1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: In the United States, many people celebrate the twelve Days 7 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:42,599 Speaker 1: of Christmas, or at the very least they're familiar with 8 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 1: the holiday song that features ladies, dancing lords, a leaping drummers, drumming, 9 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:50,239 Speaker 1: and all manner of bird species. In Iceland, however, they 10 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:53,960 Speaker 1: celebrate the thirteen Days of Christmas, and rather than gifts 11 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,680 Speaker 1: from a true love, each day consists of a visit 12 00:00:56,720 --> 00:00:59,840 Speaker 1: from one of the thirteen Yule Lads. The Yule Lads 13 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:02,960 Speaker 1: are kind of like a big group of brotherly Santa Clauses. 14 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:06,040 Speaker 1: If Saint Nick was a troll within affinity for theft 15 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: and mischief. The legend goes something like this. On each 16 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 1: of the thirteen nights leading up to Christmas, Icelandic children 17 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:15,959 Speaker 1: were told to place a single shoe on their windowsill. 18 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:18,400 Speaker 1: If they'd been good that year, they would wake up 19 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,600 Speaker 1: to a shoe filled with delicious candies. If not, they 20 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:25,039 Speaker 1: would find their footwear chock full of rotten potatoes. But 21 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: whether you've got sweet treats or moldy vegetables, you still 22 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,080 Speaker 1: had to contend with each of the yule lad's unique personalities. 23 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: For example, if the lad named gully Gawk visited your home, 24 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: you might go out to check your cows, only to 25 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: find all the foams scraped off the top of your 26 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:43,600 Speaker 1: milk buckets. If sheep coat clods stopped by, you might 27 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: catch a skinny, bearded man suckling on your sheep. If 28 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:49,920 Speaker 1: Stubby broke in while you were cooking breakfast, you might 29 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,440 Speaker 1: find that all of the eggs had suddenly disappeared from 30 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 1: your frying pan. And according to legend, one mule lad 31 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 1: is known for stealing spoons and licking the leftover food 32 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: off of them, and he's given the creative name of 33 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 1: spoon liquor. Along the same lines, there's bowl liquor, potscraper, 34 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: and sausage swiper. I'm sure you can guess what those 35 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,080 Speaker 1: guys get up to. But while most of the yule 36 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:16,000 Speaker 1: lads seem relatively benign, if a bit's annoying, a couple 37 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 1: are downright creepy. There's one who will nab any meat 38 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:21,480 Speaker 1: that gets left around the house. He goes by the 39 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: terrifying moniker of meat hook. Maybe most unsettling of all, though, 40 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 1: is window Peeper, the guy who sneaks around outside your house, 41 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,600 Speaker 1: staring inside any windows you might have accidentally left open, 42 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,040 Speaker 1: planning how he could break in and steal your belongings. 43 00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:40,400 Speaker 1: But the scariest Icelandic Christmas legend isn't any of the 44 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:44,680 Speaker 1: Yule Lads at all. It's their mother, Grilla. Grilla is 45 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:48,600 Speaker 1: perhaps the most fearsome creature in Icelandic folklore. A giant 46 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:52,400 Speaker 1: witch slash ogre, she spends the spring, summer, and fall 47 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:56,639 Speaker 1: collecting whispers. These whispers tell her which Icelandic children have 48 00:02:56,720 --> 00:02:59,960 Speaker 1: behaved well and which ones haven't. During the winter month, 49 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,840 Speaker 1: once Gorilla ventures out from her cave to gather up 50 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:06,240 Speaker 1: all of Iceland's naughty children, she throws them in a sack, 51 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:09,079 Speaker 1: drags them back to her home, and boils them in 52 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,959 Speaker 1: a stew, which she eats all year long. And as 53 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,680 Speaker 1: if that weren't bad enough, Gorilla also has a pet, 54 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:19,200 Speaker 1: the Christmas Cat. Now, the Christmas Cat is a huge 55 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,760 Speaker 1: black flesh eating feline. Only it doesn't differentiate between good 56 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:26,720 Speaker 1: and bad children. It will feast happily on anyone who 57 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:29,800 Speaker 1: crosses its path. The only way to protect yourself is 58 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: by wearing a brand new article of clothing. Now, just 59 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,960 Speaker 1: imagine yourself as a child growing up in Iceland hearing 60 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: stories about Gorilla, her evil pet, and her mischievous children. 61 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: You'd be pretty freaked out right. Well, apparently these legends 62 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 1: struck such fear into the hearts of young Icelanders that 63 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: in seventeen forty six, the country's parliament instituted a new law. 64 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 1: Parents were legally banned from using the creepy creatures to 65 00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: scare their children. Gone were the days when a horrifying 66 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: folk could convince kids to behave. And while the Yule 67 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,920 Speaker 1: Lads used to be presented as disfigured trolls, they now 68 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: tend to look a lot like Santa Claus knockoffs, big 69 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,720 Speaker 1: jolly men with red cheeks wearing silly hats who come 70 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: to make a bit of harmless trouble. They're more enduring 71 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:19,640 Speaker 1: than eerie. But Grilla, oh, her reputation was too far 72 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: gone to be repaired even today. The winter which is feared. 73 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: According to Brian Pilkington, an illustrator and folklore expert, children 74 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: are truly terrified of grilla in Iceland. I visited children's 75 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:36,400 Speaker 1: play schools to demonstrate drawing skills, and if I draw gorilla, 76 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:39,280 Speaker 1: then two or three terrified children have to leave the 77 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: room because it's too strong for them. This is living folklore, 78 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:47,120 Speaker 1: and honestly I get it. I don't want anything to 79 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:50,120 Speaker 1: do with gorilla either, but if I happen to cross 80 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: paths with the Christmas cat, I might be tempted to 81 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,479 Speaker 1: give it a scratch behind the ear, provided I was 82 00:04:55,520 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: wearing new clothes. Of course, there are a lot of 83 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:15,360 Speaker 1: terrible places that you could be stuck during the holidays, 84 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:19,719 Speaker 1: the airport, an awkward work party, in traffic on the interstate. 85 00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:23,039 Speaker 1: But of all the awful locales, I can confidently say 86 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 1: that one would be worse than all the rest. A 87 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:29,400 Speaker 1: German pow camp in World War Two. Just imagine there 88 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,159 Speaker 1: would be no eggnog or Christmas movies to speak of. 89 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 1: I know I'm being glib here, but honestly, it wasn't 90 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,839 Speaker 1: funny at all. During World War II, about ninety four 91 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 1: thousand American soldiers found themselves in German prisoners of war 92 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:46,360 Speaker 1: camps all throughout Europe. One of these was at Colditz Castle, 93 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: located outside of the city of Leipzig, Germany. Colditz Castle 94 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:53,760 Speaker 1: was a huge Renaissance style estate that the Nazi Army 95 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: transformed into a prison. It sat at the top of 96 00:05:56,600 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: a hill four hundred miles away from the closest Allied forces. 97 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:03,440 Speaker 1: Now due to its geography and not to mention the 98 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:06,200 Speaker 1: fact that there were more guards than prisoners, Colditz had 99 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: a reputation for being impossible to escape from. But the 100 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: soldiers trapped inside weren't totally out of luck, especially during 101 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 1: Christmas time is he. Based on the rules of the 102 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:19,919 Speaker 1: Geneva Conventions, organizations like the Red Cross were allowed to 103 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: send supplies to those being held as prisoners of war. 104 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:26,960 Speaker 1: Care packages could contain things like clothing, food, medical supplies, 105 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,559 Speaker 1: and even small games. Playing cards were a common gift 106 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,200 Speaker 1: to send to POWs, and the US government knew this. 107 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 1: The US playing card company, makers of the famous Bicycle 108 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: branded card decks, also knew this, and they knew that 109 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:44,000 Speaker 1: together they just might be able to help American soldiers 110 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:47,600 Speaker 1: inside Colditz Castle. So let me set the scene for you. 111 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,360 Speaker 1: It's Christmas of nineteen forty three, American POWs clamor over 112 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:55,320 Speaker 1: the Red Cross packages they have just received. Each one 113 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: contains a deck of bicycle playing cards. One astute soldier 114 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:02,160 Speaker 1: notices an incredible tiny detail. The card decks are all 115 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:05,239 Speaker 1: wrapped in cellophane. On most of the decks, the clear 116 00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:09,400 Speaker 1: plastic wrapping is perfectly symmetrical, but on one the seal 117 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:13,080 Speaker 1: is crooked. The soldier takes the deck with the crooked 118 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: wrapping that night in his cell, under the cover of darkness, 119 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:19,960 Speaker 1: he shuffles through the fifty two cards over and over again. 120 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: He is sure the cellophane must have been a clue. 121 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 1: There must be some kind of secret hidden inside the deck. 122 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: And then he notices that the cards themselves are made 123 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:33,160 Speaker 1: out of thin layers of paper. At the corner of one, 124 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:36,280 Speaker 1: the layers are beginning to come apart. He peels the 125 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:39,640 Speaker 1: card into two separate pieces and sees something printed on 126 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: the inside. The soldier's heart starts to race. He checks 127 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:46,000 Speaker 1: outside his cell to make sure no guards are around, 128 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:48,480 Speaker 1: and then he stays up all night peeling the cards 129 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:52,440 Speaker 1: apart one by one, and then he arranges them together 130 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:57,000 Speaker 1: like a puzzle, revealing a map of Germany. Not only 131 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,280 Speaker 1: did this map show soldiers how they could get from 132 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,559 Speaker 1: Coldt's Cap to their closest allies, but it also marked 133 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:05,560 Speaker 1: areas to avoid and landmarks to look out for along 134 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 1: the way. It was an escape manual masquerading as a pastime. 135 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: It was the best Christmas gift they could have possibly received. 136 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:17,120 Speaker 1: All in all, these playing card maps helped thirty two 137 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: soldiers successfully escape from Coldot's Castle. Allied forces took control 138 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: of the estates in April of nineteen forty five and 139 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:28,680 Speaker 1: liberated those still trapped inside. Because of the secrecy of 140 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:32,240 Speaker 1: the operation, it's unknown exactly how many escape map decks 141 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 1: were produced. Many have likely been lost, damaged, or hidden. 142 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:39,000 Speaker 1: These days, only two known decks remain, and they're both 143 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: on display at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. 144 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 1: I know because I've seen them both myself with my 145 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 1: own eyes. As for the US Playing Card Company, they 146 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: did even more than produce secret escape maps. They also 147 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 1: made a special card deck that contained images of military 148 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: vehicles from various countries. Rather than being covertly smuggled into 149 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:03,000 Speaker 1: pow camps, these decks help civilians identify planes, tanks, and 150 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:07,520 Speaker 1: ships from other nations. Even today, the company embraces the 151 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 1: role it played in World War Two. They released a 152 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 1: commemorative escape map deck back in twenty thirteen, which mirrors 153 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 1: the one the soldiers in Kolditz Castle received. Luckily, though, 154 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:19,080 Speaker 1: if you buy one, you won't have to spend hours 155 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:21,760 Speaker 1: peeling the cards apart. The map is printed on the 156 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:24,240 Speaker 1: front of each one, serving as a reminder of the 157 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:27,920 Speaker 1: creative and curious problem solving that took place all those 158 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:36,080 Speaker 1: Christmases ago. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of 159 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:40,040 Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 160 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:43,640 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 161 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:47,680 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky 162 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:51,480 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 163 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 164 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:57,720 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 165 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:01,800 Speaker 1: over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, 166 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:03,280 Speaker 1: stay curious.