deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

Hurdaskellir has a modus operandi he learned from another of the oldest horror tropes. In English, his name is “Door-Slammer,” and as this Yule Lad embarks on his thirteen-day journey over the festive season, it is all he intends to do.

Until the end of the month, he would sneak from home to home, reaching the furthest ends of the Westfjords to the bustling center of Reykjavík, to break in and bang as many doors as he could in order to wake those sleeping inside.

It is doubtless that with the high winds of Iceland’s winter and the makeshift design of many turf houses in Iceland many a child was kept wide awake in terror over the Christmas season, fully believing that Hurðaskellir was making his rounds through their home.

So, maybe it wasn’t the wind that caught that door, it was Hurdaskellir.

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