Icelandic Jólasveinar 8
It has been west-coast stormy around here – lots of wind and rain…Min puts her rain boots out along with a special treat for the Yule Lad…
.
.
The eighth Yule Lad to come is Skyrgámur, the yoghurt-gobbler who comes on December 19th! He seems to have appreciated the yoghurt, which is almost like skyr… Min is bemused by the long sponge from Haida Gwaii in her boot.
.
To read all about the 2012 Jólasveinar visits to the Quimper Hitty cupboard, click here.
.
The Jólasveinar tradition is explained in the Icelandic Yule/Jól website here.
.
.
I am beginning to like these Yule Lads – they seem like they are having fun but are only a minor nuisance. And it is interesting that they seem to stop by Haida Gwaii. Perhaps that is their North Pacific island – a home away from home? If so, it is a lot greener than they are used to. And sadly, the hotsprings turned off in the last earthquake so it might be a bit less their kind of place now.
It is very sad that the hotsprings have stopped exuding hot water…the poor little bats that used to live there are homeless in a harsh climate now. The Yule lads love hotpots (as they call them) in Iceland and elsewhere.
Learning about the Yule Lads is such a great experience for us! Thank you for helping Min explain it to us!
Min is having fun learning a new way to celebrate!
We are learning a great deal about Yule Lads and hotpots and Haida Gwaii. How sad about the hotsprings and no hot water. That would be difficult for the creatures. Thank you Min, for explaining everything so well !
The humans were shocked too when they discovered hotsprings had gone cold, but people were pretty glad there were no human casualties from that huge quake.
see:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/11/01/bc-hotspring-haida-gwaii.html
I’m with Ehpem on this one, what a wonderful series and introduction to the Yule Lads!! I am a bit of a nuisance myself at times and no one seems to want get rid of me, so that’s a good sign!!
It is a well known fact that toads are easily distracted – when they start being a nuisance you just point them in the direction of some delicious food…and off they hop.
It would seem that you’ve unlocked the secret behind Toads!
The Yule-Lads seem to have a wonderful oceanic theme going.
Mysteriously somehow their gifts are related to the summer trips made by the Hittys.