Guest star
The Yule Cat (Jólakötturinn): Iceland's Christmas Cat
Majestic, menacing and very interested in your sweater.
The legend
In Icelandic folklore the Yule Cat, Jólakötturinn, is an enormous black cat that prowls the snowy countryside at Christmas. Anyone who has not received a new piece of clothing before Christmas Eve is in danger of being eaten. The cat belongs to the same family of Icelandic Christmas figures as the troll Grýla and her sons, the thirteen Yule Lads.
The story is usually linked to the old farm year: the autumn wool had to be worked before Christmas, and those who finished their share were rewarded with new clothes. The cat became widely known through a 1932 poem by Jóhannes úr Kötlum, and today it is one of the best-loved oddities of an Icelandic Christmas, with a giant lit-up Yule Cat appearing in central Reykjavík each December.
In the RaccoonVerse
Every December the Yule Cat visits the Raccoon, and every December the Raccoon panics. He wears a fair isle sweater with the price tag still on and insists it is new. He founds a survival club and salutes. Once he simply held his mug of hot cocoa very still while the cat curled around him. The cat is drawn enormous, black and fluffy, and is always a little more patient than you would expect.
Our Yule Cat designs come as tees, crewneck sweatshirts and hoodies, which makes them a new Yule Cat sweater, in case anyone is checking.
