'One Christmas the household of Hraunsás went to Mass with the exception of two children who were to stay at home. When the people returned the children had vanished but their tracks led to the river. The children had fallen off the stone arch and drowned. Their mother was so overwhelmed with grief she had the arch destroyed to prevent such a recurrence.'
...a sad tale but really getting into the sagas, especially this one about Christmas.
Icelandic Christmas folklore depicts mountain-dwelling characters and monsters who come to town during Christmas. The stories are directed at children and are used to scare them into good behaviour. The folklore includes both mischievous pranksters who leave gifts during the night and monsters who eat disobedient children.
The figures are depicted as living together as a family in a cave and include Gryla, who is a giantess with an appetite for the flesh of mischievous children who she cooks in a large pot. Her husband, Leppaludi, is lazy and mostly stays at home in their cave.The Yule Cat is a huge and vicious cat who lurks about the snowy countryside during Christmas time and eats people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve.
The Yule Lads are their sons. They are a group of 13 mischievous pranksters who steal from or otherwise harass the population. (This aspect probably arose from the practice of outlawing wrongdoers who were banished into the wilderness. Outlawing was virtually a death sentence and any who managed to survive the brutal weather only did so by stealing from villages and farmsteads during the long winter nights.) They all have descriptive names such as Sheep-Cote Clod, Gully Gawk, Skyr Gobbler and Meat-Hook that convey their favorite way of harassing. They come to town one by one during the last 13 nights before Christmas leaving small gifts in shoes that children have placed on window sills, but if a child has been disobedient they instead leave a potato in the shoe.
What a great way to keep your kids good for that busy pre Christmas period...not daft these Vikings 😉