Revenant: Folklore

In folklore, mostly of European cultures, revenants are especially similar to vampires, and zombies. They are the animated dead, though unlike zombies, they have free will. But unlike vampires, they do not drink blood, so much as kill, and cause evil in the towns nearby. There are a few documented cases of actual revenants, although whether they are genuine is entirely the reader’s decision. The word revenant comes from Latin and French, revenir, “to return” and  in French, “revenant” means “returning”. The belief in such creatures rose in England, and gradually spread across Europe, during the High Middle Ages, where they were accompanied by stories of other horrific monsters, namely, the vampire.

A revenant had two specific reasons for returning to life, the first and most common, was to get revenge on its killer; revenants are rarely walking corpses because they died pleasantly and went with ease into their rest. Once allowed to serve justice, they just return to their hole in the ground, and resume their own rest. The second reason, was just to be a monster in general, –to terrorize friends, family neighbours. Usually, this was because the person who died put up a struggle with death, and were very sinful in their life, as well as greedy, lustful, and son on. These revenants had to be killed, usually by either burning them alive, until destroying all the ashes, or by cutting off its head, sprinkling it with holy water, and burying it once more.

William of Newburgh documented cases of revenants in the late 12th century, who  terrorised the towns they came back to life in, and had to be extinguished with the aid of a priest. However, the third story as written about an incident which reads more like accidental live burial, in which the men call out to be saved, and were dismembered for their troubles.