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.
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The most famous case of consumption was in 1892 in Rhode Island. Ms. Mercy Lena Brown.
The Brown family had already lost two members of the family. Mercy’s mother, Mary, and sister’ Mary Olive died of consumption in 1888. Her brother got sick in 1890 and in 1891 Mercy got sick. She died on January 17, 1892.
Mercy’s father George worried about his only son’s failing health. (he’d been sick for 2 years)
On March 17, 1892 George led a mob of fellow farmers and townsfolk to the Brown’s graves. George was convinced a vampire was the cause for all his family’s suffering.
When mercy’s mother and sister were exhumed the mob agreed their bodies had decomposed sufficiently. But Mercy’s body wasn’t, she’d been in a crypt for a few months, -until the ground thawed enough to bury her.
Her body was cut open. Her heart and liver were still full of blood. It was decided that Mercy was a vampire (although the term vampire wasn’t used at that time, she was undead).
Her heart was burned to ash then given to her ill brother in hopes it would cure him, or break the curse that Mercy had placed on him. It didn’t work, Edwin died two months later.
A newpaper article about Mercy Brown was found in Bram Stoker’s notes for Dracula. It’s believed Stoker’s Lucy was based on Mercy Brown.
Sile na Gig
Other names Shee-lah na Gig, An Chailleach Beara (the Old Woman of Beara), Black Annis, Clotha, Hag, Old Hag, Sheelagh na Gig, Sila na Gig
In Celtic lore of Ireland Sile na Gig was a type of vampiric earth spirit or mother goddess from which all life came forth. She was very ugly, she had an extended vulva, pot belly, twisted face and withered breasts. Her image was still found even after it was outlawed by the Church. Its possible that Sile na Gig was a little-known Celtic goddess by the name of Clotha. She was the embodiment of battle and weaver of soldier’s burial shrouds. The goddess had similar traits to the Banshee, she washed bloody shrouds at the riverbank too.
Dus Duce
In Celtic lore there is a vampire demon called dus which means specter. He consumes the flesh and blood of humans
Neamh-Mhairbh
Other names Neam Mare-bub, Murbhheo, Heamh-mairbh
In Irish folklore there is a vampire Revenant that’s created through magic, it’s called neamh-mhairbh meaning the undead. It feeds off of human blood. Neamh-mhairbh isn’t a species of vampire but a vampire that’s created through magic.
This sounds great..magic making vampires!
Abhartach (remember him?) was considered a neamh-mhairbh because it was his own magic that allowed him to return
Okay, so we know that a stake through the heart kills a vampire.
I want to know WHY?
If a vampire is “undead” and no longer has a beating heart, how would a stake through the heart kill him?
So when I started writing my vampire story (Awakened By Death is what I’m calling it) I researched this heartbeat thing.
First , we all agree that the point of staking the heart is to stop the heart from pumping blood right? Yes. Okay. So, you’re being chased by a vampire you just happen to have some sharp object and are alive and close enough to shove that object into the vampire’s chest. Oh Yeah! You just killed your attacker, right? But wait! His heart doesn’t beat. He glares at you, pulls that stake out of his own chest and proceeds to see you as a steak. Yummy, a fiesty one, he thinks. So all you accomplished was really pissing him off. NOW you’re in for it. Prepare to die at the hands of an Angry and hungry vampire.
OR! Maybe you are lucky and our beliefs of vampires are wrong and he does have a beating heart. Not beating as your’s or mine (some 60 – 72 beats per minute, more like under 25 beats per minute) but beating none the less. That stake sticking out of his chest, stops him for enough time that you are able to get away. (HOPEFULLY) We all know vampires have incredible rates of recovery.
Many ancient legends believed in living vampires, so we would have to agree there is a chance of a beating heart. The idea of killing a vampire with a stake only makes sense if the heart beats. Also we have to think why a vampire needs to feed off living blood. Most agree that he needs the blood of the living to keep him in a state of reanimation. Once the blood he’s fed off of gets to the stomach, what happens?
Somehow that blood has to move from the stomach to the rest of the body to allow him to move. I read somewhere that the muscles move the blood to various places in the body, instead of the heart. However, that would mean (under normal circumstances) that the muscles would have to spasm to push the blood through the veins. Yet, we never see or hear of a vampire having constant muscle twitches in able to move. Normally the muscles aren’t able to do that job of moving the blood, so either that was very wrong or Vampires have some special rule for their blood flow.
Please don’t tell me they don’t need blood moving through the body! They would not be able to move if blood was not in their whole body some way or other. Unless you want to say Vampires are a fictional character and as such don’t have to follow any of biology’s rules! In which case I would smile slyly and turn. “To each his own.” But, if you are like me and want to believe in the possibility of a true creature…
Leave me your thoughts. Lets get deep into this.
Mari Wells 