Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. What do you imagine when you think of a necromancer? Perhaps partially influenced by dungeons and dragons and various dark fantasy tales, you imagine a deathly pale wizard dressed all in black, perhaps partial to skulls
and bones as their primary fashion accessory. But were we to look beneath their robes, would we find a grizzly pair of magical pants sewn from flayed human flesh and complete with the leathery remnants of the victims Genitalia. Yes, According to Icelandic folklore, these are exactly the sort of tri ouser's quite becoming of a necromancer. Eleanor Rosamond Barklow describes the fin Broker or finn breeches literally magic pants
in the book Beyond the Northlands. The wearer would enjoy unlimited coins from the pocket of the pants, as well as one presumes, a certain slimming effect. You can actually gaze upon a replica of the folkloreic death trousers in the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in Holmovic, where they are called the Nabrok or necro pants. Of course, there are rules to any work of magic or sorcery. It was said that the necromancer must first gain the permission of a living man and then dig up his
corpse after death. Then it becomes a careful matter of fleeing the corpse and carefully crafting the neck row pants. And the retention of the genitalia is key because the scrotum serves as the pocket of the necro pants. In order to activate them, the necromancer will need to insert a coin stolen from a widow and a sheet of paper bearing the correct magical sickle. The original coin must remain, however, in the scrotum, otherwise the wealth generating properties of the
pants will cease. At this point, the necromancer need only slip into the pants and feel them bond with their own skin. Now those pants can come off, mind you, But in order to avoid damnation for crafting such vile pants, the necromancer must make sure that someone else is on hand to step into the pants at the exact same time they are climbing out of them. The necromancer removes one leg, and the new individual inserts one leg, and so forth. Now why would one wish to invest in
the creation of necro pants. Well, there's not much money in necromancy, and it pays quite literally to own a really great pair of trousers. The necro Pants have been featured on various websites, including Atlas Obscura, where Eric Grundhauser's article outlines a few other curious displays at the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft and includes a photograph of the necro pants themselves. Tune in for additional editions of the artifact each week, hosted by either Joe or myself.
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