Draugr
[2][3] In the Icelandic sagas, from which most modern interest is garnered, draugrs live in their graves or royal palaces, often guarding treasure buried in their burial mound.
[5][7] English philologist Richard Cleasby (1797–1847), and Icelandic scholar Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1827–1889), in "An Icelandic-English dictionary" (1873), defined Old Norse: draugr as: "a ghost, spirit, esp.
[9]In the written corpus, however, the draugr is regarded not so much as a ghost, but a corporeal undead creature, or revenant,[10] ie, the reanimated corpse of the deceased, for example inside the burial mound or grave[11] (as in the example of Kárr inn gamli in Grettis saga).
[10][12] Commentators extend the term draugr to the undead in medieval literature, even if it is never explicitly referred to as such in the text, and designated them instead as a haugbúi ("barrow-dweller") or an aptrganga ("re-walker") – see Gjenganger.
[23] A further caveat is that the application of the term draugr may not necessarily follow what the term might have meant in the strict sense during medieval times, but rather follow a modern definition or notion of draugr, specifically such ghostly beings (by whatever names they are called) that occur in Icelandic folktales categorized as "Draugasögur" in Jón Árnason's collection, based on the classification groundwork laid by Konrad Maurer.
The haugbúi, meaning "mound-dweller" or "howe-dweller" (composite of Old Norse: haugr, "mound", cognate to English "how, howe, height", and búi, "dweller", from búa, "reside"), the dead body living within its tomb, is a variation of the draugr.
Sometimes the chain of contagion becomes an outbreak, e.g., the case of Þórólfr bægifótr (Thorolf Lame-foot or Twist-Foot),[37][38] and even called an "epidemic" regarding Þórgunna (Thorgunna).
[d][39][40] A more speculative case of vampirism is that of Glámr, who was asked to tend sheep for a haunted farmstead and was subsequently found dead with his neck and every bone in his body broken.
[43] Draugrs usually possessed superhuman strength,[44] and were "generally hideous to look at", bearing a necrotic black or blue color,[45][46] and were associated with a "reek of decay"[47] or more precisely inhabited haunts that often issued foul stench.
[11][51] Laxdæla saga describes how bones were dug up belonging to a dead sorceress who had appeared in dreams, and they were "blue and evil looking".
[52][53] Þráinn (Thrain), the berserker of Valland, "turned himself into a troll" in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar, was a fiend (dólgr) which was "black and huge.. roaring loudly and blowing fire", and possessed long scratching claws, and the claws stuck in the neck, prompting the hero Hrómundr to refer to the draugur as a sort of cat (Old Norse: kattakyn).
[54][55] [56] The possession of long claws features also in the case of another revenant, Ásviðr (Aswitus) who came to life in the night and attacked his foster-brother Ásmundr (Asmundus) with them, scratching his face and tearing one of his ears.
[59][60] In Harðar saga Hörðr Grímkelsson's two underlings die even before entering Sóti the Viking's mound, due to the "gust and stink (ódaun)" wafting out of it.
[65] The Old Norse word troll, which initially meant something akin to "malevolent esoteric supernatural being" (demon, devil, ghost, jötunn etc), was by extension, specifically in compounds, also a word for the sorcery and dark arts of said beings;[62] compare Swedish: trolla ("perform magic, conjure"),[64] trollkarl ("troll-man, wizard"),[64] trollgumma, trollpacka ("troll-lady, witch").
; earlier also concretely, about objects or tools and the like equipped with or produced by such ability and so on;The undead Víga-Hrappr Sumarliðason of Laxdaela saga, unlike the typical guardian of a treasure hoard, does not stay put in his burial place but roams around his farmstead of Hrappstaðir, menacing the living.
[67] Víga-Hrappr's ghost, it has been suggested, was capable of transforming into the seal with human-like eyes which appeared before Þorsteinn svarti/surt (Thorsteinn the Black) sailing by ship, and was responsible for the sinking of the vessel to prevent the family from reaching Hrappstaðir.
[69][70][71] A draugr in Icelandic folktales collected in the modern age can also change into a great flayed bull, a grey horse with a broken back but no ears or tail, and a cat that would sit upon a sleeper's chest and grow steadily heavier until their victim suffocated.
Greed causes it to attack any would-be grave robbers viciously, but the draugr also expresses an innate envy of the living stemming from a longing for the things of life which it once had.
They also exhibit an immense and nearly insatiable appetite, as shown in the encounter of Aran and Asmund, sword brothers who swore that, if one died, the other would sit vigil with him for three days inside the burial mound.
[82] Ármann Jakobsson suggests further that breaking the draugr's posture is a necessary or helpful step in destroying the draugr, but this is fraught with the risk of being inflicted with the evil eye, whether this is explicitly told in the case of Grettir who receives the curse from Glámr, or only implied in the case of Þórólfr, whose son warns the others to beware while they unbend Þórólfr's seated posture.
[19] Traditionally in Iceland, a pair of open iron scissors was placed on the chest of the recently deceased, and straws or twigs might be hidden among their clothes.
[27] In later Scandinavian folklore, in contrast to the Icelandic sagas, the draugr appears to have become synonymous with regular ghosts and thereof in general, sometimes with no clear distinction at all.
The reason for this may be that the fishermen often drowned in great numbers, and the stories of restless dead coming in from sea were more common in the north than any other region of the country.
A similar source even tells of a third type, the gleip, known to hitch themselves to sailors walking ashore and make them slip on the wet rocks.
Sea draugrs and drowned people are mentioned as being part of the Wild Hunt in Norway,[88] and the old Nordic Christmas tradition of leaving out food and beer on Christmas night, as to wellcome spirits of the deceased, household spirits and thereof into the house, includes draugrs in Norway; the beer left out being called "draug-beer" (Norwegian: drøv-øl, from the form drauv).
[89][88] The modern and popular connection between the draug and the sea can be traced back to authors like Jonas Lie and Regine Nordmann, whose works include several books of fairy tales, as well as the drawings of Theodor Kittelsen, who spent some years living in Svolvær.
The notion of draugrs who live in the mountains is present in the poetic works of Henrik Ibsen (Peer Gynt), and Aasmund Olavsson Vinje.
In video game series such as The Elder Scrolls, draugr are the undead mummified corpses of fallen warriors that inhabit the ancient burial sites of a Nordic-inspired race of man.
The 2024 Icelandic horror film The Damned features a draugr tormenting the inhabitants of an isolated, winter, fishing post after they let the survivors of a shipwreck drown.
