its leaves in winter and is at its height in Summer. Since traditional craft takes inspiration from what actually occurs in nature, it makes sense that the Oak King would be at his strongest at the summer solstice and the Holly King would be strongest at the winter solstice, so quite a bit of a departure from the Wiccan interpretation.

In the Traditional Witchcraft book Treading the Mill, Nigel Pearson says that the Holly King and the Oak King are two aspects of the King of the Wildwood archetype. He explains that the King of the Wildwood archetype is an aspect of the God and is usually depicted with horns or antlers. However, unlike the Wiccan interpretations of the God, the King of the Wildwood is not kind or gentle.

“He may send moral terror into those that come in his way and can bestow madness and chaos upon those that are not careful in their dealings with him. This is the aspect of the God that the inquisitors of the past loved to scare their flocks with - the very Devil of the Sabbat himself! I do not mean to imply here that there is anything negative or even “evil” about this aspect, purely that he embodies the pure, unrefined driving force of the masculine side of Nature, which is truly “red in tooth and claw.”

Pearson goes on to describe the fearsome and powerful aspects of the Oak King and Holly King respectively. His traditional witch understanding of these figures is a clear departure from the Wiccan interpretation.

So, where does this leave us? We’ve looked at two versions of the Holly King and Oak King and I think they both provide value in different ways. The traditional witch understanding of these figures is intense; it shakes us out of our comfort zone and forces us to come face to face with the harsh realities of the natural world. It is in these moments of facing fear and discomfort that allows the witch to grow and develop. However, I wouldn’t exactly consider the Traditional Witch interpretation of the Holly & Oak King to be very joyous or fun. Luckily, we have the Wiccan interpretation for that.

I think that’s the main message here - that there is a time and place for each of these interpretations. For example, I would call on and honor the Wiccan version of the Oak King at a Summer Solstice feast. But when it comes to a developing deeper understanding of this archetype I would work with the traditional witch version of these two kings.

I hope you found this deep dive on the Holly King & Oak King valuable and next I’d love to hear your thoughts about this fascinating story. So please share below in the comments. And if you’re interested in supporting my blog & Youtube channel I would love to have you become one of my Patrons.

Many Blessings,
Scarlet