Draugur

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A restless undead creature from Norse folklore that returns from the grave to haunt the living and harm livestock or people
2. An undead spirit of Scandinavian legend, a revenant that walks after death and terrorizes the surrounding farms and villages
3. In old Norse tradition, a corpse animated after burial that roams the countryside, bringing illness and misfortune to those nearby

Etymology: Draugur is an Old Norse noun for a revenant, a dead man who stays on in his burial mound and walks abroad to harass the living. Medieval Icelandic sagas describe them as bloated, dark-complexioned, and capable of growing larger than life, and they were thought to bring sickness, madness, and death to a farm. The word is the plural-friendly form of "draugr," and it is closely linked to the Old Norse "dreugr," a word for a warrior or champion. The most striking detail is the grave itself. Many of these stories tell of a dead man, often a farmer who had been unpleasant in life, who rose from his barrow and had to be killed a second time, sometimes by digging up the body and burning it or by severing the head. Such tales were part of a wider Norse belief that the dead could remain physically active, which helps explain why the word later crossed into English in the form "draug," used in Scottish and Orkney dialect for a ghost or a fiend.

Synonyms: draugr, revenant