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Illustration of Berwick revenant
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 016 of 446

Berwick revenant

Also called: Berwick vampire
Folklore and mythUndeadRunsDemons or evil spiritsMiddle Ages

At Berwick-upon-Tweed a wealthy man's corpse was said to leave its tomb each night and run through the streets with dogs baying behind it. The townspeople feared plague more than the dead man himself, on the theory that a wandering corpse poisons the air. They had it cut up and burned, but the epidemic came regardless. The case is an early example of the link between revenants and contagion that later drove vampire panics.12

⚔️ Battle it
First recorded
1198
William of Newburgh, Historia rerum Anglicarum, written in the 1190s
Origin
Medieval English / Scottish borders
United Kingdom
What causes it
Demons or evil spirits
Newburgh attributes the corpse's movements to the working of Satan.
How you become one
A rich townsman who was discovered after death to have been a rogue.
How it moves
Runs
Leaves the tomb at night and ranges through the town pursued by a pack of loudly barking dogs, returning before daybreak.
Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
  • dismembering the body and burning it

When did it first appear?

Ancient world
Middle Ages
1500 to 1899
1900 to 1967
1968 to 1999
2000 to 2009
2010 to today
1198

William of Newburgh, Historia rerum Anglicarum, written in the 1190s

field notes

What the sources say

1

No one dared be out of doors after dusk12

2

The town's leaders feared the corpse would breed disease in the air12

3

Ten young men were hired to exhume it, cut it in pieces and burn it12

4

The monster was reported to have said there would be no peace until it was burned12

5

A pestilence killed much of the population anyway12

Could you outrun it?

Speed class from how the sources describe it (runs), not a measurement.

You, walking about 5 km/h
You, jogging about 10 km/h
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h
Berwick revenant about 24 km/h
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h

Folklore from the same lands

Same era: Middle Ages