The Draugr

 

 

In that case Solomon Kane was your man. A Puritan witch hunter-vampire wacker-demon slayer-eradicator of devil worshippers-exorcist and defender of the true faith. Known for haunting graveyards and digging up the wicked who walked.  And... an all around badass when dealing with the dead or those that should have been. He'd give them a choice...when they didn't stop the nonsense...convert or be damned. If the latter then he'd shoot... stab...hack...throw holy water.....acid and or garlic juice and then....burn the hell out of the offending reprobates.

 

He had a real natural talent for it. The world could probably use a few more like him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close enough he might have made Iceland.

 

An astonishing tale indeed.

 

Mostly content to spend eternity in their barrow/ burial mound, guarding their wealth, the Draugr would sometimes venture into the outside world, wreaking havoc and instilling fear along the way. Some families, in order to confuse a dead loved-one who might return as a Draugr, would have a special door built into their homes, and then have it bricked up so the ghoul could not find its way in. This desire to return home was made manifest by an innate jealousy of what the living still possessed and to 'protect' that which the Draugr might still believe had belonged to them...their property. It became the custom for travelers at night to tap three times on the window or door of a hall/ home. Anything less would not be answered as the person on the otherside would be too frightened of the possible undead to respond. And if you did open your hall to the wrong 'individual'....you might be torn limb from limb, or disappear altogether as stated in the Flommana and Grettir's sagas.

 

As the Draugr was the bearer of supernatural strength, it was impossible for an ordinary hero to end its existence. The fact that an ordinary sword was unable to harm it as well, was another complicating matter. No, the only way to destroy a Draugr that was terrorizing a community, was to be a hero of mythic quality. One that had the ability to wrestle the Draugr to the ground. One that had the ability to travel to its barrow, retrieve a sword from within, and use it to decapitate the monster, thus completing only the first two stages of what at times, could be a complex ritual of destruction. Only then would the neighboring countryside be safe....at least until the next Draugr was disturbed.