Tonight Stúfur, the 3rd Yule Lad comes to town. This is a 15-day Icelandic Christmas series. To hear about the other Yule Lads that have already arrived and an overview of this Icelandic Christmas series, check out Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. Below is the Icelandic and English version of the poem about Stúfur by Jóhannes úr Kötlum.
Icelandic version of the Poem about Stúfur
Stúfur hét sá þriðji,
stubburinn sá.
Hann krækti sér í pönnu,
þegar kostur var á.
Hann hljóp með hana í burtu
og hirti agnirnar,
sem brunnu stundum fastar
við barminn hér og þar.
English version of the Poem about Stúfur
Stubby was the third called,
a stunted little man,
who watched for every chance
to whisk off a pan.
And scurrying away with it,
he scraped off the bits
that stuck to the bottom
and brims – his favorites.
Icelandic Christmas Tradition
Buying and eating clementines during the Christms season. Not very long ago, it was considered fairly rare to have a decent variety of fruits available in Iceland. I have friends who are in their mid 40s and up, who say they grew up looking forward to Christmas because that was the only time in the year when they go clementines.
Even though Icelanders can probably get them shipped in anytime now, they pretty much pop up in abundance during this season.
