Undead
The undead are beings in
The undead are featured in the belief systems of most cultures, and appear in many works of
History
Bram Stoker considered using the title, The Un-Dead, for his novel Dracula (1897), and use of the term in the novel is mostly responsible for the modern sense of the word. The word does appear in English before Stoker but with the more literal sense of "alive" or "not dead", for which citations can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary. In one passage of Dracula, Nosferatu is given as an "Eastern European" synonym for "un-dead".[1]
Stoker's use of the term "undead" refers only to vampires; the extension to other types of supernatural beings arose later. Most commonly, it is now taken to refer to supernatural beings which had at one point been alive and continue to display some aspects of life after death, but the usage is highly variable.[2]
Reanimation or the creation of zombies through non-supernatural means has become a trope since at least the 19th century.
The undead have become popular adversaries in fantasy and horror settings, featuring prominently in many
Literature
In
‘Before we do anything, let me tell you this. It is out of the lore and experience of the ancients and of all those who have studied the powers of the UnDead. When they become such, there comes with the change the curse of immortality. They cannot die but must go on age after age adding new victims and multiplying the evils of the world. For all that die from the preying of the Undead become themselves Undead, and prey on their kind. And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water... But of the most blessed of all, when this now UnDead be made to rest as
Van Helsing, Dr. Seward's Diary, 29 September; Dracula, Chapter 16
Other notable 19th-century stories about the avenging undead included
List of undead forms
Physical corpses
Incorporeal spirits (Non-physical)
- Ayakashi
- Banshee
- Baykok
- Bal-Bal
- Bhoot
- Dullahan
- Dunnie
- Funayūrei
- Ghost, phantom, or spectre
- Goryō
- Hupia
- Hitodama
- Headless Horseman
- Inugami
- Ikiryō
- The Grim Reaper
- Jikininki
- Korean Virgin Ghost
- Kuntilanak
- Kuchisake-onna
- Lemures
- Lietuvēns
- Mavka
- Moroi
- Mononoke
- Mogwai
- Myling
- Noppera-bō
- Onryō
- Poltergeist
- Pocong
- Preta
- Sluagh
- Shade
- Shiryō
- Shikigami
- Sayona
- Strigoi
- Shadow person
- Umibōzu
- Ubume
- Vengeful ghost
- Yūrei
- Yuki-onna
- Wraith
Mixed
See also
- Afterlife
- Death (personification)
- Grógaldr
- Immortality
- Necromancy
- Resurrection
- Spirit possession
- True death
References
- ISBN 978-0-517-52017-8.
- ^ "Can Such Things Be". Etext.virginia.edu. Archived from the original on 2003-02-16. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
- ^ "Can Such Things Be". Etext.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
- ^ "Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927, 1933–1935) by H.P. Lovecraft". Gaslight.mtroyal.ca. 1988-01-01. Archived from the original on 2009-10-12. Retrieved 2012-07-31.