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Illustration of Hundeprest of Melrose
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
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Hundeprest of Melrose

Also called: the Dog-Priest, Melrose Abbey revenant
Folklore and mythUndeadVariesA bad death or burialMiddle Ages

The Hundeprest is the walking dead priest of Melrose, recorded by William of Newburgh. Buried in the monastery, he rose at night and terrified his former mistress until a party of four undertook to watch the grave. One of them drove an axe into the corpse when it charged him, and at dawn the wounded, bleeding body was exhumed, burned and its ashes scattered. The story is unusual for showing a revenant physically injured in a fight.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
A bad death or burial
A worldly priest who neglected his calling in life cannot rest in the monastery where he was buried.
How you become one
A chaplain so devoted to hunting that he was nicknamed 'Hundeprest', the dog-priest.
How it moves
Varies
Rises at night; the sanctity of the monks keeps him from doing harm inside the abbey, so he roams outside and groans around a noblewoman's bedchamber.
Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
  • an axe blow from one of the men watching his grave
  • burning the body and scattering the ashes

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

He had been chaplain to a noble lady and haunted her after death12

2

Two friars and two strong young men kept an armed vigil at the grave12

3

When three went off to warm themselves, the corpse attacked the one left alone12

4

Wounded, it fled back to a tomb that opened to receive it and closed again12

5

In the morning the body was dug up with the axe wound in it and the grave full of blood12

Could you outrun it?

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

You, walking about 5 km/h
You, jogging about 10 km/h
Hundeprest of Melrose 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

AbhartachIrish, 1870Revenant (medieval England)Medieval English, 1100Berwick revenantMedieval English / Scottish borders, 1198Buckinghamshire revenantMedieval English, 1198Byland Abbey revenantsMedieval English, 1400Drakelow revenantsMedieval English, 1090

Same era: Middle Ages

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