Jól In Medieval Iceland (part two of two)

Jól In Medieval Iceland (part two of two)

Christmas Folklore

Folk beliefs surrounding Jól in Iceland are tenacious and long lived. Some more modern folk traditions, like those about the ogress Grýla, her sons the Jólasveinar (Yule Lads) and the Jólaköttur (Yule Cat) originate from at least the 17th century and gained new popularity in the 20th century. These traditions are well known by Icelanders and foreigners interested in Iceland perhaps because they are the most popular and commericialized. Indeed, every week when I head to the grocery store in winter to buy a carton of milk, I find festive cartons of jólamjólk (Yule Milk) decorated with the Yule Lads who are up to their usual tomfoolery. However, some darker and more visceral folk beliefs lie in the saga literature or in the annals of Folklorists in Reykjavík. After working through some of these traditional stories it is no wonder to me that Icelanders conceived of them. As the sun rises a little lower each day and the Icelandic coast is struck by sleet and rain, I too begin to wonder if summer will come again and if I am alone in the darkness.

Meet the Extended Family

Head of the Folklore department at the University of Iceland Terry Gunnell put it best in a lecture he gave at The National Museum. Family is very important to Icelanders at Christmas, but that extended family goes beyond forgotten great aunts and obscure cousins, it includes all sorts of supernatural entities. Perhaps it is because the dark of winter is so liminal, so trapped between light and dark that the borders between the human world and the occoult world become hazy. Early Icelanders may have believed that spirits living in the countryside would use mid-winter to physically visit farmsteads to demand tribute. The dead, who were also believed to inhabit the countryside where they died, also used mid-winter to return to the living for a time.

The 13th century Eyrbyggja saga (Saga of the People of Eyri) captures the dark atmosphere of mid-winter in Iceland. Around Christmastime, the ghost of a woman began wandering the region and several violent deaths had occured. The darkness and loss had made families very anxious. The next evening a fishing expedition was lost to the sea, and the bodies were never found. Despite the terrible news the family held it's traditional Christmas feast. The feast was interuppted by the drown men, who came into the home soaking wet and promptly sat by the fire. These nightly visits continued until the ghosts were exorcised by a Christian priest and sent back to the hills from where they came.

Vivid stories like the vignette from Eyrbyggja are complemented in the literature by stories of roaming ghosts attacking heroes (as in Grettis saga) and angry trolls coming down from the hills during Jól. In modern times, Professor Gunnell has noticed a different trend in folklore traditions: Huldufólk (Hidden People, elves) have replaced the dead as the supernatural beings that visit farmsteads during Christmastime. The most common motif of these folk stories involves the inhabitants of a farmstead leaving for the traditional Catholic Midnight Mass, except for one lonely soul who remains at home to watch over the household. As you can imagine, this was not a desirable task, especially in the mind of Icelander growing up with stories like those mentioned above. During the night, the watchguard would hear rustlings outside and often hide somewhere in the house. Huldufólk would gather in the household and throw a lavish party with food, drink and dancing. Eventually the man would make himself known and the Huldufólk would scatter into the hills and disappear. The basic story has many variants, sometimes involving a madien or rewards from the Huldufólk. However, the spirits of the dead may return in the modern era and many Icelanders still visit cemeteries to remind the dead that they are remembered.

Concluding Thoughts

Icelandic folklore is rich and diverse, the stories associated with Christmas are no exception. To many scholars they are a source for inquiry into pre-Christian or pre-Modern beliefs. But even for those who do not seek to plumb the cultural origins and depths of Icelandic folklore, these stories are good company during the long winter.