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Illustration of Lithuanian returning dead
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
Fayilo Na. 031 mwa 446

Lithuanian returning dead

Imadziwikanso kuti: sugrįžtantys numirėliai, numirėlis, walking dead of Lithuania
Nthano ndi zikhulupiriroWakufa wamoyoImfa kapena maliro oipaNyengo Zapakati

Lithuania kept a strong tradition of the dangerous dead long after its conversion to Christianity. Cemeteries of the 14th to 17th centuries contain bodies deliberately beheaded, dismembered or turned face down, which archaeologists connect with fear of corpses returning. Lithuanian legends collected in modern times still describe meetings with the 'walking dead', usually brought on by disrespect for a grave. The material and the stories together give a Baltic counterpart to the revenant evidence from England and Poland.12

Amenyane!
Inalembedwa koyamba
1350
Deviant burials of the 14th-17th centuries; legends recorded by modern folklorists
Kochokera
Lithuanian
Lithuania
Chimayambitsa
Imfa kapena maliro oipa
Folklore names the untimely dead and the very sinful as those who return; the legends add that the living provoke them by disturbing remains or grave goods.
Momwe umasandukira zombie
An unexpected or wrongful death, a sinful life, or interference with the grave.
Nzeru
Nzeru pang'ono
Malo ofooka
  • decapitation of the exhumed corpse
  • burial face down or on the side
  • physical force
  • the intervention of a priest

Inaoneka liti koyamba?

Dziko lakaleNyengo Zapakati1500 mpaka 18991900 mpaka 19671968 mpaka 19992000 mpaka 20092010 mpaka lero1350

Deviant burials of the 14th-17th centuries; legends recorded by modern folklorists

zolemba za kumunda

Zimene magwero akunena

1

Archaeologist Gintautas Vėlius documented headless, limbless and prone burials in Christian-era Lithuanian cemeteries12

2

He interprets posthumous beheading as exhumation carried out from fear of the returning dead12

3

Many prone male burials contain weapons, suggesting men killed in battle12

4

In legends analysed by Edita Korzonaitė, short tales end with the living person's death and longer ones with a narrow escape12

5

Priests in the legends sometimes use methods with no obvious Christian basis12

Magwero

  1. Gintautas Vėlius, 'Sugrįžtantys numirėliai' (Returning dead: unconventional burials in medieval Lithuania), Lietuvos istorijos studijos 25 (2010)
  2. Edita Korzonaitė, 'Human contacts with the dead: relationship of fable and reality in folklore', Tautosakos darbai 25 (2003)

Mfundo iliyonse patsamba lino ikuchokera ku magwero awa, yolembedwa m'mawu athu. Waona cholakwika? Tiuze pa [email protected].

Dyetsa khamu. Palibe zotsatsa, palibe zokuzonda, zolipiridwa ndi munthu mmodzi. Ndalama yothokoza imaisunga pa intaneti.Siya ndalama yothokoza

Nyengo yomweyo: Nyengo Zapakati

DraugrNorse, 1250VetalaHindu (Indian), 1070GlámrNorse (Icelandic saga), 1300Revenant (medieval England)Medieval English, 1100UpiórSlavic, 1100AsvithNorse (Danish chronicle and Icelandic saga), 1200
Dyetsa khamuSiya ndalama yothokoza