When is it almost like Christmas even though it’s not Christmas? Why, It’s when you get a chance to learn that there is an actual Icelandic legend about necropants, of course!.
Those zany Icelandic peoples had it hard in the 17th century — most of society was desperately poor and without recourse to making their lives much better through good government or emigration. And that explains the genesis of grimoires (like the _Galdrabók_) and the popularity of sorcery in this century. It also explains why stories about the nábrók or “corpse-breeches” would have held traction. And maybe your friend’s legs.
The necropants/nábróks were said to be made by swearing a promise with a friend, that your buddy will not mind you digging up his corpse after he is gone and buried and flaying his skin to make a pair of pants. (The friend cannot die of murder, which is a smart clause to put in the deal IMHO). Then, you have to steal a coin from an impoverished widow and put it in the empty scrotum of the pants (I guess the friend has to be a dude?) along with a special symbol (see slide two).
The pants soon get to be like leggings, except the coin was supposed to generate many others like it that would make you wealthy for the rest of your life. Worth it? Maybe if you’re desperate . . . There are no actual remains of necropants — the ones shown here are an artificial and hypothetical re-creation at the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and witchcraft in Hólmavík, Iceland, which I intend to visit as soon as possible.
Shout-out to my friend Christina Luo for this story!
Source(s): Atlas Obscura, “Necropants and Other Tales of 17th-century Icelandic Sorcery,” Eric Grundhauser, 9/18/2017. The second image from wikipedia.
