page_title: Icelandic Christmas folklore
section_title: Gryla & Leppaludi
hierarchical_section_title: Icelandic Christmas folklore / Gryla & Leppaludi
caption_attribution_description: Figures of Grýla and Leppalúði on the main street of Akureyri, Iceland
context_page_description: Icelandic Christmas folklore depicts mountain-dwelling characters and monsters who come to town during Christmas. The stories are directed at children and are used to scare them into good behaviour. The folklore includes both mischievous pranksters who leave gifts during the night and monsters who eat disobedient children.
  The figures are depicted as living together as a family in a cave and include:
  Gryla and Leppaludi – Gryla is a giantess with an appetite for the flesh of mischievous children, who she cooks in a large pot. Her husband, Leppaludi, is lazy and mostly stays at home in their cave.
  The Yule Cat is a huge and vicious cat who lurks about the snowy countryside during Christmas time and eats people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve.
  The Yule Lads are the sons of Gryla and Leppaludi. They are a group of 13 mischievous pranksters who steal from or harass the population and all have descriptive names that convey their favorite way of harassing. They come to town one by one during the last 13 nights before Christmas.
context_section_description: 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.
caption: Figures of Gryla and her husband Leppaludi on the main street of Akureyri, Iceland
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