Humans are fascinated by gore and violence, but even more so the mysterious and unsolved.

Interest in these disturbing and unpleasant subjects is called morbid curiosity, and it has gripped millions of people throughout the ages.

I am one of those people.

My name is Halley, and this is the Morbid Curiosity podcast.

Thank you. Podcast. Many cultures and religions seem to have holidays around this time of year.

Kwanza, Hanukkah, Yule, Chalika, and of course Christmas.

Most of these holidays surround the winter solstice, a very important time of year for ancient peoples,

whose lives revolved around the changing of the seasons,

due to the very visible effects of those seasons on their crops and livestock.

It's no wonder that some of these long-standing traditions developed into the religious holidays we know today.

Without much effort, the layers of the Christian holiday of Christmas

can be peeled back to reveal its origins in more ancient pagan traditions from across Europe.

Characters like Santa Claus, Jack Frost, and the elves all have their basis in far more ancient

characters of myth and folklore.

Some of these characters are far less jolly than their modern counterparts.

One of these darker characters is Crampus.

According to lore, the name Crampus originates from the German word, crampin, which means claw,

and tradition has it that he is the son of the Norse goddess of the underworld, Hell.

In some parts of Austria, he is also known as Bartle,

Nigelbartel, Wohlbartel, and Klauboff.

Crampus is a horned humanoid figure, often described as a half-goat, half-demon.

Although there are many variations of Krampice's appearance, most images share several common

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