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Illustration of Buckinghamshire revenant
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 017 of 446

Buckinghamshire revenant

Also called: Buckingham ghost
Folklore and mythUndeadShamblesMiddle Ages

This is the first of four walking-corpse cases in William of Newburgh's chronicle. A Buckinghamshire man returns from the grave to his wife's bed, then harasses his family and their livestock until the whole neighbourhood is keeping night watches. The bishop refuses to authorise cremation and has a scroll of absolution laid on the dead man's breast instead, which ends the visits. It is the mildest of Newburgh's cases, with no deaths, and shows the Church trying to manage a popular demand for destroying the corpse.12

⚔️ Battle it
First recorded
1198
William of Newburgh, Historia rerum Anglicarum, written in the 1190s
Origin
Medieval English
United Kingdom
What causes it
Never explained
Newburgh gives no cause beyond the fact of the man's death and burial.
How it moves
Shambles
Returns to his own bed at night and lies on his wife with crushing weight; later walks about in daylight, visible only to some.
Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
  • a letter of absolution from the Bishop of Lincoln placed on the corpse's chest

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

Buried on the eve of Ascension Day and back in his wife's bed the following night12

2

Driven off by the household's watch, he turned on his brothers and then on the animals12

3

Newburgh had the story from Stephen, the local archdeacon12

4

Locals wanted the body dug up and burned; Bishop Hugh of Lincoln judged that indecent12

5

When the tomb was opened to insert the absolution the body lay just as it had been buried12

Could you outrun it?

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

Buckinghamshire revenant about 3 km/h
You, walking about 5 km/h
You, jogging about 10 km/h
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h

Sources

  1. William of Newburgh, History, Book 5 - Internet Medieval Sourcebook (Fordham University)
  2. Elif Boyacıoğlu, 'The Revenant on the Threshold', Folklore 62 (2015)

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at hello@zombiewiki.app.

Folklore from the same lands

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Same era: Middle Ages

DraugrNorse, 1250VetalaHindu (Indian), 1070GlámrNorse (Icelandic saga), 1300UpiórSlavic, 1100AsvithNorse (Danish chronicle and Icelandic saga), 1200HrapprNorse (Icelandic saga), 1245