The Yule Cat The Yule Cat is a Yule Boogeyman from Iceland. Part of the wider Yuletide mythos involving The Yule Lads and their mother Grýla, who finds her origins in Edda Mythology. The Yule Cat is said to attack people if they do not receive new clothing on Yuletide. It is the pet of Granny Grýla and is said to only be able to be controlled by her son Gully Gawk. Given how cold it gets and the need for clothes in Iceland the clothing part likely originates from incentivizing the more well off to make sure that the poor would be given new clothes. Why a cat? While it may just be a natural extension of how Witches have cats in folklore like with Holle. I think it likely ties into a linguistic quirk that also ended up giving Freya cats. The Word for Male cat and bear was once the same word, this is partly why Freya who likely had bears now has cats. The same happened with the Yule Cat, without bears for the word to be associated with over time a Yule Bear became a Yule cat.-TLK