In the old Witch language, the constellation that we know as Orion was called Eofor-ðring: literally, “Boar-throng.”

We don't know why.

It's likely that there was once a story to explain the name. Doubtless this Ever-thring (as we would say today), this throng of boars, belonged to—or was defeated, or captured, by—some god or hero, and ended up in the sky as a result.

We'll never know.

Boars were meaningful to the ancestors. Their likeness appeared on battle-gear. Boars are fiercely protective, and nothing stops them. You can always recognize a boar-spear because it's got a cross-bar. If it didn't, the spitted boar would drive his own body up along the spear-shaft, just to get at you. Seriously.

In Old Norse mythology, the boar belongs to the phallic god Frey, whom some would identify (controversially) with the God of Witches. His name means “lord.” The Anglo-Saxons had the same word with the same meaning—fréa—but whether to them it also was the name of a god we simply don't, and probably never will, know.

So much has been lost since the old days, like the story of the Ever-thring. What has come down to us has come down to us in pieces.

And thereby hangs a mandate.

Our job is to know the Old Lore as thoroughly as we can, backwards and forwards, deosil and widdershins.

And then, when we've learned it thoroughly, we make.

We'll never know what story the ancestors told about the sounder of boars in the sky.

But maybe someday we'll have a story of our own about them anyway. Who knows? Maybe you'll be the one to tell it.

Chances are, it won't be the same story that the ancestors told. That's OK. If it's good enough, and true to the Lore as we know it, it will become part of the Lore anyway: the Younger Lore, one could call it. It may not be as prestigious or authoritative as the Elder Lore, but a part it will be nonetheless.

And that's the next best thing.

Because it's better to have a new story than to have no story at all.