A draugr, draug or ( Icelandic ) draugur ( original Old Norse plural draugar, as used here, not " draugrs "), or draugen ( Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, meaning " the draug "), also known as aptrganga (" afturgöngur " in modern Icelandic ) ( literally " after-walker ", or " one who walks after death ") is an undead creature from Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology.

The creation of a draugr is not exactly clear, but in the Eyrbyggja saga, a shepherd is killed by a draugr and rises the next night as one himself.

The draugr is also often shown as haunting its living family.

Although iron could injure a draugr, as is the case with many supernatural creatures, it would not be sufficient to stop it.

The preferred method is to cut off the draugr's head, burn the body, and dump the ashes in the sea ; the emphasis being on making absolutely sure the draugr was dead and gone.

This desire for the friendship experienced in life is one example of the manifestation of this aspect of the draugr.

A variation of the draugr is the haugbui.

One of the best-known draugr in the modern world is Glámr, who was defeated by the hero of the Grettis Saga.

A somewhat ambivalent, alternative view of the draugr is presented by the example of Gunnar in Njál's saga:

In the Eyrbyggja Saga a shepherd is assaulted by a blue-black draugr.

In more recent folklore, the draugr is often identified with the spirits of mariners drowned at sea.

But, though the draugr usually presages death, there is an amusing account in Northern Norway of a Nordlending who managed to outwit him:

* The draugr is also one of the inspirations behind " Serpent's Mound " by Ceri Norman.

* The villain Surt, in the Norse-inspired novel " The Sword and the Satchel " by Elizabeth Boyer, is a draugr.

He is also courageous ; he takes on and defeats the draugr Glámr, an undead being that is, in a sense, a corporeal ghost, strong and formidable.

But the draugr curses him, and this is seen by the author as the cause of his later misfortunes.

The saga is about Hrómundr serving king Óláf Warrior-King ( Óláfr konungr liði ) and Hrómund's battles with the berserker Hröngvið and as well as the undead witch-king Þráinn, a draugr ( he was a former king of Gaul, Valland ).

The resting place of the draugr was a tomb that served much as a workable home for the creature.

The greed of a draugr causes it to viciously attack any would-be grave robbers, but the draugr also expresses an innate jealousy of the living, stemming from a longing for the things of the life it once had.

Animals feeding near the grave of a draugr may be driven mad by the creature's influence.

Draugar were believed to live in the graves of the dead, with a draugr being the animated body of the dead.

As the graves of important men often contained a good amount of wealth, the draugr jealously guards his treasures, even after death.

The draugr's ability to increase its size also increased its weight, and the body of the draugr was described as being extremely heavy.

Among the creatures that a draugr may turn into are a seal, a great flayed bull, a grey horse with a broken back but no ears or tail, and a cat that would sit upon a sleeper's chest and grow steadily heavier until the victim suffocated.

While the draugr certainly preferred to be active during the night, it did not appear to be vulnerable to sunlight like some other revenants.

In legends the hero would often have to wrestle the draugr back to his grave, thereby defeating him, since weapons would do no good.

The motivation of the actions of a draugr was primarily jealousy and greed.

The words " dragon " and " draugr " are not linguistically related.

The shepherd rises the next night as a draugr.

A recorded legend from Trøndelag tells how a corpse lying on a beach became the object of a quarrel between the two types of draugr.

The notion of `` inspiration '' is somehow cognate to this feeling.

The inspiration oracular cult was probably introduced into Greece from Anatolia, which is the origin of Sibyl, and where existed some of the oldest oracular shrines.

Given the similarities in the two characters ' names, professions, written works and generally dark subject matter, it is likely that Lovecraft's Alhazred provided the main inspiration for al-Hazir.

"), is the inspiration for the text of several pieces of choral music, usually entitled When David Heard ( such as those by Renaissance composers Thomas Tomkins and Thomas Weelkes, or American composers Eric Whitacre, Joshua Shank, and Norman Dinerstein ).

An example of ancient aesthetics in Greece through poetry is Plato's quote: " For the authors of those great poems which we admire, do not attain to excellence through the rules of any art ; but they utter their beautiful melodies of verse in a state of inspiration, and, as it were, possessed by a spirit not their own.

Yet the title of Father of monasticism is merited as he was the inspiration for the coming of hundreds of men and women into the depths of the desert, who were then loosely organized into small communities, especially by his disciple, Macarius.

In " The Complete Calvin And Hobbes ," Watterson does not name the inspiration for Calvin's character, but he does say Calvin is named for " a 16th-century theologian who believed in predestination ," and Hobbes for " a 17th-century philosopher with a dim view of human nature.

It is therefore believed that he has both the right and ability to receive divine inspiration ( through the Holy Spirit ) for the ward under his direction.

It is variously argued that Fuller's wartime plans and post-war writings were an inspiration, or that his readership was low and German experiences during the war received more attention.

The Battle of Marathon is perhaps now more famous as the inspiration for the Marathon race.

Manek states that Sungazing is the key to his health, citing the Jainist Tirthankara Mahavira, ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Native Americans as his inspiration.

Anthropologist Dean Snow stated that though Franklin's Albany Plan may have drawn some inspiration from the Iroquois League, there is little evidence that either the Plan or the Constitution drew substantially from this source and argues that "... such claims muddle and denigrate the subtle and remarkable features of Iroquois government.

Another pattern of breathing is apneustic breathing which is characterized by sudden pauses of inspiration and is due to a lesion of the pons.

Fire is associated with the suit of rods / wands, and as such, represents passion from inspiration.

He is considered Japan's earliest cyborg superhero, before even Kamen Rider ( the same year, Shotaro Ishinomori created Cyborg 009 ), and was the inspiration for RoboCop.

One of his ancestors is John Elwes, who is believed to be the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens ' A Christmas Carol ( 1843 ) ( Elwes played five roles in the 2009 film adaptation of the novel ).

His ministry affirms the divine inspiration of the Bible, the authority of Tradition, and says "... that there is a place within the full life and ministry of the Christian Church for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians, both those who are called to lifelong celibacy and those who are partnered.

Feeling that Clark is the real person and that Clark is not afraid to be himself in his civilian identity, John Byrne has stated in interviews that he took inspiration for this portrayal from the George Reeves version of Superman.

She is assumed to have been the inspiration for his novel about a nun, La Religieuse, in which he depicts a woman who is forced to enter a monastery where she suffers at the hands of the other nuns in the community.