WC #20 The Yule Lads and Icelandic Christmas

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Iceland is fiercely proud of their Yule Lads. But not everyone knows about the 13 stand-ins for Santa in the northern mountain island. So I get into their celebration and history with Heidi Herman and Benito Cereno.

Heidi has written multiple books about the Yule Lads for children as well as books on Icelandic folklore and culture.

• Heidi Herman’s Yule Lads Website (Yule Lads Legend)
• The Legend of the Yule Lads
• The Icelandic Yule Lade Mayhem at the North Pole
• The Guardians of Iceland and other Icelandic Folk Tales:  The Guardians, The Trolls of Vik, The Monster Worm, Drangey, the Sealskin and more

Benito Cereno was on the podcast last year to talk about Christmas comics. He’s written for a number of comics franchises (including The Tick), but he’s also a fascinating Christmas historian. He’s also the cohost of the pocast Apocrypals, where two non-believers read the Bible and talk about its history.

• Benito’s blog
• My other episode with Benito
• His short write up on the Yule Lads

Links mentioned on the show:

• “Jólasveinarnir” by Jóhannes úr Kötlum (the original poem in English translation)
• Brian Pilkington’s illustrated book Yule Lads
• The National Museum of Iceland’s Yule Lads celebration
• “Worrying” heh heh

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