Read Never Fear for Free Online Page B

Mama, please tell us. You
are scaring us.” Leifur, fully awake, now moved into his mother and
held to her close. Lilja mirrored him on her other side, and Magnús
found himself moving into Leifur.
    Berglind began, noting how
fear could bring a family close together, all petty squabbling
instantly forgotten, “Many years ago, before any of you were born,
your father and I had a child, a boy—Stenn.”
    “ Oh, Mama!” Lilja
said.
    “ Hush, child. It was many
years ago.” Berglind thought for a moment, trying to figure the
best way to tell the children without frightening them too much.
“Stenn was a naughty baby, crying all the time, refusing to eat his
porridge. As hard as your father and I tried, Stenn would not
behave. Yes, he was only a baby, but there are bad children born
into this world, and I fear he was one.
    “ Stenn was born the day
before Christmas and on his first birthday, Christmas Eve, Grýla
paid us a visit. It was a bitterly cold night. We had finished
supper and were huddled by the hearth. There was a knock on the
door and Grýla entered. She was gnarled and hideous, as the stories
tell. Your father tried to stop her from coming in, but she used a
spell and froze him in place. She cackled and rasped with an awful,
wheezing voice. She came to me and reached for the baby. And when I
tried to get up and escape her grasp, she froze me also. She took
Stenn from my arms. In her gruff, crackling voice she told us that
Stenn was a bad child, and bad children could not be abided. She
foretold I would have other children, and she would be watching us.
If those children were also not good, she would come for them and
take them as well.”
    Lilja was crying in her mother’s arms.
Leifur shook.
    Magnús stared, unblinking. He spoke
first. “That is why you are always warning us to behave, isn’t it,
Mama? But we do misbehave—all the time. We are bad children, just
like Stenn.”
    “ Not so very bad, Magnús,”
Berglind tried to reassure him. “Every child—”
    “ No, Mama, we are bad… at
least Leifur and I are, and we are making Lilja bad also. Grýla
took Stenn, didn’t she?”
    Berglind tried to stifle a sob. “Yes,”
was all she could say. She could never tell them the
truth.
    “ Grýla is coming for us,”
Magnús said in a low, ominous voice.
    Lilja wailed, and Leifur began to cry
in earnest, clutching at Berglind so fiercely she
grunted.
    “ Hush, children. Grýla
will not come. Your father will be home soon. Everything will be
fine. You will be good children now. I will make you pepper cookies
on the morrow, but you must sleep now.”
    The children quieted after a few
minutes and at last fell into a deep slumber. Not so Berglind. Her
thoughts were occupied with Grýla and visits from the rest of her
brood.
    And Berglind’s revelation did indeed
change the children’s attitude. The next day, as promised, she made
pepper cookies, and the children behaved all day and gave no word
of protest when it was time to retire for the evening, once again
all in Berglind’s bed.
    And as expected, Hurdaskellir arrived
with a flourish, banging and slamming doors till the wee hours of
the morning. The children remained uncharacteristically silent
through all the noise, causing Berglind to wonder that there might
be hope still for her family.
    Magnús decided on the following day,
December 19, to make a game with the Yuletide Lads’ visits with his
siblings. That day, Lilja would prepare a pail of curds for
Skyrgámur, the curd glutton, while he and Leifur would prepare a
string of sausages for the arrival of Bjúgnakraekir, the sausage
pilferer, the following night.
    The children participated with much
enthusiasm, and Berglind let them have their fun, knowing disaster
might befall them at any time.
    Magnús’ ideas worked. The curds were
gobbled up that night and, similarly, the sausages on the following
evening.
    “ What do you have planned
tonight for Gluggagaegir, the peeper, eh Magnús?”