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Illustration of Aufhocker
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 418 of 446

Aufhocker

Also called: Huckop, Huckupp
Folklore and mythUndeadRuns

The Aufhocker is a German revenant that attacks by riding its victims. It drops onto a night traveller's shoulders and becomes heavier and heavier until the bearer is crushed with exhaustion. Its destinations, churchyards and graves, mark it as one of the dead. It is a regional specialist within the wider Wiedergänger family.1

Battle it
Origin
German
Germany
What causes it
Never explained
The sources consulted class it among the returning dead without giving a cause.
How it moves
Runs
Leaps onto the back of a lone walker at night and has to be carried.
Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
  • a prayer or formula of banishment
field notes

What the sources say

1

The name means roughly 'one who squats on you'1

2

It grows heavier with every step until the victim collapses or dies1

3

Victims are made to carry it to a churchyard wall or a grave1

4

It can take different shapes, and in the Rhineland it could appear as a werewolf1

5

Folklorists stress its bodily weight as proof that it is a revenant and not a ghost1

Could you outrun it?

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

You, walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
You, jogging about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h (15 mph)
Aufhocker about 24 km/h (15 mph)
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h (23 mph)

Sources

  1. Wiederg%C3%A4nger - Wikipedia

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].

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Folklore from the same lands

NachzehrerGerman, 1800WiedergängerGermanFextCzech and central European, 1630

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