Photo by By David Lienhard – Imported from 500px (archived version) by the Archive Team. (detail page), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71295801

Dear Readers, gather round while I share a most delightful Christmas story, thought to have originated in the 1600s, and to still be heard in Scandinavia, eastern Europe and, apparently, the Yorkshire Wold.

Once upon a time, a farmer did a deal with the devil on Christmas Eve – his only son would become a lawyer, and the farmer would give the devil everything that he possessed, including his soul. The son soon achieved his father’s ambition (in spite of not being the sharpest knife in the drawer), so the devil came back the following year for his payment. What could the farmer do? He suggested to the devil that, before he handed everything over, the devil could taste some of the most wonderful honey in the world if he would only reach into this suspiciously buzzy hole in the ground. Well, clearly the devil wasn’t as clever as he’s cracked up to be, because greediness got the better of commonsense. The devil put his hand into the hole in the ground, and was promptly stung vigorously by no less than the King of the Wasps.

Brief biological correction – male wasps don’t have stings, so this is clearly a fabrication. On you go.

Well, the devil ran off howling, and the farmer was feeling very pleased with himself until the wasp gave him what was known as an ‘old-fashioned look’ in my household. The King of the Wasps was not up for being used in this fashion! And so he stung  the farmer to death.

The End.

Now, apparently the legend of the Christmas wasp was used for a long time to scare the hell out of small children (like a six-legged stripy ‘Elf on the Shelf’ only with a sting and an aggressive manner). And to appease him, striped cakes called Hvepekager or Wasp Cakes were laid out at the Winter Solstice. Sadly, I can’t find a single picture of this baked delight, but apparently it’s made from dark rye and light wheat. I suspect that it isn’t  eaten by the Wasp King, but probably by tired parents, only too keen to persuade their children that they better behave themselves.

Mostly, at this time of year, the only wasps left in the UK are queen wasps, slumbering away in an attic or shed or garage, bless them. Such useful insects! They strip caterpillars from our cabbages, and have even been seen carrying away ant larvae to feed their young. Let’s just make sure that we don’t take advantage of their good nature.