Dragur

Draugr is defined as "a ghost, spirit, esp. the dead inhabitant of a cairn". Often the draugr is regarded not so much as a ghost but a revenant, i.e., the reanimated corpse of the deceased inside the burial mound.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Draugar usually possessed superhuman strength, and were "generally hideous to look at", bearing a necrotic black or blue color, and were associated with a "reek of decay" or more precisely inhabited haunts that often issued foul stench.

The draugar were said to be either hel-blár ("death-blue") or nár-fölr ("corpse-pale"). Glámr when found dead was described as "blár sem Hel en digr sem naut (black as hell and bloated to the size of a bull)". Þórólfr Lame-foot, when lying dormant, looked "uncorrupted" and also "was black as death i.e., bruised black and blue] and swollen to the size of an ox". The close similarity of these descriptions have been noted. 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".

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 moreover, possessed long scratching claws, and the claws stuck in the neck, prompting the hero Hrómundr to refer to the dragur as a sort of cat. 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.

Draugrs often give off a morbid stench, not unlike the smell of a decaying body. The mound where Kárr the Old was entombed reeked horribly. 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. When enraged Þráinn filled the barrow with an "evil reek."