U is for Undead

        (My A to Z Challenge theme this year is How to Make a Fantastical Creature, in which I explore 26 traits that are widely shared among the monsters and marvels of fantasy and folklore.  You can see all the other participating blogs here.)

        One of the most terrifying traits of mythical monsters is when they are undead, an idea that has haunted the nightmares of people around the world.  While the idea of death scares us, apparently the idea of death not keeping hold horrifies us even more.  Although there is the occasional story with a zombie dog or ghost cat, for example, generally speaking, the undead are variants of humans.

        There are all manner of ghosts, which are spirits of the dead who remain on the earthly plane for various reasons.  Usually (although not always) ghosts are malevolent, being spirits of particularly evil people, or spirits of people who were particularly wronged and are now vengeful.  In Norse mythology the draugr, aka their English name barrow-wights, are those who were buried in neolithic mounds, but continue to “live” in their tombs as evil spirits, often guarding treasure in their barrows (flashback to H).  Although barrow-wights can fight people and strangle them, ghosts are most often incorporeal.  However, poltergeists can create physical disturbances.  Other types of ghosts, including the dybbuks of Jewish folkore, can posses living people in order to give themselves a physical presence and abilities.

        Japan is particularly rich in ghosts (yūrei), with a tradition since the 17th century of listing and illustrating different types.  Some categories are spirits who are particularly vengeful, spirits of women who died in childbirth, and spirits driven by gluttony.  And of course, spirits of tragic lovers are always popular.

        A second category of undead is zombies, which in some ways are the opposite of ghosts.  If ghosts are animated spirits without bodies, zombies are animated corpses without spirits.  In the Vodou tradition in which zombies originate, the corpse is reanimated by an evil sorcerer to be used as a mindless servant, often set to particularly malevolent tasks.  In more recent stories such as “Night of the Living Dead” from 1968, zombies might be the result of special diseases or contagions, and the monsters have no directive at all other than to feed upon the living (especially their brains).  And in the most recent variant of zombie mythology, zombies are considered to retain some personality and will of their own, such as “Warm Bodies” of 2013.

        The famous Creature of the 1818 novel Frankenstein could be considered a sort of zombie, having been created from reanimated corpses.  He, however, is patch-worked of many parts, and brought to life through Science rather than magic.  As the Creature is intelligent and articulate, and motivated by being treated as an outcast, the 21st century versions of zombies are more like Frankenstein’s monster than they are like the original zombies.

        The third main class of undead creatures is vampires, which are creatures that suck the life-force from the living.  In the European tradition they are people who have died, but return from their graves, both body and spirit.  Count Dracula is, of course, the most famous in the English-speaking world.  Another good example is the jiangshi of China (with variants throughout Asia).  These undead monsters are so stiff that they have to move around by hopping with their arms reaching out.  They have pale green skin and often have a paper talisman stuck to their forehead.  But I’m not going to go into any further introductions of vampiric creatures because… Foreshadowing!

        Undead creatures we’ve seen before include the duppies introduced at B, and (at least according to some versions) banshees introduced at K, plus you can revisit some of the many words English has for ghosts here or read a little more about the word Frankenstein here.

        The moral of these tales of the undead is not to let yourself be consumed by unhealthy obsessions while you’re living, lest you end up a miserable, tormented, unresting monster after death.  A gruesome Pro Tip for grave-diggers is to bury the dead with special methods to prevent their unwelcome return.  Consider stakes through the heart, prayers or other holy symbols in the mouth, and weights, chains, or other impediments to keep a corpse in place.  Or just cremate everyone (unless - flashback to R - it’s a phoenix zombie you’re worried about).

        How do you feel about tales of the undead?  Do you enjoy such scary stories or not?

[Pictures: Yūrei, painting from Bakemonozukushie (scroll version), before 1868 (Image from Internet Archive);

Dybbuk, illustration by Ephraim Moses Lilien, 1908 (Image from Wikimedia Commons);

Zombies, still from “Michael Jackson’s Thriller,” 1983 (Image from IMDb);

Frankenstein’s Monster, illustration by Bernie Wrightson, 2011 (Image from Attention Deficit Delirium);

Jiangshi, movie poster for “Mr. Vampire II”, 1986 (Image from IMDb).]