Stiff-Legs, the eldest of the 13 yule lad brothers, was spotted at a farm in northeast Iceland where he was harassing sheep, hoping for a sip of milk.
“I guess it wasn’t the smartest thing to do as the sheep have no milk in the middle of winter,” Stiff-Legs tells icelandreview.com. “But I was really thirsty,” he adds.
Stiff-Legs has a habit of sneaking into sheep houses and trying to milk the sheep. He never has much luck, though, because of his stiff legs, as described in poem Jólasveinarnir by Jóhannes úr Kötlum.
These days, sheep houses are hard to find. According to júlli.is, Stiff-Legs broke into a supermarket last night and tasted the milk stored in the cooler, but it was not to his liking. He didn’t like the energy drinks he found either and the CCTV cameras scared him.
Stiff-Legs finally tracked down a few sheep, but they were too quick for him. Stiff legs can be a nuisance, yet the disability did not prevent the yule lad from bringing presents to children last night.
“Once I got stuck in a hole in an iced pond for almost a week so the joints in my knees froze. That’s why I have such stiff legs,” Stiff-Legs explains.
As Stiff-Legs is the eldest of 13 brothers he is also the most responsible. His younger brothers make fun of him all the time because Stiff-Legs thinks he knows best and has no sense of humor.
Stiff-Legs and his brothers welcome visitors to their home in Dimmuborgir, northeast Iceland. For further information, see www.snowmagic.is.
To read more about the Icelandic yule lads, click here.
Photo by Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson.
