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Illustration of Þórgunna
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 025 of 446

Þórgunna

Also called: Thorgunna
Folklore and mythUndeadShamblesMiddle Ages

Þórgunna is the unusual saga corpse that rises to help rather than to kill. During an overnight halt on the way to her burial, her body gets up, lays the table and cooks a meal for the bearers, then vanishes when the farmer speaks to her. The scene is eerie rather than violent, but it opens the chain of deaths at Fróðá. It shows the saga dead as people with unfinished business and the physical means to settle it.12

Battle it
First recorded
1260
Eyrbyggja saga, written in the mid- or late 13th century
Origin
Norse (Icelandic saga)
Iceland
What causes it
Other
Her dying instructions are only partly carried out, and her corpse acts on its own behalf on the way to burial.
How you become one
A wealthy seafaring woman who asks to be buried at Skálholt and to have her bedding burned; the bedding is kept.
How it moves
Shambles
The corpse gets up during an overnight halt, walks into the kitchen and prepares a meal.
Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
  • burial in the place she asked for
  • holy water sprinkled on the food she prepared

When did it first appear?

Ancient world
Middle Ages
1500 to 1899
1900 to 1967
1968 to 1999
2000 to 2009
2010 to today
1260

Eyrbyggja saga, written in the mid- or late 13th century

field notes

What the sources say

1

She leaves her wealth to the church12

2

The party carrying her coffin stops overnight at a farm near Skálholt12

3

In the night she is found, dead and naked, laying the table and cooking a meal12

4

The food is eaten without harm once it has been blessed12

5

After burial at Skálholt she does not walk again, but the deaths at Fróðá follow from her unburned bedding12

Could you outrun it?

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

Þórgunna about 3 km/h (1.9 mph)
You, walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
You, jogging about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h (15 mph)
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h (23 mph)

Sources

  1. Eyrbyggja saga - Wikipedia
  2. Draugr - Wikipedia

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

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