{"id":4456,"date":"2013-12-12T05:38:45","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T05:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/islenzka.net\/?p=4456"},"modified":"2013-12-12T05:38:45","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T05:38:45","slug":"the-first-yule-lad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/the-first-yule-lad\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Yule Lad!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first of the Icelandic Yule Lads (\u00cdslensku j\u00f3lasveinarnir<\/a>), Stekkjarstaur<\/a>, arrives December 12th \ud83d\ude42 The following is a short description of him as given by J\u00f3hannes \u00far K\u00f6tlum<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Stekkjarstaur kom fyrstur,
\nstinnur eins og tr\u00e9.
\nHann lauma\u00f0ist \u00ed fj\u00e1rh\u00fasin
\nog l\u00e9k \u00e1 b\u00f3ndans f\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Hann vildi sj\u00faga \u00e6rnar,
\n\u2014\u00fe\u00e1 var\u00f0 \u00feeim ekki um sel,
\n\u00fev\u00ed greyi\u00f0 haf\u00f0i staurf\u00e6tur,
\n\u2014\u00fea\u00f0 gekk n\u00fa ekki vel.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

First comes Stekkjarstaur,
\nstiff as a tree.
\nHe sneaks into the stables
\nand tricks the farmer’s sheep.<\/p>\n

He wanted to suckle the ewes,
\n-which they didn’t like at all,
\nas the wretch had peg-legs,
\n-it didn’t go so well.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 leika – to play<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\nleik<\/td>\nl\u00e9k<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\nleikur<\/td>\nl\u00e9kst<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\nleikur<\/td>\nl\u00e9k<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\nleikum<\/td>\nl\u00e9kum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\nleiki\u00f0<\/td>\nl\u00e9ku\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\nleika<\/td>\nl\u00e9ku<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n  <\/td>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 sj\u00faga – to suck<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\ns\u00fdg<\/td>\nsaug<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\ns\u00fdgur<\/td>\nsaugst<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\ns\u00fdgur<\/td>\nsaug<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\nsj\u00fagum<\/td>\nsugum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\nsj\u00fagi\u00f0<\/td>\nsugu\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\nsj\u00faga<\/td>\nsugu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

If I understood the Wikipedia article correctly, a stekkur<\/strong> was a specially made sheep fold, which is where his name comes from.<\/p>\n

I’m glad the dictionary gave the meaning of the phrase var\u00f0 \u00feeim ekki um sel<\/strong>, that would be a tough one to figure out. Yeah, that’s the word for seal<\/em> – selur<\/strong> – but the expression has a unique meaning \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\r\nstinnur adj        stiff, rigid\r\nlaumast            sneak\r\nleika \u00e1            play a trick on\r\nsj\u00faga v            suck\r\n\u00e6r f               ewe \r\ngrey n             pitiful person, wretch\r\nstaur m            post, pole\r\n<\/pre>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first of the Icelandic Yule Lads (\u00cdslensku j\u00f3lasveinarnir), Stekkjarstaur, arrives December 12th \ud83d\ude42 The following is a short description…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4456"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4463,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4456\/revisions\/4463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}