B.

The Undead in Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine

The most common name for an undead vampire in Russia is the upir, sometimes spelled as

upyr. In Ukraine the word is upior, and in Byelorussia it is upar. In all of these regions, the

undead vampire was sometimes said to be a corpse possessed by the devil. The means of

destroying the Eastern Slavic vampire include driving a wooden stake through the exhumed

corpse’s heart or some critical decapitation, and cremation. But in some districts the corpse of

a vampire was dumped into a lake or river.

In northern and central European Russia and some other parts of the region, eretich12 came to

be a special term for a vampire, applied to anyone who became an undead vampire as the

result of dying outside the Christian Orthodox faith. But it applied most especially to

sorcerers and witches who returned from graves after dying and sold their souls to the devil

while they were still alive. In an account from one district in central European Russia, the

eretiches were women who had sold their souls to the devil. After their death, they passed as

living women and specialized in turning living Orthodox Christians against their faith. At

night they slept in graveyards, occupying the graves of those who died unfaithful.

Sorcery and Vampirism also combined in the belief that even a good person can become an

upir after he died by the intervention of an evil sorcerer who magically took possession of his

soul.

C. The Undead in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia

In Serbia, the most common names for an undead vampire are vampir and vorkudlak. In

Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro, the names include not only these but also lampir.

Most generally, the names applied to undead vampires who closely resemble the Russian upir

and the Greek vrykolakas except there is not much mention of demonic possession to be

found here. The means of destroying them include exhuming the corpse and then driving a

stake into the heart, decapitating it or cremating it. In regions on the coast of the Adriatic Sea,

the corpse was sometimes hamstrung; i.e., the tendons of the knee were being cut to prevent

the corpse from walking again.

12
eretich – literally meaning “heretic”
 In some parts of Serbia, there is or was a belief that, unless they are destroyed first, vampires

reach a stage in their unlife after thirty years from their death and burial where they no longer

need to periodically return to the grave but can in fact pass as ordinary mortal human beings

even in the day time. They then travel far away to some country where they will not be

recognized and then they often marry a mortal human, and have children.

There are other eccentric beliefs found in these countries. Here are three:

• Some Serbs at least believed that an undead vampire could take the form of a butterfly.

• A tribe in Montenegro believed that the undead spent part of their life in wolf-form.

• The Gypsies and some Serbs believed that the undead were often invisible to most people.

D. The Undead in Romania

Belief that the undead were corpses possessed and animated by demons is not to be found in Romanian

lore. Instead, it was thought that the souls of the undead were unable to leave the world of the living.

In Romanian lore, the names for an undead vampire include:

• Strigoi (plural: Strigoi)

• Moroi (plural: Moroii)

• Varcolac (plural: Varcolaci)

• Pricolic (plural: Pricolici)

All six of these names can be used to mean an undead vampire who periodically leaves his grave to prey

upon the living and returns to his grave to rest. But each term also has a special meaning.

Strigoi is the name most frequently used for the kind of undead vampire that periodically returns to its

grave. Another use of the term is a living person with certain supernatural powers including a form of
psychic vampirism who is destined to return to become an undead strigoi. Often, this person born with a

caul or with a small tail at the base of the spine.

As is the case in Greece for the vrykolakas, it was commonly believed in Romania that the undead strigoi

only had to be back in their graves on each Saturday.

Most often, as is typical of the undead in eastern and central European folk belief in general, an undead

strigoi would first prey on his or her family. In some Romanian tales, the undead strigoi was first invisible

and raided its former house hold by creating chaos like a poltergeist and obtained nourishment by eating

food in the family larder. The strigoi might also come to the household appearing just as it did when alive,

engage in conversation with the living members, and go about performing normal, routine chores as if its

death had not occurred, but more often the report of such a visit involved deaths of members of the

household or farm animals belonging to the household. (In the case of vampires who died unmarried, there

are tales where they came to the homes of their former lovers seeking to entice them.) Whether or not there

was poltergeist activity or there were visits in corporeal form, when there was a series of deaths by disease

in a family, it sometimes came to be suspected that the deaths were due to a dead member of the family.

There are also tales and an anecdotes collected by Romanian folklorists in which the undead strigoi can

take the form of an animal such as a cat, a dog, or a sheep. And there are tales where male strigoi takes the

form of handsome young men who come into villages at night to mingle with the young people at social

gatherings. In some of these tales, only one girl becomes the victim. In others, one girl escapes while the

rest become the victims.

Some contemporary Romanian folklorists deny that Romanians ever associated the undead with blood-

drinking. But there is plenty of evidence to the contrary in articles and other literature based on tales and

anecdotes collected from common people by Romanian scholars prior to the end of World War II. When

details of the precise manner in which the undead strigoi drinks his blood are given, it is said that he drinks

it directly from the heart. Sometimes it was said that the strigoi fed upon the heart itself.
Yet in other accounts the undead strigoi devours its victims soul which it sucks up through the mouth or

nose of the victim. The strigoi was also believed capable of causing droughts or causing so much rain that

floods resulted.

If there was a reason to suspect that a person who died would become undead, precautions were taken at

burial to prevent this. There were many prescriptions for this. Some of these are:

• Drive a nail or thorn through the tongue

• Fill the nostrils, ears, and mouth with grains of incense, millet, or gravel mixed with oil.

• Place the corpse in the grave face down.

• Bind the coffin with thorny vines of hawthorn or wild rose.

• Cast many millet seeds into the grave. A vampire will be dormant for a year each time it eats one.

• After burial, drive stakes into the center of the grave so the deceased will be pierced if he rises

from the grave.

The ultimate ways of destroying an undead strigoi following exhumation include:

• Driving a stake into the heart.

• Various other ways of piercing the corpse.

• Decapitation.

• Removing the heart and burning it.

• Burning the entire body.

It was believed that if a strigo was not destroyed within seven years after burial, then on the seventh year it

would no longer have to dwell in its own grave. and could pass as a normal mortal human. According to

one source, the strigoi also then loses his need to prey upon humans and, eventually, even animals.
Like the Serbian vampire at such a stage, it would then depart to another region where it could not be

recognized, marry, and have children But each week, from Friday night to Sunday morning, such a strigoi

would either have to rest in a grave in a nearby cemetery or meet with the local strigoi for supernatural

social activities. The children of such a vampire were all "living vampires", destined to become undead

themselves.

The name moroi was sometimes used to mean the same as the name strigoi . But otherwise it was applied to

a certain special kind of undead vampire: the vampiric soul or spirit of an infant who was born

illegitimately and then murdered by his own parents before being baptized. Such a spirits has no need to

ever return to their corpses or graves. They dwell instead in the sky. They punish their parents by creating

tempests and hail storms which of course threaten not only the parents but their entire community. them

and of course their entire community. These spirits also reincarnate as flying insects, especially moths or

butterflies, which prey upon young people while they sleep. They only draw a tiny amount of blood from

their victims but at the same time they feed ravenously upon their victims' souls.

The special meaning of the name varcolac is an entity which travels up into the sky and devours the sun or

moon, causing solar and lunar eclipses. . The red hue of the moon seen sometimes during its eclipses is

thought to be the blood of the moon escaping from the mouths of the varcolaci. In Romanian lore, there are

various descriptions and explanations of the varcolaci. Some say simply that they are demonic dogs,

wolves, or dragons. Another version is that the varcolaci are the souls of certain sleeping people who can

be recognized by their pale faces and dry skin. When the souls of these people get hungry, these people fall

asleep and their souls then leave their bodies to feed upon the sun and the moon. Yet another belief is that

they are the souls of children who died before they were baptized.

The name pricolic can mean the same as strigoi. But the special meaning of the name is

a strigoi , either in the sense of a "living vampire" or an undead vampire, who takes the

form of a dog or a wolf which barks or howls at night. This same name can also mean

the same as varcolac in the special sense of that name.

 E. The Undead in Albania

Albanian names for undead vampires include:

• Kukuthi

• Kukudhi

• Lugat

• Vrykolakas

• Vorkolaka

Some northern Albanian mountain tribes hold the belief that an undead vampire, which they call either a

kukuthi or a lugat grows stronger with time until, after thirty years, it reachs a final stage where he is no

longer required to return to its grave and can live in a home during the day. He then typically travels to

other lands as a merchant. One Albanian name for a vampire in the advanced stage is kukudhi . Before the

lapse of the thirty year period following burial, the vampire can be destroyed in its grave by such means as

driving a stake through its heart, cutting the tendons behind the knee caps (ham stringing), and cremation.

Some other northern Albanian tribes believe that the kukuthi or lugat can only be destroyed by a wolf. The

wolf bites the vampire's legs off. The vampire then retreats to his grave and never leaves it again.

Some Albanians share the names vrykolakas and vorkolak with their Greek and Macedonian neighbors and

also the beliefs that go with them.

F. The Undead in Macedonia

By the term Macedonia here, I mean the combined territories of the modern Greek province of Macedonia

and the now independent Macedonian Republic which was formerly an autonomous republic of Yugoslavia.

Macedonian names for an unead vampire include:

• Vompiras
 • Vampiros

• Vrykolakas

• Vorkolakas

• Vroukolakas

The Macedonian undead is sometimes reported as being virtually identical to the undead of southern

Greece and the Greek islands. It was often thought to be a corpse animated by a demon. But, while in

southern Greece the ways to destroy a vampire were limited to exorcism and cremation, in Macedonia there

were other means as well. These include scalding the corpse with boiling oil and then driving a long nail

through its navel. Also, there are vampire hunters who can destroy the vampire when he is outside his

grave. This goes along with the belief that undead vampires are sometimes invisible. These vampire hunters

claim the power to see the undead even when they are invisible to most people. These include Moslem

dervishes and Sabbatarians. Moslem dervishes who posed as professional vampire hunters went from

village to village carrying an iron rod with a sharp point at the tope end or a staff with a small axe at the

top. People born on a Saturday were called Sabbatarians. It was believed that Sabbatarians could see

vampires invisible to most other people and to have power over them. And so they too sometimes acted as

vampire hunters. In one report, a Sabbatarian lured a vampire into a barn where there was a pile of millet.

The vampire, by his nature, was compelled to count all the grains. The Sabbatarian then took advantage of

the vampire's pre-occupation by nailing him to a wall.

Some Macedonian vampires preferred the blood of sheep above that of humans. They were said to gleefully

ride upon the backs of sheep at night while drinking the animals' blood.

F. The Undead in Bulgaria

Bulgarian beliefs concerning undead vampires are quite varied.

Bulgarian names for an undead vampire include:

• Vampir
 • Vorkolak

• Ouber

• Ustrel

In one account from Bulgaria translated and quoted in The Darkling by Jan Perkowski. the vorkolak is said

to be the soul of an outlaw who perishes in the mountains, or in the forest, or along a country road, and

whose corpse is eaten by crows, wolves, or some other such scavengers. This soul cannot enter heaven or

hell, and so it remains on earth. This vorkolak haunts the place where he was killed. At night, this spirit

strangles and drinks the blood of anyone who comes by. The way to rid a place of a vorkolak, is to erect a

cross, bless water, and hold a church service at the spot where the outlaw died.

In another account from Bulgaria quoted in the same book, a vampir is a corpse which returns from the

grave. A person who died a violent, unnatural death or whose corpse was jumped over by a cat before burial

becomes such an undead vampire. (This belief is found all over Eastern Europe where there is belief in

undead vampires.) In a case mentioned in this report, a man became a vampir as the result of a fatal fall

from a roof. The bones turn to gelatin at first and during the first forty days after burial he performs

mischief such as releasing animals from their pens, scatters house hold items, and suffocates people. If not

destroyed within the first forty days, the vampir develops a skeleton and becomes even fiercer. At least

during the first forty days, the vampir can be destroyed by a (a professional vampire hunter) or devoured by

a wolf. The report doesn't make clear what it takes to destroy the vampire after he develops a skeleton.

Another type of Bulgarian vampire, the ustrel is described in the original, unabridged Golden Bough by Sir

James Fraser. Here, the ustrel is an infant who had been

born on a Saturday and who had died before receiving baptism. Nine days after burial, the ustrel claws its

way out of its grave. It then finds a herd of cattle to satisfy its thirst for blood. It then returns to its grave.

But on the next day it returns to the herd and never returns to its grave. It then resides in the horns or a bull

or the hind legs of a milk cow. It feeds first on the fattest cattle and then works its way on down as the poor

animals whither and dies. The way to rid a herd of cattle of the ustrel is to perform the ritual of the need
fire . On a Saturday morning, all the fires in the community are extinguished. Then two bone fires are

created at a crossroads. The cattle are then led between the two fires.

The ustrel drops onto the crossroads from the animal whose horns or hind legs it had inhabited when that

animal passes between the two fires. The ustrel cannot leave the crossroad and is eventually devoured by

wolves.

G. The Undead in Slovakia

Mjartan found that the local name for a vampire is nelapsi. The nelapsi attacks cattle and people. He both

sucks the blood and suffocates his victims. It can also kill a person by a single glance. By bringing a

plague, the nelapsi can kill a whole herd or an entire village.

The people in the Zemplin district also believed that the vampire has two hearts and hence two souls. (The

belief that a vampire has two hearts also occurred in one or more part of Romania.)

The ways to prevent a person who dies from becoming a nelapsi include:

• Striking the coffin against the threshold of the house with the coffin when carrying the corpse out

for burial.

• Placing herbs over which a spell has been said, poppy seeds, or millet in the corpse's mouth and

nose, in the coffin, along the road to the cemetery, near the grave, and in the grave.

• Nailing the clothes, hair, or arms and legs of the corpse to the coffin.

• Piercing the heart or head with a hat-pin, or an iron wedge, or a stake made of hawthorn,

blackthorn, or oak.

Following the burial, the people practice such precautionary procedures as washing their hands or holding

onto the stove. They also light special fires called "need-fires" to keep the vampire away. (The ritual of the

"need-fire" to expel or ward off vampires, witches, spirits, or demons can be found in many places all over

Europe.)

F. The Undead in Eastern Poland

The most common name for an undead vampire in Poland seems to be upier or upior . The

same names can be found in the neighboring countries of the Ukraine, and Byelorussia. Under

this name, the Polish undead vampire is usually quite similar to those in these neighboring

countries.

According to this, the oupire first eats his linen shroud when he first revives from his death.

The oupire can appear from noon to midnight. At night, he attacks his friends and especially

his relatives, embracing them and then sucking their blood. The way to destroy an oupire is to

exhume the corpse and then either decapitates it or "open its heart."

The blood that then gushes out is regarded to be that of the vampire's victims. The surviving

victims or potential victims sometimes mix this blood with flour to make a dough. They then

bake this dough and eat the resulting bread to cure themselves of the after-affects of the

vampire's bite. Somewhat similar practices involving ingesting some remains of the vampire

also occurred in Romania (ashes of the heart mixed with water or the blood itself) and in New

England (ashes of the heart mixed with water).

Another early source on the Polish vampire is the manuscript Everio Atheism ("The

Destruction of Atheism") written by a Jesuit priest, S. J. Gengell. This was reprinted in 1721

in a natural history of Poland, Historia Naturalis Curiosa Regni Poloniae by another Jesuit

priest, Gabriel Rzaczynski. Here the name for the Polish vampire is given as upier, or

upierzyca if it is female. According to this, the upier rises from its grave and wanders past

cross-roads and houses, appearing here and there to various people. It often attacks the person

who sees it and suffocates him. It is said that when the corpse of the vampire is exhumed, it is

often found that not only is the flesh undecayed and flexible, but also the head, eyes, mouth,

and tongue sometimes move. Often parts of the shroud and the corpse itself are found to be

partly devoured. The relevant passage here can be found on page 113 of The Darkling by Jan

Petrowski, Slavica Publishers, 1989.).

G. The Undead in Bohemia and Moravia

These two regions today mostly comprise the Czech Republic, with Moravia being east of

Bohemia.

The earliest known case of an undead vampire in Bohemia is sometimes referred to in today's

literature as that of "The Blow Vampire." Most if not all that we know of this today is due to a

monk named Neplach (1332- 1368) who was both the abbot of a monastery and a chronicler.

He included the episode in his Summula chronicae tam Romanae quam Bohemicae which was

compiled in 1356 and 1362 from previous chronicles written by others. According to this, in

the year 1336, in Bohemia near Cadanus [in Modern Czech: Kadan; in Modern German:

Kaaden] about a league from a village named Blow [Modern German: Flahe], a shepherd

named Myslata died. He resurrected every night from his grave and went around the nearby

villages, terrorizing and killing people. When his corpse was being impaled by a stake it said:

"They injured me severely when they give me a stick to defend myself from wolves.." His

corpse was exhumed for cremation. It was found to be ruddy and swollen, and it bellowed like

an ox. While the corpse was being delivered on a cart to the cremation pyre, the legs of the

corpse drew in as if it were alive. When the corpse was tossed onto the pyre, someone

immediately plunged a stake into it and blood gushed forth. After the corpse was cremated,

peace returned to the vicinity. Before the cremation, whomever the shepherd's corpse called

by name at night died within the next eight days.

According to this, such specters often appear in the mountains of Moravia and Silesia. They

can appear at day or night. But things that belonged to them can sometimes be seen to move

about as if by themselves. And in some case that occurred in a village in Moravia, the

revenant of a woman sometimes appeared in the form of a dog, sometimes that of a man for

four days after her death. She caused great pain to some those to whom she appeared. She
grasped their throats and compressed their stomachs, "so as to suffocate him." The only ways

to get rid of these revenants are decapitation and cremation.

A trial by law is usually held to determine if the circumstance warrant such treatment of the

corpse. If the corpse is exhumed, it is not handed over to the executioner for decapitation and

cremation for six or seven weeks. If it is already decaying when exhumed, it is reburied. If it

begins to rot within the six or seven weeks, it is also reburied. But otherwise decapitation

and/or cremation follow.

H. The Undead in Silesia

The region of Silesia is a northern neighbors of Bohemia and Moravia. Today, it is a part of

the modern nation of Poland. Like Bohemia and Moravia, it is a land where Germans and

Slavs have lived together for centuries.

The earliest accounts of vampire revenants in this territory known today go back to the late

16'th century.

One of these is a case which begins in the month of September in the year 1591 at the

prominent town of Breslau in Silesia. On a Friday of that month, a shoemaker committed

suicide by cutting his throat. with his shoemaker's knife. His family covered up this disgrace

with the explanation that he died of apoplexy. He was given a proper Christian burial. But the

true circumstances of his death broke out in a rumor which was widely spread throughout the

community. The local authorities hemmed and hawed when asked to do something about this.

They did not wish to disturb the peace of the dead man's family. The widow of the deceased

protested these rumors. And the demands by many that the corpse should be exhumed and

dealt with as was normal for a suicide or a deceased practitioner of black magic seemed

unwarranted. But then the specter of the shoemaker in his natural began to appear during mid-

day and at night. At night, it appeared to those who had been sleeping and terrified them. In

the most extreme cases, he would lie close to the sleeper, nearly suffocate him, and pinch him,
leaving not only bruises but the impression of his fingers on the sleeper's body.

The terror grew so strong that people would gather together in candle-lit rooms at night and

try to keep each other from falling asleep. At last, after the corpse had been buried for near

eight months, the authorities relented. The corpse was exhumed on April 15, 1582. It was

found to have not suffered any signs of decay. But a magical mark in the form of a rose was

found on one of its right big toe. The corpse was kept out of the earth until April 18. Still,

there were no signs that it was decaying. The corpse was then re-buried under the gallows to

keep it still. But the specter again began to appear and torment sleepers. At last the widow

went before the local magistrate and confessed the true circumstances of her husband's death.

On May 7, the corpse was then exhumed again. This time, the arms, legs, and head of the

corpse were cut off. Also, the back of the corpse was opened up and the heart was removed.

The heart was found to be quite fresh and entire. Then the corpse and all the pieces cut from it

were cremated. The ashes were gathered together in a sack and then poured into a river. The

specter of the shoemaker was never seen again.

There is also a sort of sequel to this case. Some time after the shoemaker died so did one of

his house maids who were still working for his widow. She too returned from the grave at

night. On the second night after her burial, she returned from the grave, she was in the form of

a chicken. She then entered house of her previous employment, grew to a to and great xize

and with her talons she grabbed one of her former colleagues by the throat. The latter maid

survived but her throat swelled, and she could not eat or drink for "a good while" afterwards.

In following nights the former maid sometimes again took the form of an animal, including

that of a cat, a dog, and a goat. She was put to final rest after her corpse was exhumed and

cremated.

Johannes Cuntius had been a man of wealth and influence before he died. Some, including his

own servants, suspected that his success was the result of his making a pact with the devil.
 After he died, he returned from the grave and appeared in many ways. He troubled many

people while they were asleep in many ways. He tried to ravish many women.

He strangled some old men. He bruised the body of a child and caused the bones to become

soft. He accosted a Wagoner in his stable, breathed fire at him, and broke the man's foot. He

would drink the milk in milk bowls, fling dung into them, or turn the milk to blood. And there

are incidents which would each take a paragh to fully describe. His gravestone was found

turned to one side and there were several holes in the ground the size of mice holes which

went down to his coffin. Each time the holes were filled, they were found re-opened the next

day. The haunting of the town by Cuntius lasted for many months and had a very a bad effect

on its commerce. Finally, Cuntius's corpse was exhumed along with those of several others

who had died around the time that he did. All the corpses except that of Cuntius were found to

be decayed. Cuntius's corpse was in a remarkably fresh condition. A trial was convened and

the cadaver of Johannes Cuntius was found guilty. The corpse resisted the flames of the

cremation fire until the executioner cut it into many small pieces. As in the case of the

shoemaker of Breslau, after the burning was complete, the ashes were swept up and cast into a

river.

I. The Undead in Pomerania and West Prussia

Among the Slavic peoples living in this region are the Kashubes. The Kashubes believe that anyone born

with teeth or with a caul (amniotic membrane still attached to the top of the head and forming a veil which

covers the head and maybe more) is destined to become a vampire after he dies unless he is cured of this

when he is still an infant. In the case of an infant born with teeth, the teeth are extracted. In the case of an

infant born with a caul, the caul is first dried until it becomes brittle. Then, after a certain period, it is

crumbled and mixed in with the child's food so that he eats it.

The Kashubian names for an undead vampire include:

• Vjesci (pronounced as "vyeskee")

• Njetop (prounounced as "nyetop")

 • Wupji (pronounces as "woopyee")

• Ohyn

• Upier

The Kashubes sometimes reserved the terms vjesci and njetop for the revenant of a person who had been

born with a caul. The names wupji and ohyn sometimes were reserved for the revenant of a person who had

been born with teeth. The term upier is a general name for an undead that can be found all over Poland.

In 1870, the wife of a Mr. Gehrke, the forest keeper at Pniew in the district of Schwetz (a part of West

Prussia at the time, mostly populated by Kashubes). Soon after her death, her husband and children became

severely ill. It was strongly suspected that this was due to the dead woman having become a vampire. Four

weeks after the woman's death, Mr. Gerkhe, accompanied by a Mr. Jahnke, opened the grave. They saw that

the corpse had a red face - a sure sign that she had become a vampire. They put flax seeds and a fishing net

in the grave. (This was done in belief that the vampire would become pre-occupied with counting, or

eating, the seeds, and with counting, or untying, the knots in the net. All at an extremely slow rate.) But

then along came Mrs. Jahnke. She convinced the two men that, since the face was already red, it was too

late for the flax seeds and net to do any good. So, the men went on to perform the more drastic step of

cutting off the corpse's head and placing this under one its arms. As the result of their actions, all three were

brought to the local district court and convicted for the crime of desecrating a grave.

The Germans in West Prussia had their own name for an undead vampire:: nachtzerer, which literally

means "night waster".

Not surprisingly, the lore about the nachtzerer often closely resembles that of the undead vampires found in

Polish and Kashube lore. A person who had born with a caul or had died as the result of suicide or by a

sudden accident was likely to become such a vampire. As in the case of the Polish upier, It was often said

that the nachtzerer devoured its burial shroud and parts of its hands and legs before arising from its grave
for the first time. Like many other European vampires, its favorite prey is living family members.

• Having eaten an animal killed by a wolf.

• Having died by suicide.

Also, a person already dead might become a blutsauger if an animal jumped over its corpse.

The ways to protect a home against a blutsauger include rubbing the doors and windows with garlic.

All of these notions are found also in the old lore of Eastern Europe.

J. The Undead in Scandinavia

Much of what we know about Scandinavian mythology during the time of the Vikings is found in myths

and legends written down in Iceland after the Norwegian descendants on this island, as well as most of

Scandinavia, had been converted to Christianity. Among this literature we find tales concerning the

corporeal undead who dwelled in their burial mounds. In the sagas written in Iceland, the name most

common for such a revenant is draugr. In most of the sagas, such a revenant is not hostile unless its

dwelling place is invaded by mortal seeking treasures buried in the mound. But, in some of the sagas, the

dead person leaves his mound to inflict revenge upon the living who had brought about his death.

In the folklore of Norway recorded during the past two centuries, the draug (note difference in spelling) is

most often a person who drowned in the sea but remains as a living corpse. In most of these tales, the

draug climbs aboard ships or onto the shore to attack the living unless he is repelled. In this later Christian

lore, a recurring theme is that the drowned person became a revenant as the result of not being buried in the
consecrated ground of a church yard cemetery.

K.