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Krampus Tales · free · 4:24
The Yule Lad Who Sold His Shadow
The Yule Lad Who Sold His Shadow is a 4-minute Krampus Tale, a fireside Christmas story told by a creepy whisperer and introduced by Krampus himself. Press play to hear it free, right here.
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The story
A thirteen-year-old in an Icelandic farmhouse hears that one of the Yule Lads traded his shadow to a stranger for a warm pair of mittens. The whisperer describes the boy's search through the snow for the lad.
How it begins
Picture a farmhouse in the far north, buried to its window ledges in snow. The Christmas tree in the front room is hung with dried fish and little woollen stars, and the bells on the church down the valley have been ringing since supper. It is the week before Christmas, and in Iceland that means the Yule Lads are coming down from the mountains, one by one, to wander the farms and cause a little mischief. You are thirteen. Your hands are raw. Your mother knitted you a pair of mittens last winter, and they have unravelled at the thumbs, and now the cold gets in through the holes like…
The folklore behind it
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The Krampus Tales play between the songs on Krampus Kristmas, the world's first 24/7 Krampus radio station, and all 30 are a free podcast too.