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A draugr is a corporeal undead, from the Norse Mythology. Draugrs were believed to live in the graves of dead vikings, being the body of the dead. Views differed on whether the personality and soul of the dead person lingered in the draugr. As the graves of important men often contained a good amount of wealth, the draugr jealously guarded his treasures, even after death. All draugr were possessed of superhuman strength and some were immune to usual weapons. To defeat a draugr, a hero was often necessary, since only such a man had strength and courage enough to stand up to so formidable an opponent. The hero would often have to wrestle with the draugr and so defeat him, since weapons would do no good.The draugr were said to be either hel-blar (" death blue") or, conversely, na-folr ("corpse-pale).
Some draugr were able to leave their dwelling place, the burial mound, and visit the living during the night. Such visits were universally horrible events, and often ended in death for one or more of the living, and warranted the exhumation of the draugrs tomb by a hero.
In modern times, the most familiar encounter with a draugr is Frodo's spectral struggle with the "barrow wight" in J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Fellowship of the RingThe Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings''. It is divided into two books, Book I and II. It was originally released on July 29, 1954 in the United Kingdom. The first sets the stage for the adventure, in the chapter "Fog on the Barrow-Downs."
Dr. John Tanke has theorized that the words dragon and draugr might be related. He notes that both the serpentSerpent is a word of Latin origin serpens, serpentis that is normally substituted for " snake" in a specifically mythic context, in order to distinguish such creatures from the field of biology. For other meanings of the word serpent see Serpent (disambig and the spirit serve as jealous guardians of the graves of kings or ancient civilizations. Dragons that act as draugrs appear in BeowulfThis article describes Beowulf the epic poem. For the person Beowulf see Beowulf (hero For other uses, see Beowulf (disambiguation . Beowulf is a traditional heroic epic poem in Old English alliterative verse. At 3182 lines, it is far more substantial tha as well as in the stories of SiegfriedIn Norse mythology, Sigurd (also Siegfried was a legendary hero, as well as the central character in the Volsunga saga, Nibelungenlied and Richard Wagner's opera, Siegfried which see for more details. In the Volsung Saga In the Volsungsaga, Sigurd is the.
A somewhat ambivalent, alternative view of the draugr is however presented by the example of Gunnar in Njál's sagaNjal's saga (also known as The Story of Burnt Njal is an epic of Icelandic literature from the 13th century that describes the progress of a 50-year blood feud. Its author is believed to have been an inhabitant of southeast Iceland, although little more i:
- "It seemed as though the howe was agape, and that Gunnar had turned within the howe to look upwards at the moon. They thought that they saw four lights within the howe, but not a shadow to be seen. Then they saw that Gunnar was merry, with a joyful face".
It has been speculated that there is a strong correlation between the draugr and the monster, GrendelGrendel is a monster in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf feared by all save Beowulf himself. Grendel is a descendant of the biblical Cain, the first murderer. In Beowulf, Grendel haunts Heorot, the mead-hall of the Danes, and eats men too drunk to defend in the Old EnglishOld English (also called Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language which was spoken in England around the year 1000. It is a West Germanic language, and is therefore similar to Frisian and Old Saxon. It is also quite similar to Old Norse (and, narrative poem BeowulfThis article describes Beowulf the epic poem. For the person Beowulf see Beowulf (hero For other uses, see Beowulf (disambiguation . Beowulf is a traditional heroic epic poem in Old English alliterative verse. At 3182 lines, it is far more substantial tha.
