The Yule Lads
The 13 mischievous pranksters, their parents and their cat, from Icelandic Christmas folklore
Christmas folklore is one of the most fascinating parts of Christmas/Yule for me, seeing how other countries celebrate the festive period and what magical beings are associated with it. It is a great way to explore Christmas/Yule and get you in the festive spirit, one of my favourite discoveries has been the Yule Lads from Iceland. They are part of a magical Christmas folklore that developed in the 17th-Century. The stories are directed at children and are used to scare them into good behaviour, with mischievous pranksters who leave gifts at night (The Yule Lads) and monsters who eat disobedient children (Grýla the Ogress) - however the King of Denmark actually objected to the stories being used as a discipline method. The Yule Lads are a funny bunch with humorous names, but all lads have a mum behind them, so we can’t start the story of the Yule Lads without starting with Grýla and her husband Leppalúði - oh, and I can’t forget the cat!
Grýla and Leppalúði
The earliest reference of Grýla is in the Prose Edda as party of Skáldskaparmál composed in the 13th-Century by Icelandic skald Snorri Sturluson. She appears in a list of heiti* for troll-women, but in a 14th-Century manuscript of the Prose Edda, there is a list of Grýlu heiti ('heiti for Grýla') which is a list of various terms for fox. With that in mind, Grýla could have an association with the Arctic Fox. She is also mentioned as an ogress in other 13th-Century texts such as texts such as Íslendinga saga and Sverris saga.
Sadly for Grýla, she isn’t depicted in the most flattering way. She is typically known as a hideous and greedy ogress who wanders the countryside between human settlements demanding charity from those she encounters and asking parents to give her their disobedient children. You can thwart her plans by giving her food or chasing her away. Her traditional abode was a small cottage but in later poems she was said to take up residence in a cave.
Her association with Christmas came in the 17th-Century, as the story evolved over the next few centuries the festive Grýla emerged. She is said to live with her husband Leppalúði - who is lazy and mostly stays at home - in the Dimmuborgir lava fields with her thirteen children and the menacing Yule Cat. While she still performs her children eating duties, coming down from the mountains during Christmas time to hunt naughty children - she can detect children who are misbehaving year-round - and carries them away to be made into her favourite dish, naughty children stew. Something she has an insatiable appetite for. However, in the Christmas stories the focus was less on her appearance and more as her role as a mother as part of her rather large family and her misbehaving children hunting.
The Thirteen Jólasveinar (Yule Lads)
There are thirteen Yule Lads, who are the sons of Grýla and they were born in the mountains. They are a bunch mischievous pranksters who steal and harass the population over the Christmas period. They each have their own descriptive names that offer up clues as to their favourite way to cause mischief, their own arrival and departure dates, and if you’re lucky and you’ve been good, they might leave you a little gift in your shoes - which you have to place on your window sill. Of course, disobedient children don’t get left out, they will instead find a rotten potato in their shoe instead.
Much like Grýla, they were originally portrayed not as gift-givers but as kidnappers of children who misbehaved during the Christmas season. However, not only did they kidnap children they also performed their usual pranks as well - two lots of misfortune for the price of one Yule Lad. In modern times however, they are portrayed more benevolently, like Santa Claus in the UK or St. Nicholas in Germany - the latter also requires shoes to be placed outside so that gifts can be placed in them, this usually happens on 5th December, the eve of St. Nicholas day.
So, without further ado, lets introduce you to these chaps, the thirteen Yule Lads are:
Stekkjarstaur (Sheepcote Clod) - responsible for harassing sheep, but he is impaired by his stiff peg-legs. Dates active: 12th - 25th December
Giljagaur (Gully Gawk) - responsible for hiding in gullies, waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the cowshed and steal milk. Dates active: 13th - 26th December
Stúfur (Stubby) - responsible for stealing pans and the food made in them. Abnormally short in comparison to his brother. Dates active: 14th - 27th December
Þvörusleikir (Spoon Licker) - responsible for stealing wooden spoons that are being used for cooking. Dates active: 15th - 28th December
Pottaskefill (Pot Scraper) - responsible for stealing pots to scrape out the leftovers. Dates active: 16th - 29th December
Askasleikir (Bowl Licker) - responsible for hiding under beds awaiting the wooden food bowls placed on the floor so that he can lick out the leftovers. Dates active: 17th - 30th December
Hurðaskellir (Door Slammer) - responsible for (and enjoys) slamming doors, especially during the night, waking up the household. Dates active: 18th - 31st December
Skyrgámur (Skyr Gobbler) - responsible for having a great affinity for skyr - regional Icelandic style of yogurt - so don’t leave your Arla lying around! Dates active: 19th December - 1st January
Bjúgnakrækir (Sausage Swiper) - responsible for sitting in the rafters and snatching the sausages that are being smoked. Dates active: 20th December - 2nd January
Gluggagægir (Window Peeper) - responsible for being a snoop who looks through windows in search of things to steal. Dates active: 21st December - 3rd January
Gáttaþefur (Doorway Sniffer) - responsible for having an acute sense of smell, and having a big nose, which he uses to locate laufabrauð (leaf bread - an traditional Icelandic Christmas food). Dates active: 22nd December - 4th January
Ketkrókur (Meat Hook) - responsible for using a hook to steal meat. Dates active: 23rd December - 5th January
Kertasníkir (Candle Beggar) - responsible for following children to steal their precious candles, which are traditionally made of tallow and thus edible. Dates active: 24th December - 6th January
As you can see, they do cause and awful lot of strife…but its worth it if you get a gift right? So keep you eye out and don’t leave any food unguarded - or your spoons for that matter - otherwise you may fall victim to these mischievous lads! However, there is also something lurking in the countryside that is much worse and one I certainly wouldn’t want to encounter…
The Jólaköttur (Yule Cat)
Considered to be the pet of Grýla and the Yule Lads, the Yule Cat is said to be a huge and vicious cat that lurks in the snowy countryside during the Christmas season. Why would such a big cat be lurking in the snowy countryside at Christmas? Why, to eat people who do not receive new clothing before Christmas Eve of course (although other versions of the story state that it’s just the "Christmas bit" that they eat which is an extra portion of food given to residents of a farm)!
This odd being that eats people that haven’t got any new clothes first appeared in an 1862 collection of folklore by Jón Árnason, called Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri. While Árnason doesn’t attribute a source to the story, folklorist Árni Björnsson points towards a footnote by Árnason which uses the figure of speech "to dress the cat". From there Björnsson believes that Árnason created the monsterous Yule Cat.
The website Christmas in Iceland states that:
“The Yule cat was traditionally used as a threat and incentive for farmworkers to finish processing the wool collected in the autumn before Christmas. Those who took part in the work were rewarded with new clothes, but those who did not would get nothing and thus would be prey for the Yule cat.”
The Yule Cat became part of Icelandic Christmas tradition proper in 1932 when Jóhannes úr Kötlum published his poetry collection Jólin koma (“Christmas is Coming”). One of the poems, Jólakötturinn, centred on the Yule Cat and subsequently became a common part of Christmas festivities and decorations in Iceland. Even though this poem appeared alongside the poems of the Yule Lads and Grýla there was no inherent connection between them. However, by the middle of the 20th-Century, people considered Jólakötturinn the pet of Grýla and her sons. In some other versions of the stories the Cat so disobedient that only Stúfur, the smallest Yule Lad, is able keep it under control, and a perk of this is that he gets to ride the cat across the countryside.
Icelandic Christmas folklore is a wonderfully fascinating and funny thing, you can’t tell the story of the Yule Lads without mentioning Grýla and the Yule Cat. The fact that over the years it has become so intertwined is magical, and some of the Yule Lads names make me laugh. I shall be keeping an eye out for all of these mischievous characters this Christmas and so should you!
Notes
*Heiti - a synonym used in Old Norse poetry in place of the normal word for something, using steed instead of horse for example.
Bibliography
Sturluson, S., (1220), The Prose Edda, Penguin Classics, Penguin Publishing, edited by Byock, J. L.
Nuwer, R., (17th December 2017), Meet the Thirteen Yule Lads, Iceland’s Own Mischievous Santa Clauses, Smithsonian Magazine
Christmasphere, (2024), The 13 Yule Lads of Iceland
The National Museum of Iceland, (accessed 2024), The Yule Lads, archived on 30 October 2016
Hallmundsson, H., (accessed 2024), The Yuletide Lads, archived on 11 November 2006
Chapman, R., (accessed 2024), The Icelandic Yule Lads and Gryla | Iceland's Christmas Trolls, Guide to Iceland
The Big Picture, (accessed 2024), Celebrating Christmas with 13 Trolls, Promote Iceland
Gunnell, T., (accessed 2024), GRÝLA, GRÝLUR, GRØLEKS AND SKEKLERS: FOLK DRAMA IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES?, archived on 13 October 2006
Christmas in Island 2000, (accessed 2024), The Yule Cat, archived on 8th January 2005