K.A.C. 2018 - T - 13 ...

     "On the 13th Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ..." - wait a minute, I hear you say - aren't there only TWELVE Days of Christmas? Not necessarily! Join me as we jaunt across the ocean to Iceland and let me introduce you to The Yule Lads!

     The Yule Lads (or Yuletide-lads, or Yule Men) are a long-standing folklore tale for Icelandic children; a variation on other persona (such as Krampus) who come for naughty children on the 13 days before Christmas - why 13? Because there are 13 DIFFERENT Yule Lads, all with their own personalities and specialties of keeping young boys and girls good little angels.

     While we haven't written about the Lads before, we HAVE written about their Mom and their house pet! The boys are all the children of the Gryla, the ogress who comes and finds bad children, throws them in a sack and takes them home to put in her stew! 

     The ones Mama Gryla missed would be scooped up by her cat, the  Jólakötturinn ... and HE would eat you, sometimes for being naughty, but mostly if you didn't have NEW CLOTHES for Christmas! I know, messed up, right? The theory was the tale of the Icelandic Christmas Cat was a warning tale for lazy sewists and seamstresses to have their work done in time for the holidays - or else!

     The stories the parents told must have been TRULY horrendous, as over time the consensus came to tone it down on the horror elements, since they were scaring their children to death with this army of ogres coming down from the mountains to find any excuse to EAT them! Oh, and also there were originally 82 Yule Lads! 

     The 82 devolved into 13, and their antics went from hair-raising to mischievous, mainly stealing small items from your house or eating your sausages ... ??? Yeah, it's a thing, just go with it. 

     For the full list of the 13 Yule Lads and what they do, check here:

     https://icelandmag.is/article/story-all-yule-lads-including-window-peeper-spoon-licker-and-skyr-gobbler

     For our original write-up on Gryla and her kitty, check here:

     http://www.conjurecinema.com/2012/11/kac-2012-t-29.html

     And finally, for more on Gryla and and her kin, check here:

     https://icelandmag.is/article/instead-a-friendly-santa-iceland-has-13-mischievous-yule-lads-and-evil-christmas-cat

     So make DAMN sure you've been good AND that you have some article of new clothing on Christmas Eve, otherwise ... CHOMP!

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     Coming Tomorrow: We couldn't be called Conjure Cinema and not spread some Christmas Cheer without more rare and off-the-wall films of the season - come back tomorrow for our cinematic time sink and prepare to be mesmerized!