A Gjenganger ( no, Gjenganger, ' or '; da, Genganger or '; sv, Gengångare) in

Scandinavian folklore Nordic folklore is the folklore of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. It has common roots with, and has been mutually influenced by, folklore in England, Germany, the Low Countries, the Baltic countries, Finland and Sapmi. ...

was a term for a

revenant In folklore, a revenant is an animated corpse that is believed to have been revived from death to haunt the living. The word ''revenant'' is derived from the Old French word, ''revenant'', the "returning" (see also the related French language, F ...

, the spirit or

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

of a deceased from the grave.

Etymology

' has two parts; the prefix is related to "again" or "against", "towards" (compare german: gegenüber, ') and ' ('against'), from ' ('in, on') and ' ('straight, direct') and ' which comes from a word meaning 'foot' or 'walker', thus it means "walking again" as in "walking after death". The form ' comes from ' meaning 'again' and originating from ' meaning "of, away from" but adding the contrastive suffix ', in essence meaning "after walking", "walking away from in contrast with close by", again implying walking after death.

Characteristics

A ''gjenganger'' could have several reasons to return from the afterlife. Murdered people and their murderers could seldom sleep peacefully in their graves. People who had committed suicide often came back as ''gjengangere''. At other times, people came back from the grave because they had left something undone. Most often they needed someone to help them do this, before they could finally be at peace. The ''gjenganger'' in the Scandinavian tradition took on an entirely

corporeal Corporeal may refer to: *Matter (corporeal, or actual, physical substance or matter), generally considered to be a substance (often a particle) that has rest mass and (usually) also volume *Body, of or relating to the body *Corporeal (Altar Linen) ...

form. It normally had no spectre-like qualities whatsoever. In older traditions, the ''gjenganger'' was very malicious and violent in nature, coming back from the grave to torment its family and friends. Their relatives took extensive precautions to make sure they stayed in their graves. This tradition of the violent ''gjenganger'' goes back to the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

, where they are present in many of the Icelandic sagas, among others:

Grettis saga ''Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar'' (modern , reconstructed ), also known as ''Grettla'', ''Grettir's Saga'' or ''The Saga of Grettir the Strong'', is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It details the life of Grettir Ásmundarson, a bellicose Icelandic ou ...

, Eyrbyggja saga and

The Saga of Eric the Red The ''Saga of Erik the Red'', in non, Eiríks saga rauða (), is an Icelandic saga on the Norse exploration of North America. The original saga is thought to have been written in the 13th century. It is preserved in somewhat different versions ...

. In this tradition, the ''gjenganger'' was a mortal creature. An example of this is Grettir slaying the ''gjenganger'' Glámr with his sword. These Viking-age ''gjengangere'' were often called ''

draugr The draugr or draug ( non, draugr, plural ; modern is, draugur, fo, dreygur and Danish language, Danish, Swedish language, Swedish, and no, draug) is an undead creature from the Scandinavian saga literature and folktale. Commentators extend t ...

'', and the two are likely to be different names for the same phenomenon.

Protection and prevention

People had numerous ways of both defending themselves against the ''gjenganger'', and stopping people from becoming one in the first place. * Crucifixes and Christian incantations * Painting symbols, especially the cross * Coffin was carried three times around the church before being buried. The tradition of a pile of stones or twigs (''varp'') often marked a place where someone has died. It was believed that when you passed this place, you should throw another stone/twig on the ''varp'', to commemorate what had happened there. Doing so would sometimes bring luck on your further travels, while not doing so would result in bad luck and dangerous accidents. Many of these ''varps'' have now disappeared, but in a few places the ''varp'' is marked with a sign or something similar.

Modern Era

In slightly newer tradition, the ''gjenganger'' remains a violent

entity An entity is something that exists as itself, as a subject or as an object, actually or potentially, concretely or abstractly, physically or not. It need not be of material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually ...

, though in a less direct way, now becoming more of a disease-spreader. These ''gjengangere'' would attack people with their so-called dead man's pinch (''dødningeknip''). The pinch was often administered when the person was asleep. Both the forest creature (''

huldra A hulder (or huldra) is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore. Her name derives from a root meaning "covered" or "secret". In Norwegian folklore, she is known as huldra ("the rchetypalhulder", though folklore presupposes ...

'') and the water spirits ('' nøkken'') were also accused of doing the same, using bites instead of pinches, often aimed at the victim's face. This belief in beings attacking people in their sleep was used as a warning against going to sleep in specific places; near the graveyard, mountains or water. In later Swedish folklore, a distinction is made between the traditional ''gjenganger'', in Swedish called ''gengångare'', and another type of ghost known as ''gast''. Whereas the ''gengångare'' looked virtually identical to a living human, the ''gast'' was known to be transparent and/or skeletal in appearance, making it impossible to see who the phantom had been while alive. And whereas the Swedish version of the ''gengångare'' were usually said to be rather harmless, it was the ''gast'' who was known to cause diseases. They were also known to cause accidents and scare people for no apparent reason other than that they enjoyed doing so. Today it mostly compares with the modern perception of ghosts, most often being

ethereal Ethereal may refer to: * Ethereal (horse), a horse that won Australia's Caulfield Cup as well as Melbourne Cup in 2001 *Ethereal wave, or simply ethereal, a subgenre of dark wave music *Wireshark, formerly named Ethereal, a free and open-source pac ...

in form, and non-violent in nature. The word ''gjenganger'' is being used less, the contemporary word ghost (''spøkelse'') having mostly taken over. Where the term ''gjenganger'' does occur, it may be treated simply as a synonym for ghost. The corresponding verbal phrase walk again (''gå igjen'') is just one way of saying "haunt" with reference to ghosts.

References

Bibliography