E: 16/02 (12:00pm) Win a Copy of David Towsey's Your Resting Place (FB/Twitter)

Midnighter

Jo Fletcher Books

Ho ho ho! (+10 ‘ho’s, if you’re in Iceland!)

Welcome to day 4 of the JFB Christmas Celebration. Today, as you may have guessed from all the ‘ho’ing, we’re looking at Icelandic Christmas traditions!

There they have 13 different Santa-like figures, called J!lasveinn or Yule-lads. On the 13 days before Christmas, children will place their shoes on windowsills, and one Yule-lad per night will leave either gifts or rotting potatoes in them. I think I’d rather have coal – can you imagine having to wear your shoes after they’d had rotting fish in them…?

The Jolasveinn are said to be the children of two trolls called Grýla and Leppaluði, and every year they trek down from the mountains to scare children who misbehave. They are also accompanied by a Yule Cat, who eats children that don’t receive new clothes for Christmas.

Each Yule-lad has a name and a fondness of a specific type of mischief. Their names are:

• Stekkjarstaur or Sheep-Cote Clod, who harasses sheep, but is impaired by his stiff peg-legs.
• Giljagaur or Gully Imp, who Hides in gullies, waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the cowshed and steal milk
• Stufur or Itty Bitty, who is abnormally short and steals pans to eat the crust left on them
• Þvörusleikir or Spoon-Licker, who Steals Þvörur (a type of a wooden spoon with a long handle) to lick and is extremely thin due to malnutrition.
• Pottasleikir or Pot Licker, who steals leftovers from pots
• Askasleikir –or Bowl Licker, who hides under beds waiting for someone to put down their “askur” (a type of bowl with a lid used instead of dishes), which he then steals
• Hurðaskellir or Door Slammer, who likes to slam doors, especially during the night
• Skyrgamur or Skyr Gobbler, who likes to steal and eat Skyr, an Icelandic yoghurt
• Bjugnakrækir or Sausage Snatcher, who hides in the rafters and snatch sausages that are being smoked
• Gluggagægir or Window Peeper, who looks through windows in search of things to steal
• GattaÞefur or Doorway Sniffer, Has an abnormally large nose and an acute sense of smell which he uses to locate a type of Icelandic bread
• Ketkrokur or Meat Hooker, who uses a hook to steal meat
• Kertasnikir or Candle Beggar, who follows children in order to steal their candles

Sounds like a merry bunch, although some sound much more ominous than they actually are (I don’t like I’d like to meet someone called ‘Meat Hooker’.

Today’s gifts to you are, as usual, a giveaway and a blog! Today’s blog is our fabulous author David Towsey, telling us about the games he would like for Christmas (maybe he should invite the Yule-lads!) and the giveaway is for a copy of the first book in his The Walkin’ trilogy, YOUR BROTHER’S BLOOD.

To win, all you have to do is log in to Facebook or Twitter, ensure you’re following us/you like our page and then share or retweet the post with the link to this blog. You can find them here on Twitter and here on Facebook. Giveaway ends tomorrow (15th December) at 12pm.

Enjoy!