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Illustration of Lithuanian returning dead
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
Faele Nom. 031 ya 446

Lithuanian returning dead

Gape e bidiwa: sugrįžtantys numirėliai, numirėlis, walking dead of Lithuania
Dinaane tsa setso le ditlhamaneBaswi ba ba tsogilengLoso kgotsa phitlho e e sa siamangMotlha wa Bogare

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

Di lwantshe
E kwadilwe la ntlha
1350
Deviant burials of the 14th-17th centuries; legends recorded by modern folklorists
Tshimologo
Lithuanian
Lithuania
Se se e bakang
Loso kgotsa phitlho e e sa siamang
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.
O fetoga yone jang
An unexpected or wrongful death, a sinful life, or interference with the grave.
Botlhale
Botlhale bo bonnye
Bokoa
  • decapitation of the exhumed corpse
  • burial face down or on the side
  • physical force
  • the intervention of a priest

E tlhagile la ntlha leng?

Lefatshe la bogologoloMotlha wa Bogare1500 go ya go 18991900 go ya go 19671968 go ya go 19992000 go ya go 20092010 go fitlha gompieno1350

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

dikwalo tsa patlisiso

Se metswedi e se buang

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

Metswedi

  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)

Ntlha nngwe le nngwe mo tsebeng e e tswa mo metsweding e, e kwadilwe ka mafoko a rona. O bone phoso? Re bolelele kwa [email protected].

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Motlha o o tshwanang: Motlha wa Bogare

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