Draugr

An Icelandic revenant profile grounded in Glam’s haunting in Grettis saga, with source-specific details and terminology explained.

What is a draugr?

The historical dictionary of Cleasby and Vigfússon gives draugr a prose sense of ghost or spirit, especially a dead inhabitant of a burial cairn. This record explores a bodily revenant through Glam in Grettis saga: a dead shepherd who returns to trouble a farm and wrestles with Grettir. His particular traits should not be treated as rules for every being covered by the word. Sources: dictionary, sense II; saga, chapters XXXII–XXXV.

Source status and terminology

The narrative evidence is an anonymous Icelandic saga, read here in Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris’s English translation, using the edition dated 1900 in the Project Gutenberg transcription. It is evidence for a literary account of haunting, not independent confirmation of supernatural events. The selected chapters use English terms including ghost, thrall and unclean spirit; those translation choices do not establish a precise supernatural taxonomy. This profile does not claim to identify the earliest attestation of draugr or to survey all saga versions. Selected edition.

record type
creature
tradition
Icelandic saga literature
original name
draugr
source scope
Anonymous Grettis saga, chapters XXXII–XXXV, in The Story of Grettir the Strong, translated by Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris, 1900 edition, transcribed by Project Gutenberg. The profile is restricted to Glam’s haunting. Cleasby and Vigfússon’s An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874), entry draugr, sense II, supplies lexical context only.
terminology note
Draugr is the Icelandic headword used for this record. Its application to the selected episode is an editorial classification of a bodily revenant; it is not presented as a quotation from the English translation. Glam is the individual’s name in that translation, not an alias for every draugr.

Glam’s return

Thorhall hires Glam to tend sheep at a farm already troubled by a haunting. Glam fails to return on Yule eve and is found dead after an apparent struggle. The people infer that the earlier supernatural being killed him; the killing itself is not witnessed. Attempts to take his body to church fail, and he is buried where it has been brought. He subsequently appears around the farm and rides its roofs, terrifying the inhabitants.

Grettir eventually confronts him. Their wrestling carries them through the doorway, breaking the structure. Before Grettir beheads him, Glam pronounces a curse. Grettir and Thorhall then burn the remains and bury the ashes away from frequented paths and grazing grounds. Chapters XXXII–XXXV.

Body, strength and curse

When discovered, Glam’s corpse is described as blue and as large as an ox. His return is physically forceful: he damages buildings and grapples with Grettir. These are details of this episode, not a standard appearance for all draugar.

Glam’s curse says that Grettir will gain no further strength, suffer misfortune and outlawry, and remember Glam’s dreadful eyes when alone. It does not remove the strength Grettir already possesses. After the encounter, Grettir reports an intense fear of darkness. The saga presents both bodily violence and a lasting supernatural threat; the interpretation of that threat belongs to its narrative. Chapters XXXII and XXXV.

Source realm

The setting is Thorhall-stead and its surrounding countryside in Iceland. Glam’s burial place, the farmhouse and its working landscape anchor the haunting. The selected account does not describe an otherworld kingdom inhabited by draugar, and its local setting should not be converted into a universal habitat. Chapters XXXII–XXXV.

For wider cultural navigation, see The Norse Worlds.

Bibliography