Scary Christmas to y’all
Hope you missed me! So here’s little something for your Christmas spirit.
Gryla is originally mentioned as being a giantess in the 13th century compilation of Norse mythology, Prose Edda, but no specific connection to Christmas is mentioned until the 17th century. She is enormous and her appearance is repulsive.
The oldest poems about Gryla describe her as a parasitic beggar who walks around asking parents to give her their disobedient children. Her plans can be thwarted by giving her food or by chasing her away. Originally, she lives in a small cottage, but in later poems she appears to have been forced out of town and into a faraway cave.
Current-day Gryla has the ability to detect children who are misbehaving year-round. During Christmas time, she comes from the mountains to search nearby towns for her meal. She leaves her cave, hunts children, and carries them home in her giant sack. She devours children as her favorite snack. Her favorite dish is a stew of naughty kids for which she has an insatiable appetite. According to legend, there is never a shortage of food for Gryla.
According to folklore, Gryla has been married three times. Her third husband Leppaludi is said to be living with her in their cave in the Dimmuborgir lava fields, with the big black Yule Cat and their sons. Leppaludi is lazy and mostly stays at home in their cave. Gryla supposedly has dozens of children with her previous husbands, but they are rarely mentioned nowadays.
