Northern mythology

NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY. 117
to signify a sort of female tutelary genius of a country,
and then is called a Land-v^ett. In the Gulathing's
law it is enjoined that " omni diligentia perquirant rex et
episcopus ne exerceantur errores et superstitio ethnica, uti
sunt incantationes et artes magicse .... si in Landvsettas
(genios locorum) credunt quod tumulos aut
cataractas inhabitent/^
etc.^ The Landvsett assumes various forms.
Hallager describes the Vsett as a Troll or Nisse inhabiting
moundsj which for that reason are called V^tte-
HOUER. He resembles a young boy in grey clothes with
a black hat^. The word is, nevertheless, feminine. In
Ulfliot^s law it was ordered that the head of every ship
should be taken off before it came in sight of land, and
that it should not sail near the land with gaping head and
ya\Miing beak, so as to frighten the Land-vsettir ^.
Draug (Draugr), a spectre. Odin is called Drauga
Drott"^ (lord of spectres) because he could raise the dead
from their graves (as in the Vegtams Kvi^a). The apparition
to a person of his Draug forebodes his death. In
the Hervarar Saga ^, Draugar are spoken of as lying with
the dead in their mounds. The Draug follows the person
doomed whithersoever he goes, often as an insect, which
in the evening sends forth a piping sound. He sometimes
appears clad as a fisherman. Both the appearance of the
Draug himself, as well as of his spittle (a sort of froth that
is sometimes seen in boats) are omens of approaching
death.
1 Lex. Myth. p. 833. 2 Norsk Ordsamliiig, p. 145.
3 Fornmauua Sogur, p. 105. * Yngl. Saga, 7. ^ Edit. Suhm, p. 64.