Grýla and the 13 Yule Lads

Grýla, the troll mother

Grýla is old. Her name appears in Snorri Sturluson's 13th-century Prose Edda, though only as one name in a list of names for troll-women. Her link to Christmas is clear from the 17th century: the oldest is the poem Grýlukvæði, from about 1638 to 1644. She lives in a mountain cave with her (third) husband, Leppalúði, who is lazy and mostly stays at home, and with her enormous pet, The Yule Cat.

The National Museum of Iceland says the Yule Lads “are descended from trolls and their original role was to strike fear in the hearts of children”, sons of “two of the most hideous ogres ever known in Iceland”. In 1746, the museum records, a public decree forbade parents to frighten their children with monsters and fiends like the Yule Lads. Sources differ on whether the order came from the Danish king or from Iceland's own authorities.

The 13 Yule Lads and when they come

Older stories gave many numbers and many names. The thirteen everyone knows today come from Jóhannes úr Kötlum's 1932 poem in Jólin koma. Each comes down from the mountains on his own night and stays thirteen days:

From fright to shoes in the window

In the 20th century the Lads grew gentler. They took to wearing red, like Santa Claus and the Danish Christmas gnomes, and began leaving small gifts in the shoes children put on the windowsill; a naughty child finds a potato instead. Since 1988 they have visited the National Museum of Iceland every December, one a day from December 12, at 11 in the morning, in their old clothes. Grýla, we are told, has not softened at all.