Each culture has its own Christmas traditions, stories, and myths. But what about a giant cat that eats you if you don’t have new clothes? Meet Jólakötturinn — the Yule Cat.
What is the Yule Cat?
Most Christmas traditions are warm and jolly; after all, ’tis the season to be merry! However, in the Norse lands — particularly Iceland — folklore takes a darker turn.
The Yule Cat (or Christmas Cat) is a fearsome feline from Icelandic folklore. According to legend, the Yule Cat prowls the countryside during the Christmas season, hunting down people — especially children — who aren’t wearing new clothes. In some versions, it also tracks down mischievous kids and pranksters.
The Yule Cat was said to be enormous, towering over buildings as it stalked the snowy landscape. Children who didn’t receive new clothes were inspected by the cat, and if deemed lazy, they were devoured. In some versions, the Yule Cat spares the people but steals their food and gifts instead.
A Work Incentive Turned Tradition
The story of the Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat, most likely originated at some point during the Dark Ages, though the oldest written accounts are from the 19th century. Originally, the story served as an incentive to ensure wool processing was finished before Christmas. Those who worked hard received new clothes, while slackers got nothing — and faced the wrath of the Yule Cat.
The story goes like this:
In Medieval Iceland, employers rewarded their employees and members of their households with new clothes and sheepskin shoes. The gifts were made as a reward for a year of hard work and as a motivator to finish the work before Christmas — particularly processing the autumn wool. Here’s the thing, though: if you didn’t have new clothes for Christmas, the dreaded Yule Cat would come out and eat you — and this was no ordinary cat.
It towers above the tallest buildings, prancing around Iceland looking for people without new clothes. It especially looks for children and inspects them to see if they have new garments. If they were too lazy to earn them, the unfortunate children might just end up on the menu of the Yule Cat.
Over time, the legend evolved. You don’t need to buy new clothes every year, one way to avoid the Yule Cat’s claws is by being generous: Gifting clothes to the less fortunate also keeps the cat at bay.
Even today, Icelanders still give children new clothing before Christmas, just to be safe. While few truly believe in the Yule Cat, the tradition lives on.
In other interpretations, the Yule cat doesn’t eat the people, only their food and presents. As the times changed, the story also changed. Another way to make sure Jólakötturinn doesn’t get you is to be generous. You don’t necessarily have to wear new clothes yourself — if you gift new clothes to the less fortunate, the Yule cat will leave you alone.
However, the legend of the Yule cat is still shrouded in mystery and a bit of anthropological controversy.
A Yuletide controversy
According to Icelandic folklorist Árni Björnsson, the origin of the Yule Cat might be tied to a simple linguistic misunderstanding. Árni points to a footnote by Jón Árnason, Iceland’s famed 19th-century collector of folktales, which uses the figure of speech “to dress the cat.” Árni suggests that Jón may have taken this phrase and, through creative interpretation, transformed it into the terrifying creature we know today.
Given that there are no written records of the Yule Cat prior to Jón’s time, Árni concluded that Jón’s interpretation gave rise to the myth. The phrase “to dress the cat” likely referred to the importance of rewarding industriousness with clothing, which became intertwined with the threatening notion of a cat punishing those who didn’t receive new clothes.
On the other hand, archaeologist Guðmundur Ólafsson proposes a more pan-European origin for the Yule Cat. Guðmundur connects Jólakötturinn to various figures in continental European traditions that accompanied Saint Nicholas. These entities often served as enforcers of holiday behavior, punishing the naughty while Saint Nicholas rewarded the nice.
Guðmundur emphasizes that the scarcity of written records for such folklore is common across cultures, so the absence of documentation about the Yule Cat before Jón Árnason’s time does not necessarily mean the myth was invented from scratch. Instead, the Yule Cat could be a localized variation of a broader European tradition of punishing mythical beasts.
Yule Folklore
Regardless of its exact origins, the Yule Cat was traditionally used as a motivational tool in rural Iceland. The Yule Cat as a staple of Icelandic Christmas lore was solidified in 1932 when beloved poet Jóhannes úr Kötlum published his poetry collection Jólin koma (meaning “Christmas is Coming”). One of the collection’s standout poems, Jólakötturinn, vividly described the giant man-eating cat and cemented its place in Iceland’s festive celebrations.
Interestingly, Jóhannes’s poem did not initially associate the Yule Cat with Grýla, a fearsome giantess from Icelandic folklore who kidnaps and eats misbehaving children, especially during the Christmas season. However, since these figures also appeared in the collection, subsequent stories naturally linked them together.
Grýla is described back in the 13th century legendary Prose Edda, but no specific connection to Christmas is mentioned until the 17th century. She is mentioned as a beggar that goes around asking parents for their disobedient children — which she cooks and eats in her giant cauldron, as the favorite food of Grýla a stew of naughty kids. So if you want to be safe on Christmas, from both the giantess and the Yule Cat, the best thing to do is to be true and honest over the year, and make sure you give gifts to your loved ones.
By the mid-20th century, the Yule Cat became widely regarded as the pet of Grýla and her mischievous sons, taking the folklore shape we see today.
Here is a famous poem by Jóhannes úr Kötlum, one of Iceland’s most beloved poets, describing the beast:
You know the Christmas cat
– that cat is very large
We don’t know where he came from
nor where he has gone
He opened his eyes widely
glowing both of them
it was not for cowards
to look into them
His hair sharp as needles
his back was high and bulgy and claws on his hairy paw
were not a pretty sight
Therefore the women competed
to rock and sow and spin
and knitted colorful clothes
or one little sock
For the cat could not come
and get the little children
they had to get new clothes
from the grownups
When christmas eve was lighted
and the cat looked inside
the children stood straight and red-cheeked
with their presents
He waved his strong tail
he jumped, scratched and blew
and was either in the valley
or out on the headland
He walked about, hungry and mean
in hurtfully cold christmas snow
and kindled the hearts with fear
in every town
If outside one heard a weak “meaow”
then unluck was sure to happen
all knew he hunted men
and didnt want mice
He followed the poorer people
who didnt get any new clothing
near christmas – and tried and lived
in poorest conditions
From them he took at the same time
all their christmas food
and ate them also themselves
if he could
Therefore the women competed
to rock and sow and spin
and knitted colorful clothes
or one little sock Some had gotten an apron
and some had got a new shoe
or anything that was needful
but that was enough
For pussy should not eat no-one
who got some new piece of clothes
She hissed with her ugly voice
and ran away
If she still exists I dont know
but for nothing would be his trip
if everybody would get next christmas
some new rag
You may want to keep it in mind
to help if there is need
for somewhere there might be children
who get nothing at all
Mayhaps that looking for those who suffer
from lack of plentiful lights
will give you a happy season
and merry christmas.
