April 19, 2022 • 33 mins
Many countries have their own, distinct Christmas traditions, but Iceland's Yule Lads are especially disturbing. Born of a monsterous giantess, these thirteen creatures each specialize in certain types of harassment or theft, leaving gifts for good children, and rotten potatoes for the rest. In today's episode, the guys explore the origin of this strange story -- and how, once upon a time, it was actually outlawed.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
so much for tuning in. Shout out to our own
Santa Claus, the one and only Mr Max Williams. They
called me, Ben. Let's let's get some Uh. No, we're
keeping We're going to keep going. Uh let's get some
weird Christmas music getting this season? Noel, I would say,
(00:47):
you and I are fans of Christmas time, especially in
the spring, uh, which is you know what I like
to celebrate Christmas. People look at me kind of funny,
but you know, I think Christmas should be able to
be celebrated year round. We should make our own Christmas
traditions because, as it turns out, you know, the americanized
sort of Coca qualified version of Santa Claus and the
(01:11):
Christmas Polar Bears and all that, oh product of marketing.
I'm more of a fan of the weird, dark, spooky,
folk loreic traditions of Christmas that is much more prevalent
in other parts of the world. And boy, are we
getting into one that's quite a doozy today. Agreed. Give
me the crampuses, Yes, give me your tired, poor huddled
(01:32):
folklore yearning to be normalized me your children stuffed into
sacks and made into stews to be devoured by which
like troll creatures. But we're not taking black Pete in
the dal just to be He's canceled forever at all time,
he's canceled, so canceled by us at least. Yes, in
typical ridiculous history fashion, folks, we are celebrating a holiday.
(01:58):
Uh kind of late to our very early however youone
to say it. We just have so much fun with
this story. We can't wait to explore it with you.
We do want to give some brief shout outs. First,
big big shout out to our peer podcast. Stuff you
missed in history class. We were talking of fair and
believe they had had a take on this back in
(02:20):
the day, several several years ago now, but we're still
fascinating with this. We actually just for rolling. We're talking
about how much we dig Iceland. I think it's on
It's definitely on my bucket list to go. I haven't
been able to go since the pandemic hit. But uh,
what about unial nex Oh, it's definitely ever since I
first covered cigar Ross in college, I've wanted to go
(02:41):
to Iceland and just for that Totle reason right there,
just like holping, i ould run into them. Oh yeah, yeah,
then you're definitely gonna run into Segar Ross and York
just down the boulevard. You know. They're they're just they're
always running around drinking tiny cups of espresso and eating
rotten shark meat. That's just how it goes. Now. My
girlfriend um Had has been, uh and a few friends
(03:01):
of mine have been, and it's a very beautiful place
but apparently uh stunning lee expensive just just like yeah,
that's what I've heard, Yes, studyingly expensive. Also if you
don't like cold weather, it's not for you, but it
is an adventure worth having. A lot of my friends
have gone as well, but I haven't talked to them yet.
(03:23):
About a particularly Icelandic Christmas tradition, something called the Yule Lads.
You see, if you are a young tyke growing up
in Iceland, you have not one father Christmas, but you
have thirteen father Christmas is. They're not called the Yule Dads,
but they're called the Yule Lads, and during the thirteen
(03:43):
days leading up to actual facts Christmas, these guys who
are whimsical, marry little rascals, a little bit mischievous, mischievous.
They take turns visiting children, and the way it goes,
each of those nights, a kid places one of their
shoes on the window sill, and if you're a good kid,
(04:04):
then that Yule Lad of that day will leave candy,
and if not, they'll do some other stuff that will
will get into Right now, there are a lot less
creepy today, right, they've been kind of sanitized in as
in the Great Telephone Game of History. But back in
seventeen six, parents were legitimately worried about what was what
(04:30):
these stories were doing to kids. So maybe we talk
a little bit about about the yule Lads, right, They aren't.
They aren't just like thing one through thirteen and some
dr Seusian way. They have their own distinct personalities. They
got their own vibe each, all thirteen of them. There
(04:51):
there are crew of individuals. That's right. Then, they've got
some very interesting, uh traits. Let's just say it's almost
like a snow white kind of situation. The Uleads each
have their own um, you know, personalities, uh much in
smurf like fashion as well. The National Museum of Iceland
(05:11):
describes it thus, Lee, and we got this from a
Smithsonian article. Meet the Thirteen ule Ads, Iceland's own mischievous
Santa clauses Uh, and here's what they have to say.
Dozens of different names for the ule Ads appear in
different folk tales and stories. A popular poem about the
ul Ads about the late Johannes or Kutlum, which first
appeared in the book Uln Comma Christmas Is Coming in
(05:33):
nineteen thirty two, served to make their names and number
much better known. The names of the thirteen ule Ads
that most Icelanders know today are all derived from that poem.
They each come on their own nights of the season.
U and you know we're not native Icelandic speakers. We're
gonna do our best. Some of these pronunciations are a
little tricky for our American tongues, but we're gonna do
(05:54):
our best here. So on the first night December twelve,
we have steck yard Stour, also known as Gimpie, who
was known for harassing sheep in order to suckle some
of their milk. But he has these stiff peg legs,
so he's not entirely successful in doing this usually. Then
who do we have on the second night, the thirteenth
(06:16):
of December. Well, it's interesting because what we'll see is
that it's almost like a high screw. All of the
Yule lads have their specific thing they like to do,
and they're often stymied by some sort of other conditions.
So the next guy is gully gac that would be
his English translation. He hides in gullies and he's all
(06:39):
about waiting for the right time to sneak into the
local cow shed and steal milk. And it goes on
the names like spoon liquor, pot scraper, sky Er, gobbler,
skier being a kind of yogurt, the guy who just
really likes yogurt. And then one of my favorites I
don't know why is sausage wiper. Yeah, December. He hides
(07:03):
and rafters and he steals sausages that are being smoked exactly.
Then we have the pervious of the crew window peeper,
who is known for looking in on um, you know,
the families as they slumber, I imagine, and eyeballing things
to steal. Sure, okay, okay, window peeper, I'm sure that's
(07:24):
what you're up to. Uh. And then we have gattup
pure goat or doorway sniffer. Yeah, so he does. He's
got a big old nose that he uses to sniff doorways. Um.
And he is looking specifically for Icelandic holiday pastries. Um.
Then on they three we have meat hook or catch
(07:46):
crooker and he steals meat using a hook. A lot
of a lot of food theft going right here. And
then we have candle steeler or or like the final Boss.
That's right, he's the final Boss or Karat Knox Ni
Karat Knox Nick here I think, and he uh follows children,
(08:09):
you know, as they go to bed, and then he
steals their candles. So all of this mischief in Mayhem
totals thirteen day debacle leading up to Christmas. And um,
after this is all done, they all go back to
their cave somewhere in the mountains of Iceland, which I
(08:33):
I love this story. I think folklore is a great
way to learn about culture. Door slammer, well, we missed, Yeah,
we missed, door slammer. I don't know if we got to.
We did say pot scraper, right, Do we talk about
bowl liquor as well? We've got bowl liquor as well.
I think that rounds out the crew there. They're they're
(08:55):
all doing very similar things. They're all either licking spoons
or scraping pots, or steve in food or or or
smelling his wife and smelling window, smelling doors, peeping in
through windows. And they're all a bunch of creeps, it
would seem I don't find this charming at all. I
find it, you know, I like a good rascal story. Um.
The reason they all have kind of related predilections is
(09:16):
due to the fact that they are siblings. During these
thirteen days and throughout the rest of the year, their
parents are around Gila and Lepeloy, and they're the enforcers.
They will punish kids who are very, very naughty. They
are scary, ugly mean er ah, and anybody who runs
(09:37):
into them is considered terribly unlucky. Grila in particular is
a hard case because Grila will sneak into the homes
of insolent children, shove them in a sack, and eat
them in a stew back in Hilaire yikes joints uh.
If you ask any iceland or about her, they will
tell you that their parents told them the story of Grila,
(10:00):
and that they genuinely are scared or were scared of
her growing up. And I don't know if we mentioned this,
but well we're talking about the Smithsonian article. What's great
is you can see some cool stylized pictures of the
Yule Lads, who are a little old to be called lads.
But shout out to Rachel Newer for excellent work there.
Do check out that article. Yeah, and the tourism board,
(10:22):
I guess of of Iceland collaborated with the magazine by
Icelandic Hotels and there's a really great article called Iceland's
thirteen You lads don't call them santas so which were
also pulling some good info from So yeah, I mean,
you're right, Ben, this is a cautionary tale for children.
The ul Lads maybe a little less so because they
did kind of evolve into more just like cookie mischievous
(10:45):
bringers of of Ule tied cheer. Well yeah exactly, but
the origin of the story is much much much darker.
So Gila in particular is the most terrifying of all
of these figures. Um. She is known to be an
Icelandic Christmas ghoul who is quite large, much more of
like a combination of like a witch and a troll,
(11:08):
and the end has uh I think cloven hoofs so
very Crampus like, and also thirteen tales, presumably one for
each of her sons were representing each of the you lads.
She lives deep in the mountains with her you know,
demonic children and allows one to come to the village
on each day leading up to Christmas, and Christmas essentially
(11:31):
serves as open season on naughty children, whom you know,
given the opportunity, she'll throw into a sack and boil
them alive. Uh. And this is a tale that children
in Iceland grew up knowing about, like much the same
as Crampas. I mean here in America, Santa Claus kind
of occupies both of those roles. You'll give you a
(11:51):
good present if you're good, and nothing if you're bad,
or like, you know, a lump of coal or whatever
it might be, but nothing particularly you know, damaging or dangerous. Right. Yeah,
And this is this is fascinating because we're also seeing
religious syncretism, I want to point out, and anything. We'll
get into this a little bit later. But Gila, originally
(12:14):
I think, is a giant tests or a troll, and
she when she's first mentioned in this poem of Grila.
She's not linked to Christmas lore at all. She's just
linked to being the monstrous matriarch of the Yule Lads.
She lives deep deep in the mountains with her demonic brood. Also,
(12:36):
she's known for eating children, but she also has a
little bit more of a sophisticated palette. She is thought
to have killed and eaten her first three husbands because
they board her and at one time she just thought
these guys would be better as soup than they would
be as romantic partners. And apparently in some versions of
(13:00):
the story, these folks, the Yule Lads and their mom
roll through with a cat. Joel couturin the child eating
Christmas Cat is part of the crew, and he stands
by to do his own devouring as misbehaving children boil
away and the family stew. So to be very clear,
(13:20):
if you're a young Icelandic child, the tradition is this
be good, you get some candy, otherwise you will be
boiled alive and eating. The choice is yours. That seems
like a little heavy metal kind of way to treat kids,
But there's some there's so much stuff I want to
talk about with folklore of Iceland, but maybe we should
(13:43):
may we should start out by talking about like where
the Yule Lads come from, because they have, like you
can already tell, they have a lot in common with
other Christmas traditions that are meant to keep children behaving,
right to obey the authority, used to obey the parents.
If you're good, you get toys. If you're bad, I
(14:05):
think the more modern tradition says you get coal or
a potato. Oh yeah, but you know not justoato. Potato
is at least a delicious snack if you potato put
in the stew right. I've been doing these potato have
(14:26):
you heard of? It's le extra work, but I love
it and I make them like once a week though,
very nice, very fancy. That's the thing, though, Ben, I mean,
like you know our traditions, you know, I mean, we've
talked about how Santa Claus is sort of the original
conspiracy theory that teaches children to distrust authorities, you know,
specifically parents, but he usually is revealed at some point,
(14:48):
whether the kids figured out themselves or the parents. You know.
Let the cat of the bag, not the child eating
catch just the proverbial cat um that this is all
kind of made up of folkloric type stuff. But the
understand ending in Iceland, even with the parents, for the
most part, is that these creatures are real. There is
a serious tradition of belief in in this kind of folklore,
(15:10):
especially in things like elves, which are oftentimes demonic spirits
of the forest. There was a show, I believe it
was an Icelandic show called Elves that was sort of
like almost like et meets the Gremlins kind of. It
wasn't my favorite, but it was about these flesh eating
elf creatures that you know reek havoc and cause you know,
utter chaos. So there is a pretty significant you know,
(15:35):
since that these are actual creatures that the dwell in
the in the surrounding woods. There is a guy by
the name of Magnus scarfion Insen who is the headmaster
of Iceland's Elf School and a top researcher of elf
folklore in Iceland, and he says that the l lads
(15:57):
more benign kind of presentation is a much more recent invention,
since Iceland has become a bit more of a a thriving,
kind of comparatively metropolitan area that's very big on tourism.
But there was a time when things were very very dire.
Food was very very scarce, and the winters were brutally
(16:17):
cold in times before you know, um centralized heating and
air and all of that stuff. So, uh, you, if
you think about it in those terms, these creatures coming
in and stealing your Christmas dinner or your candles, those
be serious threats to your lifelihood, to your survival. Yeah. Absolutely,
And we've got to go here to Terry garriluh, folklore's
(16:39):
professor at the University of Iceland Uh, and he talks
a little bit about the evolution of multiple separate cultural
traditions into what we call the hood folk or the
hidden people. Today. They're living too in a dimension just
to the left of yours. And it's true that at
times like construct action has been halted for fear of
(17:02):
offending the hidden folk. I'd love to hear from some
fellow ridiculous historians who have spent time in Iceland. I'd
love to hear your take on this. I think we
all would. The thing is Iceland is really a multicultural place.
Over time, these separate concepts that people brought with them
to the area merged in this collective idea of the
(17:22):
hidden people UH, and now there are multitudes of theories
about them, sometimes contradictory, one saying these were the quote
dirty strange children of ev that she hid from God
and when God discovered her secrets, condemned them to an
alternate world. And then of course other people say that
their fallen angels. You can encounter no shortage of anecdotes
(17:47):
of eyewitness accounts from people who believe they have, in
one way or another, encountered the Hidden Folk. You can
see a catalog of this over at the Elf School's website,
which is the elf school dot com. Just go to
contemporary tales and you will you will see people who
seem to genuinely believe they've run into something supernatural, extraordinary.
(18:12):
I think the Elf School said fifty four percent of
Icelanders just over half believe that the Hidden Folk are real.
It's strange because they are if they are treated as real.
What's strange about it is they've been treated as real
despite the fact that their image has tremendously softened from
(18:32):
the present day. UH. Over the past hundred years or so,
they've become much more friendly, much more like oh you little,
you little scamp, instead of being you know, the people
who might mean your family might not make it through winter.
They were guys who stole the Christmas food. They're sniffing,
(18:54):
you know, they're sniffing at the windows when you're cooking
the lamb uh. They're stealing milk from sheep. They might
leave you to starve. They eat the candles, and the
candles are important because candles provide warmth right when you're inside. Yeah.
I think a big factor of their evolution was really
(19:16):
the emergence of Christianity in Iceland, which didn't come about
until what one thousand CE, I think that's right. That
was after the King of Norway made it the law
of the land to be a Christian and sent missionaries
to convert the the indigenous people of Iceland. Of course,
you know, as we know, when these things happen, that
does not just white clean the slate of um. You know,
(19:40):
generations of tradition and folklore. But as we know, with
the way like pagan holidays oftentimes have emerged with Christian
traditions like Easter, and you know, things that were once
um looked very very different from what they became Uh,
they don't entirely disappear, They just sort of morph into
something more pallid double you know. For the Christian ruling regime,
(20:03):
and and oftentimes these things are encouraged or mandated by laws.
So there was a law that was passed in the
sixteenth century that said, quote all disorderly and scandalous entertainment
at Christmas and other times and Shrove Tide revels are
strongly forbidden on pain of serious punishment. And then in
seventeen forty six there was a public decree that actually
(20:25):
forbid telling children about the you lads in order to
scare them straight. As they say, yeah, the idea was
that this, this story as it was told, was so
terrified that it was in a way traumatic to children.
So for the good of the kids, the young guy slanders,
(20:48):
we've got to stop unnecessarily scaring the pants off of them.
You know. It's it doesn't seem like a hot take
today to say, hey, we shouldn't normalize telling our children
that a monster will throw them in a sack and
then kill them at the tender young age of six
by boiling them alive. I don't think that's a hot take.
(21:09):
Maybe it was a different time. You know, just say
they're they're trying to steal the milk. There were always
conflicting accounts about the Yule Lads. We've normalized the number
thirteen that's considered canonical now, but back in the day
(21:30):
you would hear people say there are eighty of these jokers.
That's a long way to Christmas. If they're showing up
one day after the next. Of course, they say they
have different personalities. One of the reasons for their recent
popularity can be traced back to nineteen thirty two. A
poem by Johans Frog coulm is sort of you'll hear
(21:54):
it compared to like the Night before Christmas. There's an
English translation and this poem from two It is pretty
simple rhyme scheme, and it's pretty fun to say. It's
just to give you the beginning. Let me tell the
story of the lads, a few charms who once upon
(22:14):
a time used to visit our bombs. And it just
goes on about, you know, describing everything we've described. Uh,
they're mean, but it makes it seem like they're way
more fun. Right, They're not trying to kill you. They
don't bring the cat to eat you. Uh, it's it's
supposed to kind of make it make it sound whimsical,
(22:37):
sort of the same way that Father Christmas went through
so many iterations until Coca Cola nailed down what he
looked like. Right, And now all of a sudden we
have the polar bear. I love that polar bear. I
don't care. Polar bears are awesome. I mean, they're you know, terrifying.
They'll definitely like rip your head off and uh and
and eat your guts. But you know, the cuddly cg
i ones are nice. They enjoy cocacola, not human flash again,
(23:01):
sanitized version of all things where holidays are concerned. Um,
because you know, we see the rhyming delight of this poem.
Kind of presenting these youule lads is more kind of borish,
sort of oh fish kind of creatures not necessarily out
to do harm, but just more you know, kind of pranksters. Yeah,
(23:21):
and they do have a bit of a mean streak,
but they don't really necessarily mean to do any children
any particular harm. And you know, to your point about
nailing down kind of what they look like, they've started
to take on much more of a sort of socially acceptable,
white bearded Santa Clause, sort of David the Gnome kind
(23:43):
of vibe. Yeah yeah, And these costumes apparently don't reflect
the real deal Ule lads you'd meet on the mean
streets of Iceland. One folklore tells us they've met more
than eight hundred Icelanders that believe they've seen elves and
four or five leave they've seen Yule lads. And the
Yule lads that these folks said they saw were always
(24:05):
described as old fashioned, dressed, pool a little dirty, a
little rude, and hungry trying to get food, which that
could be a lot of people. That's very true. But
let's also not forget that this was all based on
scarcity and the threat of starvation, right because not only
are the Yule lads stealing food from children and from
these families, they are in need of stealing food because
(24:28):
they themselves are relegated to living in caves and this
very scrappy dog eat dog existence, you know, I mean,
I don't know, it's it's it's it's clear that Gorilla
and and her husband with the unpronounceable name like to
feast on human flesh, but the the Yule Lads that
seem require human sustenance like sausages and batter and and
(24:50):
cookies and stuff. So I mean they live a pretty
tortured existence. It would seem. Yeah. Yeah, it's like we're
saying earlier, folklore is amazing because as it gives us
this insight into the story and evolution of the culture
from which it originates. And he nailed it, man, The
Iceland was not a super easy place to live for
(25:15):
a long long time before you have the advent of
heating technology or different supply chains to transport food. That's
why that's why some things are so expensive in Iceland.
It is a harsh environment and the Yule Lads, in
very real way, are a story about that. And now
that Iceland has become less of a threatening environment, right
(25:40):
for people living in the modern day, it kind of
makes sense that the Yule Lads would chill out a
little bit, you know, they get a slightly less intense vibe.
But the story is real. It did terrify children for
a long time, and it is true it got so
bad that the story eventually for a while was banned. Yeah,
(26:05):
and I mean, you know, now I think it's more
like uh St Nicholas kind of situation where they'll leave
little bags of toys and children's shoes. Yeah, now they're benevolent,
you know, and they do sort of I think the
idea of of the lead up to Christmas in this
part of the country, and I think even in in
Germany and other parts of Europe, there's a bit of
(26:27):
a mischief kind of quality to it. Like I almost
think that uh, Christmas in Europe and in Iceland parts
of the world like that, it's almost like a combination
of what we know as Christmas here and what we
would we would celebrate as Halloween. You know, there's a
lot more of like a spirit kind of like quality
to it, and like you know, ghosts and ghouls and
(26:48):
things like that around Christmas. Yeah, it's interesting because there's
a you see again the religious syncretism, because we sall
see a lot of pre Chris and traditions that got
folded into various stories. You know, it's the same reason
Easter all of a sudden has a rabbit and eggs,
(27:10):
which is not biblical canon but fun ydeo. I wanted
to take a second before we wrapped today's episode and
talk about one of my favorite weird genres, of film,
which is the Christmas horror story. Have you guys seen
Rare Exports a Christmas tale? I haven't, but you've mentioned
(27:31):
a couple of times, and a good friend of mine
has also suggested that I check out. I have seen Crampas,
which is a lot of fun and very gremlin z.
But I've heard great things about Rare Exports. Yeah, and
it's uh, it's appropriate for older children. It's it's like
a fantasy action horror film that's from Oh it's from Finland,
(27:52):
that's right. I don't want to spoil it. But it's
about the secret behind the real Santa Claus and that's
pretty great. Yeah, so check it out, get a time.
Crampus is cool to you know, we're you know what
we're doing. No, let's say this. Let's say we're not
late with our Christmas episode. We're very very early, and
(28:13):
we want to give you time. We want to give
you time to check out some of these amazing, amazing
stories Christmas horror films, but also stories like this around
the world that come from someplace much older. It's fascinating. Yeah,
and if if if many folks maybe not particularly familiar
with some of these more niche kind of holiday traditions
(28:34):
from around the world. Uh, the You Lads and Gorilla
in particular have not terribly long ago. Back in two
thousand and eighteen, made an appearance in a pretty mainstream
Netflix show called the what is it The Chilling Adventures
of Sabrina Um, which is a kind of more adult
kind of teen um retelling of Sabrina the Teenage which
which was I think it was a maybe a book
(28:56):
series and then it was a TV series starring Melissa
Joan Hart. You'll remember of a certain age, folks of
a certain age from Clarissa explains at all, but um,
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has got a lot more
kind of satanism and like ghouls and demons and all
kinds of crazy gore and and uh and creepy stuff
in And there is a Christmas special of that series
(29:17):
that specifically talks about Gorilla and the You Lads. So
I haven't seen it, but I look forward to checking
it out because that sounds like a lot of fun.
I kind of also want to go hunting. I want
to not hunting. That's the wrong word, hidden folk. If
you're hearing this, I apologize for that. I want to
go on an expedition to Iceland to see what's what,
see if we can find some hidden folk, inner culturally
(29:38):
respectful way. Would you guys go with me totally? As
long as you as long as you lead the way,
I'll bring up the rear. You just pay for it, Ben,
I'm in oh oh no, no, we're gonna yeah, We're
gonna try to get this to be something that that
her boss has will let us put in the budget.
So ridiculous Histories World Tour started in Iceland, folks, let's
(30:02):
manifest it as our spiritual friends say. Let's make it happen.
Thank you in advance so much to everybody who comes
out and sees us live in Iceland. Thank you to
Cigaret Ross. Thank you to our super producer Mr Max
Williams and nol So glad you're back from your travels.
It sounds like you had a wonderful time. Are you
going to go back around Christmas time to Europe? You know,
(30:25):
I think it's might be a little cold for me.
But I did have such a great time in Berlin
in particular, and made some really good friends and met
a few really great listeners. No one from this show
in particular but some folks from stuff they don't want
you to know. And and movie crush r I P.
But yeah, I liked it so much. I think I
want to go back once a year. Um, I really,
I think it was my favorite city I've ever visited.
And and and last little pop cultural touchstone on this type
(30:46):
of thing. It's Norwegian. But there is a film called
troll Hunter, uh from um I believe the early two
thousands that is like a found footage kind of Blair
Witch type thing um directed by and A overdall Um
that I quite enjoyed. I love this one. There's also
I've been waiting for a sequel for years, but I
(31:08):
think the sequel got canceled, so enjoy enjoy troll Hunter
for what it is now. It's aged well too. I
actually recently had that on in the background when he's
doing some research on trolls and speaking controls. Thank you
as well as always to our own terrifying you will
add Mr Jonathan Strickland, a k. The Quister. How's that
(31:30):
for a thank you segue? He is the quintessential bridge troll.
I love it, uh, and he actually does make you
solve a riddle to get through That's basically what he
does every time that we encounter him, not even even
when we're not on air. It's like, man, I'm just
trying to get some coffee, and he's like, coffee there.
Maybe if you answer these riddles three like come on exactly. Yeah.
(31:54):
It's been nice not having to go into the office
as much, so we can usually avoid that, but then
sometimes it does pop into zoom and trying to make
me answer riddles and I'm like, I already have my coffee, Man,
I don't need you be gone, and then I just
kick him off the zoom uh and then he sends
me a sad face emoji. And speaking of sending things,
we would love to hear stories of regional holiday celebrations
(32:17):
unique to your part of the world, so let us know.
You can find us on the Internet where we are
Ridiculous Historians on Facebook. You can also find us on
Twitter and Instagram, not just as a show, but as individuals.
You can follow my urban exploration and my weird research
stuff on Twitter at ben Bull and hs W, or
(32:39):
you can find me on Instagram where I am at
ben Bowling bow l I n big things coming there.
Stay tuned or stay tuned, Mr Noel Brown, Are the
rumors true, my friend? Are you sipping the social meats? Well?
I don't really play into rumor mongering, but um I
do in fact having Instagram account which you can find
at how now Noel Brown and I do have a
(32:59):
couple of actual grid posts with some random snaps from
my from my adventure in Berlin, so you can check
that out there. Huge thanks to Max Williams, brother of
Max Williams. It's like a bride of Frankenstein situation. Um
Alex Williams who composed this theme. Christopher haciotis E Jeff
Coats here in spirit you Ben Bolan, my main you
a lad. We'll see you next tep books. For more
(33:30):
podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
so much for tuning in. Shout out to our own
Santa Claus, the one and only Mr Max Williams. They
called me, Ben. Let's let's get some Uh. No, we're
keeping We're going to keep going. Uh let's get some
weird Christmas music getting this season? Noel, I would say,
(00:47):
you and I are fans of Christmas time, especially in
the spring, uh, which is you know what I like
to celebrate Christmas. People look at me kind of funny,
but you know, I think Christmas should be able to
be celebrated year round. We should make our own Christmas
traditions because, as it turns out, you know, the americanized
sort of Coca qualified version of Santa Claus and the
(01:11):
Christmas Polar Bears and all that, oh product of marketing.
I'm more of a fan of the weird, dark, spooky,
folk loreic traditions of Christmas that is much more prevalent
in other parts of the world. And boy, are we
getting into one that's quite a doozy today. Agreed. Give
me the crampuses, Yes, give me your tired, poor huddled
(01:32):
folklore yearning to be normalized me your children stuffed into
sacks and made into stews to be devoured by which
like troll creatures. But we're not taking black Pete in
the dal just to be He's canceled forever at all time,
he's canceled, so canceled by us at least. Yes, in
typical ridiculous history fashion, folks, we are celebrating a holiday.
(01:58):
Uh kind of late to our very early however youone
to say it. We just have so much fun with
this story. We can't wait to explore it with you.
We do want to give some brief shout outs. First,
big big shout out to our peer podcast. Stuff you
missed in history class. We were talking of fair and
believe they had had a take on this back in
(02:20):
the day, several several years ago now, but we're still
fascinating with this. We actually just for rolling. We're talking
about how much we dig Iceland. I think it's on
It's definitely on my bucket list to go. I haven't
been able to go since the pandemic hit. But uh,
what about unial nex Oh, it's definitely ever since I
first covered cigar Ross in college, I've wanted to go
(02:41):
to Iceland and just for that Totle reason right there,
just like holping, i ould run into them. Oh yeah, yeah,
then you're definitely gonna run into Segar Ross and York
just down the boulevard. You know. They're they're just they're
always running around drinking tiny cups of espresso and eating
rotten shark meat. That's just how it goes. Now. My
girlfriend um Had has been, uh and a few friends
(03:01):
of mine have been, and it's a very beautiful place
but apparently uh stunning lee expensive just just like yeah,
that's what I've heard, Yes, studyingly expensive. Also if you
don't like cold weather, it's not for you, but it
is an adventure worth having. A lot of my friends
have gone as well, but I haven't talked to them yet.
(03:23):
About a particularly Icelandic Christmas tradition, something called the Yule Lads.
You see, if you are a young tyke growing up
in Iceland, you have not one father Christmas, but you
have thirteen father Christmas is. They're not called the Yule Dads,
but they're called the Yule Lads, and during the thirteen
(03:43):
days leading up to actual facts Christmas, these guys who
are whimsical, marry little rascals, a little bit mischievous, mischievous.
They take turns visiting children, and the way it goes,
each of those nights, a kid places one of their
shoes on the window sill, and if you're a good kid,
(04:04):
then that Yule Lad of that day will leave candy,
and if not, they'll do some other stuff that will
will get into Right now, there are a lot less
creepy today, right, they've been kind of sanitized in as
in the Great Telephone Game of History. But back in
seventeen six, parents were legitimately worried about what was what
(04:30):
these stories were doing to kids. So maybe we talk
a little bit about about the yule Lads, right, They aren't.
They aren't just like thing one through thirteen and some
dr Seusian way. They have their own distinct personalities. They
got their own vibe each, all thirteen of them. There
(04:51):
there are crew of individuals. That's right. Then, they've got
some very interesting, uh traits. Let's just say it's almost
like a snow white kind of situation. The Uleads each
have their own um, you know, personalities, uh much in
smurf like fashion as well. The National Museum of Iceland
(05:11):
describes it thus, Lee, and we got this from a
Smithsonian article. Meet the Thirteen ule Ads, Iceland's own mischievous
Santa clauses Uh, and here's what they have to say.
Dozens of different names for the ule Ads appear in
different folk tales and stories. A popular poem about the
ul Ads about the late Johannes or Kutlum, which first
appeared in the book Uln Comma Christmas Is Coming in
(05:33):
nineteen thirty two, served to make their names and number
much better known. The names of the thirteen ule Ads
that most Icelanders know today are all derived from that poem.
They each come on their own nights of the season.
U and you know we're not native Icelandic speakers. We're
gonna do our best. Some of these pronunciations are a
little tricky for our American tongues, but we're gonna do
(05:54):
our best here. So on the first night December twelve,
we have steck yard Stour, also known as Gimpie, who
was known for harassing sheep in order to suckle some
of their milk. But he has these stiff peg legs,
so he's not entirely successful in doing this usually. Then
who do we have on the second night, the thirteenth
(06:16):
of December. Well, it's interesting because what we'll see is
that it's almost like a high screw. All of the
Yule lads have their specific thing they like to do,
and they're often stymied by some sort of other conditions.
So the next guy is gully gac that would be
his English translation. He hides in gullies and he's all
(06:39):
about waiting for the right time to sneak into the
local cow shed and steal milk. And it goes on
the names like spoon liquor, pot scraper, sky Er, gobbler,
skier being a kind of yogurt, the guy who just
really likes yogurt. And then one of my favorites I
don't know why is sausage wiper. Yeah, December. He hides
(07:03):
and rafters and he steals sausages that are being smoked exactly.
Then we have the pervious of the crew window peeper,
who is known for looking in on um, you know,
the families as they slumber, I imagine, and eyeballing things
to steal. Sure, okay, okay, window peeper, I'm sure that's
(07:24):
what you're up to. Uh. And then we have gattup
pure goat or doorway sniffer. Yeah, so he does. He's
got a big old nose that he uses to sniff doorways. Um.
And he is looking specifically for Icelandic holiday pastries. Um.
Then on they three we have meat hook or catch
(07:46):
crooker and he steals meat using a hook. A lot
of a lot of food theft going right here. And
then we have candle steeler or or like the final Boss.
That's right, he's the final Boss or Karat Knox Ni
Karat Knox Nick here I think, and he uh follows children,
(08:09):
you know, as they go to bed, and then he
steals their candles. So all of this mischief in Mayhem
totals thirteen day debacle leading up to Christmas. And um,
after this is all done, they all go back to
their cave somewhere in the mountains of Iceland, which I
(08:33):
I love this story. I think folklore is a great
way to learn about culture. Door slammer, well, we missed, Yeah,
we missed, door slammer. I don't know if we got to.
We did say pot scraper, right, Do we talk about
bowl liquor as well? We've got bowl liquor as well.
I think that rounds out the crew there. They're they're
(08:55):
all doing very similar things. They're all either licking spoons
or scraping pots, or steve in food or or or
smelling his wife and smelling window, smelling doors, peeping in
through windows. And they're all a bunch of creeps, it
would seem I don't find this charming at all. I
find it, you know, I like a good rascal story. Um.
The reason they all have kind of related predilections is
(09:16):
due to the fact that they are siblings. During these
thirteen days and throughout the rest of the year, their
parents are around Gila and Lepeloy, and they're the enforcers.
They will punish kids who are very, very naughty. They
are scary, ugly mean er ah, and anybody who runs
(09:37):
into them is considered terribly unlucky. Grila in particular is
a hard case because Grila will sneak into the homes
of insolent children, shove them in a sack, and eat
them in a stew back in Hilaire yikes joints uh.
If you ask any iceland or about her, they will
tell you that their parents told them the story of Grila,
(10:00):
and that they genuinely are scared or were scared of
her growing up. And I don't know if we mentioned this,
but well we're talking about the Smithsonian article. What's great
is you can see some cool stylized pictures of the
Yule Lads, who are a little old to be called lads.
But shout out to Rachel Newer for excellent work there.
Do check out that article. Yeah, and the tourism board,
(10:22):
I guess of of Iceland collaborated with the magazine by
Icelandic Hotels and there's a really great article called Iceland's
thirteen You lads don't call them santas so which were
also pulling some good info from So yeah, I mean,
you're right, Ben, this is a cautionary tale for children.
The ul Lads maybe a little less so because they
did kind of evolve into more just like cookie mischievous
(10:45):
bringers of of Ule tied cheer. Well yeah exactly, but
the origin of the story is much much much darker.
So Gila in particular is the most terrifying of all
of these figures. Um. She is known to be an
Icelandic Christmas ghoul who is quite large, much more of
like a combination of like a witch and a troll,
(11:08):
and the end has uh I think cloven hoofs so
very Crampus like, and also thirteen tales, presumably one for
each of her sons were representing each of the you lads.
She lives deep in the mountains with her you know,
demonic children and allows one to come to the village
on each day leading up to Christmas, and Christmas essentially
(11:31):
serves as open season on naughty children, whom you know,
given the opportunity, she'll throw into a sack and boil
them alive. Uh. And this is a tale that children
in Iceland grew up knowing about, like much the same
as Crampas. I mean here in America, Santa Claus kind
of occupies both of those roles. You'll give you a
(11:51):
good present if you're good, and nothing if you're bad,
or like, you know, a lump of coal or whatever
it might be, but nothing particularly you know, damaging or dangerous. Right. Yeah,
And this is this is fascinating because we're also seeing
religious syncretism, I want to point out, and anything. We'll
get into this a little bit later. But Gila, originally
(12:14):
I think, is a giant tests or a troll, and
she when she's first mentioned in this poem of Grila.
She's not linked to Christmas lore at all. She's just
linked to being the monstrous matriarch of the Yule Lads.
She lives deep deep in the mountains with her demonic brood. Also,
(12:36):
she's known for eating children, but she also has a
little bit more of a sophisticated palette. She is thought
to have killed and eaten her first three husbands because
they board her and at one time she just thought
these guys would be better as soup than they would
be as romantic partners. And apparently in some versions of
(13:00):
the story, these folks, the Yule Lads and their mom
roll through with a cat. Joel couturin the child eating
Christmas Cat is part of the crew, and he stands
by to do his own devouring as misbehaving children boil
away and the family stew. So to be very clear,
(13:20):
if you're a young Icelandic child, the tradition is this
be good, you get some candy, otherwise you will be
boiled alive and eating. The choice is yours. That seems
like a little heavy metal kind of way to treat kids,
But there's some there's so much stuff I want to
talk about with folklore of Iceland, but maybe we should
(13:43):
may we should start out by talking about like where
the Yule Lads come from, because they have, like you
can already tell, they have a lot in common with
other Christmas traditions that are meant to keep children behaving,
right to obey the authority, used to obey the parents.
If you're good, you get toys. If you're bad, I
(14:05):
think the more modern tradition says you get coal or
a potato. Oh yeah, but you know not justoato. Potato
is at least a delicious snack if you potato put
in the stew right. I've been doing these potato have
(14:26):
you heard of? It's le extra work, but I love
it and I make them like once a week though,
very nice, very fancy. That's the thing, though, Ben, I mean,
like you know our traditions, you know, I mean, we've
talked about how Santa Claus is sort of the original
conspiracy theory that teaches children to distrust authorities, you know,
specifically parents, but he usually is revealed at some point,
(14:48):
whether the kids figured out themselves or the parents. You know.
Let the cat of the bag, not the child eating
catch just the proverbial cat um that this is all
kind of made up of folkloric type stuff. But the
understand ending in Iceland, even with the parents, for the
most part, is that these creatures are real. There is
a serious tradition of belief in in this kind of folklore,
(15:10):
especially in things like elves, which are oftentimes demonic spirits
of the forest. There was a show, I believe it
was an Icelandic show called Elves that was sort of
like almost like et meets the Gremlins kind of. It
wasn't my favorite, but it was about these flesh eating
elf creatures that you know reek havoc and cause you know,
utter chaos. So there is a pretty significant you know,
(15:35):
since that these are actual creatures that the dwell in
the in the surrounding woods. There is a guy by
the name of Magnus scarfion Insen who is the headmaster
of Iceland's Elf School and a top researcher of elf
folklore in Iceland, and he says that the l lads
(15:57):
more benign kind of presentation is a much more recent invention,
since Iceland has become a bit more of a a thriving,
kind of comparatively metropolitan area that's very big on tourism.
But there was a time when things were very very dire.
Food was very very scarce, and the winters were brutally
(16:17):
cold in times before you know, um centralized heating and
air and all of that stuff. So, uh, you, if
you think about it in those terms, these creatures coming
in and stealing your Christmas dinner or your candles, those
be serious threats to your lifelihood, to your survival. Yeah. Absolutely,
And we've got to go here to Terry garriluh, folklore's
(16:39):
professor at the University of Iceland Uh, and he talks
a little bit about the evolution of multiple separate cultural
traditions into what we call the hood folk or the
hidden people. Today. They're living too in a dimension just
to the left of yours. And it's true that at
times like construct action has been halted for fear of
(17:02):
offending the hidden folk. I'd love to hear from some
fellow ridiculous historians who have spent time in Iceland. I'd
love to hear your take on this. I think we
all would. The thing is Iceland is really a multicultural place.
Over time, these separate concepts that people brought with them
to the area merged in this collective idea of the
(17:22):
hidden people UH, and now there are multitudes of theories
about them, sometimes contradictory, one saying these were the quote
dirty strange children of ev that she hid from God
and when God discovered her secrets, condemned them to an
alternate world. And then of course other people say that
their fallen angels. You can encounter no shortage of anecdotes
(17:47):
of eyewitness accounts from people who believe they have, in
one way or another, encountered the Hidden Folk. You can
see a catalog of this over at the Elf School's website,
which is the elf school dot com. Just go to
contemporary tales and you will you will see people who
seem to genuinely believe they've run into something supernatural, extraordinary.
(18:12):
I think the Elf School said fifty four percent of
Icelanders just over half believe that the Hidden Folk are real.
It's strange because they are if they are treated as real.
What's strange about it is they've been treated as real
despite the fact that their image has tremendously softened from
(18:32):
the present day. UH. Over the past hundred years or so,
they've become much more friendly, much more like oh you little,
you little scamp, instead of being you know, the people
who might mean your family might not make it through winter.
They were guys who stole the Christmas food. They're sniffing,
(18:54):
you know, they're sniffing at the windows when you're cooking
the lamb uh. They're stealing milk from sheep. They might
leave you to starve. They eat the candles, and the
candles are important because candles provide warmth right when you're inside. Yeah.
I think a big factor of their evolution was really
(19:16):
the emergence of Christianity in Iceland, which didn't come about
until what one thousand CE, I think that's right. That
was after the King of Norway made it the law
of the land to be a Christian and sent missionaries
to convert the the indigenous people of Iceland. Of course,
you know, as we know, when these things happen, that
does not just white clean the slate of um. You know,
(19:40):
generations of tradition and folklore. But as we know, with
the way like pagan holidays oftentimes have emerged with Christian
traditions like Easter, and you know, things that were once
um looked very very different from what they became Uh,
they don't entirely disappear, They just sort of morph into
something more pallid double you know. For the Christian ruling regime,
(20:03):
and and oftentimes these things are encouraged or mandated by laws.
So there was a law that was passed in the
sixteenth century that said, quote all disorderly and scandalous entertainment
at Christmas and other times and Shrove Tide revels are
strongly forbidden on pain of serious punishment. And then in
seventeen forty six there was a public decree that actually
(20:25):
forbid telling children about the you lads in order to
scare them straight. As they say, yeah, the idea was
that this, this story as it was told, was so
terrified that it was in a way traumatic to children.
So for the good of the kids, the young guy slanders,
(20:48):
we've got to stop unnecessarily scaring the pants off of them.
You know. It's it doesn't seem like a hot take
today to say, hey, we shouldn't normalize telling our children
that a monster will throw them in a sack and
then kill them at the tender young age of six
by boiling them alive. I don't think that's a hot take.
(21:09):
Maybe it was a different time. You know, just say
they're they're trying to steal the milk. There were always
conflicting accounts about the Yule Lads. We've normalized the number
thirteen that's considered canonical now, but back in the day
(21:30):
you would hear people say there are eighty of these jokers.
That's a long way to Christmas. If they're showing up
one day after the next. Of course, they say they
have different personalities. One of the reasons for their recent
popularity can be traced back to nineteen thirty two. A
poem by Johans Frog coulm is sort of you'll hear
(21:54):
it compared to like the Night before Christmas. There's an
English translation and this poem from two It is pretty
simple rhyme scheme, and it's pretty fun to say. It's
just to give you the beginning. Let me tell the
story of the lads, a few charms who once upon
(22:14):
a time used to visit our bombs. And it just
goes on about, you know, describing everything we've described. Uh,
they're mean, but it makes it seem like they're way
more fun. Right, They're not trying to kill you. They
don't bring the cat to eat you. Uh, it's it's
supposed to kind of make it make it sound whimsical,
(22:37):
sort of the same way that Father Christmas went through
so many iterations until Coca Cola nailed down what he
looked like. Right, And now all of a sudden we
have the polar bear. I love that polar bear. I
don't care. Polar bears are awesome. I mean, they're you know, terrifying.
They'll definitely like rip your head off and uh and
and eat your guts. But you know, the cuddly cg
i ones are nice. They enjoy cocacola, not human flash again,
(23:01):
sanitized version of all things where holidays are concerned. Um,
because you know, we see the rhyming delight of this poem.
Kind of presenting these youule lads is more kind of borish,
sort of oh fish kind of creatures not necessarily out
to do harm, but just more you know, kind of pranksters. Yeah,
(23:21):
and they do have a bit of a mean streak,
but they don't really necessarily mean to do any children
any particular harm. And you know, to your point about
nailing down kind of what they look like, they've started
to take on much more of a sort of socially acceptable,
white bearded Santa Clause, sort of David the Gnome kind
(23:43):
of vibe. Yeah yeah, And these costumes apparently don't reflect
the real deal Ule lads you'd meet on the mean
streets of Iceland. One folklore tells us they've met more
than eight hundred Icelanders that believe they've seen elves and
four or five leave they've seen Yule lads. And the
Yule lads that these folks said they saw were always
(24:05):
described as old fashioned, dressed, pool a little dirty, a
little rude, and hungry trying to get food, which that
could be a lot of people. That's very true. But
let's also not forget that this was all based on
scarcity and the threat of starvation, right because not only
are the Yule lads stealing food from children and from
these families, they are in need of stealing food because
(24:28):
they themselves are relegated to living in caves and this
very scrappy dog eat dog existence, you know, I mean,
I don't know, it's it's it's it's clear that Gorilla
and and her husband with the unpronounceable name like to
feast on human flesh, but the the Yule Lads that
seem require human sustenance like sausages and batter and and
(24:50):
cookies and stuff. So I mean they live a pretty
tortured existence. It would seem. Yeah. Yeah, it's like we're
saying earlier, folklore is amazing because as it gives us
this insight into the story and evolution of the culture
from which it originates. And he nailed it, man, The
Iceland was not a super easy place to live for
(25:15):
a long long time before you have the advent of
heating technology or different supply chains to transport food. That's
why that's why some things are so expensive in Iceland.
It is a harsh environment and the Yule Lads, in
very real way, are a story about that. And now
that Iceland has become less of a threatening environment, right
(25:40):
for people living in the modern day, it kind of
makes sense that the Yule Lads would chill out a
little bit, you know, they get a slightly less intense vibe.
But the story is real. It did terrify children for
a long time, and it is true it got so
bad that the story eventually for a while was banned. Yeah,
(26:05):
and I mean, you know, now I think it's more
like uh St Nicholas kind of situation where they'll leave
little bags of toys and children's shoes. Yeah, now they're benevolent,
you know, and they do sort of I think the
idea of of the lead up to Christmas in this
part of the country, and I think even in in
Germany and other parts of Europe, there's a bit of
(26:27):
a mischief kind of quality to it. Like I almost
think that uh, Christmas in Europe and in Iceland parts
of the world like that, it's almost like a combination
of what we know as Christmas here and what we
would we would celebrate as Halloween. You know, there's a
lot more of like a spirit kind of like quality
to it, and like you know, ghosts and ghouls and
(26:48):
things like that around Christmas. Yeah, it's interesting because there's
a you see again the religious syncretism, because we sall
see a lot of pre Chris and traditions that got
folded into various stories. You know, it's the same reason
Easter all of a sudden has a rabbit and eggs,
(27:10):
which is not biblical canon but fun ydeo. I wanted
to take a second before we wrapped today's episode and
talk about one of my favorite weird genres, of film,
which is the Christmas horror story. Have you guys seen
Rare Exports a Christmas tale? I haven't, but you've mentioned
(27:31):
a couple of times, and a good friend of mine
has also suggested that I check out. I have seen Crampas,
which is a lot of fun and very gremlin z.
But I've heard great things about Rare Exports. Yeah, and
it's uh, it's appropriate for older children. It's it's like
a fantasy action horror film that's from Oh it's from Finland,
(27:52):
that's right. I don't want to spoil it. But it's
about the secret behind the real Santa Claus and that's
pretty great. Yeah, so check it out, get a time.
Crampus is cool to you know, we're you know what
we're doing. No, let's say this. Let's say we're not
late with our Christmas episode. We're very very early, and
(28:13):
we want to give you time. We want to give
you time to check out some of these amazing, amazing
stories Christmas horror films, but also stories like this around
the world that come from someplace much older. It's fascinating. Yeah,
and if if if many folks maybe not particularly familiar
with some of these more niche kind of holiday traditions
(28:34):
from around the world. Uh, the You Lads and Gorilla
in particular have not terribly long ago. Back in two
thousand and eighteen, made an appearance in a pretty mainstream
Netflix show called the what is it The Chilling Adventures
of Sabrina Um, which is a kind of more adult
kind of teen um retelling of Sabrina the Teenage which
which was I think it was a maybe a book
(28:56):
series and then it was a TV series starring Melissa
Joan Hart. You'll remember of a certain age, folks of
a certain age from Clarissa explains at all, but um,
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has got a lot more
kind of satanism and like ghouls and demons and all
kinds of crazy gore and and uh and creepy stuff
in And there is a Christmas special of that series
(29:17):
that specifically talks about Gorilla and the You Lads. So
I haven't seen it, but I look forward to checking
it out because that sounds like a lot of fun.
I kind of also want to go hunting. I want
to not hunting. That's the wrong word, hidden folk. If
you're hearing this, I apologize for that. I want to
go on an expedition to Iceland to see what's what,
see if we can find some hidden folk, inner culturally
(29:38):
respectful way. Would you guys go with me totally? As
long as you as long as you lead the way,
I'll bring up the rear. You just pay for it, Ben,
I'm in oh oh no, no, we're gonna yeah, We're
gonna try to get this to be something that that
her boss has will let us put in the budget.
So ridiculous Histories World Tour started in Iceland, folks, let's
(30:02):
manifest it as our spiritual friends say. Let's make it happen.
Thank you in advance so much to everybody who comes
out and sees us live in Iceland. Thank you to
Cigaret Ross. Thank you to our super producer Mr Max
Williams and nol So glad you're back from your travels.
It sounds like you had a wonderful time. Are you
going to go back around Christmas time to Europe? You know,
(30:25):
I think it's might be a little cold for me.
But I did have such a great time in Berlin
in particular, and made some really good friends and met
a few really great listeners. No one from this show
in particular but some folks from stuff they don't want
you to know. And and movie crush r I P.
But yeah, I liked it so much. I think I
want to go back once a year. Um, I really,
I think it was my favorite city I've ever visited.
And and and last little pop cultural touchstone on this type
(30:46):
of thing. It's Norwegian. But there is a film called
troll Hunter, uh from um I believe the early two
thousands that is like a found footage kind of Blair
Witch type thing um directed by and A overdall Um
that I quite enjoyed. I love this one. There's also
I've been waiting for a sequel for years, but I
(31:08):
think the sequel got canceled, so enjoy enjoy troll Hunter
for what it is now. It's aged well too. I
actually recently had that on in the background when he's
doing some research on trolls and speaking controls. Thank you
as well as always to our own terrifying you will
add Mr Jonathan Strickland, a k. The Quister. How's that
(31:30):
for a thank you segue? He is the quintessential bridge troll.
I love it, uh, and he actually does make you
solve a riddle to get through That's basically what he
does every time that we encounter him, not even even
when we're not on air. It's like, man, I'm just
trying to get some coffee, and he's like, coffee there.
Maybe if you answer these riddles three like come on exactly. Yeah.
(31:54):
It's been nice not having to go into the office
as much, so we can usually avoid that, but then
sometimes it does pop into zoom and trying to make
me answer riddles and I'm like, I already have my coffee, Man,
I don't need you be gone, and then I just
kick him off the zoom uh and then he sends
me a sad face emoji. And speaking of sending things,
we would love to hear stories of regional holiday celebrations
(32:17):
unique to your part of the world, so let us know.
You can find us on the Internet where we are
Ridiculous Historians on Facebook. You can also find us on
Twitter and Instagram, not just as a show, but as individuals.
You can follow my urban exploration and my weird research
stuff on Twitter at ben Bull and hs W, or
(32:39):
you can find me on Instagram where I am at
ben Bowling bow l I n big things coming there.
Stay tuned or stay tuned, Mr Noel Brown, Are the
rumors true, my friend? Are you sipping the social meats? Well?
I don't really play into rumor mongering, but um I
do in fact having Instagram account which you can find
at how now Noel Brown and I do have a
(32:59):
couple of actual grid posts with some random snaps from
my from my adventure in Berlin, so you can check
that out there. Huge thanks to Max Williams, brother of
Max Williams. It's like a bride of Frankenstein situation. Um
Alex Williams who composed this theme. Christopher haciotis E Jeff
Coats here in spirit you Ben Bolan, my main you
a lad. We'll see you next tep books. For more
(33:30):
podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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