The Draugen's Warning

About the legend

Being

Draugen (the sea spirit of a fisherman lost at sea)

Cultural meaning

In the folklore of the Norwegian coast, the draugen is the spirit of a fisherman who was lost at sea. It sails in half a boat, a boat split down the middle, and its cry carries far across the water. The old tales gave it two sides. To meet the draugen could foretell death, but the fishermen of Nordland also said that when the draugen cried, a storm was coming, and they hurried to land. This story builds on the warning.

Fun fact

In Nordland, the municipality of Bø has a silver half-boat on its coat of arms! It stands for the fishing there and for the old tales of the draugen, who sails in half a boat.

Cultural notes

The word draug comes from Old Norse draugr, a ghost or revenant. In the Icelandic sagas the draugr is a dead man who walks again, like Glámr in Grettis saga; in later coastal folklore it became the sea draug. Andreas Faye wrote down the Nordland fishermen's storm warning in Norske Folke-Sagn (1844). Jonas Lie tells of a fisherman who meets the draug steering its half-boat in 'Fiskeren og Draugen', a tale in his first novel, Den fremsynte (1870). In Peter Christen Asbjørnsen's 'Skarvene fra Udrøst' (1859), a fisherman hears the draug and believes it is singing his funeral hymn. Warning fires (veter) really did stand ready on hilltops along the coast of Norway, from the 900s to the 1300s and again from the 1600s to 1814, but they warned of enemies, not storms. The coat of arms of Bø, a silver half-boat with mast and square sail on black, was granted in 1987.

About this retelling

Original story inspired by folklore An original story inspired by Norwegian coastal folklore about the draugen.

The draugen, its half-boat and its warning cry are old folklore from the coast of northern Norway. In the old tales the draugen was also something to fear, and it was often described with no head, or with a tuft of seaweed for a head. For children, this story makes the draugen a kind guardian that looks like a calm old fisherman made of light, and it leaves the omen of death out of the story. No one drowns. Eirik, Sandviken, the warning fire for storms, the girl who rings the bell and the flowers on the water were created for Nordic Tales.

Sources

• Norske Folke-Sagn (2nd ed., 1844), "Draugen" — Andreas Faye
• Norske Huldre-Eventyr og Folkesagn 1 (1859), "Tilhavs II. Skarvene fra Udrøst" — Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
• Weird Tales from Northern Seas (1893), "The Fisherman and the Draug" (from Den fremsynte, 1870), translated by R. Nisbet Bain — Jonas Lie
• Wikipedia: Draug

Themes

• respect
• courage
• community
• listening
• draugen
• Norwegian coast
• fishing village
• storm
• guardian spirit
• Nordland
• half-boat
• fjord
• folklore
• Asbjørnsen
• coastal Norway
• fishermen

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