Continuing with my exploration of the Names of Odin in alphabetical order, He doesn’t have many heiti, or by-names, beginning with the letter D. However, the one we'll be discussing today is among my favorites of all of His names anyway because it tells us so much about the essence of who and what He is. It is generally translated as meaning “Lord of the Dead.” Lets break it down, though, and see if we can learn more from it than that.
The drottin part of the name means chieftain, or lord, and has a cognate in the Anglo-Saxon drihten. The particular connotation here is that of a military lord, the leader of a war band (from Proto-Germanic *druti). This implies the sort of kingship portrayed in Beowulf, for example; not necessarily a hereditary role, but one decreed by merit and ability, the man who is elevated to kingship because other men look to him and trust in his abilities, the ring giver and keeper of the web of oaths that tie a war band, a tribe, or a people together.
The other half of the name, drauga, means the dead, but here again a particular type of dead person is implied. In Germanic belief, the “ordinary” dead go to Helheim, where they are perhaps reunited with their loved ones and have a period of rest and rejuvenation prior to being reborn or going on about whatever work lies before them between lifetimes. Some dead, in my belief, go to the abodes of the gods they have served during life if those connections are strong enough and if the god desires their continued service and companionship. The Poetic Edda and Snorri’s Edda alike tell us that the battlefield dead are divided between Odin and Freyja, with Frejya getting first pick. (Ladies first, after all.)
But the draugr (singular) is in a category all his own. As depicted again and again in the Icelandic sagas, the draugar (plural) are “walkers” or “those who walk again after death.”