Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey. Norse
Mythology tells of numerous terrifying and ferocious creatures, but few are more feared
than the Draugar. These living dead can be found across literature and video games, from
the works of Tolkien, to the Elder Scrolls, to God of War. But what if the Draugar didn’t
just scare the willies out of people in Bleak Falls Barrow, but actually existed in the
real world? Let’s explore. If you want more What If videos, check out our “Biggest What
Ifs” playlist on the channel. Now get ready, it’s time to ask the question: What if the
Draugar were Real? First off, I’d just like to clarify the
issue of pluralization. The Draugar can be found in a number of mythologies, including
Old Norse, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. In each of these places, both the name and
the pluralized form vary. Since this video will be focusing on the Old Norse depiction
of the creatures, we’ll follow the Old Norse terms. That is to say, when I say “Draugr”,
it’s singular, and when I say Draugar, it’s plural. Now let’s hop in. The Draugar are
undead creatures, believed to be reanimated corpses of those who died. Those who die after
living a dishonest and immoral life are believed to be brought back as Draugar. They often
return to live similarly greedy and selfish half-lives, either guarding a barrow containing
their treasure, or exacting vengeance on the living. They were often described as very
dark black, or else as pale as a corpse. This was a rather interesting take on the
idea of punishment after death. Rather than being sent to hell or some place of suffering,
those who had acted poorly would be forced to return in a half-alive, gruesome state.
This results in a good deal of jealousy towards the living, which often causes them to lash
out and attack. In the mythology, Draugar have superhuman strength and can increase
their size at will to further increase their fortitude. They look and smell disgusting,
which isn't surprising considering they're decaying corpses. They also seem to retain
some amount of intelligence from their previous life, as well as some memories from life,
which they use to protect their treasure, and attack those who had wronged them. Some
even believe that those killed by a draugr are often linked to it, and forced to fight
for it as a spectral slave. So, now we know what they are. But what would
happen if the Draugar were real? Well, first and foremost, it would significantly change
how we deal with the dead. A single Draugr, if it increased its size, could do huge amounts
of damage. Historically, it was believed that there were ways to prevent a corpse from becoming
a draugr. It may sound strange, but apparently draugrism can be avoided by placing a pair
of open iron scissors on the chest of the recently deceased. It can also be helpful
to hide straws and twigs among their clothes, and drive needles through their feet to keep
them from walking. This is something that would need to be spread across the world.
This would be an easy task in the developed world, with social media, but it could spell
disaster for less developed countries. If people didn’t learn fast enough, whole countries
could soon be overrun by draugar. If the problem got bad enough, it could require the use of
heavy explosives or even nuclear weapons in order to assure that they would not come back
to life. Or rather, unlife. If that’s a thing.
We would also, of course, need to know how to deal with a draugr if we encountered one.
Of course, for most people, the instructions would be to just run away immediately. This
is because most people would have no chance against a draugr. However, for those who were
capable, there are things to know. Luckily, you wouldn’t need any special weapons, since
Draugar can be injured with plain iron. However, in order to kill them for good, it’s said
that one must cut off their head, burn the body, and throw the ashes into the sea. Of
course, if draugar were relatively common, it would be important for everyone to know
how to defend themselves in case they were in a pinch. Those unable to fight would also
need to know the procedure, so that they could help to burn and dispose of the body.
Sadly, there wouldn’t be a Dragonborn or Greek Demigod to save us, so we would depend
on human soldiers to deal with these creatures.Governments around the world would employ Draugr hunters,
specialized agents trained to locate and dispatch Draugr. It’s likely that groups going out
in the wilderness, like hunters or even film crews, would hire private Draugr Hunters in
case the undead decided to pay them a visit. They would likely rely largely on traps and
ranged weapons to immobilize any Draugr they see, and then finish the job once they have
been neutralized. Of course, as terrifying as they would be, it wouldn’t be long before
someone tried to harness the power of the Draugar. It’s possible that certain groups
and individuals would attempt to create and tame draugar in hopes of commanding their
own undead army. This would, of course, largely depend on the intelligence of the draugar,
but given their love of killing the living, it’s likely that they would happily join
any army that would let them kill as many people as possible. This kind of thing would,
of course, be vilified in the civilized world, but it’s possible that mentally unstable
individuals, organized crime families, and even certain governments might use this tactic.
This would be particularly powerful, not to mention barbaric, if death by a draugr resulted
in the victim becoming its spectral slave. If this was the case, it would make people
even more afraid of the creatures. Not only would an encounter with a Draugr likely result
in your death, but you could well be forced into eternal servitude under your killer.
The White Walkers make good use of this tactic in Game of Thrones, bolstering their ranks
with their slain enemies, and this would be very useful if you had an army of Draugar.
And now we return to our question: What if the Draugar were Real? Well, this would change
the way we treat the dead. Religious ceremonies would likely go into disuse, with most people
being cremated to stop them from rising as a Draugr. While everyone would need to understand
how to deal with a Draugr, it would mostly be the domain of professional Draugr hunters,
who would work both with the government and with private citizens. While this would likely
be an effective way at keeping them down, there’s a chance that certain groups would
attempt to create and control an army of Draugar, which could pose a significant threat to the
world as we know it. George R. R. Martin tried to warn us, but we just didn’t listen.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own. If you liked this video,
please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below. While you’re down there, let
me know what YOU would do if you ran into a draugr one night. Until next time, I’m
Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you the best of luck, on
your quest for answers.