Yule boys: 13 Santa Clauses from Iceland who were once monsters (16 photos)

Why were children afraid of Santa Clauses in Iceland?





Not just one Santa Claus comes to the children of Iceland, there are thirteen of them. The “grandfathers” are called Jolasweinars, or simply Yule Lads. They take turns visiting the children for 13 days before Christmas, leaving gifts. Good children are given candy, bad children are given rotten potatoes. These heroes put presents not under the tree, but in a shoe left on the windowsill.



Jolasweinar's parents

There are many more winter characters in Iceland, and once upon a time they were real monsters, although they have become kinder over time (but not all of them; there is still a place for scary fairy tales!). According to Icelandic legends, Jolasweinar are the children of a cannibal giantess named Grýla and her husband Leppalúdi (literally translated as “lazy husband”). At Christmas, she comes down from the mountains and steals children to boil them alive. But the misadventures of the Icelandic children do not end there: they also have to be wary of the Yule cat, who scours the country in search of lazy children in order to eat them too. No horror stories have been reported about Leppaludi, but he probably eats what his wife has prepared.





Yule cat in the center of Reykjavik

However, today the Jolasweinars are very kind; in the past they were not particularly friendly. In Iceland, depending on the region, there were different legends: in some places they were jokers and merry fellows, and in others they were killer monsters who ate children. This was the case until the middle of the 18th century, until the king officially prohibited torturing children with such terrible tales and using them for educational purposes. So today the Yule Lads are quite harmless, but they are madly fond of pranks, and these are the kinds of things they pull off.

Stekkjarstøir, or Zherdina-of-the-Sheepfold, harasses sheep and sucks milk from them.



Ditch Dunce steals foam from milk buckets and likes to hide in barns and ditches.



Stuvur, or Shorty, steals leftover food from frying pans



Lozhkoliz madly loves to lick spoons, and sometimes takes them with him

Why only spoons, you ask? Because there are other heroes for the rest of the dishes.



Meet Gorshkoliz, who loves to steal food from pots and saucepans



And, of course, Chashkoliz, who hides under the bed and waits for a plate of food to be placed there

A very funny Icelandic tradition is to put a plate of food under the bed at night, wouldn’t you agree? Apparently this is for late night snacking.



The seventh guy is called Door Slammer, and his favorite prank is slamming doors in the night.



Another thief is Skyrny the Glutton, who madly loves to eat Icelandic yogurt skyr



Sausage grabber who loves sausages and regularly visits the smokehouse



Glyggagaiir, whose name literally translates as “window peeper”



The Door Sniffer Who Hunts for Christmas Bread

He has a long nose and an amazing sense of smell, and he arrives on December 22nd just when everyone is busy baking.



Ketkroukur, or Meat Hook, who even acquired a special tool for stealing meat



Well, on Christmas Eve, Kertasnikir, or the Candle Thief, comes to the homes of Icelandic children.

Once upon a time, candles were made from lard and fat; in fact, they were edible. Apparently, for Kertasnikir this was the only chance to profit from food, because his brothers ate everything else.