The Trow and the Draugr

Behind the surviving stories of the Orkney and Shetland trow is, I believe, an older and much more sinister creature of Scandinavian origin.

Peeling away the layers of accumulated myth, the presence of this being not only reveals elements of the trow's origin but also shows that, at one time, there was little, or no, distinction between it and other preternatural creatures of Orcadian legend.

For years the accepted explanation for "trow" has been that it is simply a corruption of "troll" - in other words, the trow is Orkney's version of Norway's lumbering trolls.

But in my opinion this is completely wrong.

Although "troll" is actually a general term to describe a number of unearthly beings, and could be applied to Orkney's trows, it doesn't explain the corruption from "troll" to "trow".

Instead, there is a blatantly obvious clue.

This lies not only in the Orcadian pronunciation of "trow", but also in another word now practically lost to Orcadian dialect - "drow".

For years, the folklorists' fixation on the Norwegian troll as the precursor to the trow seemed strange to me - especially considering we already have an entity in Scandinavian lore with an identical name and the attributes of the Orcadian trow.

For the real predecessor of the trow, I believe we must look to the mound dwelling creature in Norwegian tradition referred to as the "draugr".

The Icelandic Dictionary defines "draugr" as being a ghost or spirit; especially the dead inhabitant of a cairn. But this gives a false impression of the creature.

After death, the pagan Norse believed that a body placed in its grave continued to live on. The term we would use today would be "undead" and, in much the same way as the haugbui, or hogboon, the draugr remained inside his burial mound, free to leave and wander among the living at will.

The draugr was said to possess, on occasions, magical powers, such as the ability to control the weather and a knowledge of the future. Some tales attribute the draugr with the ability to shapeshift, something that could shed some light on the roots of the enigmatic selkie-folk.

So is the trow a purely Norwegian creation?

In short, probably not. Elements of trow tales have similarities shared by mythical creatures throughout the British Isles, which clearly points to a pre-Norse influence.

Towards the end of the 8th century, when the early Norse pioneers began arriving in Orkney, they were undoubtedly exposed to a multitude of tales that dealt with the mischievous, sometimes malicious, child-stealing "spirits" that dwelled inside the islands' many mounds.

To me, it seems likely that these Scandinavian newcomers equated these creatures with their nearest equivalent - the mound-dwelling draugr. Over the years, the mix of various strands of folklore developed into our archetypal trow.

Gradually, as the fairy lore became more prevalent, only vague elements of the undead draugr were remembered.

The Trow - A spirit of the dead?