Rosetta22's 🐈‍⬛Jólakötturinn🐈‍⬛

Jólakötturinn or The Christmas Cat (Iceland) If that was not enough, the Yule Lads also had a pet cat, who was perhaps the most terrifying creature of all. The name 'Christmas Cat' might conjure up images of a lovely kitten in a Santa hat but Jólakötturinn, who first appeared in the 19th century, was a huge, ferocious beast with razor-like whiskers, blazing eyes and terrible claws who consumed any child who did not receive new clothes on Christmas Day. He was a huge, ferocious beast with razor-like whiskers, blazing eyes and terrible claws In 1932 the Icelandic poet Jóhannes úr Kötlum wrote a book of Christmas poems for children that - much like Clement Clarke-Moore’s A Visit From St Nicholas in the US or Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in the UK – enshrined Christmas traditions for future generations. His telling of the Yule Lads became the 'official' version and his playful but macabre poem on the Christmas Cat captured the ferocity of the beast and the terror it inspired. In 1987 Björk did her own version of the poem, in one of her earliest solo recordings. The Yule Lads (Iceland) Many of these creatures served as a metaphors for surviving the horrors of winter and, as Icelandic winters are tougher than most, it is unsurprising it has some of the most creative mythology. The 13 Yule Lads visit houses – one Yule Lad a day – between 12 and 24 December. Nowadays they are depicted as tricksters, each with their own unique form of mischief. Spoon Licker steals wooden spoons to lick off the food residue, Door Slammer slams the doors of the house all night so nobody can rest, and you can probably guess what Sausage Swiper gets up to! Historically, however, the Yule Lads were much more vicious and, in the 18th century, telling stories of the Yule Lads’ behaviour was e a competitive activity as each storyteller outdied the last with shocking tales of the gruesome brutality and gratuitous violence. The tales got so out of hand that, in 1746, a public decree banned “the foolish custom of scaring children with the Yuletide lads and ghosts”.