Christmas Traditions History
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 fieldsWith 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.
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://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%BDla
http://notendur.snerpa.is/systaoggaui/grylukvaedi.htm
