The draugr or draug (Old Norse: draugr, plural draugar; modern Icelandic: draugur, Faroese: dreygur and Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian: draug) is an undead creature from the Scandinavian saga literature and folktale.
Commentators extend the term draugr to the undead in medieval literature, even if it is never explicitly referred to as that in the text, and designated them rather as a haugbúi ("barrow-dweller") or an aptrganga, literally "again-walker" (Icelandic: afturganga).
Draugar live in their graves, often guarding treasure buried with them in their burial mound. They are revenants, or animated corpses with a corporeal body, rather than ghosts which possess intangible spiritual bodies.
.
Old Norse draugr is defined as "a ghost, spirit, exp. the dead inhabitant of a cairn". Often the draugr is regarded not so much as a ghost but a revenant, i.e., the reanimated of the deceased inside the burial mound[3] (as in the example of Kárr inn gamli in Grettis saga).
.
The draugr was referred to as "as barrow-wight" in the 1869 translation of Grettis saga, long before J. R. R. Tolkien's employed this term in his novels, though "barrow-wight" is actually a rendering of haugbúinn (literally the ‘howe-dweller’), otherwise translated as "barrow-dweller".
Unlike Kárr inn gamli (Kar the Old) in Grettis saga, who is specifically called a draugr, Glámr the ghost in the same saga is never explicitly called a draugr in the text, though called a "troll" in it. Yet Glámr is still routinely referred to as a draugr.
.
Beings not specifically called draugar, but actually only referred to as aptrgǫngur (‘revenants’, pl. of aptrganga) and reimleikar (‘haunting’) in these medieval sagas are still commonly discussed as a draugr in various scholarly works, or the draugar and the haugbúar are lumped into one.
A further caveat is that the application of the term draugr may not necessarily follow what the term might have meant in the strict sense during medieval times, but rather follow a modern definition or notion of draugr, specifically such ghostly beings (by whatever names they are called) that occur in Icelandic folktales categorized as "Draugasögur" in Jón Árnason's collection, based on the classification groundwork laid by Konrad Maurer.
Commentators extend the term draugr to the undead in medieval literature, even if it is never explicitly referred to as that in the text, and designated them rather as a haugbúi ("barrow-dweller") or an aptrganga, literally "again-walker" (Icelandic: afturganga).
.
Old Norse draugr is defined as "a ghost, spirit, exp. the dead inhabitant of a cairn". Often the draugr is regarded not so much as a ghost but a revenant, i.e., the reanimated of the deceased inside the burial mound[3] (as in the example of Kárr inn gamli in Grettis saga).
.
The draugr was referred to as "as barrow-wight" in the 1869 translation of Grettis saga, long before J. R. R. Tolkien's employed this term in his novels, though "barrow-wight" is actually a rendering of haugbúinn (literally the ‘howe-dweller’), otherwise translated as "barrow-dweller".
.
Beings not specifically called draugar, but actually only referred to as aptrgǫngur (‘revenants’, pl. of aptrganga) and reimleikar (‘haunting’) in these medieval sagas are still commonly discussed as a draugr in various scholarly works, or the draugar and the haugbúar are lumped into one.
A further caveat is that the application of the term draugr may not necessarily follow what the term might have meant in the strict sense during medieval times, but rather follow a modern definition or notion of draugr, specifically such ghostly beings (by whatever names they are called) that occur in Icelandic folktales categorized as "Draugasögur" in Jón Árnason's collection, based on the classification groundwork laid by Konrad Maurer.
*Open loot chamber*
>>Draugr Death Overlord<<
“Evening fuqboi”