Christmas Posting 2021: #4: She Eats you when you're sleeping

 Christmas Traditions History

 

from Wikipedia

     Previously, we told you about a cat in Iceland that eats you if you don't get new clothing, especially if you were considered lazy.  Santa Claus might leave you coal  or socks, but at he doesn't eat you. Now are going back to Iceland, because they aren't done with the whole things that eat you for Christmas stories. (Are you okay there , Iceland?) 

               Today we are talking about Grýla  (spelled that way)  Grýla is another mythological character who is also more on the dark side of the holiday. Her story origins seem to take place around the 13th century, another story originally spread by word of mouth.  

         Grýla is  a Christmas troll , one of many, (which is a concern)  the main idea is that she lives in a cave in the mountains, which might explain why she's grumpy anyway, she leaves her home  and  gathers up the bad acting kids like one going to a grocery store for dinner would do, and brings  then home for her and her husband, Leppalúði, (you figure out how to say that yourself) make them in stew. 

       There are some different poems  about her  Smithsonian has one 

       

Down Comes Grýla from the outer fields 

        With Forty tails 

        A bag on her back , a sword in her hand

    Coming to carve the stomachs of the children 

    Who cry for meat during Lent 

 

       Which would be a new Christmas hit song , if someone sang it. (what?)  She wasn't originally part of any Christmas stuff, she was kind of brought in to it, people would be together and bringing up stories to tell since there was no TV and reruns of Home Improvement 's Christmas episode from season 1. It also provides a bonus of parents telling their kids to stop fighting or angry troll woman si going to be eating them. (Jimmy, clean your room, because if you are going to be sloppy, you'll be made in a sloppy Jimmy.)  Apparently she's always always hungry, so are kids not filling?  Maybe she should eat different things or add some vegetables to her diet, Charlie's liver and some onions on the side. 

  The BBC has  fun tidbit about her, fun to me 

She is in a perpetual bad mood, mainly because she is always hungry. And it's not only children who attract her ire - her first two husbands bored her so much she ate them.

            

     She sounds like she needs to eat a Snickers, also she ate her first two husbands, which is easier than divorce. 

       We don't know what she looks like, fully.  Like that poem above says she has 40 tails , some say 15, each of which has 100 bags with 20 children in each bag.  Most of the stories say that she's ugly. She might have hooves. The amount of children she holds also changes some figure out that maybe 30,000 kids in a country with a population of 366,425 people, would be noticeable, unless Iceland had more people and she just ate them.  We aren't sure how many heads she has.      

   The point is she's ugly, creepy, and scary. Her name slightly translates to "growler" which is apt. 

   Grýla isn't alone, she is married  to a troll named Leppalúði. Which he's doing better than her first and 2nd husbands. They were named Gustur and Boil (the 2nd one was just asking for it with that name) they had children. There's another folk group called the Yule lads who are the children of Leppalúði and Grýla . The Yule lads will be getting some talk later. 

      How is did she get into Christmas?  Around the 19th century is when pomes and tales would start connecting her to the holiday. This is also when they started to connect the Yule Lads and our friend,  Yule Cat, into the the story as well; they had been standalone. 

             There have been attempts to get rid of Grýla's story , after her "sons" were softened, there have been attempts to have her killed off or make her less people eat-y. It has not been able to be squashed. There  Grýla statues and other features in Iceland and it's story you kind of just don't want to die.  The story has historical context of the idea of something lurking in the dark winter, especially in a country where daylight is short in winter.  The idea of working hard for the short hours in winter and making sure the kids behave fits how a story like this comes to be in the first place. 

    So don't lazy, get new clothes, don't be a loud naughty child or you'll get eaten. If you make it, we'll see you next time. 

Based off my post from 2017

My sources

https://icelandmag.is/article/mystery-origins-and-history-strange-icelandic-yule-lads

https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2009/05/08/monsters-and-mythical-beings-gryla/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/568050/gryla-christmas-troll-iceland

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-icelands-christmas-witch-much-cooler-and-scarier-krampus-180967605/

https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%BDla

http://notendur.snerpa.is/systaoggaui/grylukvaedi.htm

                  

Christmas Posting 2021: #1: Meow

 Christmas Traditions 

image:PBS 

            Do you have a cat? Do you worry about said cat deciding to eat you?  That was a strange question.  Today we are looking at a Christmas tradition and tale (or is that tail?) from Iceland.  It's about Jólakötturinn, or the Yule Cat.

           Receiving coal instead of gift for Christmas  is not most kids' wishes, but that still might be better than say being eaten.   The rules for this seem very simple, you are supposed to have some new clothing by Christmas Day.  (not sure why a cat would care about you having new clothes or old clothes, why is this cat so fashion conscious) If you don't , the cat will eat the kids. 

          I don't think it even matters if the kids are good or bad (unless they taste bad?) just have new clothes or die!  There is a mixture it might not just eat kids; it might also eat adults, you know, just for full measure.    

          There's a poem because of course there is, and this should be made into a song that becomes a hit! 

You all know the Yule Cat
And that Cat was huge indeed.
People didn't know where he came from
Or where he went.

He opened his glaring eyes wide,
The two of them glowing bright.
It took a really brave man
To look straight into them.

His whiskers, sharp as bristles,
His back arched up high.
And the claws of his hairy paws
Were a terrible sight.

He gave a wave of his strong tail,
He jumped and he clawed and he hissed.
Sometimes up in the valley,
Sometimes down by the shore.

He roamed at large, hungry and evil
In the freezing Yule snow.
In every home
People shuddered at his name.

If one heard a pitiful "meow"
Something evil would happen soon.
Everybody knew he hunted men
But didn't care for mice.

He picked on the very poor
That no new garments got
For Yule - who toiled
And lived in dire need.

From them he took in one fell swoop
Their whole Yule dinner
Always eating it himself
If he possibly could.

Hence it was that the women
At their spinning wheels sat
Spinning a colorful thread
For a frock or a little sock.

Because you mustn't let the Cat
Get hold of the little children.
They had to get something new to wear
From the grownups each year.

And when the lights came on, on Yule Eve
And the Cat peered in,
The little children stood rosy and proud
All dressed up in their new clothes.

Some had gotten an apron
And some had gotten shoes
Or something that was needed
- That was all it took.

For all who got something new to wear
Stayed out of that pussy-cat's grasp
He then gave an awful hiss
But went on his way.

Whether he still exists I do not know.
But his visit would be in vain
If next time everybody
Got something new to wear.

Now you might be thinking of helping
Where help is needed most.
Perhaps you'll find some children
That have nothing at all.

Perhaps searching for those
That live in a lightless world
Will give you a happy day
And a Merry, Merry Yule.

      

        The traditional story  is very old, but most written sources are from the 19th Century, which kind of makes sense as Christmas was getting more embracement then.  There are also versions of the story where the cat just kind of comes around and steals your Christmas food instead. (I'd rather just be eaten than STARVE to death) Or some cases, the cat is said to eat the children and the food, which seems more rude somehow. 

         This cat isn't normal sized, I mean, it would be hard to eat people at standard cat size. It's said to be bigger than the tallest houses. (What's the tallest house in Iceland? Also, do high rises count?)  On Christmas night, it peers through the windows( so what if you had blinds?) to see what kids have gotten for Christmas. (Meow, Xbox, Meow, Red Rider B.B. Gun, Meow, no new clothing, die!)  You  don't have to go all out and buy new wardrobes, new socks count.  I'm  not sure how the cat can tell if they are new or just really well taken care of. (Hmm?)  

          The legends that were passed down, again oral history being key, is that he's a pet of family of trolls of the Yule Lads, which is like an Icelandic tradition of Santa like gift giving. They weren't always Santa like, but they also a famous mother for tradition. We aren't fully sure when it was officially started.   Iceland's middle ages economy was based on wool, and it was important for people to produce it.   They needed most of society to make wool to  make sure people worked hard enough to work on wool production.  Meaning not being lazy was important.  

     The idea is to say  hey finish your chores, you get new clothes as a reward, if you finished before Christmas, anyone who didn't was lazy and deserves to be eaten.  So the lazy kids don't get clothes, the cat eats their dinner first, then the kid.  What about the families who don't have the means to get new clothing or didn't have the means to make new clothing? Uhhh. 

        Maybe, if you have the means, would also inspire the idea of helping those who don't uh not get eaten. 

    So if you get your kids new socks as one of their Christmas gifts, tell them that you just saved their lives Meow! This is not the only Icelandic child eating Christmas story, so I'm kind of concerned.  

 Thanks for reading, we'll be back next time, after we confuse the giant cat with a giant laser pointer. 

 

Based on a previous blog post I did over at mychillerChristmas 

my sources: 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/each-christmas-icelands-yule-cat-takes-fashion-policing-extreme-180961420/

https://web.archive.org/web/20050108092720/http://www.simnet.is/gardarj/yule11.htm

https://grapevine.is/icelandic-culture/art/2008/12/10/the-christmas-cat/

also a song  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4xG6hQWsno