Editing Draugr (section)

== Behaviour and character ==
Any mean, nasty, or greedy person can become a draugr. As [[Ármann Jakobsson]] notes, "most medieval Icelandic ghosts are evil or marginal people. If not dissatisfied or evil, they are unpopular".{{sfnp|Ármann Jakobsson|2011|p=295}}

=== Greed ===
The draugr's motivation was primarily envy and greed. Greed causes it to attack any would-be grave robbers viciously, but the draugr also expresses an innate envy of the living stemming from a longing for the things of life which it once had. They also exhibit an immense and nearly insatiable appetite, as shown in the encounter of Aran and Asmund, sword brothers who swore that, if one died, the other would sit vigil with him for three days inside the burial mound. When Aran died, Asmund brought his possessions into the barrow—banners, armor, hawk, hound, and horse—then set himself to wait the three days:
{{Blockquote|text=During the first night, Aran got up from his chair and killed the hawk and hound and ate them. On the second night he got up again from his chair, and killed the horse and tore it into pieces; then he took great bites at the horse-flesh with his teeth, the blood streaming down from his mouth all the while he was eating…. The third night Asmund became very drowsy, and the first thing he knew, Aran had got him by the ears and torn them off.<ref name="GSOMT99-101">''Gautrek's Saga and Other Medieval Tales'', pp. 99-101.</ref>}}

=== Bloodthirst ===
The draugr's victims were not limited to trespassers in its home. The roaming undead devastated livestock by running the animals to death either by riding them or pursuing them in some hideous, half-flayed form. Shepherds' duties kept them outdoors at night, and they were particular targets for the hunger and hatred of the undead:

{{blockquote|text=The oxen which had been used to haul Thorolf's body were ridden to death by demons, and every single beast that came near his grave went raving mad and howled itself to death. The shepherd at Hvamm often came racing home with Thorolf after him. One day that Fall neither sheep nor shepherd came back to the farm.<ref>{{SfnRef|Pálsson|Edwards (trr.)|1973}}. ''Eyrbyggja Saga'', p. 115.</ref>}}

Animals feeding near the grave of a draugr might be driven mad by the creature's influence.<ref name="Curran-pp81-93">{{harvp|Curran|2005|pp=81–93}}</ref> They may also die from being driven mad. Thorolf, for example, caused birds to drop dead when they flew over his [[bowl barrow]].

=== Sitting posture and evil eye ===
The main indication that a deceased person will become a draugr is that the corpse is not horizontal. It is found standing upright (as with Víga-Hrappr), or in a sitting position (Þórólfr), indicating that the dead might return.{{sfnp|Ármann Jakobsson|2011|p=296}} Ármann Jakobsson suggests further that breaking the draugr's posture is a necessary or helpful step in destroying the draugr, but this is fraught with the risk of being inflicted with the [[evil eye]], whether this is explicitly told in the case of Grettir who receives the curse from Glámr, or only implied in the case of Þórólfr, whose son warns the others to beware while they unbend Þórólfr's seated posture.{{sfnp|Ármann Jakobsson|2011|p=296}}

=== Annihilating ===
The draugr needing to be decapitated to hinder them from further hauntings is a common theme in the [[sagas of Icelanders|family sagas]].<ref name=sayers/>

=== Means of prevention ===
{{more citations needed|section|date=October 2018}}
[[File:Norre naeraa 600px.jpg|thumb|upright|right|The Nørre Nærå Runestone is interpreted as having a "grave binding inscription" used to keep the deceased in its grave.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mitchell |first=Stephen A. |title=Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2011 |pages=22–23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=shCXJLB6mDAC |isbn=978-0-8122-4290-4}}</ref>]]

Traditionally in Iceland, a pair of open iron scissors was placed on the chest of the recently deceased, and straws or twigs might be hidden among their clothes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bane |first=Theresa |title=Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers |year=2010 |isbn=9780786444526 |location=North Carolina |publication-date=2010 |pages=55 |language=English}}</ref> The big toes were tied together or needles were driven through the soles of the feet to keep the dead from being able to walk. Tradition also held that the coffin should be lifted and lowered in three directions as it was carried from the house to confuse a possible draugr's sense of direction.

The most effective means of preventing the return of the dead was believed to be a corpse door, a special door through which the corpse was carried feet-first with people surrounding it so that the corpse couldn't see where it was going. The door was then bricked up to prevent a return. It is speculated{{by whom|date=October 2018}} that this belief began in [[Denmark]] and spread throughout the Norse culture, founded on the idea that the dead could only leave through the way they entered.

In the "Eyrbyggja saga," draugrs are driven off by holding a "door-doom." One by one, they are summoned to the door-doom, given judgment, and forced out of the home by this legal method. The home is then purified with holy water to ensure that they never come back.