My condolences to the youngsters of Iceland. While many Christmas celebrations around the globe are filled with tidings of consolation, pleasure, and rampant consumerism, for younger Icelanders it’s a time of terror, the place you’re fortunate to flee together with your life… or a potato. At least, that appears to be the case in line with this fascinatingly scary folklore.

Let’s start with Grýla, a large part-troll, part-animal creature who lives within the Dimmuburgir mountains and comes down at Christmas to search for naughty kids to abduct. When she will get them residence, she boils them alive in her cauldron for a piping scorching stew for herself and her third husband, Leppalúði, which lasts till the next winter. Apparently, Icelandic kids are genuinely scared of Grýla; depictions of the ogress may be noticed all through the nation, though generally she seems extra like an enormous, gnarled outdated girl than a beast. However, in line with the Icelandic Legends collected by Jón Arnasen, printed in English in 1864, right here’s an outline that signifies why she encourage real worry:

“Grýla had three hundred heads, six eyes in each head, besides two livid and ghostly blue eyes at the back of each neck. She had goat’s horns, and her ears were so long as to hang down to her shoulders at one end, and at the other to join the ends of her three hundred noses. On each forehead was a tuft of hair, and on each chin a tangled and filthy beard. Her teeth were like burnt lava. To each thing she had bound a sack in which she used to carry naughty children and she had, moreover, hoofs like a horse. Besides all this, she had fifteen tails, and on each tail a hundred bags of skin, every one of which bags would hold twenty children.”

That means Grýla is grabbing as much as 2,000 naughty kids at a go, which both signifies she’s a marvelously environment friendly kidnapper or Iceland has an unfathomably terrible naughtiness downside. For the file, the official tourism site for Iceland softens Grýla’s picture by saying she “can only capture children who misbehave but those who repent must be released,” however I can’t discover one other supply to again that up.

Happily, Grýla managed to seek out love—nicely, matrimony, a minimum of—on three separate events. The first two have been named Gustur and Boli; legends range as to whether or not they have been eaten, murdered, or died of outdated age (and who died by which method). She’s at the moment married to the troll Leppalúði, who lazes about of their cave whereas Grýla does all of the work of kidnapping and cooking kids. But they definitely have chemistry! The couple has 33 kids, 13 of that are collectively referred to as the “Yule Lads.”

The Yule Lads aren’t murderers, thank goodness, however they’re creepy. For every of the 13 days main as much as Christmas, certainly one of these brothers involves folks’s homes and does one thing uniquely disagreeable. According to Iceland Travel, additionally they have very evocative names. They are…

1) Sheep-Cote Clod (Stekkjastaur)

Arriving December 12, he would discover the ewes and drink the milk instantly from their teats.

2) Gully Gawk (Giljagaur)

On December 13, outdated Giljagaur would wait “for a chance to sneak into the cowshed to slurp the foam off the fresh milk when the milkmaid looks away.” Iceland Travel’s phrases, not mine.

3) Stubby (Stúfur)

Thankfully, they’re not all milk perverts. Stúfur simply desires the scrapings off frying pans when he involves city on December 14.

4) Spoon Licker (Þvörusleikir)

Quite a lot of the Yule Lads get pleasure from manually cleansing dishware. You can most likely guess what ol’ Þvörusleikir will get as much as on December 15.

5) Pot Scraper (Pottasleikir)

Ditto, however for December 16.

6) Bowl Licker (Askasleikir)

These guys might sound benign, however they do depart you with troll spit in all places. Anyway, bowls get licked December 17.

7) Door Slammer (Hurðaskellir)

Your cookware and utensils turn into protected on December 18, when Hurðaskellir pops by to obnoxiously slam doorways in the course of the night time.

8) Skyr Gobbler (Skyrgámur)

With the doorways slammed, the Yule Lads flip their consideration to meals. On December 19, Skyr Gobbler steals folks’s skyr, an Icelandic dairy product akin to yogurt.

9) Sausage Swiper (Bjúgnakrækir)

Rather self-explanatory and sure, he arrives December 20. However, he hides in your own home’s rafters whereas ready to swipe these sausages, which appears unnecessarily creepy.

10) Window Peeper (Gluggagægir)

Despite the English connotations of the phrase “peeper,” ol’ Gluggagægir is simply trying in home windows for stuff to steal on December 21. If you occurred to be standing in entrance of your window bare, that’s on you.

11) Door Sniffer (Gáttaþefur)

Easily essentially the most upsettingly named Yule Lad on this checklist, Gáttaþefur is definitely one of the benign—he respectively stays exterior until he involves your door and smells Christmas cookies on December 22.

12) Meat Hook (Kjetkrókur)

And we’re again to meat theft! On December 23, Gáttaþefur heads to your rook and lowers a hook down your chimney, hoping to snag any meat hanging from the rafters or cooking on the hearth.

13) Candle Beggar (Kertasníkir)

Finally, Christmas Eve sees the arrival of Kertasníkir, who, weirdly, desires to take a bit out of candles.

Despite their explicit fetishes, the Yule Lads will depart a small deal with for youngsters who depart their footwear out on windowsills—in the event that they’ve been good. If they’ve been naughty, they get a rotting potato, though they’ll doubtless be killed and eaten by Grýla earlier than they get an opportunity to seek out it.

But Grýla will not be the one killer who stalks Iceland at Christmas. Grýla has a cat named Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat, who’s black as night time and towers over homes, and has a really distinctive urge for food. It is claimed he prowls the city and can eat anybody—not simply kids—who doesn’t obtain an merchandise of clothes for Christmas. While the folklore of the Yule Cat stretches again centuries, it was made well-known in Iceland in 1932 by Jóhannes úr Kötlum, who wrote a poem about it. This was later set to music, which was recorded even later by the Icelandic pop star Bjork. Here’s a part of what appears to be the most well-liked, albeit fairly literal, translation of the poem on the web:

If exterior one heard a weak “meow”

Then unluck was positive to occur

All knew he hunted males

And didn’t need mice

He adopted the poorer folks

Who didn’t get any new clothes

Near Christmas – and tried and lived

In poorest situations

From them he took on the similar time

All their Christmas meals

And ate them additionally themselves

If he might

Therefore the ladies competed

To rock and sow and spin

And knitted colourful garments

Or one little sock

Brutal, eh? Well, the silver lining is that the Yule Cat isn’t only a cruel killer of the impoverished, however a grim reminder to provide to these in want…so that they don’t get murdered by a cat. The poem continues:

If she nonetheless exists I don’t know

But for nothing can be his journey

If all people would get subsequent Christmas

Some new rag

You could wish to preserve it in thoughts

To assist if there may be want

For someplace there is perhaps kids

Who get nothing in any respect

Mayhaps that in search of those that undergo

From lack of plentiful lights

Will offer you a cheerful season

And Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody! And sorry, Iceland.

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