If you’re spending the holidays here in Reykjavik, be sure to keep an eye out for Sausage-Swiper, Window-Peeper, and Door-Slammer. They’re three of the Yule Lads, a group of 13 mischievous pranksters who—according to local folklore—visit homes one by one to leave rewards or punishments for children on each of the 13 days leading up to Christmas. Tonight, the Gully Gawk is scheduled for a visitation, waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the cowshed and steal milk. Modern versions of the lads sometimes portray them in a benevolent light, even dressed like Santa Claus, but other stories are dark. The lads are said to be the sons of Gryla, a mountain troll with an appetite for mischievous children. Let’s hope we’re on the nice list this year.
Iceland awaits the Yule Lads
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Walking among the giants
-
Mid-Autumn Festival
-
Independence Day
-
Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy
-
When science looks like magic
-
Dancers perform ‘Revelations’
-
Let us introduce you…
-
Cloudy with a chance of enlightenment
-
Happy Astronomy Day!
-
Waiānapanapa State Park, Maui, Hawaii
-
Penguins can t fly!
-
World Architecture Day
-
National Mushroom Month
-
World Wildlife Conservation Day
-
Ceremony Hall at Sweden s Icehotel
-
There was gold in them there hills…
-
Sunny day, sweepin the clouds away
-
Okavango Delta, Botswana
-
Angkor, Cambodia
-
Happy Thanksgiving
-
Saskatchewan s spookier side
-
Diwali
-
Santorini through the clouds
-
The Spirit of Harlem by Louis Delsarte
-
Up on the glacier
-
Computer science on the page
-
Earth at Perihelion
-
Ski touring in Austria
-
Computer Science EDU Week
-
A bridge too Fawr