Also called Gryla, mother of the Yule Lads.
The tale
Grýla is an ogress who lives in the Icelandic mountains and comes down at Christmas to gather naughty children in her sack to eat. She is mother of the thirteen Yule Lads, pranksters who visit on the thirteen nights before Christmas, and keeps the Yule Cat, who eats anyone who has not got new clothes for Christmas. She is named in the Prose Edda's lists of troll-women and becomes the Christmas ogress in later folklore.
When they are met
- the thirteen nights before Christmas
- Christmas in Iceland
Staying on their good side
- folk tradition: be good and give new clothes at Christmas, so the Yule Cat passes you by
- a warm gift of socks or wool to someone in need
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Give someone new clothes or warm socks at Yule, in keeping with the Icelandic custom.
- Tell the tales of the Yule Lads with children for fun.
What their tales teach
- Yule folklore
- generosity in winter
Symbols
- a sack for naughty children
- the Yule Cat
- thirteen Yule Lads
- a mountain cave
Her Christmas role dates from the seventeenth century onward; the earlier mention is only a name.
Sources
- Prose Edda, Skáldskaparmál (Þulur: names of troll-women)
- Jón Árnason, Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri
More Norse folklore
- Huldra The hidden woman of the forest
- Nisse The little old man of the farm
- Draugr The restless dead of the sagas
- Trolls The old dwellers in mountain and stone
- Valkyries The choosers of the slain
- Fossegrim The fiddler beneath the waterfall
- Nøkken The fiddler in the still water
- Mara The spirit who rides sleepers