12 Days Until Christmas 2nd Night of Hanukkah
Yesterday I wrote about Grýla , the orge like creature that eats children when they are bad. (Merry Christmas) She had 2 husbands that ate out of boredom (guess that's one way of divorcing, I guess) and she's on a third (guess he's less boring) named Leppalúði ,there's not much about him , even Wikipedia Iceland doesn't have much. So also has 13 sons (maybe that's why she's grumpy) they are called the Yule lads.
Originally she would send them out to get her food, you know , children. They have their own names of course like: Stekkjarstaur which translates to Sheep Cot Clod, He arrives on December 12th , apparently harasses sheep. Giljagaur Gully Gawk , arrives on December 13th and hides in gullies to wait to steal milk from cows. Stúfur -Stubby : Arrives on December 14 He's short steals pans with crust on them. Þvörusleikir -Spoon licker, arrives December 15th Steals spoons to lick them. Pottaskefill -Pot Scraper , Arrives December 16th to Steal left overs for pots, Askasleikir -Bowl Licker arrives December 17th to hide under beds put down their askur (a kind of bowl) which he steals. Hurðaskellir - Door Slammer arrives December 18th and likes to slam doors , mostly at night because it's more annoying that way. Skyrgámur -Skyr Gobbler arrives December 19th he likes Skyr. (Which like Yogurt ) Bjúgnakrækir- Sausage Swiper Arrives December 20th , likes to hid in rafters and take sausages that were being smoked. Gluggagægir- Window Peeper Arrives December 21st and no he's an intentional pervert he looks through windows to find things to steal. (well that's worse?) Gáttaþefur -Doorway-Sniffer arrives December 22nd has big nose and likes Laufabrauð, (Iceland leaf bread ) Ketkrókur: Meat-Hook Arrives December 23rd and uses a hook to steal meat . Kertasníkir - Candle Stealer is the last one he arrives December 24th he follows children to steal their candles , I guess to eat.( the candles not the children, that's for mom) They leave starting December 25th each one the next succeeding day until our candle friend leaves on the 12th night of Christmas , January 6th.
my sources by the way here :
https://web.archive.org/web/20071222113413/http://notendur.centrum.is/sjbokband/joh.html/yulelads00.html
http://www.jolamjolk.is/jolasveinarnir/ (translated version )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_Lads#List_of_Yuletide-lads
http://skyr.com/
For more lung beating fun, you can read more about the ones that didn't make the cut here .
After the 1746 ban , there was a reboot of our family an image change if you will, this brings us to current times Grýla now sends her sons out each night between the 13th and 24th to spread Christmas joy instead of being her shopping boys. They seem to have also adapted ole Santa's style with red and white clothing and go into towns and give good children presents and bad kids potatoes so better than being eaten.
So yes the idea of children being eaten for Christmas was replaced with something less scary , though what if a kid likes Potatoes ? The Yule cat seems to be the only one that's not been re branded he will still eat you if you don't get new clothes.
That's our look , hope you enjoyed.
sources : https://the-line-up.com/the-yule-lads-gryla-iceland
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/culture_and_living/2016/12/20/10_facts_about_the_icelandic_yule_lads/
http://www.iceland.is/the-big-picture/news/celebrating-christmas-with-13-trolls/7916
fun quiz which one are you?