Gryla and the Tomte
The holidays are here, and while most people are cozying up to tales of Santa, sugarplums, and sparkly snowflakes, we’re turning down the lights and stepping into the darker corners of winter folklore. In this special episode of You Two Scare Me, hosts Feliz and Andi each take the mic to bring you chilling stories from Nordic lands. These tales are colder than a snowstorm and creepier than an unlit attic on Christmas Eve.
The Icelandic Christmas Witch: Grýla
Let’s begin with Grýla, one of Iceland’s most enduring, terrifying, and frankly nightmare-inducing holiday figures. Grýla isn’t just older than Santa. She’s older than Christianity in Iceland. Older than Iceland itself.
This ancient ogress first appeared in 13th-century Icelandic sagas. Back then, she wasn’t tied to Christmas but was described as a tröllkona, or troll-woman. The word tröll was used broadly in medieval Iceland to mean anything supernatural or beyond human understanding. Grýla became a figure of fear, said to lurk in lava fields or mountain caves, watching and waiting.
Descriptions of Grýla vary by region and story. Some say she has a stone-like face, hooves for feet, and a horned tail. Others describe her as having 15 or even 40 tails, multiple heads, and a beard. The most extreme tale claims she has 300 heads, each with six eyes and its own nose, with enough sacks hanging from her tails to carry thousands of naughty children.
And that is her specialty. Grýla hunts and eats misbehaving kids. She tosses them in her sack, hauls them to her mountain cave, and boils them into a stew to help her survive the long, brutal Icelandic winter.
Meet the Family: Lazy Husbands and Mischievous Children
Grýla has a husband. Actually, she’s had three. She ate the first one, Gustur, when he got on her nerves. Her second, Boli, is the father of her infamous children. Depending on the legend, he either died of old age or got cooked too. Her third and current husband is Leppalúði, a lazy troll who survives purely by avoiding Grýla’s wrath.
Together, Grýla and Boli birthed the Yule Lads (Jólasveinar), thirteen grotesque troll-spirits who come down from the mountains in the nights leading up to Christmas. Each one has a very specific (and often ridiculous) obsession. Their names tell the tale: Spoon-Licker, Sausage-Swiper, Doorway-Sniffer, and Candle-Stealer, just to name a few.
Originally, the Yule Lads were feared. They stole food and sometimes children. But over time, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, they softened into pranksters who now leave small gifts or rotten potatoes in kids’ shoes, depending on behavior.
Beware the Yule Cat
If Grýla and the Yule Lads weren’t enough to keep children on their best behavior, Icelandic folklore also brings us the Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat. This monstrous black feline prowls the countryside during Christmas and eats anyone who didn’t receive new clothes.
That’s right. If you didn’t get a new sweater, the Yule Cat might hunt you down. This myth was used to encourage productivity, especially during the wool-harvesting season.
A Symbol of Winter’s Harsh Reality
Grýla is more than a monster. She is the embodiment of the harsh, deadly Icelandic winter. Some scholars believe she is a metaphor for famine, snow blindness, or the way the cold season claims the weak. For centuries, darkness reigned for 20 hours a day, and blizzards could bury homes. Children went missing. Grýla’s legend emerged from that fear.
Church records from the 1700s show priests trying to ban the use of Grýla as a scare tactic. She was too terrifying, even for the Church.
And yet, stories of Grýla persist. Hikers report giant shadowy figures, guttural roars, and the feeling of being watched in the lava fields of Dimmuborgir. Paranormal researchers theorize that Grýla might be a land spirit, a landvættir, tied to Iceland’s geography. Whether troll, spirit, or ancient warning, Grýla endures.
The Tomte: Scandinavia’s Smallest and Most Judgmental Holiday Spirit
Next, we are heading to Sweden, Norway, and Finland, where Christmas is guarded by a very different kind of creature — the tomte.
Also known as the nisse, tomten, or tonttu, the tomte is a tiny old man, usually child-sized, with a long beard, peasant clothes, and a red cap. He lives in barns, attics, and under floorboards. He watches over the animals and the land. Unlike Santa, he’s tied to the property, not the family. So if you move, the tomte stays.
Some say he is the spirit of the first farmer buried on the land. Others say he simply is the land itself, a guardian who demands respect. He’s hardworking, protective, and deeply temperamental.
Do Not Forget the Butter
The tomte becomes associated with Christmas through one key tradition: the Christmas porridge. Every household was expected to leave a bowl of warm porridge with butter on top on Christmas Eve. This wasn’t optional. Forget the butter, and the tomte might break tools, scare the livestock, or curse your household’s luck.
In one tale, a farmhand hides the butter at the bottom of the porridge. The tomte sees no butter, becomes enraged, kills the farm’s best cow, then finishes the porridge and discovers the butter. Oops. To make up for it, he steals a cow from the neighbors and replaces the one he murdered. So… not exactly guilt-free.
From Farm Spirit to Christmas Icon
The Church didn’t approve of the tomte. Midwinter offerings to pagan spirits were seen as dangerous. But by the 1800s, the tomte started evolving into a gentler Christmas figure. Artists like Jenny Nyström illustrated the tomte for holiday cards, blending him with the Yule Goat and Saint Nicholas to create the jultomte, Scandinavia’s version of Santa.
In Viktor Rydberg’s 1881 poem Tomten, the little spirit walks the snowy farm alone on Christmas Eve, pondering life and death while the world sleeps. It’s both cozy and unsettling, perfectly capturing the Nordic vibe.
Today, the tomte appears in Christmas decorations and stories, often portrayed as cute and cheerful. But beneath the surface is a figure of deep power. He still guards homes, judges humans, and expects that porridge. With butter. Always butter.
A Holiday Warning, Wrapped in Folklore
Grýla and the tomte come from vastly different parts of the Nordic world, but they serve a similar purpose. They remind us to respect the seasons, care for our homes, be kind to animals, and honor tradition. They are part monster, part metaphor, and part moral compass — the ghostly boundary between warmth and cold, good behavior and punishment.
So this holiday season, take care. Watch the snow-covered hills for shadows that move. Leave out the porridge. And for the love of all things festive, do not forget the butter.
Happy Holidays from the You Two Scare Me Podcast. Respect the spooky. And don’t wake the tomte.
