Editing Draugr (section)

== Terminology ==
=== Dictionaries ===
One of the earliest dictionaries for draugr, or rather its descendants, was Swedish linguist and priest [[Johan Ernst Rietz]]'s (1815–1868) dialect dictionary of Swedish vernacular (1862–1867), which listed the Swedish descendants of Old Norse {{lang|non|draugr}} as {{lang|sv|dröger}} and {{lang|sv|drög}} (compare {{langx|is|draugur}} vs {{lang|sv|dröger}}, {{langx|no|draug}} vs {{lang|sv|drög}}), including the archaic form {{lang|sv|draugr}} in the province of [[Närke]]. He also included Norwegian {{lang|no|draug}}, {{lang|no|drauv}} and {{lang|no|drog}} for comparison, giving the definition for both Swedish and Norwegian as:

{{quote|"pale, powerless, slow human, striding forward", alternatively just "ghost or undead".<ref name="JER102">{{cite book |last1=Rietz |first1=Johan Ernst |author1-link=Johan Ernst Rietz |title=Svenskt dialektlexikon: ordbok öfver svenska allmogespråket |date=1862–1867 |location=Sweden |page=102 |url=https://runeberg.org/dialektl/0132.html |access-date=2025-01-26 |language=sv }}</ref>}}

Around the same time, although published a few years later, English philologist [[Richard Cleasby]] (1797–1847), and Icelandic scholar [[Guðbrandur Vigfússon]] (1827–1889), in "An Icelandic-English dictionary" (1873), defined Old Norse {{lang|is|draugr}} (old form to {{lang|is|draugur}}) as:

{{quote|"a ghost, spirit, especially the dead inhabitant of a [[cairn]]".<ref name=cleasby-vigfusson>Cleasby; Vigfusson edd. (1974) ''An Icelandic-English dictionary''. s. v. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NTVoAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA103 draugr]</ref>}}

This description was repeated almost word for word by Icelandic linguist [[Geir T. Zoëga]] (1857-1928), in his book "A concise dictionary of old Icelandic" (1910).<ref name="Zoëga 1910">{{cite book |title=A concise dictionary of Old Icelandic |date=1911 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford}}</ref>

Norwegian journalist, author, and editor [[Johan Christian Johnsen]] (1815–1898), in his Norwegian dictionary (1881–1888), gave a different, more specific definition for Norwegian {{lang|no|draug}} than Rietz did in the 1860s, defining it as:

{{quote|"(really a revenant) in Norwegian folk superstition, a supernatural being that dwells on and by the sea. It appears most frequently as a man dressed in sea clothes with a bundle of seaweed instead of a head, sailing in half a boat, always proclaiming that the person or someone from the boat to whom it appears will perish".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnsen |first1=Johan Christian |author1-link=Johan Christian Johnsen |title=Norsk Haandlexikon |date=1881–1888 |location=Norway |page=391 |url=https://runeberg.org/haandlex/1/0391.html |access-date=2025-01-26 |language=no |chapter=A-J}}</ref>}}

=== Written corpus ===
In the written corpus, the ''draugr'' is regarded not so much as a ghost, but a corporeal [[undead]] creature, or [[revenant]],<ref name=langeslag/> ie, the reanimated corpse of the deceased, for example inside the burial mound or grave<ref name=smith_gregg_a/> (as in the example of Kárr inn gamli in ''[[Grettis saga]]'').<ref name=langeslag/><ref name=williams_howard/> Commentators extend the term ''draugr'' to the undead in medieval literature, even if it is never explicitly referred to as such in the text, and designated them instead as a {{lang|non|[[#Haugbúi|haugbúi]]}} ("barrow-dweller") or an {{lang|non|aptrganga}} ("re-walker") – see [[Gjenganger]]. Compare {{langx|is|afturganga}} ("after-walker"), {{langx|sv|gengångare}} ("again-walker").

Unlike Kárr inn gamli (Kar the Old) in ''Grettis saga'', who is specifically called a draugr,<ref name="p. 65"/>{{Refn|Kárr is called a draugr by Grettir when he sings a verse to reply to the question of how he gained the treasure sword. This was rendered "In the barrow where that thing .. fell" in the 1869 translation,<ref name=magnusson&morris-cap18-p048/> and "in a murky mound.. a ghost was felled then " by Scudder.{{sfnp|Scudder (tr.)|2005}}}} Glámr the ghost in the same saga is never explicitly called a draugr in the text,{{sfnp|Ármann Jakobsson|2011|p=284}} though called a "troll" in it.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Ármann Jakobsson notes that in this and comparable instances, the term "troll" designates some sort of revenant, more specifically the human undead. Since the term can also mean 'demon', the sense is ambiguous.{{sfnp|Ármann Jakobsson|2011|p=285}} }}{{sfnp|Ármann Jakobsson|2011|p=285}} Yet Glámr is still routinely referred to as a ''draugr'' by modern scholars.{{Refn|{{harvp|Clemoes|Dickins|1959|p=190}}, e.g., and Willam Sayers<ref name=sayers/> }} Beings not specifically called {{lang|non|draugr}}, but only referred to as {{lang|non|{{linktext|aptrgǫngur}}}} "revenants" (pl. of {{lang|non|{{linktext|aptrganga}}}}) and {{lang|non|{{linktext|reimleikar}}}} "haunting" in these medieval sagas,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Besides Glámr, other examples are Víga-Hrappr Sumarliðason in ''[[Laxdæla saga]]''; Þórólfr bægifótr (lame-foot) or the ghosts of Fróðá in ''[[Eyrbyggja saga]]''.{{sfnp|Ármann Jakobsson|2011|p=284}}}} are still commonly discussed as a {{lang|non|draugr}} in various scholarly works,{{sfnp|Ármann Jakobsson|2009}}{{sfnp|Caciola|1996|p=28}}<ref name=smith_gregg_a/> or the draugr and the ''haugbúi'' are lumped into one.{{sfnp|Chadwick|1946|p=51}}

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 (author)|Jón Árnason]]'s collection, based on the classification groundwork laid by [[Konrad Maurer]].{{sfnp|Ármann Jakobsson|2011|pp=281–282}}{{Refn|It is pointed out that the lexicographer [[Guðbrandur Vigfússon]] (who defined draugr as 'ghost' in his dictionary) wrote the preface to Jón Árnason's folklore collection.}}

In Old Norse, ''draugr'' also meant a tree trunk or dry dead wood, or in poetry could refer to a man or warrior,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/draugr#Old_Norse |title=Draugr |date=11 February 2024 }}</ref> since [[Old Norse poetry]] often used terms for trees to represent humans, especially in [[kennings]], referencing the myth that the god [[Odin]] and his brothers created the first humans [[Ask and Embla]] from trees. There was thus a connection between the idea of a felled tree's trunk and that of a dead man's corpse.

Also, one of the [[List of names of Odin|names for Odin]] was {{lang|non|Draugadróttinn}}, "Lord of the draugr", in the [[Ynglinga saga]], chapter 7.

=== Haugbúi (mound-dweller){{anchor|Haugbúi}} ===
The ''haugbúi'', meaning "mound-dweller" or "[[:wikt:how#Etymology 2|howe]]-dweller" (composite of {{langx|non|haugr}}, "[[tumulus|mound]]", cognate to English "how, howe, height", and ''búi'', "dweller", from ''búa'', "reside"), the dead body living within its tomb, is a variation of the ''draugr''. The notable difference between the two was that the haugbui cannot leave its grave site and only attacks those who trespass upon their territory.<ref name="Curran-pp81-93"/>

Beings in British folklore such as [[Lincolnshire dialect|Lincolnshire]] "[[shag-boy]]s" and [[Scots language|Scots]] "[[hogboons]]" derive their names from ''haugbui''.<ref name="shag-boy">{{cite web |title=shag-boy |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shag-boy |website=Wiktionary |access-date=12 January 2023 |language=en |date=29 September 2019}}</ref>

A modern rendering is also [[barrow-wight]], popularized by [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] in his novels, however, initially used for the draugr in [[Eiríkur Magnússon]]'s and [[William Morris]]' 1869 translation of ''[[Grettis saga]]'', long before Tolkien employed the term;{{Refn|Burns<ref name=burns/> citing Gilliver et al. (2009) [2006]. ''[[The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary]]'', pp. 214–216.<ref name=gilliver/>}} rendering Icelandic ''"Sótti haugbúinn með kappi"'' as "the barrow-wight setting on with hideous eagerness".<ref name=magnusson&morris-cap18-p048>{{harvp|Eiríkur Magnússon|Morris (trr.)|1869}}. Ch. 18. [https://books.google.com/books?id=GtdUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA48 p. 48]</ref><ref name="p. 65">{{harvp|Boer (ed.)|1900|p=}}, Cap. 18, [https://books.google.com/books?id=T-UOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA65 p. 65]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://skaldic.abdn.ac.uk/db.php?table=verses&id=26687&if=myth |title=Pre-Christian Religions of the North: Sources : [excerpt from] Gr ch. 18b: Living in gravemounds |year=2014 |access-date=2020-11-17 |author=PCRN project and Skaldic project}}</ref>