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Illustration of Glámr
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 027 of 446

Glámr

Also called: Glam, Glámur
Folklore and mythUndeadVariesMiddle Ages

Glámr is the most famous individual walking corpse in the Icelandic sagas. A Swedish shepherd killed at Yule on a haunted farm, he returns as a huge, blackened revenant that terrorises the valley until the outlaw-hero Grettir wrestles him down and cuts off his head. He wins in death anyway: his dying curse leaves Grettir afraid of the dark for the rest of his life. The episode is the classic saga statement of the idea that an encounter with the dead leaves permanent damage.123

⚔️ Battle it
First recorded
1300
Grettis saga, which reached its present form in the 14th century (earliest manuscript shortly before 1400)
Origin
Norse (Icelandic saga)
Iceland
What causes it
Other
The saga implies that whatever haunted the farm passed its undeath on to the shepherd it killed; scholar Ármann Jakobsson reads it as a transmitted condition.
How you become one
A Swedish shepherd hired to work a haunted pasture; he refused the Yule fast, was found dead in the snow and could not be moved to a church, so he was buried where he lay.
How it moves
Varies
Comes down to the farm at night, enormous in size, and breaks into the hall, tearing away the door lintel and wrecking the roof.
Intelligence
Clever
Weak spots
  • beheading by Grettir
  • cremation, with the ashes buried far from people and livestock

When did it first appear?

Ancient world
Middle Ages
1500 to 1899
1900 to 1967
1968 to 1999
2000 to 2009
2010 to today
1300

Grettis saga, which reached its present form in the 14th century (earliest manuscript shortly before 1400)

field notes

What the sources say

1

The saga never calls him a draugr, only a 'troll'; the label is modern scholarship's123

2

Described as black and swollen to the size of a bull123

3

His stare momentarily leaves Grettir powerless123

4

Before dying a second time he curses Grettir with weakness, bad luck and a lasting fear of the dark123

5

The curse drives the rest of the saga: outlawry, isolation and an early death123

Could you outrun it?

Speed class from how the sources describe it (varies), not a measurement.

You, walking about 5 km/h
You, jogging about 10 km/h
Glámr about 10 km/h
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h

Sources

  1. Grettis saga - Wikipedia
  2. Draugr - Wikipedia
  3. Viking zombies and how to kill them - University of Liverpool News

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at hello@zombiewiki.app.

Folklore from the same lands

DraugrNorse, 1250AsvithNorse (Danish chronicle and Icelandic saga), 1200Deacon of MyrkáIcelandic, 1860HaugbúiNorse, 1250HjaðningavígNorse / GermanicHrapprNorse (Icelandic saga), 1245

Same era: Middle Ages

VetalaHindu (Indian), 1070Revenant (medieval England)Medieval English, 1100UpiórSlavic, 1100Berwick revenantMedieval English / Scottish borders, 1198Buckinghamshire revenantMedieval English, 1198Byland Abbey revenantsMedieval English, 1400