I Can Never Learn Enough About The Yule Cat

Finally, we get to the Yule Cat, or Jalokotturinn, a pet of Gryla and the Lads. While the giant feline is thought to be a traditional figure, the first written mentions of it only date back to the nineteenth century. If you have new clothes for Christmas, the cat will leave you alone. Otherwise, it will straight-up eat you.

The threat was that children wouldn’t receive clothes if they didn’t do their chores, which would leave them to be cat food. I think it might just be a ploy to stop kids from complaining when they clothes as presents. This legend also encourages people to give to the less fortunate, as that means fewer victims for the cat. I’m not sure why a cat would care so much about clothes, but that’s how they roll in Iceland.

A lot of what we know about these holiday monsters, particularly the connections between them, comes from a 1932 work by the poet Johannes ur Kotlum called Jolin Koma, or Christmas Is Coming. That title sounds like it might be more of a threat than a promise to Icelandic children.

https://vovatia.wordpress.com/