Grýla

thumb | Mascot costumes of Grýla (left) and Leppaluði (right) In Icelandic folklore, Grýla is a monstrous entity who lives in the wilderness of Iceland. The name Grýla is first attested in medieval sources. The earliest unambiguous references to Grýla's gender and her association with Christmas, though, date only from the 17th century. In 17th-century poems about Grýla, 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. Modern depictions of Grýla tend to focus more strongly on her role as the mother of the Yule Lads (). Today, the most monstrous aspects of her character and appearance (such as her appetite for children) are generally toned down for younger audiences.

==In medieval sources== The name Grýla appears in a list of heiti for troll-women in the Prose Edda, composed in the 13th century by Icelandic skald Snorri Sturluson. However, a list of Grýlu heiti (heiti for Grýla) in one manuscript of the Prose Edda from the early 14th century, gives various terms for foxes, which suggests an association with the Arctic fox.