The Icelandic Christmas Cat
The Christmas cat is, so we hear, the house cat of the troll couple Grýla and Leppalúði, the parents of the 13 Icelandic Christmas companions, the jólasveinar.
If you get close enough, very carefully, without being eaten, you will see in the Christmas cat's stomach all the bones of the people it has already eaten...
I love these lovely little details that give the Icelandic Christmas season its very special charm!
[Translated from here.]
All year round this cat lives with Grýla,
Leppalúði and her 13 troll sons near the mosquito lake Mývatn in the lava mountains of Dimmuborgir. But at Christmas time she comes down to the people.
Leppalúði and her 13 troll sons near the mosquito lake Mývatn in the lava mountains of Dimmuborgir. But at Christmas time she comes down to the people.
The Christmas Cat is a huge, black monster with fiery, plate-sized eyes.
In the dark time before Christmas, the Christmas cat lay in wait for lonely hikers in snowfields and then pounces on them to eat their victims themselves or drag them off to Grýla in the mountains, who she throws into her human meat stew. By the way, Grýla prefers to eat naughty children!
The only thing that can protect people from this terrible Christmas cat is to wear a new article of clothing at Christmas. So a very good reason to work diligently on the wool and knit new clothes after the sheep are driven in autumn.
Since 2018, a figure of the Christmas cat has stood on Lækjartorg in Reykjavík. The cat is around 5 meters high, around 6 meters long and is illuminated with around 6,500 LED lights.
Every year in mid-November, the Christmas Cat lighting is ceremoniously switched on for the first time. The mayor of Reykjavík gives a speech, a brass band plays Christmas music and Grýla and Leppalúði, Santa's parents, mingle and celebrate. This year this pre-Christmas event took place on November 16th.
Have you actually taken a close look at the Christmas cat on Lækjartorg?
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