Draugr by JFoliveras on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

DRAUGR, an undead creature from Norse mythology. Draugar were believed to live inside their burial mounds, often guarding the treasure they were buried with, and would viciously attack any would-be grave robbers, although they are also described roaming outside of their graves at night in some sagas. Their characteristics vary between different Icelandic sagas, but the presence of a draugr could be shown by a bright foxfire-like light glowing from the burial mound, and they are often described as corpses of a black or blue colour. According to some sagas, it was also believed that no weapon could kill them, so they could only be wrestled back into their grave by a hero or killed by fire.

Even though we can imagine this draugr still dwelling inside his grave during the Viking Age, I represented him armed with military equipment from what’s known as the Vendel period in Swedish archaeology (in Norwegian archaeology the term “Merovingian period” is preferred), also known in all of Scandinavia as the Late Germanic Iron Age, which appears between the Migration Period and the Viking age (6th-8th centuries AD).