The 17th-century Necropants, made from a dead sorcerer's skin, on display at The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft. (Press photo via Strandagaldur ses/Sigurður Atlason)

(UPI) -- Magic "necropants" on display at the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft were made in the 17th century from a dead man’s skin and are supposed to bring good luck.

According to legend, sorcerers would strike a deal where one of them would agree to be made into a pair of trousers after they die, and the necropants would then be used for magic.


The pants, currently on display at the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft in Holmavik, were made by skinning a dead man who had given his permission to be made into pants after his death.

In order to make the magical trousers, the living man would have to strip the skin off of the corpse in one piece. The wearer of the pants then had to steal a coin from a widow and store it in the scrotum of the trousers next to a magical sign called a nábrókarstafur.

The coin was a “tool to gather wealth by supernatural means.”

The skin of the pants would then stick to the wearer’s own flesh. “They would immediately be stuck with your own flesh and be part of your body,” said a museum spokesman.

“People would be able to use them as long as they lived, but they would have to get rid of them before they die. If they would find someone to take them over they could last forever,” the spokesman said.