David Castleton (Author) on Nostr: An interesting Christmastide tradition from Iceland concerns a giantess named Gryla. ...

An interesting Christmastide tradition from Iceland concerns a giantess named Gryla. She punished naughty children by ... putting them in a soup and cooking and eating them. She was assisted by 13 Yule Lads - troll-like brothers who captured badly behaved kids in sacks and were also sometimes partial to snacking on them. Such stories were so terrifying that in 1746 the government issued a law forbidding parents to use tales of the Yule Lads to frighten their children. Today, the Yule Lads are jollier, kinder figures, perhaps having been softened by the influence of the American Santa Claus. #folklore #Yule #Christmas #weird #mythology