The Dark Side of Christmas: Gryla

In the mountains of Iceland is said to live a scary old woman, but this woman was not like any other, in appearance nor in how she carried herself, there is some debate to whether she is actually human with more saying that she is in fact a troll. In a dull and dreary cave was where she resided, she was always in a bad mood and had thirteen short tails that were tucked beneath her shabby gown. Curly long nails and a spotted face added to her hideousness.

She was married three times, the first two times she killed her husband because they were not able to give her what she wanted ; the ability to have kids of her own. This made Gryla develop a hatred for children, especially the happy ones. Once a year around the time of Christmas she would set off looking for happy children and kidnap them via her large rucksack that she hunched over her broad shoulders and walked back to the cave with. She would not kill the children but would snip their nails and cut their hair before adding it to a large pot to make her favourite dish of all - Kids Stew.

She believed by doing this that it would somehow get rid of what she believed was a curse put upon her that she couldn't have kids, so year after year she grabbed hapless children before scarring them for life. This all stopped when something happened to Gryla, one day she awoke to find that at the end of each of her tails lay a new born baby, thirteen in total and these would be know as The Yule Lads.

After these kids were born her anger lessened and she became tired, her and her husband Leppaludi, a similar ugly looking troll with a hatred for happiness, decided to rest for whatever time they had remaining. Not to be forgotten was her pet cat, a large black cat known as the Yule Cat who accompanied Gryla on her kid snatching escapades of yesteryear  but now roams around the cave content that her master is happy.

Her age is unknown but is said to be over 300 years old and her only weakness was the bright Christmas lights of the City/Towns. She was a fearsome troll once upon a time and her story is still told around schools and all sorts of Christmas gatherings, "Beware of the grumpy old lady and her cat" this sign can be seen all around Iceland and is said to refer to the legend of Gryla. Her whereabouts in the world of folklore has been a mystery for many years now but her kids still live on. There is one thing that can be sure, Gryla was as fearsome and frightening as they come with many giving her the title as "The mother to all the evil of Christmas".