The Yule Cat Solstice Strangedive - Iceland's Spooky Holiday Tradition | Ep #47

0:01 Hello stranger and gladi Legiol, welcome to a special Icelandic Yuletide episode of Madam Strangeways, wherein I, Madam Strangeways, usually narrate your true strange stories of the unexplained and discuss my strange research on said strange topic. But with just days to go before Yule and the winter solstice, this deep dive strange dive. Episode. Will be all about everyone's favorite Icelandic Cryptid, the Yule Cat. And of course. Along the way, I'll drag you down a slew of strange rabbit holes, kicking and screaming as always, if needs must before we get to today's Solstice Strange dive. The strangest shout outs to my Patreon patrons, TJ Hotter of the Tapes of Trepidation podcast, G Man music, Ted, Keith and Tori, thank you so much to my Feral Fiendish 5 for supporting the show.

1:01 You can hear your name at the beginning of every episode and you can get a free sticker and you can get bonus Madam Strange Notes episodes just for joining the Patreon at patreon.com/madam. Strange Ways. Oh hear that? Sounds like it's about to rain Hellcats and hellhounds out there. You know it's perfect weather for a strange ride together with you here on Madam Strangeways. Before we get into the yuletide strange dive, enjoy a 2 minute and 43 second poem to set the strange scene. Yola, Katherine The Yule Cat by Johannes Orkutnum, 1932 You all know the Yule cat, and that cat was huge indeed. People didn't know where he came from or where he went. He opened his glaring.

2:21 Eyes wide, the two of them glowing bright, it took a really brave man to look straight into them, his whiskers sharp as bristles, His back arched up high, and the claws of his hairy paws were a terrible sight. He gave a wave of his strong tail. He jumped and he clawed and he hissed, Sometimes up in the valley, sometimes down by the shore. He roamed at large, hungry and evil in the freezing Yule snow. In every home people shuddered at his name. If one heard a pitiful meow, something evil would happen soon.

3:06 Everybody knew he haunted men but didn't care for mice. He picked on the very poor that no new garments got for Yule, who toiled and lived in dire need from them. He took in one fell swoop their whole Yule dinner, always eating it himself if he possibly could. Hence it was that the women at the spinning wheels sat spinning a colorful thread for a frock or a little sock, because you mustn't let the cat get hold of the little children. They had to get something new to wear from the grown-ups each year, and when the lights came on on Yule Eve and the cat peered in, the little children stood rosy and proud, all dressed up in their new clothes.

3:57 Some had gotten an apron and some had gotten shoes or something that was needed. That was all it took, for all who got something new to wear stayed out of that pussycat's grasp. He then gave an awful hiss but went on his way. Whether he still? Exists. I do not know, but his visit would be in vain if next time everybody got something new to wear. Now you might be thinking of helping where his help is needed most. Perhaps you'll find some. Children that have nothing at all, perhaps searching for those that live in a lightless world, will give you a happy day and a merry, merry Yule.

4:55 And a merry Merry Yule to those of you who are not eaten alive by the gigantic, monstrous Yule cat. Merry, merry survival to the survivors of the The Yule Hunger Games. Now, if you're from Iceland or you speak Icelandic, I'm sorry, I apologize. I tried really hard. I did a lot of practicing. I listened to a lot of pronunciation and I did a lot of retakes for this episode. So I tried really hard to pronounce everything properly and to give this culture the respect that it deserves. So for this Yule episode, this very special Yule episode, we will be talking all about the Yule cat, all the Yule cat all the time.

5:38 You're going to hear about the folkloric origins and some spooky weird history. And you know, I don't know, whatever little strange rabbit holes that I found along the way while I was researching the Yule cat, which is of course, many rabbit holes, many of them. However, if after you listen to this episode, you want even more about the Yule Cat, you should tune into Tapes of Trepidation because I have done a collaboration with TJ Hotter over there, who runs the show, and I wrote an original short horror fiction story about a Yule Cat situation. And I also narrated the story. So you can listen to that on Tapes of Trepidation and his 12 Scares of Christmas series that he does leading up to Christmas.

6:20 So for some spooky festive fiction, oh, there's something there. Freaky, festive, freaky. I think that I think that depicts that's something different, frightful. For some frightful festive fiction, check out friend of the show TJ Hotter's podcast, Tapes of Trepidation. He does a great job and he's an amazing human being. So very excited for you to listen. I haven't really put like fiction out into the world since I was a teenager. Publishing fanfiction to fanfic.net or fanfiction.netanywayletmeknowmanofstrangeways@gmail.com. If you listened, if you liked it, and check that out on Tapes of Trepidation, OK, here we go. We're going to get into the nitty gritty of the Yule Cat.

7:03 So, from Wikipedia, the Yule Cat, or the Yola Catoden is a huge and vicious cat from the Icelandic Christmas folklore that is said to lurk in the snowy countryside during the Christmas season and eat people who do not receive new clothing before Christmas Eve. The Yola Catoden is closely associated with other figures from Icelandic folklore and is considered the pet of the Ogress Grilla and her sons, the Yule Lads. Now I'm going to just, I'm just going to say right now, wow. I'm just going to say right now there are 13 Yule Lads. We're not going to talk about the Yule Lads hardly at all because we would be here for 500 years at the rate in which this is going.

7:48 Because I accidentally did something like 8 pages of notes and research about just the Yule Cat. This was originally going to be about multiple creepy Christmas creatures. Instead is basically just about the Yule cat, which that's basically me in a nutshell. I intend to talk about more things. Instead, I just talk about cats. All right, So just setting expectations there. So as you heard in the poem that I read at the beginning, which is by Johannes or Kotlum, that was back in 1932. Actually, it we go back further than 1932 for the first instance of of the Yule cat. But we're going to get there. I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, in that poem, you'll notice that it does say that.

8:31 Like you don't necessarily have to wear new clothes yourself. If you give new clothes to the less fortunate, then the Ulcat will leave you alone. So long as you've either received or given new clothes to someone, you're good. Now, it looks like that might have been an addition by your boy Johannes in 1932, and that was not part of the original Ulcat lore. But I kind of like it. So I feel like let's let's roll with it. So in addition to the poem in 1932 and the original book that it was published in back in 1862, which we'll get to in just a second, just give me a moment. In addition to those in 1987, everyone's favorite Icelandic Princess, Bjork, which is not Bjork because she said so, I learned that it rhymes with jerk. So Bjork, we'll go with that.

9:18 She sang a song called Yola Katidin, which is Icelandic, for the Yulkat. And that was 1987. And I think that's probably what put the Yulkat on the modern map or at least made it much more popular, especially to this day. But it was based on an original song written by Ingi Buch Thorbergs. She was among the first women songwriters in Iceland. So we love to hear it. So this Yul, you know what you're listening to now, right? You're listening to Yola Katidin by Bjork, not Bjork. Bjork. So when we're talking about the Yule cat, why is it a cat? Why is it a cat monster? Why isn't it just another ogress like via? Why isn't it another creature? For instance, I don't know, an animal like a Yule goat. Why isn't it that?

10:05 Why is it a cat? Well, I of course wanted to understand what about Iceland would make them make a a a cat monster? I'm just curious. So, according to Head magazine, written by Kathleen Herons, cats were the traveling companions of choice for Vikings, although not for sentimental reasons, but rather to kill mice and also to be skinned for their fur. I don't like that, but I want to include it because I like to share the truth, the strange truth, even when I don't like it. Consequently, feline populations grew throughout the Nordic countries when the Vikings settled there. To this day, Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is culturally a cat city. According to Reykjavik excursions, as of August 2022, there was a cat to human ratio in Reykjavik of 1 to 10. One cat for every 10 humans.

10:56 Which honestly I've put it in perspective here. I looked it up, what's the closest like American city size to Reykjavik? So based on population, it looks like Omaha, NE has a similar population size to Reykjavik. And so I wanted to know how many cats does Omaha NE have? And it's 60,000 and Reykjavik has 20,000. So I when you put it in perspective, maybe that's not that many cats, but when you compare it to the amount of dogs, that's when it really starts to get crazy. Because as of 2023, it appears that there were only 10,000 dogs in Reykjavik. And the reason why there's so many more cats than dogs is because it was illegal to own a dog in Reykjavik for 60 years. From 1924 to 1980480419 84.

11:52 It was illegal. Now, did people still own dogs? Yes. Did they just get fined? Yes. Did they all pay the fines? No. Are they now paying the fines because there's a bunch of red tape Even to this day to own a dog, they're still not paying the fines. I mean, I can understand, but genuinely there's so much red tape around owning a dog now that even now there's just more cats than dogs in Reykjavik according to my information. Are you from reykjavikdoyouknowdifferentlyletmeknowaboutstrangeways@gmail.com? Always happy to learn. Anyway, it's clear that Icelanders love cats and it even goes back way before 1924 because like all their Norse pals, Icelanders worshipped Freya, the goddess of love, beauty for fatality, sex, war, gold, and also the magic involved in seeing the future and also influencing the future. Interesting.

12:45 So here's my favorite fact about Freya. Who is the coolest goddess? Well, she's up in my top 3 for sure. And you're about to learn why. It's not just because she is where Friday's came from. The name Friday came from Freya. It's not just that, it's also because she flew across the sky riding a chariot pulled by by two huge cats. Cats. They were like Norwegian Forest cats, like really fluffy and all tufted ears and just really long fur So cute. And that also kind of matches the Yule cats description. Interesting. It's almost like there's kind of a basis, a foundation for when the Yule cat was created.

13:31 But no, remember just a minute ago when I was like, oh, the Yule goat, Why isn't it a goat? Yule goat? No, actually, there is actually a Yule goat. Now. He's not Icelandic, but he's called the Yulebuk and he's Scandinavian, so here we go. From Wikipedia, the Yule goat is a Scandinavian and Northern European Yule and Christmas symbol and tradition. Its origin is from Germanic paganism and has existed in many variants during Scandinavian history. Modern representations of the Yule goat are typically made of straw, which is where you might have seen it if you've ever seen. I think they light it on fire or something. But it's a giant goat made of straw and it's the Yule goat. Isn't that fun? So there are other animals that have Yule in front of them.

14:13 But he wasn't a monster, though. He was a friendly goat, so here we go. There's even a term EULA book king. It's a Christmas tradition of Scandinavian origin. Between Christmas and New Year's Day, people wearing masks and costumes, EULA bookers go door to door where neighbors receiving them attempt to identify who's under the disguise. Isn't that fun? I don't know. That sounds kind of fun because, like, you're literally supposed to. What does it say? It goes. EULA bookers will often disguise their voices and body language to further the masquerade. How cool is that? That sounds. It's so much fun. One version of ula booking, people go door to door singing Christmas songs. Less fun. We've gotten less fun.

14:55 But then after they've sung, they're usually rewarded with candy, which I was like, this just sounds like trick or treating. But I do like where you're trying to trick them, where you're trying to pretend that you're someone else and you were, I don't know, I think that's really fun. Have you ever let me know my strangeways@gmail.com? Have you ever gone ula booking? Have you ever been a ula Booker? There's two KS. I don't know. This is complicated. I'm not Norse or Icelandic. If you. If that's not a punctively cleared view. OK, back to the Yule cat. Yule cat. Yule cat. Yule cat. Icelanders love cats. I don't know what to tell you. That's that. That's why it's a cat. That's why it's a cat. That's why it's a cat.

15:36 All right, Yule cat history. Here we go, the first definitive mention of the Yule cat is from a 19 Nope and 1862 collection of folklore by Ioan Arneson, and the book translates to Icelandic folk tales and fairy tales, but in Icelandic it is called the Eastlands Car Theod Soaker OG al Ventiri. You're welcome. There are so I cannot stress enough how many accents and umlauts are going on in these words. So from Wikipedia, while the book Icelandic folk tales and fairy tales, while the story of the Yule Cat in that book did not associate Yola Katzen with Griya the Augress or her son's The Yule Lads, the characters were also featured in that collection.

16:24 So the commonality led to connections of those 3 characters. Well, of those 131415 characters in later stories. So by the middle of the 20th century, Yola Katzen, the Yulkat was considered the pet of Glia and her sons. And some later stories the Yulkat is so disobedient that only Stupfer, the youngest Yulat, is able to control it. And he writes the Yulkat across the countryside. So love that. That sounds fun. All right, Taking a really brief little rabbit hole into the ogress, which is of course the the female form of ogre Griya was first mentioned in a 13th century text, so she goes way back.

17:07 She goes way back prior than 1862, which is actually pretty recent. But Griya goes back really far. And also Griya was not associated with Christmas until the 17th century, so she first got mentioned in the 13th century. Then it's not until the 17th century that Griya is associated with Christmas. In 17th century poems about Griya, she is generally represented as a hideous and greedy troll like Crone who wanders between human settlements and demands charity from those she encounters, often asking for naughty children. Which with which to eat, she will eat them. Griya is said to collect whispers about all of the naughty children all year long and then come Christmas time, she snatches them up, stuffs them in a sack and cooks them into a Stew to eat. She is the one who eats them all year long and then the next Christmas time she collects more naughty kids to put into a Stew pot.

18:04 So that's Griya in a nutshell. She does have 13 zany wacky children, the Yule Lads, which I told you we are not going to deeply get into. However, I will mention that there is one who steals sausages. He's the sausage stealer, that's his name. And there's also a yogurt licker who eats all the yogurt. So there you go. There's my little tiny little dip, my little toes, my little strange toes into. I don't like that. We're not going to say that. Don't say that. OK, It's fine. We're going to move on. Dipped my little toesies into the 13 Yule lens. That's all you're going to hear. OK, OK, so back to the Yule cat. Which is why we're here now. Why clothes? You may be asking why is it clothes that the Yule cat says you need to have an order for it to not eat you? Very good question.

18:52 Why clothes indeed. So usually, as you may know, folklore exists to kind of pass along some sort of moral or, or lesson or something that'll like save your life, like literally or socially. Because you know, if you do things that go against the social grain, you're going to be ostracized. And then if you think about it in the old days, that probably means you're going to die because you need a community, right? It could also just save your life literally. Like, you know, don't go out in the woods or hold which lady I'll put you in an oven or don't go near the water because another lady, but she's in white this time and she drowned her children there. And she might drown you too if you go close to the water. So you see, it's like, don't go in the woods because you'll die. Don't go near the water because you'll drown. These, these sorts, these are the sorts of things you find in folklore a lot.

19:40 So then what lesson is the Yule cat really angling for here? Well, from Head magazine, again written by Kathleen Herons. Until the early 2000s, all clothing in Iceland came directly from sheep's wool that had to be meticulously processed before the harsh Nordic winter set it until the early 2000s. That's crazy. That was not that long ago. I think that was like 5 years ago. That's crazy. Clothing stores didn't even open until 1870 in Iceland, according to ethnologist Arne Bjornsen, so small villages were in a race against time to make clothing. In the substance Farming society, it was all about people working together towards a common goal.

20:20 And in order to enjoy the Christmas season, all work had to be completed on time. Are you maybe seeing where this is going? OK, listen. New clothes were gifted only to those who earned them by completing their work on time. So anyone who didn't receive new clothes for Christmas Even so much as just a pair of socks or a mark of shame. So This is why they needed to be incentivized, I think. Especially children, which she does go on to explain. Maybe Iceland needed a graver threat because wool was also the country's primary export, critical to its economy and survival. If people were freezing throughout winter and had nothing to sell when winter ended, the community would suffer infinitely more. And children were vital to the community's farming workforce, so strength in numbers was indispensable. Some children, this would be me.

21:13 Some children weren't deterred by the mere prospect of having no new clothes and a bad reputation, so they just needed some more, something more compelling. And it worked. The threat of being eaten by giant Yule Cat worked. And there's a precedent for just how well these scary sorts of folkloric tales worked, actually. Because back in seventeen, 46120 years before the 1st ridden instance of the Yule Cat, Griya and the Yule Lads remember the ogress her 13 mischievous kids, the Yule Lads that we're not going to talk about, but let's pretend that we talked about them in depth. So Griya and the Yule Lads were scary stories that were told to kids, you know, to keep them in line.

21:54 And it was too scary because, like I said, 1976, the Icelandic government prohibited parents from using Griya, the the Yule Lads and similarly scary stories in order to keep their kids in line. Now, I don't know how you enforce that, but it happened. There was a ban on using these terrifying stories to tell kids in order to make themworkmoreforyouidontknowhowyouenforceitifyouknowletmeknowaboutastrangeways@gmail.com. How do you enforce that law? Do you find people? So that's why the Yule Cat specifically only targets people who don't get new clothes for Christmas. Because if they were lazy then they weren't helping and then the whole community suffers because they weren't working hard enough.

22:40 Which yuck. I don't like working at all and I definitely don't like working hard, so I probably would have been eaten by the Yule cat. Let's just say there's an alternate universe in which I was born an Icelandic child in the 1700s, and I was eaten whole by the Yule cat. Thankfully, that is not this universe, thankfully. So now I want to talk to you about the Yule Cat's origins. So since the yulcat didn't appear at all in writing until 1862, this has LED some people to believe it was purely made-up by the author. Remember our boy Yon Arnesen? Now he's the first one to have captured the story in writing. But the poem that we heard at the beginning was by Johannes, and that was not written in 1862.

23:26 That was written in 1930. Something I don't remember. It's at the top of my Google Doc. It's in the 30s. It was a very long time after the original story was captured by Young Artisan. So because people are saying that maybe he made it up, of course I had to go down this rabbit hole. So here we go. Here we're going to go and figure out where did the Yule cat first come from? So in addition to some people saying that it was completely made-up, others say that it was basically riffing off of a turn of phrase that in Iceland, that roughly translates to to dress the cat. Now, in my research, it seems like what that means is that you're wearing the same clothes over and over again. The idea being that cats don't change their clothes, quote UN quote.

24:11 Their clothes are just their fur. They don't change clothes. And then if you're not getting new clothes, you're just wearing the same clothes everyday just like a cat. So to dress the cat, I don't know, I couldn't find too much information on this, but if you're you know what are you from Iceland? Are you more familiar with the term to dress the cat? Let me know about strangewaysgmail.com. So some people think that eon herd the term to dress the cat and then decided oh maybe let's write a story about it in which I incorrectly assumed that there's a monster or I make it up and I just make up the story about a monster. OK maybe. I don't know though because it seems like legends of monster cats and also being punished for not getting new clothes at Christmas was also found in some parts of Scotland and Ireland and could have easily travelled N to Iceland. Now I had a really hard time backing up this claim. I could not find any stories in Scottish or Irish or just in general Gaelic sources about this, about like cat monsters other than like Kate Shee or you know, but like they're not Christmas related.

25:22 I couldn't find any Christmas or like clothing related monsters in terms of folklore from Scotland or Ireland. So you know what I'm going to say Madam strangeis@gmail.com If you know of one, let me know. I'd love to read about it, but by far here is one of the strangest theories that I read about the concept of where the you'll you'll cat came from. That's a hard sentence You'll cat came from. This is again from Head magazine. Archaeologist. Oh no, I didn't look up this word. Oh. Or this name. Gullmunder Olafsen summarizes his findings regarding the Yulkat folklore and the Krampus theory. Oh, here we are. We're talking about Krampus, he says.

26:02 Krampus split and gave birth to different derivative forms of Christmas lights. Now I think there's some, I think there's some trouble with the translation here, but I'm just going to read it exactly how it is. Krampus split and gave birth to different derivative forms of Christmas lights. The goat in Scandinavia, which we talked about, and the cat in Iceland, the Yule cat. Then you can wonder why this Christmas spirit of ours appears in the form of a cat, which is what I'm asking. It is due to the folk belief that has been known in Europe for centuries about the devil's ability to change moods, which can appear in the form of a cat. I have questions 1. I feel like he's talking not literally about Krampus split and giving birth to both the Yule cat and the Yule goat.

26:49 But I kind of like it better if he is saying that Krampus gave birth to the Yule cat and the Yule goat, but I don't think that's true. However, how it says folk belief that it's been known in Europe for centuries about the devil's ability to change moods. I assume like shapes is probably the intent here and that he can appear in the form of a cat. We do know that. And like also Black Cats especially are associated with witchcraft and witches and cats, again, we associate cats with Freya, you know, one of the goddesses of what different one form of magic. We also associate cats with Hecate, right? Because again, cats are associated with witchcraft. So there's that. There's something here, there's something there. It's just cool.

27:30 It's metal and you know what? It also really reminds me of the Wild Hunt, which is crazy that this is the third time that I have been referencing the Wild Hunt considering I'd never heard of it once in my life. Leading up to doing my research for the Sleepy Hollow episode where it first comes up and then it also came up in I think the Greek Witches episode. And then now here we are. Christmas time Wild Hunt. Which makes more sense for me to read about it now because the Wild Hunt. For those of you who have not listened to my previous episodes, you should go listen to those. But in the meantime, the Wild Hunt, and this is from Wikipedia. The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif occurring across various Northern, Western and Eastern European societies, appearing in the religions of the German Skelton Slavs.

28:18 Wild Hunts typically involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters engaged in pursuit. The leader of this hunt is often a named figure associated with Odin in dramatic legends, but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like biblical figures such as Herod, Kane, Gabriel or the Devil, or a bunch of other historical and legendary figures from those kind of areas. OK so listen to this. The hunters are generally the souls of the dead or ghostly dogs, sometimes fairies, valkyries or elves. But in a lot of the descriptions that I read about the Wild Hunt in my research for those earlier episodes is they were like what, like 9 legged horses with glowing fiery eyes and skeletons and skulls and really really cool badass stuff.

29:10 But did you know that there is a specific night that is dedicated to the Wild Hunt? Yeah, somehow I missed that in my previous research. But looking at it now, the second night of Yule is dedicated to Odin and the Wild Hunt. So that's December 22nd. So on December 22nd, what you are supposed to do is leave the last sheaves of corn that you find at the end of the harvest so that all the crazy nine and eight legged horses, the fiery eyes that are carrying all of those weird scary dead people can eat some corn in the middle of the ride they can stop by. Does that sound familiar? It almost sounds like what you might leave out for Santa with his chariot that's led by reindeer that are not scary evil horses.

30:00 But we'd be way cooler if they were. Now, some sources that I was reading suggested that the Yule cat may have had connections to the Wild Hunt, especially just the imagery of of a giant monstrous cat that resembles, you know, a Norwegian forest cat. Also because you see that imagery with Freya. And then you've got Odin, who is leading the hunt, and then he's got his mythological figures that are around him. So I feel like there's an argument there to be made that the imagery of the Yule cat may have been taken from, at least in part, in inspiration from the Wild Hunt. Just like Santa Claus, who is not nearly as cool as the Wild Hunt. I've said it before and I will continue to say it, it's way cooler.

30:44 The Wild Hunt is way cooler. So remember December 22nd, Leave your corn out for the the evil horses on the Wild Hunt. All right, now, if you think that I forgot that we are trying to talk about whether or not Yon Arnesen made-up the story of the Yul cat or whether or not it's actually a real story that existed. Well, you're wrong. You can put a pen in that because I have to give you some back story so that you understand the context for what I'm going to tell you at the end. So it's going to sound like we're going off topic and maybe we'll just a little bit, but I promise you that we will come back around. So we're just going to go so on a little bit of a rabbit hole here.

31:25 Actually a lot of bit of a rabbit hole. OK, so as I was looking at scans of the original copy of Yon Arnesen's collection of stories called the Icelandic Folklore something something, I saw the name Jacob Grimm printed in really big bold letters on one of the first pages that were scanned. OK, well, it actually had AK instead of AC for Jacob. And so first I was like, who's Jakob Grimm? Oh, wait, hold on a second. Grimm. Yeah, I know that guy Grimm of the Brothers Grimm fame. OK, so why is his name in Yon Arneson's book? I asked myself. Well, apparently, Jake, can I call you Jake?

32:08 Jake wrote the foreword of Arneson's Icelandic fairy tale collection, which is crazy. So one of the Brothers Grimm wrote the foreword for this book in which the Yule cat arise. Can you hear? Oh no, there's a Yule cat at the door. Oh no, what will I do? I didn't receive any new clothes. Just kidding. That's just Cleocatra, who wants into the office because cats hate closed doors. All right, let's see, where were we? Oh, right, so one of the Brothers Grimm wrote the opening to Arneson's Icelandic fairy tale book, which makes sense actually, now that I'm looking at it. I just didn't realize that they were alive at the same time and also writing books at the same time.

32:52 But also, Arneson was a huge fan of the Brothers Grimm, so that had to be pretty cool for him. Think about it. It had to be like a big moment. Also, by the way, fun fact, this actually is a fun fact. Usually my fun facts are kind of depressing or morbid. This is a really fun fact if you like Tolkien. The survey of Icelandic folklore and early modern scholarship about Icelandic elves in the introduction to Joan Arneson's book, which also includes the story of the Yule Cat, provided the framework for JRR Tolkien's conception of elves and his fantasy fiction. So thank you, Joan. Thank you. Because not only did he, he gave us the Yule cat, but he also gave us Legolas. I was a huge fan of Legolas.

33:35 I you know what it's weird. TikTok thinks that I am the biggest Lord of the rings fan and it constantly is pushing Lord of the rings content to my FYP. And I mean, like I like Lord of the rings. I mean, I wouldn't say like I'm a huge fan. I haven't read any of the books. I've seen the movies, but it's been a long time since I saw the movies. But I tell you what, Legolas top tier. So thank you for Legolas. Also, who else? Elrond. Which is really weird because I feel like I've mentioned Elrond in the last maybe not 2 episodes, I don't remember, but I know I mentioned to him the other day because I thought that's weird. Why am I talking about Elrond? Like that's so strange.

34:15 Maybe it's because I'm seeing all this content on TikTok about Lord of the Rings. I don't know. All right, anyway, moving on. While I was going down this rabbit hole about Jacob Grimm and Yon Arnesen, I found this book called Grimm Ripples, The Legacy of Grimm's Deutsche Zagen in Northern Europe, which is written by Terry Gunnell, in which Deutsche Zagen means German legends. So the legacy of the Grimm's German legends in Northern Europe, which fascinating, right? So here, here we go. This is from that book. The printed collection of Icelandic folk tales and fairy tales written by Ioan Arneson from 1862 to 1864 was actually just one key part of a large scale romantic nationalist movement that was taking place in the growing capital of Iceland in the mid 19th century. I was like, I'm going to be honest, I don't know what a romantic nationalist movement is, so I want more from the context.

35:13 I feel like I have an idea, but let's, let's, let's dig deeper. Inspired and encouraged in no small degree by foreign cultural conduits, and viewed as an expression of native art, ancient belief and native worldview, the two volume work of Arneson was deliberately distributed free to influential figures around the country. The hope was that it would provide material for new forms of national art and a new level of self respect for the creativity of the local people and their living traditions, which were now shown as being intrinsically linked to the medieval Golden Age of Iceland's past. OK, I feel like that's a really needy sentence, but we're getting somewhere.

35:56 The book's editor, Yon Arnesen, found himself becoming a central player in a local network of local cultural thinkers who, in the space of just over 25 years between 1858 and 1874, created not only a key collection of national folk tales, but also a national costume, a national anthem, a National Museum and two models for a new kind of national drama, as well as a blueprint for how the capital of the imagined Icelandic Republic of the future might look. OK, again, this is meaty. But now it's giving me some context for like, why did Yon Artisan even collect this book of Icelandic folklore? Right? Well, it's because we were trying to reignite the native beliefs in the native folklore and basically just bringing to life native Icelandic culture.

36:48 But then I started to wonder why though? Why then? Why was there a romantic nationalist movement? Obviously something inspired it, but hold on, we'll get there, don't worry. So for Arneson's collection of folklore, the first call for Icelanders to collect folk legends came as early as 1817, and it was issued by the Danish Archaeological Commission. They sent again. This is still in that book The Grim Ripples by Terry Gunnell. They sent 300 copies of a questionnaire sent to clerics all around Iceland requesting them to send the Commission details of any archaeological remains that they knew about, along with legends told by the common people about people of the ancient past.

37:32 Other than those which are found in written pages, including noteworthy places, ancient beliefs or superstitions regarding various things, especially things that have happened and so on, particularly when they are related to such archaeological remains. OK, wordy, but you get the idea. They're saying tell us about things that are only mentioned spoken word, all any folklore or superstition or anything, any sort of ancient beliefs that's passed down by word of mouth, but it's not captured on the page. OK, So remember Yon Arnesen, the author of the book The Brotha Yulkats Light, right? Well, his dad, a reverend, was involved in this process, or at least he was alive when these requests were being sent out to clerics and he was a cleric.

38:16 So he turned his nose up at this exercise along with a lot of other people at the time. Actually, for some reason they were Pooh poohing the idea, saying things such as it is impossible to write up but let alone understand such rubbish as you find in countless old wives tales and superstitions from which I would happily distance myself for as long as possible. Like Boo Boo boring. What do you mean I want to hear, I want to hear, that's all I want to hear. I want to hear old wives tales and superstitions all day long. It's crazy to just be like, I don't want to hear that. That's crazy talk. So anyway, back to the book Grim Ripples. It continues and says clearly the influences of figures like Bishop Eric Pontipidin in 1698 through 1764, who had attempted to wipe out folk belief and tradition in Denmark and Norway with his Lutheran tract, which was written in Latin, which I definitely speak.

39:14 So the name of that tract that he wrote is a Verriculum Fermenti Vetteris. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, where was I? Oh, right. So the tract that he wrote in Latin, the name that I just said translates in English to kicking out the sourdough. Interesting. That was written in 1736, and apparently it still ran deep in Iceland, even though this took part in Denmark and Norway. So this is what I was saying is like, why is there a romantic nationalist movement happening in Iceland? And it's because of this. It's because of a reaction to the attempt at kicking out the sourdough.

39:54 But then that got me curious because what do you mean? I'm going to say kicking out the sourdough sounds like an insult that I don't have the context for. So of course I had to go down yet another rabbit hole. Here we go down the sourdough rabbit hole. And this is from religious enlightenment in the 18th century Nordic countries by Lund University. Is it Lund or Looned? If only there was some way that I could quickly look it up. Oh well, we'll never know. The medieval church and all its ritual trappings were clearly becoming a thing of the past, with only vestiges left. These vestiges, however, were still regarded as troublesome symbols by pastors and learned scholars writing about the great superstition which they felt still beset the simple people, quote UN quote, especially in the countryside.

40:41 So we kind of saw that with Arneson's dad being like, yuck, why would you even want to hear such a rubbish like that's split, which is awful because again, what do you mean that's crazy? All right? It continues. The dichotomy between learned and urban culture on the one hand and the rural communities on the other was felt by some at least, to be a wide and unacceptable gap which could only be bridged through the stern enlightenment of the unlearned. A prime example of this writing, on the very cusp of the rationalistic Enlightenment movement in Denmark would be the already mentioned Eric Pontipidin, Bishop of the Diocese of Bergen in Norway, who published a small treatise against superstition in Latin, which we just talked about.

41:26 Right here it is. We're back to it. Oh, I'm going to try it again. ET periculum fermenti vetteris. Thank you. Thank you. The title of the work in translation means Broom to remove the old sourdough. OK, so I like Broom to remove the old sourdough rather than kicking out the old sourdough. But I can see why you would say both. Because that's the intent, right? Is to get rid of it Anyway, it continues. The metaphor signifies that all ancient superstition should be swept out of the church. Now this is me talking. This is the Madam talking to you. When they say superstition, they mean indigenous beliefs and culture. So this is something that I thought was really interesting, is that we see white people doing this to other white people in Europe.

42:16 I mean, obviously we see it to this day, most notably, I think in the treatment of the indigenous Americans by the Europeans who came over to America. But I just thought it was really interesting that like, white people are doing it to other white people in Europe just so it's just there's always something. There's always something. They always want to get rid of what makes you you and make you conform to their really boring beliefs. I'm going to be honest, Like, I knew about Martin Luther, but I didn't quite realize what a stick in the mud he and Lutheran's at large were until I was really kind of reading about this. So very interesting. Anyway, they wanted to sweep out or remove or kick out the old sourdough, which just means anything that Icelanders believed prior to Catholicism and Lutheranism being installed. This is still about the Yule Cat, you understand. We're still talking about the Yule Cat. So just make sure that you have that picture in your mind of the Yule cat while this is happening. The Yule cat, OK, picture The Yule cat is curled up at my feet while I am recounting to you the history of said Yule cat. OK, OK, good.

43:32 So sweeping out the old sourdough happened apparently through northern Europe, like it did in Denmark. Hyphen Norway. And note that it's Denmark hyphen Norway, not a slash, it's a hyphen because apparently from the 16th to the 19th century, Denmark and Norway are part of a union together. And Iceland was part of Denmark. So obviously Iceland is part of Denmark. Hyphen Norway. So anyway, the sourdough sweeping didn't take hold in Iceland like it did in Denmark. Hyphen Norway. Probably because if my research has led me to the right conclusion, which is definitely not always the case, Icelanders are objectively just more badass than the Swedes or the Danes. And I'm sorry, that just seems to be historical fact. I don't know what to tell you.

44:20 If you disagree, let me know. I'm not exchangeways@gmail.com, but so far from what I have done in my research, that seems to be that seems to be the case. OK, no, but seriously, here's actually some more context into why the romantic nationalist movement in Iceland happened in the first place. Here we go, Wikipedia. After the Napoleonic Wars in 1814, Denmark hyphen Norway broke up into two separate kingdoms via the Treaty of Keel, but Iceland remained a Danish dependency. Throughout the 19th century, the country's climate continued to grow colder, resulting and the mass emigration meaning with an E not an I. So they're leaving the mass emigration to the New World, particularly to the region of Gimli, Manitoba in Canada, which was sometimes referred to as New Iceland, which I did not know about. 15,000 people emigrated out of a total population of 70,000. So Iceland lost 15,000 out of 70,000. That is a huge loss.

45:22 So as a result, a national consciousness arose in the first half of the 19th century, inspired by romantic and nationalist ideas from mainland Europe. So what we took a look at earlier was Icelandic independence. That movement took shape in the 1850s, and it looks like they got their very own national anthem in 1874. So right in the middle of this Icelandic independence movement in 1862 and 1864, we get the book that we talked about at the very beginning that I've said 500 years ago and 500 Times Now at this point, the Icelandic folk tales and fairy tales by Joan Arnesen, The Icelandic title being yes, I will try it again, Eastlandskar, Theod Soger OG Alventiri. So all to say, the Yule Cat was brought to light specifically in this period of time when he was collecting all of these stories that were previously only word of mouth. So this brings me back to what I said earlier. You may have doubted that I was ever going to get back here, but here we are.

46:27 That rabbit hole was on a dead end. It actually circled back to the original point. So knowing that yon Arnesen collected a ton of stories from around the country and that his collection of folk legends took up two different volumes and was something like 1300 pages in total, there's no reason that I can see for Arnesen to have made-up the Yul cast story. Why would you? It sounds like he got so much information, why would he make up a story? He doesn't need it. He has enough content if he had enough to write 2 books to publish 2. He's not writing. You know what I mean? He's transcribing it and including it. You get me? If he had enough content to make two books, why on earth would he accidentally misunderstand the figure of speech from his own language, Icelandic? Because he's also from Iceland.

47:20 Why would he misunderstand the purpose of the meaning behind a common phrase to dress the cat And then on his own make up a story about it and actually include it in the book? It just to me, I don't know, to me, I don't buy it. To me, I think that there's plenty of there's, there's plenty of evidence that shows that cats are a huge part of the Icelandic mythology, that this is just sort of something that we see over and over in a bunch of different cultural zeitgeists, especially around Christmas and around scaring kids and into doing work. I just feel like, I don't know, I just feel like the Yule Cat probably did exist and it was just, it was just by word of mouth and it wasn't written down yet until he did. Because there really wouldn't have been any reason to capture the Yule Cat story in print until Yon Arnesen started prioritizing sharing traditional Icelandic stories so that they wouldn't be lost to the admittedly Grinch like Lutheran attempts at being the wettest of blankets. That's just, that's just how I feel, but let me know what you think.

48:28 Do you think the Yule Cat actually existed prior to Yone Arnesen collecting all of his stories in a book? What do you think? Let me know, man of strangeways@gmail.com. So that's the story of the Yule Cat. That's the background and the folklore and the history around the Icelandic monstrous creature the Yule Cat, otherwise known as Yola Catan. Oh, and don't forget, if you want to hear my short fiction about a Yule cat, make sure to go listen to it on Tapes of Trepidation podcast by TJ Hotter. So with that, I hope everyone has the strangest of Yules and perhaps a merry one as well. A merry strange Yule or merry whatever, merry whatever and all that, etcetera.

49:10 And a strange new year. Not be in danger you're safe

59:59 here with me stories of the unexplained now I'm running A1 Madam show here so podcast or leave me a rating on Apple or Spotify and. Content Madam Strangeways makes.co at Cult of Teddy on Instagram of the author You can submit your own true strange story to Madam Strangeways at Gmail dot. Com.

1:00:54 Asleep Gladie like you. Gladie like you. Gladie like you. Gladie like you. Gladie, like you.