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The Yule Lads Terrified Children Across Iceland · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
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Speaker 1: back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
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Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Shout out to our own
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Speaker 1: Santa Claus, the one and only Mr Max Williams. They
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Speaker 1: called me, Ben. Let's let's get some Uh. No, we're
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Speaker 1: keeping We're going to keep going. Uh let's get some
0:43
Speaker 1: weird Christmas music getting this season? Noel, I would say,
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Speaker 1: you and I are fans of Christmas time, especially in
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Speaker 1: the spring, uh, which is you know what I like
0:55
Speaker 1: to celebrate Christmas. People look at me kind of funny,
0:58
Speaker 1: but you know, I think Christmas should be able to
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Speaker 1: be celebrated year round. We should make our own Christmas
1:03
Speaker 1: traditions because, as it turns out, you know, the americanized
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Speaker 1: sort of Coca qualified version of Santa Claus and the
1:11
Speaker 1: Christmas Polar Bears and all that, oh product of marketing.
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Speaker 1: I'm more of a fan of the weird, dark, spooky,
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Speaker 1: folk loreic traditions of Christmas that is much more prevalent
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Speaker 1: in other parts of the world. And boy, are we
1:25
Speaker 1: getting into one that's quite a doozy today. Agreed. Give
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Speaker 1: me the crampuses, Yes, give me your tired, poor huddled
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Speaker 1: folklore yearning to be normalized me your children stuffed into
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Speaker 1: sacks and made into stews to be devoured by which
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Speaker 1: like troll creatures. But we're not taking black Pete in
1:45
Speaker 1: the dal just to be He's canceled forever at all time,
1:49
Speaker 1: he's canceled, so canceled by us at least. Yes, in
1:52
Speaker 1: typical ridiculous history fashion, folks, we are celebrating a holiday.
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Speaker 1: Uh kind of late to our very early however youone
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Speaker 1: to say it. We just have so much fun with
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Speaker 1: this story. We can't wait to explore it with you.
2:08
Speaker 1: We do want to give some brief shout outs. First,
2:11
Speaker 1: big big shout out to our peer podcast. Stuff you
2:14
Speaker 1: missed in history class. We were talking of fair and
2:17
Speaker 1: believe they had had a take on this back in
2:20
Speaker 1: the day, several several years ago now, but we're still
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Speaker 1: fascinating with this. We actually just for rolling. We're talking
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Speaker 1: about how much we dig Iceland. I think it's on
2:31
Speaker 1: It's definitely on my bucket list to go. I haven't
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Speaker 1: been able to go since the pandemic hit. But uh,
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Speaker 1: what about unial nex Oh, it's definitely ever since I
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Speaker 1: first covered cigar Ross in college, I've wanted to go
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Speaker 1: to Iceland and just for that Totle reason right there,
2:44
Speaker 1: just like holping, i ould run into them. Oh yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: then you're definitely gonna run into Segar Ross and York
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Speaker 1: just down the boulevard. You know. They're they're just they're
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Speaker 1: always running around drinking tiny cups of espresso and eating
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Speaker 1: rotten shark meat. That's just how it goes. Now. My
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Speaker 1: girlfriend um Had has been, uh and a few friends
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Speaker 1: of mine have been, and it's a very beautiful place
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Speaker 1: but apparently uh stunning lee expensive just just like yeah,
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Speaker 1: that's what I've heard, Yes, studyingly expensive. Also if you
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Speaker 1: don't like cold weather, it's not for you, but it
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Speaker 1: is an adventure worth having. A lot of my friends
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Speaker 1: have gone as well, but I haven't talked to them yet.
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Speaker 1: About a particularly Icelandic Christmas tradition, something called the Yule Lads.
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Speaker 1: You see, if you are a young tyke growing up
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Speaker 1: in Iceland, you have not one father Christmas, but you
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Speaker 1: have thirteen father Christmas is. They're not called the Yule Dads,
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Speaker 1: but they're called the Yule Lads, and during the thirteen
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Speaker 1: days leading up to actual facts Christmas, these guys who
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Speaker 1: are whimsical, marry little rascals, a little bit mischievous, mischievous.
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Speaker 1: They take turns visiting children, and the way it goes,
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Speaker 1: each of those nights, a kid places one of their
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Speaker 1: shoes on the window sill, and if you're a good kid,
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Speaker 1: then that Yule Lad of that day will leave candy,
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Speaker 1: and if not, they'll do some other stuff that will
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Speaker 1: will get into Right now, there are a lot less
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Speaker 1: creepy today, right, they've been kind of sanitized in as
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Speaker 1: in the Great Telephone Game of History. But back in
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Speaker 1: seventeen six, parents were legitimately worried about what was what
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Speaker 1: these stories were doing to kids. So maybe we talk
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Speaker 1: a little bit about about the yule Lads, right, They aren't.
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Speaker 1: They aren't just like thing one through thirteen and some
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Speaker 1: dr Seusian way. They have their own distinct personalities. They
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Speaker 1: got their own vibe each, all thirteen of them. There
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Speaker 1: there are crew of individuals. That's right. Then, they've got
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Speaker 1: some very interesting, uh traits. Let's just say it's almost
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Speaker 1: like a snow white kind of situation. The Uleads each
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Speaker 1: have their own um, you know, personalities, uh much in
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Speaker 1: smurf like fashion as well. The National Museum of Iceland
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Speaker 1: describes it thus, Lee, and we got this from a
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Speaker 1: Smithsonian article. Meet the Thirteen ule Ads, Iceland's own mischievous
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Speaker 1: Santa clauses Uh, and here's what they have to say.
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Speaker 1: Dozens of different names for the ule Ads appear in
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Speaker 1: different folk tales and stories. A popular poem about the
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Speaker 1: ul Ads about the late Johannes or Kutlum, which first
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Speaker 1: appeared in the book Uln Comma Christmas Is Coming in
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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two, served to make their names and number
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Speaker 1: much better known. The names of the thirteen ule Ads
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Speaker 1: that most Icelanders know today are all derived from that poem.
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Speaker 1: They each come on their own nights of the season.
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Speaker 1: U and you know we're not native Icelandic speakers. We're
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Speaker 1: gonna do our best. Some of these pronunciations are a
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Speaker 1: little tricky for our American tongues, but we're gonna do
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Speaker 1: our best here. So on the first night December twelve,
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Speaker 1: we have steck yard Stour, also known as Gimpie, who
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Speaker 1: was known for harassing sheep in order to suckle some
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Speaker 1: of their milk. But he has these stiff peg legs,
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Speaker 1: so he's not entirely successful in doing this usually. Then
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Speaker 1: who do we have on the second night, the thirteenth
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Speaker 1: of December. Well, it's interesting because what we'll see is
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Speaker 1: that it's almost like a high screw. All of the
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Speaker 1: Yule lads have their specific thing they like to do,
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Speaker 1: and they're often stymied by some sort of other conditions.
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Speaker 1: So the next guy is gully gac that would be
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Speaker 1: his English translation. He hides in gullies and he's all
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Speaker 1: about waiting for the right time to sneak into the
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Speaker 1: local cow shed and steal milk. And it goes on
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Speaker 1: the names like spoon liquor, pot scraper, sky Er, gobbler,
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Speaker 1: skier being a kind of yogurt, the guy who just
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Speaker 1: really likes yogurt. And then one of my favorites I
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Speaker 1: don't know why is sausage wiper. Yeah, December. He hides
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Speaker 1: and rafters and he steals sausages that are being smoked exactly.
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Speaker 1: Then we have the pervious of the crew window peeper,
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Speaker 1: who is known for looking in on um, you know,
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Speaker 1: the families as they slumber, I imagine, and eyeballing things
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Speaker 1: to steal. Sure, okay, okay, window peeper, I'm sure that's
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Speaker 1: what you're up to. Uh. And then we have gattup
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Speaker 1: pure goat or doorway sniffer. Yeah, so he does. He's
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Speaker 1: got a big old nose that he uses to sniff doorways. Um.
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Speaker 1: And he is looking specifically for Icelandic holiday pastries. Um.
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Speaker 1: Then on they three we have meat hook or catch
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Speaker 1: crooker and he steals meat using a hook. A lot
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Speaker 1: of a lot of food theft going right here. And
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Speaker 1: then we have candle steeler or or like the final Boss.
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Speaker 1: That's right, he's the final Boss or Karat Knox Ni
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Speaker 1: Karat Knox Nick here I think, and he uh follows children,
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Speaker 1: you know, as they go to bed, and then he
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Speaker 1: steals their candles. So all of this mischief in Mayhem
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Speaker 1: totals thirteen day debacle leading up to Christmas. And um,
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Speaker 1: after this is all done, they all go back to
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Speaker 1: their cave somewhere in the mountains of Iceland, which I
8:33
Speaker 1: I love this story. I think folklore is a great
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Speaker 1: way to learn about culture. Door slammer, well, we missed, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: we missed, door slammer. I don't know if we got to.
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Speaker 1: We did say pot scraper, right, Do we talk about
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Speaker 1: bowl liquor as well? We've got bowl liquor as well.
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Speaker 1: I think that rounds out the crew there. They're they're
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Speaker 1: all doing very similar things. They're all either licking spoons
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Speaker 1: or scraping pots, or steve in food or or or
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Speaker 1: smelling his wife and smelling window, smelling doors, peeping in
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Speaker 1: through windows. And they're all a bunch of creeps, it
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Speaker 1: would seem I don't find this charming at all. I
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Speaker 1: find it, you know, I like a good rascal story. Um.
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Speaker 1: The reason they all have kind of related predilections is
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Speaker 1: due to the fact that they are siblings. During these
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Speaker 1: thirteen days and throughout the rest of the year, their
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Speaker 1: parents are around Gila and Lepeloy, and they're the enforcers.
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Speaker 1: They will punish kids who are very, very naughty. They
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Speaker 1: are scary, ugly mean er ah, and anybody who runs
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Speaker 1: into them is considered terribly unlucky. Grila in particular is
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Speaker 1: a hard case because Grila will sneak into the homes
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Speaker 1: of insolent children, shove them in a sack, and eat
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Speaker 1: them in a stew back in Hilaire yikes joints uh.
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Speaker 1: If you ask any iceland or about her, they will
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Speaker 1: tell you that their parents told them the story of Grila,
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Speaker 1: and that they genuinely are scared or were scared of
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Speaker 1: her growing up. And I don't know if we mentioned this,
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Speaker 1: but well we're talking about the Smithsonian article. What's great
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Speaker 1: is you can see some cool stylized pictures of the
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Speaker 1: Yule Lads, who are a little old to be called lads.
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Speaker 1: But shout out to Rachel Newer for excellent work there.
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Speaker 1: Do check out that article. Yeah, and the tourism board,
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Speaker 1: I guess of of Iceland collaborated with the magazine by
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Speaker 1: Icelandic Hotels and there's a really great article called Iceland's
10:29
Speaker 1: thirteen You lads don't call them santas so which were
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Speaker 1: also pulling some good info from So yeah, I mean,
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Speaker 1: you're right, Ben, this is a cautionary tale for children.
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Speaker 1: The ul Lads maybe a little less so because they
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Speaker 1: did kind of evolve into more just like cookie mischievous
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Speaker 1: bringers of of Ule tied cheer. Well yeah exactly, but
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Speaker 1: the origin of the story is much much much darker.
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Speaker 1: So Gila in particular is the most terrifying of all
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Speaker 1: of these figures. Um. She is known to be an
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Speaker 1: Icelandic Christmas ghoul who is quite large, much more of
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Speaker 1: like a combination of like a witch and a troll,
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Speaker 1: and the end has uh I think cloven hoofs so
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Speaker 1: very Crampus like, and also thirteen tales, presumably one for
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Speaker 1: each of her sons were representing each of the you lads.
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Speaker 1: She lives deep in the mountains with her you know,
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Speaker 1: demonic children and allows one to come to the village
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Speaker 1: on each day leading up to Christmas, and Christmas essentially
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Speaker 1: serves as open season on naughty children, whom you know,
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Speaker 1: given the opportunity, she'll throw into a sack and boil
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Speaker 1: them alive. Uh. And this is a tale that children
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Speaker 1: in Iceland grew up knowing about, like much the same
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Speaker 1: as Crampas. I mean here in America, Santa Claus kind
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Speaker 1: of occupies both of those roles. You'll give you a
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Speaker 1: good present if you're good, and nothing if you're bad,
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Speaker 1: or like, you know, a lump of coal or whatever
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Speaker 1: it might be, but nothing particularly you know, damaging or dangerous. Right. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: And this is this is fascinating because we're also seeing
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Speaker 1: religious syncretism, I want to point out, and anything. We'll
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Speaker 1: get into this a little bit later. But Gila, originally
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Speaker 1: I think, is a giant tests or a troll, and
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Speaker 1: she when she's first mentioned in this poem of Grila.
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Speaker 1: She's not linked to Christmas lore at all. She's just
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Speaker 1: linked to being the monstrous matriarch of the Yule Lads.
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Speaker 1: She lives deep deep in the mountains with her demonic brood. Also,
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Speaker 1: she's known for eating children, but she also has a
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Speaker 1: little bit more of a sophisticated palette. She is thought
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Speaker 1: to have killed and eaten her first three husbands because
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Speaker 1: they board her and at one time she just thought
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Speaker 1: these guys would be better as soup than they would
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Speaker 1: be as romantic partners. And apparently in some versions of
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Speaker 1: the story, these folks, the Yule Lads and their mom
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Speaker 1: roll through with a cat. Joel couturin the child eating
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Speaker 1: Christmas Cat is part of the crew, and he stands
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Speaker 1: by to do his own devouring as misbehaving children boil
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Speaker 1: away and the family stew. So to be very clear,
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Speaker 1: if you're a young Icelandic child, the tradition is this
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Speaker 1: be good, you get some candy, otherwise you will be
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Speaker 1: boiled alive and eating. The choice is yours. That seems
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Speaker 1: like a little heavy metal kind of way to treat kids,
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Speaker 1: But there's some there's so much stuff I want to
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Speaker 1: talk about with folklore of Iceland, but maybe we should
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Speaker 1: may we should start out by talking about like where
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Speaker 1: the Yule Lads come from, because they have, like you
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Speaker 1: can already tell, they have a lot in common with
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Speaker 1: other Christmas traditions that are meant to keep children behaving,
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Speaker 1: right to obey the authority, used to obey the parents.
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Speaker 1: If you're good, you get toys. If you're bad, I
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Speaker 1: think the more modern tradition says you get coal or
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Speaker 1: a potato. Oh yeah, but you know not justoato. Potato
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Speaker 1: is at least a delicious snack if you potato put
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Speaker 1: in the stew right. I've been doing these potato have
14:26
Speaker 1: you heard of? It's le extra work, but I love
14:29
Speaker 1: it and I make them like once a week though,
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Speaker 1: very nice, very fancy. That's the thing, though, Ben, I mean,
14:35
Speaker 1: like you know our traditions, you know, I mean, we've
14:38
Speaker 1: talked about how Santa Claus is sort of the original
14:40
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory that teaches children to distrust authorities, you know,
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Speaker 1: specifically parents, but he usually is revealed at some point,
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Speaker 1: whether the kids figured out themselves or the parents. You know.
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Speaker 1: Let the cat of the bag, not the child eating
14:53
Speaker 1: catch just the proverbial cat um that this is all
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Speaker 1: kind of made up of folkloric type stuff. But the
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Speaker 1: understand ending in Iceland, even with the parents, for the
15:02
Speaker 1: most part, is that these creatures are real. There is
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Speaker 1: a serious tradition of belief in in this kind of folklore,
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Speaker 1: especially in things like elves, which are oftentimes demonic spirits
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Speaker 1: of the forest. There was a show, I believe it
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Speaker 1: was an Icelandic show called Elves that was sort of
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Speaker 1: like almost like et meets the Gremlins kind of. It
15:23
Speaker 1: wasn't my favorite, but it was about these flesh eating
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Speaker 1: elf creatures that you know reek havoc and cause you know,
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Speaker 1: utter chaos. So there is a pretty significant you know,
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Speaker 1: since that these are actual creatures that the dwell in
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Speaker 1: the in the surrounding woods. There is a guy by
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Speaker 1: the name of Magnus scarfion Insen who is the headmaster
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Speaker 1: of Iceland's Elf School and a top researcher of elf
15:52
Speaker 1: folklore in Iceland, and he says that the l lads
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Speaker 1: more benign kind of presentation is a much more recent invention,
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Speaker 1: since Iceland has become a bit more of a a thriving,
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Speaker 1: kind of comparatively metropolitan area that's very big on tourism.
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Speaker 1: But there was a time when things were very very dire.
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Speaker 1: Food was very very scarce, and the winters were brutally
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Speaker 1: cold in times before you know, um centralized heating and
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Speaker 1: air and all of that stuff. So, uh, you, if
16:23
Speaker 1: you think about it in those terms, these creatures coming
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Speaker 1: in and stealing your Christmas dinner or your candles, those
16:30
Speaker 1: be serious threats to your lifelihood, to your survival. Yeah. Absolutely,
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Speaker 1: And we've got to go here to Terry garriluh, folklore's
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Speaker 1: professor at the University of Iceland Uh, and he talks
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Speaker 1: a little bit about the evolution of multiple separate cultural
16:47
Speaker 1: traditions into what we call the hood folk or the
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Speaker 1: hidden people. Today. They're living too in a dimension just
16:56
Speaker 1: to the left of yours. And it's true that at
16:58
Speaker 1: times like construct action has been halted for fear of
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Speaker 1: offending the hidden folk. I'd love to hear from some
17:05
Speaker 1: fellow ridiculous historians who have spent time in Iceland. I'd
17:08
Speaker 1: love to hear your take on this. I think we
17:10
Speaker 1: all would. The thing is Iceland is really a multicultural place.
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Speaker 1: Over time, these separate concepts that people brought with them
17:19
Speaker 1: to the area merged in this collective idea of the
17:22
Speaker 1: hidden people UH, and now there are multitudes of theories
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Speaker 1: about them, sometimes contradictory, one saying these were the quote
17:31
Speaker 1: dirty strange children of ev that she hid from God
17:35
Speaker 1: and when God discovered her secrets, condemned them to an
17:38
Speaker 1: alternate world. And then of course other people say that
17:41
Speaker 1: their fallen angels. You can encounter no shortage of anecdotes
17:47
Speaker 1: of eyewitness accounts from people who believe they have, in
17:49
Speaker 1: one way or another, encountered the Hidden Folk. You can
17:55
Speaker 1: see a catalog of this over at the Elf School's website,
17:59
Speaker 1: which is the elf school dot com. Just go to
18:03
Speaker 1: contemporary tales and you will you will see people who
18:07
Speaker 1: seem to genuinely believe they've run into something supernatural, extraordinary.
18:12
Speaker 1: I think the Elf School said fifty four percent of
18:15
Speaker 1: Icelanders just over half believe that the Hidden Folk are real.
18:19
Speaker 1: It's strange because they are if they are treated as real.
18:25
Speaker 1: What's strange about it is they've been treated as real
18:28
Speaker 1: despite the fact that their image has tremendously softened from
18:32
Speaker 1: the present day. UH. Over the past hundred years or so,
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Speaker 1: they've become much more friendly, much more like oh you little,
18:43
Speaker 1: you little scamp, instead of being you know, the people
18:47
Speaker 1: who might mean your family might not make it through winter.
18:50
Speaker 1: They were guys who stole the Christmas food. They're sniffing,
18:54
Speaker 1: you know, they're sniffing at the windows when you're cooking
18:57
Speaker 1: the lamb uh. They're stealing milk from sheep. They might
19:02
Speaker 1: leave you to starve. They eat the candles, and the
19:05
Speaker 1: candles are important because candles provide warmth right when you're inside. Yeah.
19:11
Speaker 1: I think a big factor of their evolution was really
19:16
Speaker 1: the emergence of Christianity in Iceland, which didn't come about
19:19
Speaker 1: until what one thousand CE, I think that's right. That
19:23
Speaker 1: was after the King of Norway made it the law
19:26
Speaker 1: of the land to be a Christian and sent missionaries
19:30
Speaker 1: to convert the the indigenous people of Iceland. Of course,
19:34
Speaker 1: you know, as we know, when these things happen, that
19:36
Speaker 1: does not just white clean the slate of um. You know,
19:40
Speaker 1: generations of tradition and folklore. But as we know, with
19:45
Speaker 1: the way like pagan holidays oftentimes have emerged with Christian
19:48
Speaker 1: traditions like Easter, and you know, things that were once
19:52
Speaker 1: um looked very very different from what they became Uh,
19:55
Speaker 1: they don't entirely disappear, They just sort of morph into
19:58
Speaker 1: something more pallid double you know. For the Christian ruling regime,
20:03
Speaker 1: and and oftentimes these things are encouraged or mandated by laws.
20:07
Speaker 1: So there was a law that was passed in the
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Speaker 1: sixteenth century that said, quote all disorderly and scandalous entertainment
20:14
Speaker 1: at Christmas and other times and Shrove Tide revels are
20:17
Speaker 1: strongly forbidden on pain of serious punishment. And then in
20:21
Speaker 1: seventeen forty six there was a public decree that actually
20:25
Speaker 1: forbid telling children about the you lads in order to
20:29
Speaker 1: scare them straight. As they say, yeah, the idea was
20:33
Speaker 1: that this, this story as it was told, was so
20:38
Speaker 1: terrified that it was in a way traumatic to children.
20:43
Speaker 1: So for the good of the kids, the young guy slanders,
20:48
Speaker 1: we've got to stop unnecessarily scaring the pants off of them.
20:53
Speaker 1: You know. It's it doesn't seem like a hot take
20:55
Speaker 1: today to say, hey, we shouldn't normalize telling our children
20:59
Speaker 1: that a monster will throw them in a sack and
21:02
Speaker 1: then kill them at the tender young age of six
21:05
Speaker 1: by boiling them alive. I don't think that's a hot take.
21:09
Speaker 1: Maybe it was a different time. You know, just say
21:12
Speaker 1: they're they're trying to steal the milk. There were always
21:22
Speaker 1: conflicting accounts about the Yule Lads. We've normalized the number
21:27
Speaker 1: thirteen that's considered canonical now, but back in the day
21:30
Speaker 1: you would hear people say there are eighty of these jokers.
21:33
Speaker 1: That's a long way to Christmas. If they're showing up
21:37
Speaker 1: one day after the next. Of course, they say they
21:40
Speaker 1: have different personalities. One of the reasons for their recent
21:45
Speaker 1: popularity can be traced back to nineteen thirty two. A
21:48
Speaker 1: poem by Johans Frog coulm is sort of you'll hear
21:54
Speaker 1: it compared to like the Night before Christmas. There's an
21:58
Speaker 1: English translation and this poem from two It is pretty
22:05
Speaker 1: simple rhyme scheme, and it's pretty fun to say. It's
22:09
Speaker 1: just to give you the beginning. Let me tell the
22:11
Speaker 1: story of the lads, a few charms who once upon
22:14
Speaker 1: a time used to visit our bombs. And it just
22:18
Speaker 1: goes on about, you know, describing everything we've described. Uh,
22:21
Speaker 1: they're mean, but it makes it seem like they're way
22:26
Speaker 1: more fun. Right, They're not trying to kill you. They
22:29
Speaker 1: don't bring the cat to eat you. Uh, it's it's
22:32
Speaker 1: supposed to kind of make it make it sound whimsical,
22:37
Speaker 1: sort of the same way that Father Christmas went through
22:40
Speaker 1: so many iterations until Coca Cola nailed down what he
22:43
Speaker 1: looked like. Right, And now all of a sudden we
22:45
Speaker 1: have the polar bear. I love that polar bear. I
22:47
Speaker 1: don't care. Polar bears are awesome. I mean, they're you know, terrifying.
22:51
Speaker 1: They'll definitely like rip your head off and uh and
22:54
Speaker 1: and eat your guts. But you know, the cuddly cg
22:57
Speaker 1: i ones are nice. They enjoy cocacola, not human flash again,
23:01
Speaker 1: sanitized version of all things where holidays are concerned. Um,
23:05
Speaker 1: because you know, we see the rhyming delight of this poem.
23:11
Speaker 1: Kind of presenting these youule lads is more kind of borish,
23:14
Speaker 1: sort of oh fish kind of creatures not necessarily out
23:17
Speaker 1: to do harm, but just more you know, kind of pranksters. Yeah,
23:21
Speaker 1: and they do have a bit of a mean streak,
23:24
Speaker 1: but they don't really necessarily mean to do any children
23:28
Speaker 1: any particular harm. And you know, to your point about
23:31
Speaker 1: nailing down kind of what they look like, they've started
23:34
Speaker 1: to take on much more of a sort of socially acceptable,
23:39
Speaker 1: white bearded Santa Clause, sort of David the Gnome kind
23:43
Speaker 1: of vibe. Yeah yeah, And these costumes apparently don't reflect
23:48
Speaker 1: the real deal Ule lads you'd meet on the mean
23:51
Speaker 1: streets of Iceland. One folklore tells us they've met more
23:55
Speaker 1: than eight hundred Icelanders that believe they've seen elves and
23:59
Speaker 1: four or five leave they've seen Yule lads. And the
24:02
Speaker 1: Yule lads that these folks said they saw were always
24:05
Speaker 1: described as old fashioned, dressed, pool a little dirty, a
24:09
Speaker 1: little rude, and hungry trying to get food, which that
24:13
Speaker 1: could be a lot of people. That's very true. But
24:15
Speaker 1: let's also not forget that this was all based on
24:17
Speaker 1: scarcity and the threat of starvation, right because not only
24:21
Speaker 1: are the Yule lads stealing food from children and from
24:24
Speaker 1: these families, they are in need of stealing food because
24:28
Speaker 1: they themselves are relegated to living in caves and this
24:31
Speaker 1: very scrappy dog eat dog existence, you know, I mean,
24:35
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's it's it's it's clear that Gorilla
24:38
Speaker 1: and and her husband with the unpronounceable name like to
24:41
Speaker 1: feast on human flesh, but the the Yule Lads that
24:44
Speaker 1: seem require human sustenance like sausages and batter and and
24:50
Speaker 1: cookies and stuff. So I mean they live a pretty
24:52
Speaker 1: tortured existence. It would seem. Yeah. Yeah, it's like we're
24:56
Speaker 1: saying earlier, folklore is amazing because as it gives us
25:00
Speaker 1: this insight into the story and evolution of the culture
25:05
Speaker 1: from which it originates. And he nailed it, man, The
25:09
Speaker 1: Iceland was not a super easy place to live for
25:15
Speaker 1: a long long time before you have the advent of
25:18
Speaker 1: heating technology or different supply chains to transport food. That's
25:24
Speaker 1: why that's why some things are so expensive in Iceland.
25:27
Speaker 1: It is a harsh environment and the Yule Lads, in
25:30
Speaker 1: very real way, are a story about that. And now
25:34
Speaker 1: that Iceland has become less of a threatening environment, right
25:40
Speaker 1: for people living in the modern day, it kind of
25:43
Speaker 1: makes sense that the Yule Lads would chill out a
25:46
Speaker 1: little bit, you know, they get a slightly less intense vibe.
25:51
Speaker 1: But the story is real. It did terrify children for
25:56
Speaker 1: a long time, and it is true it got so
26:00
Speaker 1: bad that the story eventually for a while was banned. Yeah,
26:05
Speaker 1: and I mean, you know, now I think it's more
26:08
Speaker 1: like uh St Nicholas kind of situation where they'll leave
26:11
Speaker 1: little bags of toys and children's shoes. Yeah, now they're benevolent,
26:18
Speaker 1: you know, and they do sort of I think the
26:20
Speaker 1: idea of of the lead up to Christmas in this
26:22
Speaker 1: part of the country, and I think even in in
26:25
Speaker 1: Germany and other parts of Europe, there's a bit of
26:27
Speaker 1: a mischief kind of quality to it. Like I almost
26:30
Speaker 1: think that uh, Christmas in Europe and in Iceland parts
26:34
Speaker 1: of the world like that, it's almost like a combination
26:37
Speaker 1: of what we know as Christmas here and what we
26:39
Speaker 1: would we would celebrate as Halloween. You know, there's a
26:43
Speaker 1: lot more of like a spirit kind of like quality
26:45
Speaker 1: to it, and like you know, ghosts and ghouls and
26:48
Speaker 1: things like that around Christmas. Yeah, it's interesting because there's
26:52
Speaker 1: a you see again the religious syncretism, because we sall
26:58
Speaker 1: see a lot of pre Chris and traditions that got
27:01
Speaker 1: folded into various stories. You know, it's the same reason
27:07
Speaker 1: Easter all of a sudden has a rabbit and eggs,
27:10
Speaker 1: which is not biblical canon but fun ydeo. I wanted
27:15
Speaker 1: to take a second before we wrapped today's episode and
27:18
Speaker 1: talk about one of my favorite weird genres, of film,
27:23
Speaker 1: which is the Christmas horror story. Have you guys seen
27:28
Speaker 1: Rare Exports a Christmas tale? I haven't, but you've mentioned
27:31
Speaker 1: a couple of times, and a good friend of mine
27:33
Speaker 1: has also suggested that I check out. I have seen Crampas,
27:37
Speaker 1: which is a lot of fun and very gremlin z.
27:39
Speaker 1: But I've heard great things about Rare Exports. Yeah, and
27:43
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's appropriate for older children. It's it's like
27:48
Speaker 1: a fantasy action horror film that's from Oh it's from Finland,
27:52
Speaker 1: that's right. I don't want to spoil it. But it's
27:55
Speaker 1: about the secret behind the real Santa Claus and that's
28:00
Speaker 1: pretty great. Yeah, so check it out, get a time.
28:03
Speaker 1: Crampus is cool to you know, we're you know what
28:07
Speaker 1: we're doing. No, let's say this. Let's say we're not
28:09
Speaker 1: late with our Christmas episode. We're very very early, and
28:13
Speaker 1: we want to give you time. We want to give
28:15
Speaker 1: you time to check out some of these amazing, amazing
28:19
Speaker 1: stories Christmas horror films, but also stories like this around
28:23
Speaker 1: the world that come from someplace much older. It's fascinating. Yeah,
28:28
Speaker 1: and if if if many folks maybe not particularly familiar
28:31
Speaker 1: with some of these more niche kind of holiday traditions
28:34
Speaker 1: from around the world. Uh, the You Lads and Gorilla
28:36
Speaker 1: in particular have not terribly long ago. Back in two
28:39
Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen, made an appearance in a pretty mainstream
28:43
Speaker 1: Netflix show called the what is it The Chilling Adventures
28:46
Speaker 1: of Sabrina Um, which is a kind of more adult
28:49
Speaker 1: kind of teen um retelling of Sabrina the Teenage which
28:53
Speaker 1: which was I think it was a maybe a book
28:56
Speaker 1: series and then it was a TV series starring Melissa
28:58
Speaker 1: Joan Hart. You'll remember of a certain age, folks of
29:01
Speaker 1: a certain age from Clarissa explains at all, but um,
29:04
Speaker 1: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has got a lot more
29:07
Speaker 1: kind of satanism and like ghouls and demons and all
29:10
Speaker 1: kinds of crazy gore and and uh and creepy stuff
29:13
Speaker 1: in And there is a Christmas special of that series
29:17
Speaker 1: that specifically talks about Gorilla and the You Lads. So
29:20
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it, but I look forward to checking
29:21
Speaker 1: it out because that sounds like a lot of fun.
29:23
Speaker 1: I kind of also want to go hunting. I want
29:25
Speaker 1: to not hunting. That's the wrong word, hidden folk. If
29:28
Speaker 1: you're hearing this, I apologize for that. I want to
29:31
Speaker 1: go on an expedition to Iceland to see what's what,
29:34
Speaker 1: see if we can find some hidden folk, inner culturally
29:38
Speaker 1: respectful way. Would you guys go with me totally? As
29:42
Speaker 1: long as you as long as you lead the way,
29:44
Speaker 1: I'll bring up the rear. You just pay for it, Ben,
29:47
Speaker 1: I'm in oh oh no, no, we're gonna yeah, We're
29:51
Speaker 1: gonna try to get this to be something that that
29:55
Speaker 1: her boss has will let us put in the budget.
29:57
Speaker 1: So ridiculous Histories World Tour started in Iceland, folks, let's
30:02
Speaker 1: manifest it as our spiritual friends say. Let's make it happen.
30:06
Speaker 1: Thank you in advance so much to everybody who comes
30:08
Speaker 1: out and sees us live in Iceland. Thank you to
30:11
Speaker 1: Cigaret Ross. Thank you to our super producer Mr Max
30:15
Speaker 1: Williams and nol So glad you're back from your travels.
30:19
Speaker 1: It sounds like you had a wonderful time. Are you
30:21
Speaker 1: going to go back around Christmas time to Europe? You know,
30:25
Speaker 1: I think it's might be a little cold for me.
30:27
Speaker 1: But I did have such a great time in Berlin
30:29
Speaker 1: in particular, and made some really good friends and met
30:31
Speaker 1: a few really great listeners. No one from this show
30:34
Speaker 1: in particular but some folks from stuff they don't want
30:36
Speaker 1: you to know. And and movie crush r I P.
30:38
Speaker 1: But yeah, I liked it so much. I think I
30:40
Speaker 1: want to go back once a year. Um, I really,
30:41
Speaker 1: I think it was my favorite city I've ever visited.
30:44
Speaker 1: And and and last little pop cultural touchstone on this type
30:46
Speaker 1: of thing. It's Norwegian. But there is a film called
30:49
Speaker 1: troll Hunter, uh from um I believe the early two
30:53
Speaker 1: thousands that is like a found footage kind of Blair
30:56
Speaker 1: Witch type thing um directed by and A overdall Um
31:01
Speaker 1: that I quite enjoyed. I love this one. There's also
31:05
Speaker 1: I've been waiting for a sequel for years, but I
31:08
Speaker 1: think the sequel got canceled, so enjoy enjoy troll Hunter
31:13
Speaker 1: for what it is now. It's aged well too. I
31:16
Speaker 1: actually recently had that on in the background when he's
31:19
Speaker 1: doing some research on trolls and speaking controls. Thank you
31:23
Speaker 1: as well as always to our own terrifying you will
31:27
Speaker 1: add Mr Jonathan Strickland, a k. The Quister. How's that
31:30
Speaker 1: for a thank you segue? He is the quintessential bridge troll.
31:34
Speaker 1: I love it, uh, and he actually does make you
31:36
Speaker 1: solve a riddle to get through That's basically what he
31:38
Speaker 1: does every time that we encounter him, not even even
31:42
Speaker 1: when we're not on air. It's like, man, I'm just
31:44
Speaker 1: trying to get some coffee, and he's like, coffee there.
31:48
Speaker 1: Maybe if you answer these riddles three like come on exactly. Yeah.
31:54
Speaker 1: It's been nice not having to go into the office
31:56
Speaker 1: as much, so we can usually avoid that, but then
31:58
Speaker 1: sometimes it does pop into zoom and trying to make
32:01
Speaker 1: me answer riddles and I'm like, I already have my coffee, Man,
32:03
Speaker 1: I don't need you be gone, and then I just
32:05
Speaker 1: kick him off the zoom uh and then he sends
32:07
Speaker 1: me a sad face emoji. And speaking of sending things,
32:12
Speaker 1: we would love to hear stories of regional holiday celebrations
32:17
Speaker 1: unique to your part of the world, so let us know.
32:21
Speaker 1: You can find us on the Internet where we are
32:24
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians on Facebook. You can also find us on
32:28
Speaker 1: Twitter and Instagram, not just as a show, but as individuals.
32:32
Speaker 1: You can follow my urban exploration and my weird research
32:36
Speaker 1: stuff on Twitter at ben Bull and hs W, or
32:39
Speaker 1: you can find me on Instagram where I am at
32:41
Speaker 1: ben Bowling bow l I n big things coming there.
32:44
Speaker 1: Stay tuned or stay tuned, Mr Noel Brown, Are the
32:48
Speaker 1: rumors true, my friend? Are you sipping the social meats? Well?
32:52
Speaker 1: I don't really play into rumor mongering, but um I
32:55
Speaker 1: do in fact having Instagram account which you can find
32:57
Speaker 1: at how now Noel Brown and I do have a
32:59
Speaker 1: couple of actual grid posts with some random snaps from
33:03
Speaker 1: my from my adventure in Berlin, so you can check
33:05
Speaker 1: that out there. Huge thanks to Max Williams, brother of
33:09
Speaker 1: Max Williams. It's like a bride of Frankenstein situation. Um
33:12
Speaker 1: Alex Williams who composed this theme. Christopher haciotis E Jeff
33:16
Speaker 1: Coats here in spirit you Ben Bolan, my main you
33:19
Speaker 1: a lad. We'll see you next tep books. For more
33:30
Speaker 1: podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
33:32
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.