Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

For Puck's Sake

Home
Pagan
Grýla & Her Yule Lads

Grýla & Her Yule Lads

Last updated on: December 6, 2019 at 4:25 pm by Mat Auryn

Grýla & Her Yule Lads 2019-12-06T16:25:57+00:00 Mat Auryn

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Grýla - The Icelandic Troll Of Yule

Image Credit: Kiselev Andrey | Standard License

The other day when I posted my article about St. Lucia, a friend contacted me to tell me that it helped them to understand a part of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina holiday special. In the episode (without trying to spoil too much) a character states, “The saint Lucia took my right hand, the demon Lucy took my left. I wear their crown on the longest of nights.” So being a fan of the show already, this just made me want to watch the holiday special more. So I did and to my surprise it features Grýla and The Yule Lads, though the script strays very far from her real folklore (remember: it’s a fictional show for entertainment, not a documentary on witchcraft or folklore).

Grýla in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Grýla

Unlike her depiction in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Grýla isn’t depicted as a beautiful woman who wears dark eyeshadow, wine red lipstick and dark contour. Grýla, like your average troll, has an appetite for misbehaving children. She’s often depicted with several tails, horns, a beard, and a hag-like appearance. In other words, she’s appealing enough by troll standards to put a ring on it.

However, Grýla hasn’t had the best luck when it comes to love. She’s been married three times, with the ogre Leppalúði being her most recent bae. However, even this relationship isn’t a bed of roses, as Leppalúði was caught having an affair with their maid Lúpa and a son named Skröggur was born to her outside of sanctimony of troll wedlock. Grýla, of course, was outraged and drove both Lúpa and Skröggur away. I’m hoping that Grýla and Leppalúði are in couples therapy and working it out and healing their relationship. I wonder what troll child-support entails?

Grýla spends the year as a hermit up in her cave in the mountains and comes down once a year during the Yule season to hunt for misbehaving children to place in her cauldron stew. The stew of misbehaving children is said to be her favorite dish which she is gluttonous for. Despite their rocky past, Grýla and Leppalúði hunt together and Leppalúði places children in his sack to take back to their cave for Grýla where she goes all Betty Crocker on those terrible kids. Similar to modern ideas of Santa Claus, she has the ability to watch children year round, looking for the naughty ones, so she keeps a keen eye out for “fresh ingredients” for her seasonal stew. I suppose your hobbies are limited when you’re living in a cave year round with a husband with a wandering eye and over 20 mouths to feed. Though this may explain why she’s had so many kids, there’s probably not much else to do for recreation.

Out of all her children (which is about 20 or so depending on region and folktale), she has 12 famous children named the Yule lads who are depicted less like children or trolls and more like tomtes or nisses. Though Grýla spends most of her time in ragged clothing, her house pet, the fashion snob Yule Cat, apparently takes out his displaced frustration of her lack of fashion sense by devouring those who aren’t wearing new threads when he comes down to hunt during Yule. Apparently, humans are not only a part of a troll’s balanced diet but also their pets.

Grýla and the Cailleach Connection

Valgerður H.Bjarnadóttir who has a masters degree in feminist cultural and religious studies and has given lectures on Grýla told the Iceland Monitor that, “There are tales in Scotland and in Ireland that resemble the Icelandic tales of Grýla closely and there is no doubt that these stories and beliefs came to Iceland at the time of settlement. Some stories become firmly rooted in our culture and others change or merge with stories from other cultures. The Irish elf tales are very similar to our Icelandic ones, for example. Scottish goddess Cailleach Beur and Irish goddess Cailleach Bhéara are Celtic varieties of a goddess or supernatural being which we call Grýla in Iceland.”

The Yule Lads

The Yule Lads have become much better tempered than their mother with time, and come to visit households for 13 days each one by one. They used to eat children like their mother, but it seems like they’ve stopped and become a bit more benevolent with time and are pranksters at worst. These days, children leave out their shoes for the Yule Lads and for good kids they will leave gifts and candies, for misbehaved children they’ll leave a potato. Though I’m not sure eating anything out of shoes is necessarily that appealing of a treat, but I suppose that’s much better than becoming the main ingredient of troll stew. Perhaps, the potato is really a gift for their mother, so she has both potatoes and naughty children for her stew. That’d be pretty thoughtful of them. Shoe-flavored potatoes are probably much more appealing to trolls.

According to Wikipedia, the Yule Lads are as follows:

Icelandic name English translation Description Arrival Departure Stekkjarstaur Sheep-Cote Clod Harasses sheep, but is impaired by his stiff peg-legs. 12 December 25 December Giljagaur Gully Gawk Hides in gullies, waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the cowshed and steal milk. 13 December 26 December Stúfur Stubby Abnormally short. Steals pans to eat the crust left on them. 14 December 27 December Þvörusleikir Spoon-Licker Steals Þvörur (a type of a wooden spoon with a long handle – I. þvara) to lick. Is extremely thin due to malnutrition. 15 December 28 December Pottaskefill Pot-Scraper Steals leftovers from pots. 16 December 29 December Askasleikir Bowl-Licker Hides under beds waiting for someone to put down their “askur” (a type of bowl with a lid used instead of dishes), which he then steals. 17 December 30 December Hurðaskellir Door-Slammer Likes to slam doors, especially during the night, waking people up. 18 December 31 December Skyrgámur Skyr-Gobbler A Yule Lad with a great affinity for skyr. 19 December 1 January Bjúgnakrækir Sausage-Swiper Hides in the rafters and snatches sausages that are being smoked. 20 December 2 January Gluggagægir Window-Peeper A snoop who looks through windows in search of things to steal. 21 December 3 January Gáttaþefur Doorway-Sniffer Has an abnormally large nose and an acute sense of smell which he uses to locate laufabrauð. 22 December 4 January Ketkrókur Meat-Hook Uses a hook to steal meat. 23 December 5 January Kertasníkir Candle-Stealer Follows children in order to steal their candles (which were once made of tallow and thus edible). 24 December 6 January

Mat Auryn – The Real Witchcraft in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Interview with script writer Joshua Conkel)

Mat Auryn – Hexenhäuschen: Origin Of The Witch’s Gingerbread House

Mat Auryn – Saint Lucia: Lilith In Disguise

Mat Auryn – This Fashionista Cat Devours People To Celebrate Yule

Mat Auryn – The Child-Eating Scarecrow Of Christmas

Mat Auryn -The Mischievous Tomte Spirits of Yule

Mat Auryn – A Brief History of The Krampus

Mat Auryn – The Yule Goat

Mat Auryn – What Is The Winter Solstice?

Mat Auryn – Seasonal Depression & The Winter Solstice

Connect With Me:

Click Below To Purchase My Book:

Musings

CAOS

chilling adventures of sabrina

Previous Post

December 15, 2018

Review: Utterly Wicked

Next Post

December 16, 2018 Review: Elfhame's Children

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Reviews Deck Reviews Interviews Musings Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 March 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Why was it scandalous for the woman to anoint Jesus' feet with tears?

Select your answer to see how you score.

She was a known sinner She was wealthy She was foreign She was a child

Grýla & Her Yule Lads

Grýla

Grýla and the Cail­leach Connection

The Yule Lads

Related Articles:

Connect With Me:

Click Below To Purchase My Book:

Why was it scandalous for the woman to anoint Jesus' feet with tears?

Grýla and the Cailleach Connection