Huldrefjord
Draug
NorskDraugen
- Names
- draug, draugen, draugr
- Habitat
- near the sea, typically along the coastline or in shallow waters; sometimes around boat docks or in boathouses
- Danger level
- High
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AI voice
Our audio guide is being renewed. While we update the exhibition, the new recordings are read by an AI voice in English and Norwegian. They will later be recorded by real voices in more languages. Thank you for your patience!
When the fall and winter storms are roaring, and the waves wash the shore on a dark night, you should get indoors as soon as possible. The storm brings dangers beyond what the eye can see. After all, how can you be certain that the scream you heard from afar is only a seagull? Maybe the draug himself is crying out for his next victim…
Appearance
The draug is a ghost of a drowned sailor or fisherman who was never buried in the Christian fashion. He takes on the appearance of the dead it comes from. In death, the man’s spirit becomes disfigured, bearing signs of injury and decay. Lumps of seaweed may cover parts of his body or replace his head; his eyes gleam red through the weeds. He is typically dressed in old-fashioned oilcloths and travels in half-destroyed, rotting boats.
Behavior
As a malevolent revenant, the draug haunts familiar places at sea and along the shoreline, leaving death and destruction in his wake. He is a bad omen and a harbinger of death, whose presence warns of upcoming storms, shipwrecks, and drowning. He often calls out from the sea to announce future misfortune: the number of screams you hear equals the number of deaths that are coming. He is also known as the avenger of the sea because he will attack and kill fishermen and sailors, overturning their boats and pulling souls into the depths in an attempt to avenge his own death.
Rávga: how the Sámi protect against the draug
The draug is not only present in Norwegian folklore; the Sámi also believe in the avenger of the sea, referred to as rávga in Northern Sámi. According to Sámi beliefs, there are several ways to repel the draug:
- If a draug cries welcome or the name of a person, you must not reply. Stand up instead, turn your back to the cry and shout the same word back to the draug.
- If you find bones, clothes, planks or similar from a shipwrecked boat close to where you hear a draug cry, take the time to bury them above the tide line, where even the high tide cannot reach them. When they are buried where the seawater cannot reach them, they lose the power of attracting the draug.
- If you carry fire when encountering a draug, throw a burning torch at him and shout: ”De buolat!” (English: ”Burn now!”). This makes the draug flee towards the sea, leaving only a ghostly light behind.
- If a draug follows you and you’re carrying a knife, throw the knife beneath your left arm with the tip in front without turning around. When you hear the knife’s tip hit the draug, you are free from it. Should you go looking for the knife, you’ll find it with its tip buried in an item like an old sack or oilcloth. If you’re carrying a gun when you encounter a draug, do all the same things but shoot under your left arm instead of throwing the weapon. You'll later find an item pierced by the bullet you shot.
- If you end up in a wrestling match with a draug, it is important to get it above the shoreline, for he will lose much of his strength. If you wrestle until dawn, the draug will disappear with the first rays of the sun.
Fairy tale
The Draugs’ Battle with the Dead on Lurøy
In the year 1837, it happened on Lurøy that the servants on a farm sat lingering a while over their drinks on Christmas Eve after they had eaten supper. Before long, the spirits ran out, and no one felt inclined to go down to the boathouse to fetch more, though the master of the farm had given permission for it. At last, the farmhand gathered his courage and set off, carrying a wooden lid and a measuring jug in one hand, and the lantern and the boathouse keys in the other.
He made his way safely down to the shore, unlocked the door, and filled the jug. But after shutting the door behind him and starting back across the pier bridge, he found a man without a head sitting there, blocking his way. The lad recognised at once that it was a draug. Seeing no way past, he struck it with the lid, sending the draug tumbling from the bridge with a shriek.
He continued along the road by the shore. Suddenly, he heard a strange noise behind him, and when he turned, he saw an immense horde of draugs rising from the foreshore. The graveyard lay directly in his path, and the swarm would catch him if he tried to run around it. So, without hesitation, he leapt over the churchyard fence, dashed across the graves, and cried out at the top of his lungs: “Rise up, rise up, all Christian souls, and save me!”
At that very moment, the clock struck midnight, and the earth trembled beneath the boy’s feet. Once he had made it safely over the fence on the far side of the graveyard, he looked back again. He saw the draug horde charging after him like a flock of sheep, leaping the fence to seize him upon the churchyard itself. But once the draugs had entered the graveyard, they were met by a whole army of the dead, who had risen to help the lad and defend the consecrated ground against these profane creatures.
A fierce battle followed. The dead wielded splinters and planks torn from coffins as weapons, while the draugs fought with lengths of seaweed stalks. But the boy dared not watch. Pale and half out of his wits, he burst into the servants’ quarters where his companions sat, set down the filled jug, scrambled up to the loft as fast as he could, and threw himself beneath his sheepskin coverlet without saying a word.
On Christmas morning, however, once he realised he had suffered no harm, his tongue loosened and he told of what he had experienced during the night. The servants were somewhat doubtful, but when they arrived at church with the rest of the congregation, they saw proof with their own eyes. All across the graveyard lay scattered coffin boards, tangles of seaweed stalks, and seal vomit, and after that no one doubted that the battle between the draugs and the dead had truly taken place.