The Old Norse meaning of the word is a revenant.

"The will appears to be strong, strong enough to draw the hugr [animate will] back to one's body. These reanimated individuals were known as draugar. However, though the dead might live again, they could also die again. Draugar die a "second death" as Chester Gould calls it, when their bodies decay, are burned, dismembered or otherwise destroyed

 

 

The Draugr with the sharp teeth attacks the bearded Viking!!

 

 

The Draugr live in their graves, often guarding treasure buried with them in their burial mound. They are animated corpses - unlike ghosts they have a corporeal body with similar physical abilities as in life. Older literature makes clear distinctions between sea-draugar and land-draugar!!

The Sea Draugr attacking this Viking ship possess superhuman strength, can increase their size at will, and carry the unmistakable stench of decay. "The appearance of a draugr was that of a dead body: swollen, blackened and generally hideous to look at." They are undead figures from Norse and Icelandic mythology that appear to retain some semblance of intelligence. They exist either to guard their treasure, wreak havoc on living beings, or torment those who had wronged them in life. The draugr's ability to increase its size also increased its weight, and the body of the draugr was described as being extremely heavy. Thorolf of Eyrbyggja saga was "uncorrupted, and with an ugly look about him... swollen to the size of an ox," and his body was so heavy that it could not be raised without levers. They are also noted for the ability to rise from the grave as wisps of smoke and "swim" through solid rock, which would be useful as a means of exiting their graves.

In folklore, draugar slay their victims through various methods including crushing them with their enlarged forms, devouring their flesh, devouring them whole in their enlarged forms, indirectly killing them by driving them mad, and by drinking their blood. Animals feeding near the grave of a draugr may be driven mad by the creature's influence. They may also die from being driven mad. Thorolf, for example, caused birds that flew over his bowl barrow to drop dead.  Draugar are also noted as being able to drive living people insane!!!

Draugar are noted for having numerous magical abilities (referred to as trollskap) resembling those of living witches and wizards such as shape-shifting, controlling the weather and seeing into the future. Among the creatures that a draugr may turn into are a seal, 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 the victim suffocated. The draugr Þráinn (Thrain) shape-shifted into a "cat-like creature" in the Hromundar Saga

Then Thrain turned himself into a Troll, and the barrow was filled with a horrible stench; and he stuck his claws into the back of Hromund's neck, tearing the flesh from his bones...

 

Draugar have the ability to enter into the dreams of the living! Draugar also have the ability to curse a victim and brought disease to a village and could create temporary darkness in daylight hours. While the draugr certainly preferred to be active during the night, it did not appear to be vulnerable to sunlight like some other revenants.

 

A draugr's presence may be shown by a great light that glowed from the mound like foxfire. This fire would form a barrier between the land of the living and the land of the dead. The draugr could also move magically through the earth, swimming through solid stone as does Killer-Hrapp:

 

Then Olaf tried to rush Hrapp, but Hrapp sank into the ground where he had been standing and that was the end of their encounter. 

 

Some draugar are immune to weapons, and only a hero has the strength and courage needed to stand up to so formidable an opponent. In legends the hero would often have to wrestle the draugr back to his grave, thereby defeating him, since weapons would do no good. A good example of this kind of fight is found in the Hromundar Saga. Although iron could injure a draugr, as is the case with many supernatural creatures, it would not be sufficient to stop it. Sometimes the hero is required to dispose of the body in unconventional ways. The preferred method is to cut off the draugr's head, burn the body, and dump the ashes in the sea; the emphasis being on making absolutely sure the draugr was dead and gone.

 

The draugar were said to be either hel-blár ("blue-death") or, conversely, nár-fölr ("corpse-pale"). The "blue-death" colour was not actually grey but was a dark blue or maroon hue that covered the entire body. 

 

The resting place of the draugr was a tomb that served much as a workable home for the creature. Draugar are able to leave this dwelling place and visit the living during the night. Such visits are supposed to be universally horrible events that often end in death for one or more of the living, which would then warrant the exhumation of the draugr by a hero.

 

The motivation of the actions of a draugr was primarily jealousy and greed. The greed of a draugr causes it to viciously attack any would-be grave robbers, but the draugr also expresses an innate jealousy of the living, stemming from a longing for the things of the life it once had. 

 

This desire for the friendship experienced in life is one example of the manifestation of this aspect of the draugr.

 

Draugr's creation

 

After a person’s death, the main indication that the person will become a draugr is that the corpse is not in a horizontal position. In most cases, the corpse is found in an upright or sitting position, and this is an indication that the dead might return. Any mean, nasty, or greedy person can become a draugr. As noted by Ármann, “most medieval Icelandic ghosts are evil or marginal people. If not dissatisfied or evil, they are unpopular”. 

 

 

However, unlike ghosts, draugar can also come about through infection by another draugr such as in the story of Glámr. In Eyrbyggja saga, a shepherd is killed by a draugr and rises the next night as one himself.

 

Traditionally, a pair of open iron scissors were placed on the chest of the recently deceased, and straws or twigs might be hidden among their clothes. The big toes were tied together or needles were driven through the soles of the feet in order to keep the dead from being able to walk. Tradition also held that the coffin should be lifted and lowered in three different directions as it was carried from the house to confuse a possible draugr's sense of direction.

 

The most effective means of preventing the return of the dead was believed to be the corpse door. A special door was built, through which the corpse was carried feet-first with people surrounding it so the corpse couldn't see where it was going. The door was then bricked up to prevent a return. It is speculated that this belief began in Denmark and spread throughout the Norse culture. The belief was founded on the idea that the dead could only leave through the way they entered.

 

 

 

              The Nørre Nærå Runestone is interpreted as having a "grave       binding inscription" used to keep the deceased in its grave

 

In more recent Scandinavian Folklore, the draug is often identified with the spirits of Sailors drowned at Sea. The creature is said to possess a distinctly human form, with the exception that its head is composed entirely of seaweed. In other tellings, the draug is described as being a headless fisherman, dressed in oilskins and sailing in half a boat (the Norwegian municipality of Bo Nordland has the half-boat in its coat-of-arms). This trait is common in the northern most part of Norway, where life and culture was based on fishing more than anywhere else. 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 up north than anywhere else in the country.

A recorded legend from Trondelag tells how a body lying on a beach became the object of a quarrel between the two types of draug (headless and seaweed-headed). 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.

But, though the draug usually presages death, there is an amusing account in Northern Norway of a northerner who managed to outwit him:

It was Christmas Eve and Ola went down to his boathouse to get the brandy keg he had bought for the holidays. When he got in, he noticed a draugr sitting on the keg, staring out to sea. Ola, with great presence of mind and great bravery, tiptoed up behind the draugr and struck him sharply in the small of the back, so that he went flying out through the window, with sparks hissing around him as he hit the water. Ola knew he had no time to lose, so he set off at a great rate, running through the churchyard which lay between his home and the boathouse. As he ran, he cried, "Up, all you Christian souls, and help me!" Then he heard the sound of fighting between the ghosts and the draugr, who were battling each other with coffin boards and bunches of seaweed. The next morning, when people came to church, the whole yard was strewn with coffin covers, boat boards, and seaweed. After the fight, which the ghosts won, the draugr never came back to that district.

 

There is also two Shield Maidens in the painting fighting the Draugr - The Shield Maidens were women who chose to fight  and there is hard evidence to back this 

The Byzantine historian Johanees Skylitzes records that women fought in battle when Sviatoslav I of Kiev attacked the Byzantines in Bulgaria in 971. When the Viking Varangian Guard had suffered a devastating defeat, the victors were stunned at discovering armed women among the fallen warriors.

 

When Leif Ericson's  pregnant half-sister Freydis Eirikdottir was in Vinland, she is reported to have taken up a sword, and, bare-breasted, scared away the attacking Native American Indians!! The fight is recounted in the Greenland Saga!!

 

According to the Anglo-Saxon historian Saxo Grammaticus, shieldmaidens fought on the Danish side at the Battle of Bravalla in the year 750.

 

"Now out of the town of Sle, under the captains Hetha (Heid) and Wisna, with Hakon Cut-cheek came Tummi the Sailmaker. On these captains, who had the bodies of women, nature bestowed the souls of men. Webiorg was also inspired with the same spirit, and was attended by Bo (Bui) Bramason and Brat the Jute, thirsting for war...The same man witnesses that the maiden Weghbiorg (Webiorg) fought against the enemy and felled Soth the champion. While she was threatening to slay more champions, she was pierced through by an arrow from the bowstring of Thorkill, a native of Tellemark."

 

Measurements; height 30 inches  x  20 inches.   (76.2 cms x 50.8 cms) 

Oil on Canvas

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