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Illustration of Hrappr
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
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Hrappr

Also called: Víga-Hrappr, Killer-Hrapp, Hrapp
Folklore and mythUndeadVariesMiddle Ages

Hrappr is the walking dead man of Laxdæla saga, a bully in life who has himself buried standing under his own threshold. A run of deaths follows until the estate lies empty. Olaf the Peacock eventually has the grave opened, finds the body fresh, burns it and scatters the ashes at sea. It is one of the clearest saga cases of the full sequence of unnatural burial, haunting, exhumation and cremation.123

⚔️ Battle it
First recorded
1245
Laxdæla saga, composed between about 1230 and 1260
Origin
Norse (Icelandic saga)
Iceland
What causes it
Other
A domineering farmer arranges to be buried where he can keep watch on his household, and goes on walking.
How you become one
On his deathbed he orders his wife to bury him upright under the doorway of his hall.
How it moves
Varies
Walks his old farm at dusk rather than staying in the grave; he can vanish by sinking into the ground.
Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
  • exhuming and burning the body
  • throwing the ashes into the sea

When did it first appear?

Ancient world
Middle Ages
1500 to 1899
1900 to 1967
1968 to 1999
2000 to 2009
2010 to today
1245

Laxdæla saga, composed between about 1230 and 1260

field notes

What the sources say

1

His farm, Hrappstaðir, is abandoned after a run of deaths123

2

When Olaf the Peacock attacks him he snaps the spear shaft and disappears into the earth123

3

The exhumed body is undecayed and Olaf's spearhead is found beside it123

4

He is also said to appear as a seal that wrecks a ship carrying new settlers to the farm123

5

Scholars have read saga revenants like him as a way of talking about plague, madness or trauma123

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
Hrappr about 10 km/h
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h

Sources

  1. Laxd%C3%A6la 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, 1250GlámrNorse (Icelandic saga), 1300AsvithNorse (Danish chronicle and Icelandic saga), 1200Deacon of MyrkáIcelandic, 1860HaugbúiNorse, 1250HjaðningavígNorse / Germanic

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