Undead
Corporeal
Corporeal undead have an animated physical body that is otherwise biologically deceased.
- Draugrs, from Norse mythology
- Ghouls, from Arab folklore
- Hopping corpses, of Chinese folklore
- Medieval revenants, stories of undead from medieval chroniclers
- Vampires, of various cultures
- Zombies, from the Voodoo tradition
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Incorporeal
Incorporeal undead have no tangible form, but exist in the world of the living as spiritual entities.
- Ghosts, common in many cultures — all types of non-corporeal undead could be said to be variations of ghosts
- Mylings, incarnations of the souls of unbaptized or murdered children from Scandinavian folklore
- Phantoms, a spirit which may be sensed, heard, or experienced, but perhaps not seen
- Poltergeists, spirit or ghost that manifests by moving and influencing inanimate objects, originally of German origin
- Spectres, a spirit with a visible presence
- Will o’ the wisps, sometimes said to be undead spirits in parts of Europe and North America
- Wraiths, an apparition of a living person, or the ghost of a dead person
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In fiction
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Corporeal
- Death knight, an undead corruption of a righteous warrior who broke their code of honor and embraced evil.
- Inferius, a mindless, dead body that has been bewitched by another to complete a task — referenced in the book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Liches, an unholy living corpse, usually an evil magician
- Mohrg, reanimated dead controlled by a parasite
- Mummies, in modern popular culture
- Skeletons, usually animated through magic
- Revenant, a sentient creature whose desire to complete a goal (usually to avenge its death) allows it to return from the grave as a creature vaguely resembling an intelligent zombie. Revenants exist primarily in role-playing games and horror movies. Examples include The Crow and Al Simmons, the protagonist of Spawn.
- Wights, invisible entities, neither dead nor alive
- Zombie Ghouls, cannibalistic reanimated corpses from modern fiction (1954 to present)
- Ringwraiths, from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Also called “Nazgûl” and “Ulairi”, the Ringwraiths were once mortal men of great power who passed from life into living death due to the power of the Nine Rings.
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Semi-Corporeal
- Barrow-wights, spirits that can transition from non-corporeal to corporeal forms
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Non-Corporeal
- Ghosts, common in many cultures — all types of non-corporeal undead could be said to be variations of ghosts
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Creation
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus introduced a new variant of undead, the dead brought back to “life” by science, though Frankenstein’s creature bears some similarity to a golem. Similar works include H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “Herbert West—Reanimator” and the Re-Animator film franchise inspired by the story.
Both legend and popular culture discuss various methods for creating undead creatures. Most involve the reanimation of a corpse, as with zombies, skeletons, and ghouls. Regarding ghosts, the spirit lives on after death, forming an intangible physical body that often mirrors the one the spirit had in life.
In some cases, the undead, especially skeletons and zombies, are under the control of a sorcerer. In other cases, such as zombies as depicted in film and vampires, the undead existence is passed on like a curse or disease. With liches, the powers of undead are sought after by the participant of a magical ritual that turns them from a living being to a lich. Ghosts are said to be kept in their undead state by willpower, either from a keen desire to remain with the living or from a wish to see something completed that they could not do during their lifetime.
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Vulnerabilities
In fiction and folklore, undead creatures are often hostile toward the living. Defending against the undead is often difficult as they are usually depicted as being resistant to normal attacks. Nonetheless, they are often vulnerable to sacred or blessed objects, such as crosses and holy water.
Vampires traditionally can be killed by a stake through the heart or by decapitation, though various traditions have different means of dealing with them. [2]
Zombies can often continue to attack when dismembered. To dispatch them, it may be necessary to destroy the head or to kill the person who reanimated them. Firearms, such as shotguns, may be effective against zombies.
Incorporeal undead are difficult to defend against because normal physical weapons pass harmlessly through their forms. In many video games and role-playing games, ghosts can only be dispatched by enchanted or silver weapons.[3] However, in other fiction the only way to get rid of them permanently is to discover what duty or task they failed to complete in life (an example of this is found in Chapter 4 of The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis).[4]
Undead are often depicted as vulnerable to sunlight and fire. They may also perish when their creator is likewise dispatched. Undead may be unable to cross certain symbolic boundaries or even natural barriers like running water.
In some cultures, various plants are said to repel the undead. Examples include garlic and wolfsbane, as well as rosewood, rowan, hazel, willow, and holly. This modern tradition appears to be based on pre-Christian belief that some plants are sacred[citation needed].
Additionally, a line of salt is sometimes said to act as a barrier to the undead
