Draugr

A draugr can confront the living bodily rather than appearing only as an intangible ghost. Saga accounts describe revenants with extraordinary strength, threatening bodies, and an attachment to places or possessions. Death has not ended their ability to injure others.

Icelandic sagas preserve varied encounters with the returning dead. Some beings occupy burial mounds and defend treasure; others trouble farms or surrounding communities. The terminology is less tidy than a modern monster manual: figures grouped together by later readers are not always given the same name in the medieval texts.

• Wikipedia contributors, “Draugr,” consulted September 28, 2026; secondary overview discussing saga texts and scholarship.