Thanks for the Mike Harding link... third time's the charm, eh?

While I acknowledge that fly agaric played some role in the legend; it's the reductionist aspect that bothers me most.

Here's a memory flashback: one year in school, our Latin teacher got all the classes together on Dec 13th for a Saturnalia celebration, and true to custom, a man came in dressed as the god Saturn in chains, gave a speach about freedom and the nobility of Man [in Latin]. Then, after the student acting as the priest broke the chains, "Saturn" passed out cookies shaped like himself... sorta. The teacher couldn't get her hands on "Saturn" cookies... so he passed around "Santa" cookies instead.

Odin, Saturn... there seems to be a whole sky-god thing, going on, doesn't there?