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Illustration of Welsh revenant of Hereford
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 015 of 446

Welsh revenant of Hereford

Also called: William Laudun's revenant, Walter Map's Welshman
Folklore and mythUndeadVariesA bad death or burialMiddle Ages

Walter Map tells of a dead Welshman who walked nightly near Hereford and summoned his neighbours to death by name. The bishop's prescribed cure of holy water and a cut neck failed, and the haunting ended only when the knight William Laudun pursued the corpse to its grave and beheaded it. The name-calling motif turns up again centuries later in the Greek vrykolakas. Map also records gentler cases settled by a cross on the grave or priestly absolution.12

Battle it
First recorded
1185
Walter Map, De nugis curialium, written about 1181-1192
Origin
Medieval English / Welsh borders
United Kingdom
What causes it
A bad death or burial
Map says the man died 'unchristianly'.
How you become one
A Welshman who died without a Christian end.
How it moves
Varies
Walks back from his grave into the village each night and calls residents by name.
Intelligence
Clever
Weak spots
  • holy water on the body and grave (tried first, and failed)
  • splitting the head from the neck with a sword

When did it first appear?

Ancient worldMiddle Ages1500 to 18991900 to 19671968 to 19992000 to 20092010 to today1185

Walter Map, De nugis curialium, written about 1181-1192

field notes

What the sources say

1

Everyone he named fell ill and died within three days12

2

The English knight William Laudun took the case to Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of Hereford12

3

The bishop advised exhuming the body, cutting the neck with a spade and sprinkling holy water12

4

The remedy did not work, and the corpse then called Laudun's own name12

5

Laudun chased it back to the grave and cut off its head himself12

Could you outrun it?

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

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

Sources

  1. Elif Boyacıoğlu, 'The Revenant on the Threshold', Folklore 62 (2015)
  2. Revenant - 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

AbhartachIrish, 1870Revenant (medieval England)Medieval English, 1100Berwick revenantMedieval English / Scottish borders, 1198Buckinghamshire revenantMedieval English, 1198Byland Abbey revenantsMedieval English, 1400Drakelow revenantsMedieval English, 1090

Same era: Middle Ages

DraugrNorse, 1250VetalaHindu (Indian), 1070GlámrNorse (Icelandic saga), 1300UpiórSlavic, 1100AsvithNorse (Danish chronicle and Icelandic saga), 1200HaugbúiNorse, 1250
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