Draugr and haugbúi, the fearsome Norse ghosts

Túmulo funerario de Gokstad, Noruega, donde se encontró un barco.

Many different cultures believed in the apparitions of the dead or other related spirits, but the feelings they aroused or the characteristics they gave them were not common. Thus, while in the Greco-Roman world the terror produced by some types of ghosts was fought with reason, the Egyptians offered respect and veneration to their deceased. On the other hand, the Norse, with Scandinavia and Iceland as main exponents, believed in fearsome corporeal apparitions called draugar or búar.

Characteristics and behavior

Draugar are putrid-smelling corpse-like apparitions with magical abilities, such as varying their size, weight, shape and weather. Occasionally they are immune to weapons, forcing the hero to fight it with his bare hands. Although iron damages him, it does not stop him. When the hero entered the mound, not finding him in a horizontal position was indicative that he was not completely dead.

In Norway, these ghosts were attached to their burial mounds, not wandering away from them. In Iceland, however, they roamed unbound. In Scandinavia they were known as haugbúi (pl. búar) or draugr (pl. draugar). In some stories, when they were too old to fight, ancient Scandinavian kings were locked up alive in their burial mounds with all their possessions and their ship's crew. There are cases that suggest a type of euthanasia, where, after locking themselves in with their entourage, they would take a poison to end their lives.

In Scandinavia, the draugar frequently left their mounds, usually at night, but also in fog or during the day if darkness prevailed. They could either walk or ride. Of course, the Norsemen regarded them as an undesirable phenomenon. The unfortunate witnesses of their wanderings saw them through a dream or trance, but, to prevent them from believing that they were figments of their imagination, the draugr would leave them something to prove their existence when they came to their senses. On the other hand, the boars are hungry creatures that wander from their mounds to hunt men and cattle, as well as horses and dogs.

How to fight a draugr?

Prevention

To prevent him from leaving his burial mound, they devised ways to immobilize him or reduce his mobility, such as filling his clothes with straw and branches, tying his big toes, putting needles in the soles of his shoes, or disorienting the corpse when he entered the burial mound so that he would not know how to get out.

Final rest

Sigrún espera.

There are two ways to prevent them from leaving his mound:

• Enter to fight them and behead them. Due to the amount of wealth they hoarded, the motive for undertaking this task is economic. Those who embarked on this mission were usually living companions of the draugr or a slave born in the same hour. A descendant of the draugr could also fight against him, but in this case it is a ritual combat where the deceased gives up his wealth.
• Immolation, real or ritual, of a woman in the fire. Usually it was the draugr's wife, but his favorite slave could be sacrificed. This could happen during the burial. In Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II, the valkyrie Sigrún shares a bed with her lover, the dead hero Helgi, who did not rest in peace and could not leave for Odin's hall. Sigrún placated him without dying, but is said to have shortened his life through grief and weeping.

 

El rey Olaf y la gente pequeña

Even being placated and sent to Valhalla, it was possible to be reborn (aptrborin). Helgi and Sigrún had done so on several occasions. First the valkyrie Sváva and her husband Helgi Hjörvarthsson were reborn as Sigrún and Helgi Hundingsbani, who in turn were reborn in the valkyrie Kára and Helgi Haddingjaskati. This is not a unique case, as the jötunn Starkathr Aludrengr is another reborn (endrborinn). It is also believed that Olaf Geirstad-Alf, who was locked in his mound with his men after a plague and whom Hrani was to be beheaded according to directions received in a dream, was reincarnated as King Olaf the Holy.

In addition, it was believed that the one who beheaded the draugr could act as his substitute for the wife of the deceased, giving her a deemed descendant of the latter without the wife having to have contact with the dead man. However, not just anyone would do. It had to be a relative, by blood or adoption, of the same age as the deceased to perform the task. He also had to extract from the mound his personal relics.

After death skalds

An unusual feature is that a haugbúi could retain his poetic abilities, reciting fragments of skaldic poems, as well as bestowing the gift of eloquence. An example is found in the Þorleifs þáttr jarlaskálds contained in the Flateyjarbók, which speaks of the skald Thorleifr of the jarl Hákon of Hlathir, whose poems could physically wound. The jarl enlists the help of Thorgerthr Hörgabrúthr and his sister Irpa to take revenge on him, who took driftwood and built a wooden man with the ability to move. They sent him to Iceland, to where the skald had fled, who was then killed and buried in a mound. There, Thorkell, who owned many flocks, and his shepherd Hallbjörn spent the night. Hallbjörn wished to compose a eulogy for him, but it did not go beyond "Here lies a skald." One night he fell asleep and saw the open mound. He was approached by a tall, good-looking man who said:

Here he lies, Hallbjörn, striving to compose a panegyric about me, which is beyond his powers. One of two things, either you will surpass all in this art, which you will acquire from me, - and this is the more probable alternative - or you will not need to strive any longer with it. I am going to recite a verse to you now, and if you acquire it and remember it when you awake, you will become a great skald and compose panegyrics for many chiefs, and go far in this art.

The haugbúi, after caustically mentioning Jarl Hákon and telling Hallbjörn that his first eulogy should be about him, returned to his barrow. Hallbjörn managed to remember his words and Thorkell's prediction came true.

Curses

The draugar can curse by means of magical verses the objects they are forced to deliver. In Saga Harðar ok Hólmverja, Hörthr enters with his companions the burial mound of the draugr Sóti, who is sitting on the prow of his ship. Sóti asks him why he has "broken into the moldbúi's home", since there has been no provocation, to which Hörthr replies that he was looking for the old draugr for his evil deeds. He then steals the golden ring from him by force. The draugr then prophesies in verse that the ring will cause the death of its possessor, unless it is a woman.

Summary

In short, the draugar or búar seem to be individuals who voluntarily surrender to death, without completely abandoning life and with the expectation of living it again. Their worship may have been a familiar task, especially in royal families. They were seen as a source of knowledge of the past, but also prophesiers of the future. It is possible that they possessed their gifts before they died. They usually transferred them to a living descendant, not necessarily a direct descendant. Their burial mounds were also considered places of inspiration and knowledge. While it is true that they inspired terror, they were harmless if the proper rituals were performed.

In later centuries, draug became spirits of drowned sailors who retained their human form, except for the seaweed-covered face. This vision was more common in northern Norway, which was more dedicated to fishing and saw many fishermen who saw their lives cut short on their voyages to sea.

Sources

• Chadwick, N. K. (1946). Norse Ghosts (a Study in the Draugr and the Haugbúi). Folklore, 57(2), 50-65.
• Chadwick, N. K. (1946). Norse Ghosts II. Folklore, 57(3), 106-127.