The Yuletide Lads

Helgi Valgeirsson

“The Yuletide Lads” Adventure for children in all ages.

With gratitude to all involved, for their priceless assistance in creation of this book. © 2012 Helgi Valgeirsson.

Land of Ogresses and Ragjerk Close to the edge of the world, far away in the North, there lies a majestic land, albeit, little and remote, that it is surrounded by an angry ocean. The landscape at first glance, is rugged and mountainous, and in midwinter the weather is often cold and windy. The island’s deep valleys are surrounded by high mountains making this a difficult countryside to access, especially in wintertime, when snow is covering the ground! In those months the days are short, and gloomy, followed by long cold, stormy nights, with clouds in the sky that hang so thick and heavy, the stars and moon are seldom seen. So harsh are the conditions in this rugged landscape that plants and trees find it a great struggle to survive there. So it is no surprise that few forests grow in this land and yet! Single trees can be seen here and there, sometimes, even in little groups, producing small copses of trees in the wilderness of moss and shrubs. The countryside may look rugged, but it is a land of cheerful, friendly people living in warm and comfortable homesteads in cities, towns or farmsteads, in which a traveller will always be made most welcome. These people are happy and contented folk, and very knowledgeable about this land in which they live. But there is one place there yet to discover, told of in a very old legend of which all the people on the island are familiar, which tells of a huge, deep cave, high up in a big mountain called the Troll Peak. Still it is a fact, that none of the locals knows EXACTLY where it is. It is there that an old troll couple, Ogress and Ragjerk live together with their thirteen sons, the Yuletide Lads, along with their pet, the Yuletide cat. For the greater part of the year, the whole family sleeps under their warm blankets in a big group on the floor.

Nothing disturbs this peaceful setting the whole year, but for the loud snoring in their safe and warm shelter deep at the back of the cave. Each year, as Christmas approaches, they begin to wake up, one by one, to get organized like the rest of us, in preparation for the Christmas feast. Then it is a good time of the year for all the children to be on their best behaviour, because thirteen days before Christmas all the inhabitants of Troll Peak are now awake! Naughty children come to their attention at once. It is well known that trolls do not like yelling and shouting one little bit. It really upsets them, especially as they have so much to do and concentrate on, before Christmas and little children do not want to get into trouble with angry trolls, do they? Ogress is the Yuletide Lad's mother, a frightful giantess. She has long dark hair and wears an old dark dress, worn and frayed from constant wear. She is thousands of years old, but she is still lively and perky, running an orderly and efficient household. Time being short to have everything in order for Christmas she puts on her white apron as soon as she is awake, then slips on her white wool stockings and her home made black, sheepskin shoes, before energetically sweeping around the cave with her rigid broom raising lots of dust and sand in all directions that over the last twelve months has settled in the cave after which she scrubs the floor with a tangled wire brush and sweeps the chimney.

If she doesn't do that, then the cave becomes smoky and unbearable to live in.

All but one of the Yule Tide Lads is the same size as human beings. Only one of them is very small, and he will never grow to be bigger than a child. Each day, for the thirteen days prior to Christmas, one per day, Ogress has to send her boys off to the town to get some food for them all to enjoy at Christmas. So she wakes all her sons in a certain order from their deep sleep, so she can send them to town one by one. But even if Ogress is a giantess, it not always is easy for her to wake up her boys, and sometimes she has to be little bit rough with them.

Her sons, even though they are trolls are a colourful bunch, and behave just like all youngsters, so Ogress gives each one the appropriate disciplinary treatment. Some of her boys she shakes and some she slaps with her wet dish cloth. Sometimes she gives them a playful kick up their behind to wake them up. Only one lad per day leaves late at night to make his journey into the village to arrive in the town below their mountain cave before all the children are awake. The lads have a magic potato to put in the children’s finest shoes that they have all placed inside the windows of their bedrooms in the evening, before they go to bed. Children who have been good all year will find a lovely present in their shoe in the morning. Naughty children however, will be upset to find only a potato in their shoe. Before the boys leave for town Ogress gives them each a sack of magic potatoes, reminding her ever hungry sons.

"These potatoes are not for you to eat on the journey boys, but presents for the children in the town. They are magic potatoes given to your Dad and me by some dwarfs who are good friends of ours for whom we once did a big favour.

These potatoes sprout and turn into a wonderful present in the shoes of the children who have been good all year whereas in the shoes of the naughty children there is no change and those children wake up to find a potato in their shoe. "Then in exchange for their presents, the Yule Tide Lads have to acquire enough tasty food from the shops and houses in the town to see them over, their own Christmas festivities. It is a fair trade, no robbery!" Ogress makes all the Yuletide Lad's clothes in the same style which she washes every one hundred years in the hot spring close to the cave, a mixture of old red jackets, with bronze buttons, green gloves and green and white striped scarves which keep them warm in the cold along with thick black woollen trousers, tight up to the knee, to stop their back sides freezing off while travelling through the snow, finished off with white stockings and black homemade skin shoes. Each brother wears a tall cap too, all of them a different size and colour from the other. Even though they all wear similar clothes, each Lad is different from the other in many ways. But they all have ONE plan after completing their town visits which is to meet at an appointed place, and secret well hidden from view and here they will inspect all the tasty Christmas food each Lad has collected before carrying everything back home in a big group to the cave to celebrate Christmas.

Ragjerk is Ogress’s husband and father to the Yule Tide Lads. He is a brawling, big troll, bold, with gray sideburns framing an old face with one remaining tooth that sticks out of his mouth from the lower jaw. He wears an old furry cap outdoors and over his grey pullover an old coat made of the skin from a polar bear, now gray from dirt and old age and like the boys, he wears black trousers tight to the knee, white stockings and skin shoes. He hates soap and water and in truth is a real Lazybones. Whenever Ogress takes out the old wash tub, Ragjerk disappears from the cave in a flash and is not to be seen again until Ogress has finished all the Christmas cleaning all by herself. A freeloader like Ragjerk would rather be outside in the cold having fun, than being up to his armpits in soapsuds inside the warmth of the cave. Not even the worst of weather would keep him at home in the cave, to help with the washing and cleaning. Most of the days and nights up to Christmas, Rag Jerk scurries up and down the hills on his sledge, with the wind whistling in his ears enjoying hurling himself around the countryside on his sledge travelling as fast as a hurricane while jabbering at the Moon.

Sometimes he goes so fast, that at times Ragjerk eyes fill with tears. Then although he finds it difficult to see that clearly, as to exactly where he is going, still he never has had an accident in the snow, because Ragjerk knows the ground better than anyone. He is especially careful when there are people around. Unless he wants it, they never see him smiling at their frown, as they feel the sudden gust of cold wind blowing in their faces, as he passes them by. Even though Ragjerk is idle, he is adamant that every home should have a Christmas tree on Christmas Day and for this, he is prepared to make an effort by cutting down the prettiest tree he can find, which he then transports back to the cave on his sledge. As a self-proclaimed Christmas tree expert, he always can be relied upon every year to find the best tree available.

A tree in the cave always makes Ogress very happy. "It already looks like Christmas!” She says happily to Ragjerk when he returns and puts up the tree, "and it smells so lovely and Christmassy." So happy, is she in fact, that she delves into her cooking pot and brings out a large helping of food which once she has plated it up she hands to her husband, to eat as a reward for his efforts. When this happens then Ragjerk feels good and he mumbles his thanks, but he is happy also, because now for some time to come, he can just get on with doing the things that please him!

The Yuletide Cat has not always lived in the cave with Ogress, Ragjerk and the Yuletide Lads. Oh, no not at all! The Yuletide Cat is big as a lion, with fur as black as coal and with the most entrancing green eyes that seem to glitter in the light. He sports a long agile tail too, that he waves around as he travels through the snow. Of his origin, or where he plays, and where he hunts, nobody knows for sure. But how he ended up in the cave, living with Ogress, Ragjerk and the Yuletide Lads, you will learn more of later on, as this story continues. Since the Yuletide Cat became a member of the Yuletide Family, his favourite pastime now is to laze in his bed throughout most of the year and purr contently. Ogress always takes care of the cat and makes sure that he has plenty to eat. Still, on those days before Christmas, when Ogress is waking up the Yuletide Lads and is exceptionally busy preparing for the celebrations, she has been known to forget to feed the cat and whenever this happens, the Yuletide Cat being so ravenous, wanders off on his own, to find something to eat, making sure he returns to the cave no later than thirteen days after Christmas when the Yuletide Lads, Ogress and Ragjerk all return to their beds to sleep again. Then the Christmas Cat just makes himself a comfortable place to lie on and falls asleep too.

Chapter one: Hobbler As everybody now knows, Ogress always is unbearably busy when she is awake, for that short time before Christmas. But sometimes, just for a break, she likes to go outside to make a snowman, and then it is back into the cave again to continue her housework and wake her boys from their sleep with commotion, to send them off on their travels. In the middle of all the Christmas turbulence Ogress is always amused when she is rousing the Yuletide Lads.

Just thinking about it makes her laughs to herself. She turns to her sons, lying there in a group asleep on the cave floor and first of all she wakes up Hobbler with a kick in his rear. He is an all time sleeper like his father and most of his brothers. Hobbler is a long and skinny fellow and bold like his Dad, with long tangled sideburns gathering in a moustache right under his nose. “Wake up, wake up! You are not sleeping Christmas away, are you son, are you?” Ogress shouts. Hobbler wakes up, unenthusiastically, and continues to lie in his bed looking at his mother with sleep still in his eyes, and she stares back at him like a headmistress. With bad grace Hobbler then decides that it probably is the best for him to get up and get dressed. After that long sleep, from last Christmas to this one, he is fairly stiff and his legs he cannot bend at all. But when he finally sits up, stretches and scratches his back it doesn’t take him long to prepare him for the journey. Ogress hands him a sack of potatoes saying. “These potatoes are not for Yuletide Lads to eat on the way, but to put in the shoes of the little children as thanks for the food supply and more we get from the village.