👣 The Draugr

The walking dead of the Norse sagas, who guard their mounds and crush the living

Also known as Draug, Aptrgangr

📺 "Tonight's guest has been dead for a thousand years and has not let it slow him down one bit. He is bigger than he was, meaner than he was, and he would like his gold back."

           _______
          /       \
         |  _   _  |
         | (x) (x) |
         |    _    |
         |  /___\  |
          \_______/
       ____|     |____
      /    |     |    \
     /  /| |     | |\  \
    |  / | |  $  | | \  |
    |_/  | |_____| |  \_|
         |  |   |  |
     ____|__|   |__|____
    /  _____________    \
   | /               \   |
   |/_________________\__|

Origin: Norse sagas, medieval Iceland
First appeared: The Icelandic sagas (written down in the 13th and 14th centuries from older tradition)
Pack: World Folklore

terminal-of-terror monster draugr

💀 Facts

Draugar are the walking dead of the medieval Icelandic sagas
They guard their burial mounds and the treasure buried with them
A draugr can swell to a giant's size and has the strength to crush a grown man
The only sure ways to stop one are beheading and burning
Glámr, in Grettis saga, curses Grettir to fear the dark for the rest of his life
Þórólfr Twist-Foot, in Eyrbyggja saga, kills from his grave until his body is dug up and burned
The sagas call a restless corpse aptrgangr, an 'again-walker'

📜 Legend

In the Icelandic sagas the dead do not always stay down. A draugr (the plural is draugar; the sagas also call them aptrgangr, 'again-walker') is a corpse that keeps its body, swells to monstrous size and strength, and walks after dark. Some, like Kárr the Old in Grettis saga, sit on their treasure inside the burial mound and fight anyone who digs in. Others roam: Glámr, a surly shepherd who dies at Christmas in Grettis saga, rides the roofs of the farm, kills cattle and drives folk mad until Grettir wrestles him, and Glámr's dying curse haunts the hero for the rest of his life. In Eyrbyggja saga the greedy farmer Þórólfr Twist-Foot kills men and beasts from his grave, is moved, walks again and is finally dug up and burned. Beheading and burning are the sure cures, and the sagas describe practical precautions too: carrying a corpse out through a hole in the wall so it cannot find the door back in. The draugr is the ancestor of every zombie that was once a neighbour.

🎭 Myth vs Movie

True or false? Make your guess, then click a card (or press r) for the verdict.

A draugr can be stopped with an ordinary burial.

✘ FALSE

The sagas are clear: a restless corpse must be beheaded, burned to ash, or both. Reburying Þórólfr only moved the problem.
Draugar swell to a huge size.

✔ TRUE

Glámr's corpse is described as swollen and huge, and the dead in the sagas grow heavier and larger than they were in life.
Draugar are just mist and shadow, like modern ghosts.

✘ FALSE

They are solid flesh. They wrestle, crush and bite, and they leave a body behind to be burned.
The word draugr is related to a word for a dead tree trunk.

✔ TRUE

Scholars connect draugr to words for a dry log, which is a fair description of what one looks like.

🃏 Stat Card

Strength: 10
Speed: 3
Cunning: 5
Dread: 8

⚡ Powers

Superhuman strength
Swelling to a giant's size
Driving the living mad with a look
Shape-shifting into seals, bulls or cats, in some sagas
Guarding its grave-goods for ever

🧄 Weaknesses

Beheading
Fire, and scattering the ashes at sea
The head placed by its buttocks after the fight
A wall built across its grave
Sunrise

Stats power the Monster Mash: terminal-of-terror mash draugr

🎞️ Legacy

Grettis saga and Eyrbyggja saga, translated into English by William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon in 1869 and 1892
The draugr enemies of the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) and the draugr of God of War (2018)
The Norwegian draug, a drowned sailor's ghost in a half-boat, is a sea-going cousin

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