Revenant is a variation of the French word Revenir or to return, it could be translated to “one who returns after death”.
Vampire lore uses the word to describe anyone who has died and risen from the grave and lives an unlife or undeath among the living.
Note not all vampires are revenants but a lot are. Not all revenants are vampires.
Zombies are also counted as Revenants.
Image from Pinterest
Werewolf and vampire myths were common in Hungary. It’s not surprising that they these myths would cross.
If a werewolf ever consumed the flesh of and executed person when he died he’d raise as a vampire revenant called Farkaskoldus.
It rises from it grave at night, it can shape-shift into a cat, dog or goat, which allows it to move through town discreetly. While it looks for a victim.
When he finds his victim he lays on top of the victim, drains his blood and returns to the grave before sunrise. If a deceased person is suspected of being a Farkaskoldus, its grave is exhumed. If there’s merit in the suspicion the corpse won’t be decomposed, the scent of death or decay, the body will also be full of fresh blood.
There are a few ways to destroy a Farkaskoldus. The simplest is to burn the body to ash or soak it in holy water.
The next level if it’s felt a more severe method is needed, a stake must be driven through the heart or a nail through the head, then burn the body to ashes.
The most extreme is to remove the heart through the vampire’s back then burn everything. The ashes must be gathered in a sack and thrown into a deep river.
Upyr
A vampire revenant in Russia is called an Upyr or Oupyr. This vampire is created when a heretic, sorcerer or witch dies.
It can also be created when a werewolf and witch have a baby.
The Upyr looks like a normal person. It’s active during the hours of noon to midnight. It attacks people in their own homes, killing the children first, then the parents.
It drains his victims of blood, then using iron like teeth it chews into the chest to eat the heart. Its teeth are its greatest asset and it uses them to gnaw through the frozen ground during the winter to escape its own grave.
Destroying this creature is difficult. The only way to find its grave is to attach a string to the Upyr’s clothing when it flees from an attack. –Easier said than done- Follow the string to the grave.
Soak the ground –all of it completely- With holy water. The Upyr must be staked through the heart to keep it in its grave. –It must be done in one blow or the creature will rise again.
Another way is to decapitate it and burn the corpse to ashes.
Dwaallicht
Dwaallict is a corpse candle from the Netherlands.
Gienganger
Gienganger is a vampiric spirit who’s buried but not at rest. He returns to its family to haunt them and feed from their fearful energy.
Drauge
Variation Gienganger
Ancient Norse lore believed a Drauge was created when a necromancer died and returned as a revenant. The necromancer had to be very powerful in order to return. The Drauge was extremely powerful; it could kill anyone with a single blow to the head.
The Drauge could steal your breath or Ond if you made eye contact with it.
Never enter a Druage’s burial chamber, which is the best way to keep yourself safe. Runes (letters of an ancient Germanic or Norse alphabet, related to the Roman alphabet.) could also be carved into the gravestone; keeping it in its chamber. It is very rare to hear about a Drauge wandering about.
Christianity brought a new way of destroying the Drauge, as simply as reburying it in a Christian cemetery and or saying a mass for it.
The Obour starts its vampire life as a vampire spirit before it becomes a revenant. The Bulgarian Obour is created when a person is murdered. His spirit leaves the body immediately but then it tries to get back, but the body is already dead. The spirit leaves the grave 9 days after its burial looking like a corpse candle. At this point, it has telekinetic powers. It roams the community causing trouble.
During the next 40 days, it bothers anyone it can: It’ll bite cow udders to drink its milk and blood. He makes shadows moving in raunchy ways. He defaces religious artifacts with feces or other act of vandalism. He’s also capable of making loud noises. I hope he doesn’t make noise while making the shadows move….
If he gets too bothersome, the townsfolk can hire a Djadadjii to bottle the Obour and destroy him. After 40 days have passed if a Djadadjii hast been called. The Obour’s body rises from its grave. He still looks the same as before death, but. . .
Now he only has one nostril!!
Usually the Obour will leave his community, go to another where he’s not known, and start a new life.
**I have a very special line up for you guys these next 3 weeks. Jeanie Grey a vampire author will be guest posting those three weeks.**
I think this vampire is one of the saddest situations I’ve ever come across.
A church in the sixteen hundreds declared that all Albanians of Turkish decent would automatically become a vampire after death. It didn’t matter how good or spiritual they were in live.
In 1854 the Liogat a revenant was officially described as meaning “Dead Turks in winding sheets” because the vampires was described as rising from the grave with it’s burial shroud wrapped around it’s body and wearing high heeled shoes.
The Liogat was also thought of as a death omen, because it spread disease wherever it went.
Wolves hate this vampire. A Liogat who survives a wolf attack will retreat to his grave and never rise again. If you don’t have a wolf, look for a corpse candle and follow it. It will go to the grave the vampire sleeps in by day. Drive a wooden stake through it’s heart to pin it to the ground. It won’t destroy it but will make it unable to do more harm.
Mari Wells 