Nábrók

Nábrók or nábuxur (calqued as necropants, literally "corpse britches") are a pair of pants made from the skin of a dead human, which are believed in Icelandic witchcraft to be capable of producing an endless supply of money.

The freshly skinned pants must be worn right away, and it is said to grow on the person, until such times as he appoints to remove the pair in order to give to someone else (cf.

There is no wealth-giving magic on it yet, and in order to activate the charm, the person must steal a coin from a wretchedly poor widow, which theft must be performed between the readings of the Epistle and Gospel during one of the three major festivals of the year (or "between the First and Second Lesson on.. Yule, Easter, or Whitsuntide"[6]), then deposit the coin into the pungur (translated politely as "pockets"[7] but actually denoting "scrotum"[11]) of the "Corpse Breeches".

[17][18][19] The stave is mentioned in Halldór Laxness's historic novel, Íslandsklukkan ("Iceland's Bell" 1943) where a character named Jón Þeófilusson is caught possessing the sign of the vindgapi (translated as "Blusterer") and the nábrókarstafur (sign of the "Corpse's Breeches"), thereby facing the prospect of being burned as a sorcerer.

[20][13] The in-depth analysis of the novel by Eiríkur Jónsson (1981) uncovered that in a manuscript of a Galdrabók, the above-depicted sign, labeled as "Gim-Ring[??]

1771) is associated with a ghost story (fylgja tale) of Móhúsa-Skotta (Skotta of Peathouse"), also recorded by Jón Árnason[26] Margaret Willson writes that a rumour of owning "demon's pants" to accumulate wealth was attached to this figure.

[27] Mathias Nordvig comments that Katla owns magical breeches that lets her travel long distance quickly, like the Seven-league boots of fairy tale, and it may somehow be connected to the nábrók as well.