| Revenants | |
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Real Name |
Revenants |
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First Appearance |
Western European Folklore |
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Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
A revenant is an undead being found in folklore, mythology, and horror fiction. The word comes from the French "revenir," which means "to return." A revenant is typically someone who has died and come back to life, usually with a specific purpose. Unlike mindless zombies, revenants often retain their human memories and motivations. Their return is not random; they usually rise from the grave for a particular reason, such as vengeance, unfinished business, or as a form of divine or supernatural punishment.
Revenants usually have a physical, decaying body, distinguishing them from spirits or ghosts. They are often portrayed as malevolent or violent figures, driven by intense emotions like anger, betrayal, or the need for justice. In folklore, especially in medieval Europe, revenants were believed to be the restless dead who came back to terrorize the living, often as a result of improper burial or sinful lives. These tales described them as bloated, foul-smelling corpses associated with disease and misfortune. In Christian traditions, revenants were sometimes seen as souls denied rest due to unrepented sins.
Augustinian canon writing William of Newburgh included several accounts of revenants in his Historia rerum Anglicarum. One story from Yorkshire involves a morally corrupt man who dies under questionable circumstances. After his death, his corpse begins wandering at night. Dogs howl, villagers barricade their homes, and the community lives in fear. Eventually, they exhume his body and wound it, causing a torrent of blood to flow, seemingly ending the disturbances.
Walter Map, writing around the same time as William, tells of a revenant in Hereford. A wicked man dies, but soon his corpse begins wandering at night, calling out the names of people who then die within three days. Bishop Gilbert Foliot orders that the body be dug up and decapitated with a spade. It is then sprinkled with holy water and reburied. This action puts an end to the terror.
The Abbot of Burton records an even earlier incident from around 1090. Two peasants who had run away from their lord die and are buried, but their corpses become the source of a plague afflicting the living. The villagers, convinced the dead are to blame, exhume and decapitate them, remove their hearts, and rebury the remains. After this, the sickness ends.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Revenants published before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances include:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- De nugis curialium
- Historia rerum Anglicarum
- The Daemon Lover
- Le Revenant (1812)
- The Death of Halpin Frayser (1891)
Notes[]
- The term "revenant" has been used interchangeably with "ghost" by folklorists, and some revenant stories even feature them sharing traits with vampires. Modern interpretations tend to differentiate them from other undead by just treating them as "conscious zombies" or, at the very least, giving them corporeal bodies of sorts.