The Walking Dead, Part 1

Gunnora Hallakarva gunnora at bga.com
Fri Aug 30 11:03:17 PDT 1996


The Walking Dead:  Draugr and Aptrgangr in Old Norse Literature
Part I: Introduction and Description of the Walking Dead

        For the Vikings, the concept of the afterlife was often much more
immediate than glorious skaldic tales of Valholl or the Christian's Heaven:
once the dead body was placed within the grave, it was believed to become
"animated with a strange life and power" (Hilda Ellis-Davidson. The Road to
Hel. Westport CT, Greenwood P., 1943. p. 96).  The dead person continued a
sort of pseudo-life within the grave, not as a spirit or ghost, but as an
actual undead corpse similar in many respects to the "nosferatu" or central
European vampire (Ellis-Davidspn, Road to Hel, p. 92).

        The undead were known by various names.  The "haugbui" (from "haugr"
meaning "howe" or "barrow") was a mound-dweller, the dead body living on
within its tomb.  The haugbui was rarely found far from its burial place,
and is the type of undead usually found in Norwegian saga material.  The
"draugr" was "the animated corpse that comes forth from its grave mound, or
shows restlessness on the road to burial" (Ellis-Davidson, Road to Hel, p.
80).  Also known as "aptrgangr" (lit. "after-goer,"  or "one who walks after
death") the draugr is the roaming undead most frequently encountered in the
Icelandic sagas.  Whichever name is used, the undead of Scandinavia was a
physical body, the actual corpse of the deceased, and though the term
"ghost" may be used to describe it, modern connotations of a phantom or
incorpoeal spirit do not apply to these supernatural creatures.

        The physical descriptions of the undead further reinforce the idea
of a walking corpse.  The undead is said to be "hel-blar" ("black as death"
or "blue as death") or "na-folr" ("corpse-pale).  In Eyrbyggja Saga, a
shepherd who is killed by a draugr and who is destined himself to become
undead is said to be "coal-black," and the draugr that killed him is
"hel-blar" when disinterred (Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, trans.
Eyrbyggja Saga.  Buffalo, U of Toronto P, 1973. pp 115 & 187).  Glamr, the
undead shepherd of Grettirs Saga, was reported to be dark blue in color
(Denton Fox and Hermann Palsson, trans. Grettirs Saga.  Toronto, U of
Toronto P, 1974.  p. 72), and in Laxdaela Saga the bones of a dead sorceress
who had appeared in dreams were dug up and found to be "blue and evil
looking" (Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, trans., Laxdaela Saga.  NY,
Penguin, 1969. p. 235).

        The undead corpse was rendered yet more terrifying by its propensity
to swell to enormous size.  This property of the undead was apparently not
due to gasses released by decay, for the body of the draugr was also found
to be enormously heavy, and was often described as being uncorrupted, even
many years after death.  Thorolf of Eyrbyggja Saga was "uncorrupted, and
with an ugly look about him... swollen to the size of an ox," and his body
could not be raised without levers, it was so heavy (Palsson & Edwards,
Eyrbyggja Saga, p. 187.  See also Grettirs Saga, p. 115).

        The size attributed to the draugr was a way of expressing the vast
strength of the creature.  The sagas describe the struggles of kinsmen to
straighten the body for burial (Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, trans.,
Egils Saga. NY, Penguin, 1976, p. 150.  See also Eyrbyggja Saga, p. 114).
The aptrgangr often demonstrated its power by literraly crushing its victim
to death.  Glamr's attack leaves a shepherd "with his neck broken and every
bone in his body crushed" (Fox and Palsson, Grettirs Saga, p. 74.  See also
Eyrbyggja Saga, p. 115).  Frequently, in describing battles between a saga
hero and a draugr where the hero is a man acknowledged to have enormous
strength himself, the fight was often an unsure thing, with the combatants
struggling back and forth, evenly matched in the deadly contest (Nora
Kershaw, trans., "Hromundar saga Greipssonar," in Stories and Ballads of the
Far Past.  Cambridge, University P., 1921, p. 68.  See also Grettirs Saga,
p. 37).

        The draugr also at times exhibited powers of a magical nature,
possessing knowledge of the future (Peter G. Foote and David M. Wilson, The
Viking Achievement.  London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1970. p. 405), controlling
the weather (Ellis-Davidson, Road to Hel, p. 163), and shape-shifting.  The
dead could appear in many forms, such as a seal (Palsson and Edwards,
Eybyggja Saga, p. 165.  See also Laxdaela Saga, p. 80), a great flayed bull,
a grey horse with no ears or tail and a broken back, or a cat that would sit
upon a sleeper's chest and grow steadily heavier until the victim suffocated
(Jacqueline Simpson, Icelandic Folktales and Legends.  Berkeley, U of
California P, 1972.  p. 166. Also personal experience... my Norwegian Forest
Cat does the same thing, even though I'm pretty sure he's not a draugr!).
The draugr Thrain shape-shifted into a "cat-like creature" (kattakyn) in
Hromundar saga Greipssonar:
                
                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 nack, tearing the flesh from his bones...
(Kershaw, P. 68)

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 (Magnussen and Palsson, Laxdaela Saga, p. 103).

This certainly would have been a useful talent, alowwing the undead to enter
or leave its burial place at will.

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Next post, Part II: The Dwelling Place of the Draugr


Gunnora Hallakarva

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"Better the Hammer than the nail."  --- Kief af Kierstead




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