Stekkjarstaur--Gimpy/Sheepfold Stick

Sæl/ll (greetings)! This greeting is sæl to females and sæll for males. The "æ" Icelandic letter is a unique sound in the language and I think sounds like if you say the English letters "i" then "e" together in one sound. Try it!

Down to business now...The first yule lad/santa came to town today! He brought me a large block of peppermint chocolate, my favorite, and left it in my shoe! I wonder how he knew I love that chocolate ;) Typically, the gifts left in shoes are small like little toys and candies. I should mention that these 13 yule lads are trolls and boogeyman like creatures (top picture), just like their parents Grýla and Leppalúði. Although, over time the Icelandic culture has accepted a mild version where the santas seem friendly and less terrifying (bottom picture). They even have started wearing red clothes somewhat like the Santa I know and love. However, I think it´s fun to hear the scary version. Apparently in 1748, a law banned parents from scarying their children with stories of trolls and evil creatures. So the story was altered slightly. Despite that, when these yule lads come to town they like to bring chaos and disrupt joyful Christmas celebration and each lad does it in their own way.
The first santa´s, and also the eldest, name is "stekkjarstaur". This translates to "Gimpy" or "Sheepfold Stick" (some translations vary--Icelandic is a difficult language to translate these traditional names from. Maybe now you can understand why I often want to throw my Icelandic Language textbook across the room!). His pesky little activities are known the same through many translations. Stekkjarstaur has very stiff kness, which is where he gets "Gimpy". This could look quite terrifying to see a gimpy troll in your house! He tries to drink the milk from farmers ewes or if these days you live in the city...I suppose he just drinks your milk from the fridge! This can be annoying if you want to eat cereal in the morning ;) That is all I know about this lad, so until tomorrow when Santa #2 comes to town....