As the children look up at him sleepily, Siddgeir smiled. "Do you want to hear a story?"
"Yes, Daddy!" They exclaimed, suddenly very awake. They loved his bedtimes stories, the were always the best.
Siddgeir smiled. "Well, once upon a time..."
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Once upon a time there was a man named Einar. He was a very selfish and vain man. He only had time for himself, and refused to help others. He particularly hated Christmas, although back then it was known as Yule. Now, on one particularly Christmassy day, a group of his neighbors came up to his house and knocked on his door.
Einer, still in his underclothes, opened his door, and the group, who were mostly women, exclaimed and turned away. Einar, turning a deep red, slammed the door, and turned to get properly dressed. It is his bad luck that, at the time, he was wearing green underclothes and so, with his deep blush, he looked very Christmassy. He was not happy about this, but, after dressing, opened the door to find the women still there.
"What do you want?" He snapped, clearly very annoyed.
"We need your help," one of them said nervously. "We don't have all of the wool collected, and it's nearly Christmas. We're worried that Jólakötturinn will make an appearance."
Einar, not believing in superstitions as a general rule of thumb, snorted dismissively. "Come now, dear farmer. While I might understand the women being afraid of Jólakötturinn, but we are men, and those are old wives' tales."
One of the women scoffed. "Excuse me? I'll have you know that I don't believe in him. They just dragged me up here and forced me to do this."
Einar looked over at her. Now, he didn't believe in love at first sight. But when he first saw her, he vaguely remembered saying something like "Um... Uh... Uh..." Before turning back to the farmer, a deep blush upon his face. "The answer is no."
The farmer, looking angry, declared, "Fine! If you don't want to help, then you aren't getting any new clothes!"
Einar scoffed, turning his heel and heading back inside his house.
Well, a few weeks passed, and, as promised, Einar didn't get any new clothes for Christmas. He shrugged and continued on his way. As he went deep into the forest, he came across a huge cat.
"What is your name?" He asked the cat, quite irritated with it.
"Jólakötturinn," it responded.215Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdXHA7iCtgH
All at once, all of the color drained from Einar's face.
"Wh-what do you want?"
Jólakötturinn grinned, showing its huge sharp teeth. "I want to eat you."215Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjhrdBswx0g
Einar gasped, then, thinking quickly, babbled out, "Please, god, no! I-I would taste terrible. Instead, you can have my firstborn."
The large car tilted it's head to the side, seeming to think for a moment, before nodding and turning, quickly disappearing into the distance.
Well, after that, a year passed. During that year, Einar forgot about the promise he had made, and had married the woman he had fallen in love with. The next Christmas, they had a little baby firstborn.
When Einar woke up one day, he walked outside to find Jólakötturinn standing in his front yard.
"Time to pay up," it said.
All in a rush, Einar remembered his promise. He tried to plead with the big cat, but it refused. Eventually, despite his wife's cries, he handed the baby to the large cat.
Now, after that exchange, Einar forgot about all of it, blocking out the memories.
Years later, Einar was walking through the forest when he found a small cat. He befriended it and brought it to his house, but as he reached his house, it transformed. Suddenly, he found himself standing in front of a grown man. Despite how different he was, Einar would recognize those eyes anywhere. "Son?" He gasped in surprise.
"Hello, Father," he said, grinning, showing sharp teeth. Then he pounced dragging his father's head beneath the snow, suffocating his father as he also began taking chunks out of him. After he was done, he grabbed his mother and kidnapped her, dragging her and his father's dead body to a giant cave. Inside the cave, Jólakötturinn was waiting, transformed to look like a dapper man. He smiled, and, in a monstrous wedding, with a giant snake as her bridesmaid, the mother was forcibly wed to him, and then the three of them fed on the father's flesh, though it was cooked for the mother. The End.
"...The End," he finished, looking around at the children, who were all hiding under their blankets.
"Too scary?" He asked.
One of the children popped their head out from under one of the blankets. "Nah. It was nowhere near as scary as that one about the water dog with the hand tail."
One of the others also revealed her head. "Yeah. Or that one about the blind lady with the healing hair. Or the dead girl kissed by a prince in a glass coffin. Or the dark fairy who killed that one thorny girl."
One of them suddenly exclaimed, "Tell the one about the giant who eats kids!"
"You mean Gryla?" He asked, chuckling as they eagerly nodded. "Very well. Once upon a time..."
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