Meat Hook, Ketkrókur
Meat Hook, Ketkrókur
Meat Hook
St. Thorlák's Day, 23 December, is the day of Meat Hook's arrival. Meat Hook was crazy about meat. In the old days he would lower a long stick through the chimney and snag a smoked leg of lamb hanging from the rafters, or a piece of smoked lamb from the pot. In those days the smoked lamb, which is traditional Icelandic Christmas fare, was cooked on St. Thorlák's Day.
Meat Hook, the twelfth one,
his talent would display
as soon as he arrived
on Saint Thorlak's Day.He snagged himself a morsel
of meet of any sort,
although his hook at times was
a tiny bit short.
From the poem The Yuletide Lads by Jóhannes úr Kötlum. English translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson.
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