Editing Draugr (section)

=== 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.