Lore 225: Dark Animation

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We spend a lot of life learning about the things in front of us.

Those little board books that kids love to have read to them are a perfect example.

They can point to an object, say the name, and allow something new to embed itself in their mind.

Which is why I love to nerd out so often about the work that historians and archaeologists do, because a lot of the time they're doing the opposite of those board books.

They point to gaps in an environment or a document and then they fill in the blank.

They infer a long-lost reality based on the emptiness that it left behind.

A great example actually hit the news just a while back in January of 2023.

Researchers in Denmark announced that they had discovered a massive Viking structure that dates back as far as the 9th century, and all evidence points to it having been an important building, probably used for community and political gatherings.

But they didn't discover this structure by finding its walls and furniture.

No, they just found the holes that the building's beams once stood in.

Their width and depth and spacing across the dig site all paint a clear picture, one that's comprised of invisible elements only trained experts might spot.

Their job is simply to fill in the blanks.

Humans have been been inventing answers to life's mysteries for as long as we've been around.

But there's one place in the world where that tendency has been going on for over a thousand years.

And as a result, there's a rich tapestry of beliefs and traditions, all based on questions that need answers.

Most of it is fun and benign, for sure.

Some parts, though, have an air of darkness to them.

and to explore them is to brush up against the dangerous and the supernatural.

So naturally, I'm going to tell you all about it.

I'm Aaron Mankey, and this is lore.

The landscape is often the biggest clue.

Why do the people from a particular place tell the kinds of stories they did?

Why did their belief systems grow to include such unique and creative tales?

Sometimes the best place to look for those answers is the place they lived.

And in that sense, there are few places as powerful as Iceland.

One of the factors that contributes to that sense of awe is just how sparsely populated the place is.

For perspective, Iceland is the second largest island in Europe right after Great Britain.

But where Great Britain has roughly 700 people per square mile, in Iceland, that number is 9.

Talk about isolation, right?

Now, the overall mythology and belief system in Iceland is really just a transplant by Scandinavian settlers about 1200 years ago.

The first to arrive were what historians would call pagan, but soon after that Christianity began to work its way inside.

That's a mix that we'll see play out in the stories and practices later on in this episode.

And let's not forget the weather there.

Winters aren't particularly harsh, but there's a period of the year where they only get about four hours of sunlight each day.

And since the island is volcanic, there aren't a lot of trees, so early homes were built out of stone and turf and very difficult to keep warm.

Why is that important to know?

Because that sort of environment brought communities indoors during the dark winter months.

Families would welcome in orphans and widows to add more bodies to their small spaces.

And while they were there, huddled together for warmth, they would do indoor work like weaving, shoemaking, and sewing.

And of course, they would tell stories.

You see, the landscape of Iceland offered those early settlers a lot to talk about.

Think about it.

Massive waterfalls, deep ravines, towering volcanic mountains, all painted in the light of the Aurora Borealis.

It was a world that begged for explanation, so they told stories about it.

A great example is the volcanic activity that people had to live with.

They are everywhere, with a current count at around 130.

In the millennia since the Scandinavians arrived, 15% of those volcanoes have erupted, many of them over and over throughout the years.

The most famous might just be Hecla, a volcano on the southern end of the island.

Not only has it erupted 23 times since 1104, but it's prolific, sometimes launching lava bombs into the air, massive chunks of molten rock that can weigh upwards of 12 tons, which is why in the Middle Ages, Hecla was considered a gateway to hell.

And they meant that in two ways.

In one sense, they believed that the volcano was home to some version of the Christian hell where criminals and non-believers would go to be punished.

At the same time though, the mountain rained fire and brimstone down on communities around it, turning their actual world into a literal hell.

But the landscape had something else to frighten people with.

All of the volcanic activity that had helped form the island 18 million years ago, plus the massive debris thrown out by these still active volcanoes, has created an environment littered with massive, oddly shaped formations, and they became the perfect focal point for folklore about a specific creature.

Trolls.

They were typically described as powerful and large, but also very dumb giants who lived in the caves and mountains of the region.

Like the Scandinavian trolls that Iceland's first settlers would have whispered about, these trolls were monsters that loved to feast on human flesh, but they also had a weakness.

Sunlight would turn them to stone.

And yes, if fans of the hobbit find that familiar, there's a reason for that.

Because of this, various large stones around the island have attracted legends about their trollish origins.

There's trolltunga, which literally means troll tongue, because it's an ancient rock formation that looks an awful lot like a giant stone tongue.

The troll that it once belonged to, they say, had been bragging about his immunity to sunlight, brazenly sticking his tongue out at it when he was frozen for all eternity by it.

There are a lot of other examples too, but my favorite might just be the trio of rock pillars off the coast of Vic.

As the story goes, there once were a pair of trolls who wanted to book passage on a ship, but when the captain turned them away, they got angry and decided to steal the ship instead.

So the pair waded out into the sea and grabbed hold of it, and then began to walk it back to shore.

But they were so caught up in the crime they were committing that they lost track of the time.

Before they reached land, the sun rose, turning both trolls and the ship they were dragging into stone.

Those three pillars are all that's left of them today.

Clearly, trolls were a bit terrible at time management, but they certainly did fill a gap in the knowledge of the early inhabitants of Iceland.

Between the rocks that fell from the sky and those that were pushed up from below, the landscape of the island was practically crying out for tales that would explain everything.

But the folklore of Iceland goes beyond hell mountains and chronologically challenged trolls.

In fact, to dive into the truly amazing tales that people whispered, we need to think on a smaller scale than giants.

Lucky for us, though, those stories only get darker.

The story is a clever one.

It's said that in the days after Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, God dropped by to pay them a visit.

Now, since their garden days, the first first couple had been busy, producing two children, Cain and Abel.

So God, maybe trying to be polite and not show off that he saw and knew knew everything, asked Adam and Eve if they had any other children as well.

And the truth is they had, but those other kids were pretty filthy from playing in the dirt, so not wanting to embarrass herself, Eve lied and said no.

And as a result of that lie, it's said that God cursed those other children to forever be invisible to the rest of humanity.

Hidden, as one might say.

Today, the people of Iceland refer to them as the Holdefolk, which means the hidden people.

Longtime listeners will remember that we've covered a lot of their stories already, but there are a couple of things I wanted to point out about them.

First, apparently, elves isn't the most politically correct term for them, so consider yourself warned.

And second, they are exactly like us, only better.

Think about it from the perspective of Icelandic settlers.

They were poor farmers, eking out a meager living through hard work in rough conditions.

Nothing they had was nice, and very little of life was easy.

So it made sense that their vision of the Huldafolk was that these were people just like them, only wearing fancier clothing, using nicer possessions, and with plenty of time on their hands to eat, drink, and be merry.

From that angle, you can see their longings woven throughout these stories.

But their fears also make a few appearances in the stories they told.

And a great example are the Land Whites.

These are nature spirits that were said to live in the land and water of Iceland, and they served as guardians of it and brought prosperity to those who respected it properly.

One popular story involving whites is found in the saga of King Olaf Tryggvalsson, who reigned in the late 900s.

In the records, it's said that Denmark's King Harald Bluetooth Gormson was sailing to Iceland to conquer it and sent a warlock shaped like a whale to scout ahead.

That's when four powerful whites flew out to meet the warlock.

They were a mighty dragon, a vulture as wide as the mountains, a huge grey bull, and a giant who stood taller than the tallest mountain.

Needless to say, the warlock didn't stand a chance.

After sending the invaders packing, these four whites became known as Iceland's guardian spirits.

Today, if you look at the country's coat of arms, you'll see them right there as part of the artwork.

Something that's not on the coat of arms, though, is another staple of Icelandic folklore, the Drauger.

In a way, the Drauger are ghosts, but not in the sense that most of us were raised to assume.

These aren't built of mist and smoke, like eerie mirages that you can see and walk right through.

No, the Draugr were said to be a lot like you and me, physical and corporeal, but perhaps also stronger and a whole lot meaner.

You see, the Viking-era Scandinavians believed in an afterlife, just not a heavenly one.

Yes, the noblest of warriors got to go to Valhalla, but many others wouldn't make it that far.

Instead, their corpses would become animated by some evil force.

Most of the time, that just left an undead creature living inside a burial mound.

But every now and then, they would grow restless and break free.

What they did after that was always up in the air.

A draugher might stomp around on the roof of your house and annoy you, or it might kill your livestock.

Worse yet, it might kill you and then drink your blood.

It was honestly just the worst, most horrific version of a random number generator.

You never knew what you were going to get, but it was almost always guaranteed to be bad.

Interesting side note, there are a lot of similarities between European vampire stories and the Draugur.

They are both creatures that rise from the dead to make life difficult.

Both are more powerful than the humans they once had been.

And for a long time, both were assumed to be connected somehow to the spread of tuberculosis.

There were differences too, though.

Drauger were said to be able to puff themselves up to the size of an ox.

Not like a balloon, mind you.

No, that extra bulk would be all muscle and raw power.

And of course, their bodies were covered in black, rotting flesh, which made them smell,

well, like a decaying corpse.

One other interesting detail, Draugr were sometimes described as having dark bluish skin and piercing icy blue eyes.

Maybe those white walkers from Game of Thrones aren't as unique as some people think.

So how do you kill a draugher?

Well, that's tricky.

It's said that iron could harm them, but it couldn't kill them.

No, to do that, you had to wrestle with them and defeat them by hand.

And once they submitted, you were supposed to chop off their head and then jump over their body before that still flying head hit the ground.

Complicating matters further is the fact that the sword that you needed to use to do that had to come from the Draugr's own collection.

But if you could manage all of that, your last step was a lot easier.

Burn the body and then either bury the ashes or throw them into the sea.

But not all draugrs showed up to kill cows and challenge farmers to deadly hand-to-hand combat.

In fact, some were known to behave in a much more friendly way.

Although, if one story in particular is any indication, that's still not a good thing.

Context is king, so let's start there.

One of the key features of Drauger were their origin stories.

While Western ghost stories usually describe them as the spirits of people with unfinished business, Drauger were typically the reanimated corpses of people who had been disliked or marginalized in life.

And that sort of foundation meant that these creatures came looking for the people who offended or mistreated them in life.

At the very least, they had a tendency to believe that things needed to be done in a proper way, which drove some of their behavior.

And we could see that quality on display in a story from a collection of records known as the Sagas of Icelanders.

These were narrative chronicles that were meant to document historical events.

They were written over the course of maybe 300 years, starting in the 12th century and still being written in the 14th century, but they covered earlier events, stuff from the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries.

And one other thing, up until those later ones were written in the 14th century, all of them were pretty much absent of fiction, meaning the tales they recorded were believed by the writers and readers to be 100% true.

So as we dive into this last story, keep that context in mind.

The tale I want to share with you comes from the Erbigia Saga, written at a monastery in Helgefell around 1230, and it describes events that took place in the year 1000, when a ship arrived on Iceland shores carrying goods and settlers from Dublin.

Now, one of the passengers was a woman named Thorguna, who was described as a tall, broad-shouldered woman with a stout, powerful build.

She wasn't easy to get along with and kept to herself most of the time.

Coupled with her status as an immigrant, all of those details apparently made her a bit difficult for the people around her to like.

Now, her job once she arrived was basically working as a maidservant and farmhand in another couple's house.

And there's this almost tantalizing hint in the story that the only reason she's even invited to work there is because the lady of the house covets Thorguna's nice furniture and bedlinens.

One day later that summer, something strange happened.

It rained blood on the town they lived in.

And we could question whether it was actual blood or just red volcanic ash mixed with normal rainwater, but the results were the same.

Everything was covered in a thick red liquid, and that's understandably freaked everyone out.

The blood rain dried up pretty quickly though, except for the pile of hay that Thorguna had been working on, and she took that as a sign that her own death was coming soon.

So she begged the man of the house, Porador, to promise her two things, that he would burn her bedlinens after she died, and that he would transport her body to a Christian church in Skalholt.

And Porador kindly agrees.

And sure enough, Thorguna becomes sick a short while later and does actually die.

But instead of burning her bedclothes, Porador just gives them to his wife since she had wanted them so badly anyway.

And then, together with a few others to help him, he loads Thorguna's corpse into a wagon and they all head out for Skullholt.

Now, according to the story, along the way, a storm blew in, forcing them to take shelter at some random farm along the way.

The farmer there allowed them to shelter in the barn and spend the night, but shockingly he doesn't offer them food and drink, a major faux pas in that culture.

So everyone went to bed hungry.

In the middle of the night though, someone stumbled out of the barn and headed for the farmhouse.

They were completely naked and once inside began to pull ingredients out of the pantry and cook a massive meal.

Everyone was hungry after all, and if the farmer wouldn't provide, they would take matters into their own hands.

And the mysterious naked cook?

It was the corpse of Thorguna, risen from the dead as a draugher to correct a social wrong.

The farmer was frightened, obviously, but also so embarrassed that he apologized and equipped the burial party with food, clothing, and supplies.

And as soon as Thorguna heard this offer, she accepted it and returned to her coffin.

Her work was done.

After eating the meal that the draugher had cooked them, with a dash of holy water, they say, the party packed up and left and continued on until they laid Thorguna to rest where she had originally requested.

And when they returned home, Porter was said to have taken those bedlinens back from his wife and burned them.

You know, just in case Thorguna wanted to come back for a repeat performance.

It's a fascinating story, written down in a time when the sagas held nothing but records of actual events.

Of course, that doesn't mean that a superstitious writer couldn't have chosen to include a bit of fantasy on the page, believing that it sounded real enough for their ears.

But it also leaves just enough mystery to truly make you wonder.

Oh, and that inhospitable farmer?

It's said that in the weeks after Thorguna's undead meal prep, an illness swept through his farm.

And as a result, six members of his household all passed away.

The world we live in has a direct impact on the stories we tell.

can see it in the variety of stories that appear around the globe, each one rooted in a different culture.

We see it in the records of people over the centuries as the passing of time changed so much of their human experience.

And we see it in unique places like Iceland.

Over the years, I've been able to take you to some pretty special corners of folklore, and each of them has provided us with a little glimpse into how the human mind works in the face of questions and gaps in our understanding.

I hope you've been able to see today's tour through the ghosts and monsters of Iceland as another example of that.

And possibly something more.

That island might be a little less crowded than a lot of other places in the world as far as people go, but it's absolutely littered with stories and legends.

And one great way to view it all is through the lens we tend to see the old Viking warriors.

Because behind all that strength and aggression, there were frightened minds.

How do we know?

Because when they weren't pillaging or conquering other people, the Vikings were spending a huge amount of time on real tangible ways to protect themselves from things like the draugr.

One example are the large heavy stones that they dragged to rest on top of fresh graves.

Sometimes they even placed them inside the grave itself on the bodies of the dead, all in an effort to make sure the people they put in the ground stayed there.

And while it's true that some Vikings were buried with their weapons, many graves show that those weapons were made useless or ineffective by the people who buried them.

Because, you know, if the dead are going to come back, why arm them, right?

And there were other things they did too, all in the service of combating Drauger.

The legs of corpses were often tied together to prevent walking.

Sometimes their toes were literally sewn together.

Needles were embedded in their feet and open scissors were laid across their chests.

The legends of the Drauger have been whispered throughout Iceland for hundreds of years, and these ancient practices and rituals all highlight just how firmly people were convinced that the danger was real.

And true or not, in the end, they highlight exactly why folklore is so dangerous.

Because when we invite it in, just like a drauger, it can usher something incredibly powerful into our life.

Fear.

The folklore of Iceland is certainly entertaining and enlightening.

So many aspects of it have leaked out into the rest of the world, and even today we can find it throughout modern pop culture.

They certainly were creative and imaginative folks.

But medieval Scandinavians were just like you and me.

They put their pants on one leg at a time.

Except, well, I might need to clarify that with one final story.

Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.

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If you've played a fantasy role-playing game before, you're probably probably familiar with the idea of runes.

Over the years, the general public assumption about them has transformed from basic, carving-friendly characters borrowed from an ancient German alphabet into symbols that are supposed to impart a magical quality to something.

In Iceland, though, if we want to talk about the symbols of sorcery, we need to talk about staves.

These were intricate magical symbols that would be drawn on objects to alter their nature or make them more powerful.

And where runes look like simple and easy to replicate symbols, staves look a lot more like little drawings with lots of different elements.

For example, the stave known as Anger Gapi looks a lot like a circle, but it has a face at the center and leaves drawn at the four cardinal points, and it was carved onto the bottom of barrels to prevent them from breaking.

The stave called Dreprun resembles a top-down view of a fenced-off farmyard with decorations in the corners, and it was used by bad neighbors to kill their enemies' cattle.

Clearly, not the best way to make friends friends and influence people.

And then there's the now broke, which is honestly just too complex in appearance to describe for you here.

It was used as a way to get rich, except, well, there's a lot more to it than that.

But first, their name.

They called them necropants.

Here's how they work.

Let's say you're a poor farmer and you have a friend who is sick and dying.

So you go and visit and ask them to do you a favor.

Would you please, you asked them, let me make a pair of pants out of your skin once you've died?

And yes, I know that question was 100% unexpected.

Just stick with me though, because it's going to get so much better.

You see, if your friend gives you permission and then he dies, you go through the usual burial traditions and have him interred in the ground.

Oh, and that permission is important.

Non-consensual necropants do not work.

Once they've been in the ground a while, you dig them up and then skin their corpse from the waist down.

And you need to be careful.

Any hole or tear will ruin the process.

So you need to do this in one perfect piece of human flesh.

If you can manage it though, you're nearly there.

The next step is to take off your pants and then step into your newly acquired necropants and pull them up.

After that, you just need to steal a coin from a widow and place it in the pockets of these new pants.

A pocket, by the way, that's basically just the empty scrotum of your dead friend.

A lovely thought, I know.

But once that's done, you're all set.

Each time you reach into that scrotum pocket for some money, money, you'll find it.

An endless supply of handfuls of coins.

All yours thanks to your brand new necropants.

Honestly, what could go wrong, right?

Well, a couple of things.

First off, these pants are permanent.

You'll never be able to take them off once you've put them on.

Well, unless you can convince a different friend to take them off your hands, which means you're going to look pretty odd for the rest of your life.

But hey.

Money talks, right?

And second, that entire process of making your necropants, that's black magic, my friend, which means that you have traded your soul for some earthly riches.

Again, if that's what you were after and all you value, then I guess it was worth the price.

But it's a cost that needs to be considered.

And I know all of this sounds pretty wacky.

I will be the first to admit that it's a piece of folklore I never really saw coming.

But it's real, and if you want to see a pair for yourself, all you need to do is visit the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in the village of Holmavik.

Because they have a life-size recreation of what a pair of necropants might look like, right down to the semi-transparent material fashioned into a roughly sewn pair of pants that's standing on top of a pile of dozens of old coins.

Is it frightening?

Well, that depends on your view of such things, but it's one of those bits of folklore that I simply had to pass on to you.

Because if you're ever trying to make small talk at the office or a party, the necropants are always there, safely tucked away in your pocket.

This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Mankey, with research by Jenna Rose Nethercott and music by Chad Lawson.

Lore is much more than just a podcast.

There's a book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video.

Check them both out if you want more lore in your life.

Information about all of that and more is available over at lorepodcast.com.

And for fans of video content, lore is also on YouTube.

Each new episode is released alongside the podcast, but in talking head style video format.

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