Revenant

Origin

The iconographic origin is the Latin chronicle tradition of eleventh- and twelfth-century medieval Europe. The Latin revenans ('the one returning'), the present participle of revenire ('to return'), became the canonical term for a corpse that rises from the grave after burial to torment the village. The decisive source is Book V chapters 22-24 of the Historia Rerum Anglicarum, written between 1196 and 1198 by William of Newburgh (c. 1136-1198), an Augustinian canon of Yorkshire: a layman of Buckinghamshire who, after his death, returned every night to press upon his wife's bed and was eventually placated by Hugh of Lincoln (c. 1140-1200) who ordered an absolution to be laid upon the corpse's chest; a wealthy merchant of Berwick who, after death, roamed the city and caused a plague until the corpse was finally exhumed and burned; and a soul of Anant whose corpse rose every night to kill people until two brothers exhumed it, stabbed it, and cremated it. These cases established the decisive medieval European revenant canon. Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium (c. 1180) and Geoffrey of Burton's Vita Sanctae Modwennae of the late twelfth century, with its Stapenhill revenant case, are contemporary canonical sources. The Saga of Grettir (Grettis Saga, thirteenth to fourteenth century), the masterpiece of the Icelandic family sagas, contains the figure Glam — a corpse who rose after death to lay waste to a farm before being beheaded by the hero Grettir — joining the Northern European draugr canon with the revenant.

Features

• A distinct self-aware ego and a single purpose (vengeance, unresolved mission)
• A corpse that has risen from its grave on its own
• Repeated resurrection until the purpose is accomplished
• Relentless pursuit of the target to the end
• Unlike the mindless zombie, retains personality and memory
• A decayed corpse exerting superhuman strength

Stories

The Historia Rerum Anglicarum of William of Newburgh and the De Nugis Curialium of Walter Map of the twelfth century are the canonical texts of medieval European revenant iconography, and the placation rites recorded therein — laying an absolution upon the corpse's chest, or exhuming the corpse to stab it and cremate it — became the decisive canon of medieval placation iconography. The eighteenth-century Eastern European vampire panic (1725-1755 in Serbia and Hungary), with the cases of Petar Blagojevic and Arnold Paole, marks the transition of revenant iconography from the medieval to the modern era. John William Polidori's The Vampyre (1819) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) differentiated the revenant into vampire literature. The first edition of Gary Gygax's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual in 1977 added the revenant as a self-aware undead obsessed with a single object of vengeance, returning after destruction within twenty-four hours until the purpose is accomplished, establishing the modern fantasy role-playing canon. Jeff VanderMeer's Nova series in 2010, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2015 film The Revenant (starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass and winning Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Cinematography), and the 2019 Electronic Arts video game Apex Legends character Revenant established the contemporary canon.

Weakness

The revenant's weaknesses are: (1) the imprudence of single-purpose obsession — the revenant is so fixated on the single purpose of vengeance or mission that it is defenceless against other threats and temptations, ignoring direct challenges from non-target humans and pursuing only the target; (2) repose upon completion of purpose — the canonical motif that when vengeance is accomplished or the mission resolved, the revenant collapses into its own repose; (3) the twelfth-century medieval placation rite — in the cases recorded by William of Newburgh, exhuming the corpse and laying an absolution upon its chest, or stabbing it and cremating it (cremation), placates the revenant; (4) holy implements — Christian holy implements such as holy water, the crucifix, and church bells weaken the revenant in medieval canon; (5) cremation — the decisive method of all medieval revenant placation, completely burning the corpse, is the canonical solution. The 1977 D&D revenant is set to revive within twenty-four hours, and in the 2015 film The Revenant, the conceit that Hugh Glass, brought to the brink of death by a bear attack, refuses death through his vengeance for his son's murder — the motif of refusing death through extremity of natural environment and sheer will — became the modern canon.

Cultural Significance

The revenant is a paradigm iconographic figure at the crossroads of medieval European religious-political history, Christian placation theology, modern vampire literature, and contemporary fantasy gaming. The revenant cases recorded by William of Newburgh during the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman period (the reign of Henry II, 1154-1189) are analysed as the condensed product of post-Conquest English social anxiety and the consolidation of religious orthodoxy into canonical placation iconography. The case of Hugh of Lincoln, a senior Catholic prelate, directly ordering the placation of a revenant in 1182 is canonical to Catholic placation theology, in which the medieval Church's power of absolution extended not only to spiritual authority but also to posthumous absolution of the dead. After the eighteenth-century Eastern European vampire panic (the cases of Petar Blagojevic and Arnold Paole in 1725-1755 Serbia), the revenant iconography differentiated into vampire literature, settling into Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872), and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). In the twenty-first-century gaming industry, large franchises such as Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Apex Legends established the revenant as the standard iconography of the self-aware undead, and the 2015 Academy Award for Best Picture won by The Revenant placed revenant iconography in the mainstream cinematic canon.

In Popular Culture

William of Newburgh, Historia Rerum Anglicarum (1196-1198) — decisive medieval European canon of revenant iconographyWalter Map, De Nugis Curialium (c. 1180) — Anglo-Norman canon of revenant in twelfth-century EnglandGeoffrey of Burton, Vita Sanctae Modwennae, Stapenhill case (late twelfth century) — canonical medieval placation riteSaga of Grettir, Glam (thirteenth to fourteenth century) — Northern European draugr-revenant canonEastern European vampire panic (1725-1755) — differentiation of revenant into modern vampire literatureBram Stoker, Dracula (1897) — revenant iconography in vampire literature canonGary Gygax, AD&D Monster Manual (1977) — standardisation of revenant in modern fantasy role-playing gamesAlejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, The Revenant (2015) — cinematic canon (three Academy Award wins)Electronic Arts, Apex Legends character Revenant (2019) — contemporary video-game canon