I t sounds somewhat like a news story from Germany: “Helmut Göhrenringer was today found guilty of dining the upper part of his good friend Wilhelm Fröblestatter and using the lower part to make himself some trousers for the cold winter. Helmut was sentenced to 50 years in a vegetarian security prison. “
OK, the Germans may own the former part of that news statement but for the latter part Icelanders are well and truly guilty. As far as we know, no other people on earth ever stripped huge chunks of skin from dead people and actually wore it.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Nábrók trousers or Nabrok Necropants as would be more understandable for most of you reading this. And as unbelievable it is, there actually was a trend here few hundred years ago to wear the unfashionable Necropants. Well, really only a trend among local sorcerers but a trend nevertheless.
What on earth were those folks thinking you may ask?
We don´t know and really don´t want to know. What has been discovered is that local sorcerers believed Necropants brought heaps of good luck money-wise. But there was a catch. One had to get permission from the person in question before death to be able to dig the person up from his or her grave and strip the skin off the body. We imagine that must have been a rather peculiar discussion.
In any case, should you ever find yourself in possession of a Necropant or two, the trick is to steal a coin from the widow or widower of the deceased and place that coin into the Necropant scrotum. Along with some fancy magical sign from the past, this was guaranteed to be the secret to success. The one scrotum coin would magically multiply the coins in your possession. We find absolutely no evidence of any local sorcerers becoming millionaires in the Middle Ages.
However, we believe, the local police would make some noise about this kind of thing today and due to the smell of a dead skin from a human you´d likely loose some friends in the process. But excellent Instagram opportunities…