This is my little sheep- cote clod - the first of the Yuletide lads to arrive in the towns before Christmas. Every Icelandic blogger does this at some stage so I figure this Christmas I will introduce my little group to the lovely/gruesome folk tales that surround our christmas traditions.
Now for some major plagiarising from the National museums website:
Actually no - I will just let them help me.
You see in Iceland we have these guys called Jóla sveinar (Jól = Yule = old heathen pre christmas name for the winter solstice which now = christmas) sveinar = young boy = lad. So if you google yuletide lads you will get the jist. Once there was a poem that said jólasveinar 1 og 8 (ie 9) then there was another poem that said "thirteen altogether" but... there are alot more ... there are actually 60 names recorded.
So, these days the general consensus is that there are 13.
The poem of the 13 was written in the 18th century by Jóhannes úr Kötlum. There is a translation available which I am going to feed to you daily till Christmas:
The Yuletide LadsEnglish translation/Copyright © Hallberg Hallmundsson.
Let me tell the story of the lads of few charms,
who once upon a time used to visit our farms.
They came from the mountains, as many of you know,
They came from the mountains, as many of you know,
in a long single file to the farmsteads below.
Grýla was their mother - she gave them ogre milk -
and the father Leppalúdi; a loathsome ilk.
They were called the Yuletide lads - at Yuletide they were due -
and always came one by one, not ever two by two.
Thirteen altogether, these gents in their prime
didn´t want to irk people all at one time.
Creeping up, all stealth, they unlocked the door.
Creeping up, all stealth, they unlocked the door.
The kitchen and the pantry they came looking for.
They hid where they could, with a cunning look or sneer,
ready with their pranks when people weren´t near.
And even when they were seen, they weren´t loath to roam
And even when they were seen, they weren´t loath to roam
and play their tricks - disturbing the peace of the home.
The first of them was Sheep-Cote Clod. He came stiff as wood,
The first of them was Sheep-Cote Clod. He came stiff as wood,
to pray upon the farmer´s sheep as far as he could.
He wished to suck the ewes, but it was no accident he couldn´t;
He wished to suck the ewes, but it was no accident he couldn´t;
he had stiff knees - not to convenient.
So stay tuned.... tomorrow sees the arrival of Giljagaur - the translation - Gully Gawk
6 comments:
I love learning about other customs. Thanks for posting this and I look forward to reading about all 13. BTW I really enjoyed the Family Name post... it was cool finding names of some of my own family memebers on the list. My favorite cousin is a Helga! She joined our family at the age of 3 when adopted from Germany.
I AM HORRIFIED!!!! those are scary. but... strangely, i want to visit your land at christmas time... one by one, never two by two.
:)
Úúúú..... scary....
Sigga, you should become a writer -I love reading your blog - always something interesting... Love ya
It's a little bit scary... Other cultures get a jolly Santa who brings nice presents, we get some sneaky trolls who try to steal your stuff.
Not to mention the Christmas Cat - have you got your insurance yet?
x
I bet when you guys put the kiddies to bet they don't get out for fear something grabs their ankles....
Jomamma, I really love these old stories, the Christmas Cat that Olga is referring to will be the subject of a special post. You see - if you don´t get new clothes at Christmas the Christmas cat will come and eat you... Yes as I child I was quite worried abou the yuletide lads mum - you see it is said that she will take all the girls and boys that have been naughty and stick them in her sack to take home to hubby for a nice meal... These days the song said that she is dead... I am not so sure. The plus side of the lads is that if you leave a shoe in the window they will leave you something nice in it (but only if you have been good - if you have been bad you get an uncooked potatoe)- I can feel a longer post on this coming up
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