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

Also called: haugbui, mound-dweller, howe-dweller, hogboon
Folklore and mythUndeadBarely movesMiddle Ages

The haugbúi is the stay-at-home variant of the Norse walking dead: a corpse that lives on inside its burial mound and guards what was buried with it. It is dangerous only to those who enter, which makes it the standard opponent of treasure-seeking saga heroes such as Grettir and Hrómundr. Scholars treat it as a sub-type of the draugr, and the two terms are often used loosely for the same beings. Its literary afterlife runs through Tolkien's barrow-wights into modern fantasy.12

Battle it
First recorded
1250
Icelandic sagas written down in the 13th and 14th centuries
Origin
Norse
Iceland, Norway, United Kingdom
What causes it
Other
The dead man remains animate inside his own burial mound, usually alongside his grave goods.
How you become one
A dead person laid in a howe stays there as its occupant and guardian.
How it moves
Barely moves
Unlike the roaming draugr it does not leave the mound; it attacks only those who break in or trespass on its ground.
Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
  • defeating it in a fight inside the mound
  • decapitation
  • burning the body

When did it first appear?

Ancient worldMiddle Ages1500 to 18991900 to 19671968 to 19992000 to 20092010 to today1250

Icelandic sagas written down in the 13th and 14th centuries

field notes

What the sources say

1

The name joins Old Norse haugr ('mound') and búi ('dweller')12

2

It fights grave robbers hand to hand, and some are immune to ordinary weapons12

3

Saga mounds are described as reeking so badly that intruders can die of the stench12

4

The Orkney and Caithness 'hogboon' takes its name from the same word12

5

Tolkien's barrow-wights were modelled on it; 'barrow-wight' was first used for these dead in an 1869 translation of Grettis saga12

Sources

  1. Draugr - Wikipedia
  2. Revenant - Wikipedia

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].

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Folklore from the same lands

DraugrNorse, 1250AbhartachIrish, 1870GlámrNorse (Icelandic saga), 1300Revenant (medieval England)Medieval English, 1100AsvithNorse (Danish chronicle and Icelandic saga), 1200Berwick revenantMedieval English / Scottish borders, 1198

Same era: Middle Ages

VetalaHindu (Indian), 1070UpiórSlavic, 1100Buckinghamshire revenantMedieval English, 1198Byland Abbey revenantsMedieval English, 1400Drakelow revenantsMedieval English, 1090HrapprNorse (Icelandic saga), 1245
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