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Illustration of Uppvakningur
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 441 of 446

Uppvakningur

Also called: uppvakningar, sending, raised dead
Folklore and mythUndeadVariesSorcery

The uppvakningur is the Icelandic corpse raised by sorcery, as opposed to the dead who walk for their own reasons. The magician has to overpower the body as it climbs from the grave, after which it obeys orders and can be sent to harm or kill an enemy. An accusation of raising a dead man lay behind the first burning for sorcery in Iceland. As a corpse with no will of its own working for a living master, it is the nearest European equivalent of the Haitian zombi.12

Battle it
Origin
Icelandic
Iceland
What causes it
Sorcery
A sorcerer wakes a newly buried corpse and binds it to his service.
How you become one
A cunning man or woman raises a fresh corpse, wrestles it into submission and licks the matter from its face.
How it moves
Varies
Crawls up out of the grave; once mastered it goes where it is sent. Icelandic dead travel only by night.
Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
  • 'singing it down' with the right verses
  • cutting off the head and burning the body
  • throwing a ball of yarn into the open grave and holding the thread until it swears not to return
field notes

What the sources say

1

Distinguished from the afturganga, who comes back of its own will12

2

Once beaten, the corpse asks what its master wants done12

3

A raised corpse dispatched to kill is called a sending12

4

Jón Rögnvaldsson, the first man burned for sorcery in Iceland, was accused of raising a dead man and sending him against a neighbour's farm12

5

Such dead wear out over time; one is described walking on its knees after its feet had rotted away12

6

Folklorist Björk Bjarnadóttir compares Icelandic ghosts to zombies because they are solid12

Could you outrun it?

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

You, walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
You, jogging about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
Uppvakningur 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. We asked a folklorist for all the spooky details - The Reykjavík Grapevine
  2. Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft

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, 1250GlámrNorse (Icelandic saga), 1300AsvithNorse (Danish chronicle and Icelandic saga), 1200Deacon of MyrkáIcelandic, 1860HaugbúiNorse, 1250HjaðningavígNorse / Germanic

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