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The farm at Hvamm overlooking the Alftafjord was haunted by Thorolf Twist-foot in Chapter 33 of Eyrbyggjasaga; the similarity between this haunting and that of Glamr in Chapters 32-35 of Grettissaga is noteworthy, especially as regards "roof-riding" by revenant spirits. This episode also calls to mind the later hauntings of the farm at Frodriver, first by Thorgunna in Chapters 50-52 of Eyrbyggjasaga, and then by Thorodd the Tribute-Trader and his gang of "draugar", in Chapters 53-54 of that saga.

Hvamm

 

 

Of special interest is the method by which these ghosts are exorcised, in Chapter 55 of Eyrbyggjasaga, through the legal process of a "door-court", or "duradomar", an archaic judicial practice obsolete by the time Icelandic law was recorded in writing; this practice is referenced also in Chapter 18 of Eyrbyggjasaga.

"Draugar" are "undead revenants" or "zombies": corporeal ghosts; the singular is "draugr", which also means "tree-trunk". To "lay a ghost" or to exorcise the spirits of the undead, generally requires a particularly grisly form of decapitation that is echoed as far afield as "Beowulf". The evocation of the door court is an interesting deviation from this pattern.

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