Study › Runes & Norse › The Draugr
A draugr is the walking dead of the North: not a ghost, but a corpse that will not stay in its grave. Draugar were strong as trolls, haunted the living, and could only be ended by fire or by cutting off the head.
What is a draugr?
The draugr is the walking dead of the North: not a ghost, but a corpse that will not stay in its grave. Draugar were strong as trolls, swollen and dark with death, and they haunted the farms of the living, killing livestock and people, riding on rooftops at night, and bringing sickness to all around them.
Glam and Grettir
The most famous is Glam in the Saga of Grettir the Strong, a shepherd who became a draugr and haunted a valley until Grettir wrestled him in the moonlight. As Glam fell, he laid a curse on Grettir that he would forever fear the dark — and so he did, for the rest of his life.
How to end a draugr
A draugr who guarded treasure in his burial mound was called a haugbui, a 'mound-dweller'. The sagas say that a draugr could only be ended for good by cutting off its head and laying it at its thigh, or by burning the body to ashes and scattering them. Folk belief kept the fear alive long after the Viking Age.
Most of the dead rested in Helheim.
Questions
How do you kill a draugr?
By cutting off its head and laying it at its thigh, or by burning the body and scattering the ashes.
What is a haugbui?
A draugr who guards treasure in his burial mound.