Finally we have reached the final edition of the Paranormal Alphabet series culminating with the letter Z and I have decided to do one similar-ish to the Vampire edition but where I talk about zombies instead this time and go over legends of the undead and zombie-related creatures from different parts of the world so we can get a variety of different creatures to round this off. Vampires are often considered to be creatures of the undead but since we have already done an extensive post on that so I obviously won’t be going over them again, but focus specifically on other undead creatures or those similar including things like ghouls.
So, with that being said let’s get into talking about what most people would consider a typical zombie to be. The zombies often portrayed in pop culture from numerous apocalyptic movies, books, comics, tv shows and games. It is a genre that has been very popularly used, especially in recent times due to the vast popularity of the Walking Dead comic series, TV show based on it and the related games and more that have sprung off from the series that even now is still continuing (although I think it should probably be time to bring it to an end soon, maybe even should have already been ended), but that’s just my opinion from someone who has seen all but the latest two seasons.
Anyway, from this the typical zombie has flesh that is rotting, they are slow moving and clumsy as well as being aggressive towards the living and wanting to feed on their flesh which spreads a disease which can turn others into a zombie. The Walking Dead’s rendition is that everyone can turn into a zombie upon dying even if they aren’t bitten, but if they do get bitten then they will transform into a zombie no matter what. Often in these tv shows, movies and games there is no cure and society and authority quickly collapse and people are out for themselves or choose to band together into crews and groups.
Zombies from pop culture are often attracted by noise and tend to have bad eye-sight. In many of these shows and games due to zombies being so slow it often comes down to being overwhelmed and surrounded by massive swarms of them rather than just a few being a problem. In the Walking Dead the zombies are a very big problem at first and cause many major catastrophes leading to people getting killed, but as the show goes on the characters develop better and better ways of countering them and keeping them in check and at bay and although they remain a threat, groups of humans and other survivors end up becoming bigger threats.
Some games have chosen to make the world of zombie survival more exciting by introducing different types of zombies that have different abilities, much more of a thing in the realm of fantasy but can also be seen as a way of the zombie virus mutating to outwit humans who have become better at controlling them and surviving. Some shows or series have kept away from the cliché of zombies being slow and clumsy, for example in World War Z the zombies are frighteningly fast and literally clamber over each other that can enable them to inadvertently make it over or through obstacles.
Many zombie viruses are completely made up for books, movies and shows but some are actually based on diseases that exist in-real-life, think about that while sleeping at night. Rabies for example has been seen as one of the closest diseases that humans can get that can make them “act like zombies” as it can cause erratic and aggressive behavior and can be spread through biting, but luckily it is hard to spread and quite rare in humans and humans who do get it aren’t necessarily compelled to bite people… there also isn’t a cure if the disease reaches an advanced stage… symptoms typically don’t become obvious until it is too late which is why people who get bitten by a wild animal in the US for example will get checked out by a doctor just in case and precautions and preventative treatment may be taken even if they may not have the disease. Some people worry that rabies could potentially mutate one-day and become airborne or just more easily spread, which could see it become much more like something reminiscent of a zombie-virus outbreak, although people would not be “undead”, but they would likely still act aggressive like one, but would eventually die.
The zombie disease in the popular game The Last of Us is a fungal disease that takes over the body and actually deforms them by sprouting out of its host which then can be used to spread the disease. Scarily these types of diseases do actually exist in many insect species, one such is Ophiocordyceps unilateralis which is a fungi that infects ants and actually hijacks them, making them leave their nests and head to more favorable conditions for the fungi to thrive, this fungi will literally sprout out of the poor ant in question which releases spores to infect others. You never know we could be one mutation away…
So now that you realize that something similar to zombies could actually happen in real life, although it is still quite unlikely, let’s go on to legends of creatures from different parts of the world, this is more supernatural rather than something that biologically exists. Just legends or at least we hope it is just legends.
Undead & Related Creatures/Legends and Belief from Around the World
There are two main categories of the undead, one is called incorporeal where the entity in question has no physical body so they are things such as ghosts and spirits and then there are the corporeal undead which are things with physical bodies like zombies as we have been talking about as well as vampires as some examples. We will talk about a mix of different entities and beings from the incorporeal and corporeal.
Zombie folklore exists in Haiti related with the Haitian Vodou religion of which originated from West Africa, it is often commonly called Voodoo as a colloquial term for it and the other related folk religions. In the Haitian Vodou they worship a god called Bondye, the Supreme Creator through various spirits known as Ioa. In this religion there are the bokor (male) and caplata (females) who are people who practice both the good and bad side of voodoo including black magic and are said to be able to turn the dead into zombies through the usage of necromancy and turn them into personal slaves which have no will of their own. Houngan’s and Mambo’s, priests and priestesses of the religion are against people who practice as bokor’s and caplata’s.
Zombies in Haiti related to the voodoo religion and also in other parts of Africa once administered by the French became much more popular during the struggling and fearful times of the slave trade as a sort of coping mechanism and personification of the dark period in history of slavery and colonial rule.
There is also an incorporeal zombie that also exists in the tradition, a zombie astral. Bokor’s and Caplata’s can capture them to enhance their own spiritual powers, these can also be sealed in specially decorated bottles by them and sold to people seeking things such as luck and healing. Such zombie astrals also exist in various forms on the African continent specifically in the Central and Western regions of the continent.
A belief in a zombie-type creature or creatures of the corporeal kind also existed a part of some of South Africa’s folklore as well as in Central and Western Africa, which involved fear of witches and even children able to use magic to turn the living and dead into zombies that performed their bidding. Such zombies from these legends have been called names such as Xidachane and Maduxwane.
From Chinese legend and folklore there is the Jiangshi which is a reanimated corpse sometimes called a Chinese Hopping Vampire or Hopping Zombie, the legend has also been incorporated into various other countries folklore in East Asia. The Jiangshi can come about for numerous reasons such as necromancy, spirit possession, the body absorbing enough life force or qi to return, a corpse not being buried or a corpse being struck by lightning or if a pregnant cat or black cat leaps across a coffin with a corpse in it… many different ways, tales and renditions.
The Jiangshi will move around by hopping with its arms outstretched as to why it can be referred to as a hopping vampire or zombie, it moves in this way as the being is so stiff it is incredibly difficult or even impossible for it to bend its limbs, the arms are stretched out to keep mobility. Traditionally they feed on people’s qi or life force for sustenance although some more modern versions that originated from western vampire pop culture have them sucking blood instead. The Jiangshi often has greenish-white skin, long white hair and behave in an animalistic fashion. Either the Jiangshi will look similar to how the person once looked who became a Jiangshi or if after a long period of time the reanimated corpse can have ghastly-looking rotting flesh.
Another kind of incorporeal undead is the Banshee from Irish folklore and I am also mentioning this one as it has a strong relation with death. It is an entity that is said to wail or screech or keen (keening is a traditional vocal lament for the dead originating from Ireland and Scotland) to herald the death of a family member. The Banshee is often described as an old woman or is a singing virgin of the family who died young, very often the Banshee is very short and wears dark cloaks.
The Draugr, also called Aptrganga or Aptrgangr which means “again-walker” is a corporeal undead from Norse mythology. These undead live in their graves or burial mounds and will guard treasure that they have been buried with. The Draugr, a fierce protector, has super-human strength and is able to increase its size at-will. They give off a putrid smell of decay. They may also wreak havoc on living beings nearby and may torment people who they deemed to have wronged them during their life.
The Draugr is a powerful undead being that will often utilize their large forms to crush people to death or devour them whole. They may simply just devour flesh in a normal more zombie-like fashion or they may simply drive their victims mad leading to them dying. It is also said to be able to drive animals mad and indirectly kill them as well.
That isn’t all though, if the Draugr wasn’t already over-powered enough it also is said to have various other magical abilities such as shapeshifting into animals, controlling the weather and even the ability to see into the future. One thing is for sure is that none of us would be able to match this monstrosity. People who may become a Draugr after death are described as greedy or nasty in life or someone who is evil. One way to tell if someone may become one after death was if their corpses are in an upright or sitting position rather than lying horizontal.
The Draugr can be classified as a revenant, which is basically any formerly dead corpse that becomes reanimated from the grave after death and goes on to guard its grave or terrorize the living. It is a part of much Western folklore in various fashions.
Finally, to round this off we will go on to Ghouls. I have talked about some Ghouls before on the blog. Basically, they are a type of undead corporeal being that originates from Middle Eastern folklore. There are many types and they can be referred to as demons and some especially notorious ghouls can even get a specific name, distinguishing it. Generally, they are said to dwell in cemeteries or uninhabited places and can often look misshapen, disgusting and very frightening.
Ghouls can be vicious and mischievous and may sometimes display a degree of cunning to lure in someone. They have been described as both eating the flesh of the dead and devouring the flesh of live humans. Some may choose to scare their kids into submission by claiming the ghoul will get them if they don’t behave, like a boogeyman. Their mischievous ways sometimes have them stealing things like coins and dates. As well as that they may have the ability to shapeshift into animals, perhaps as another form of trickery and deceit.
So, there you have it, zombies… zombie-like creatures from legend, folklore and religion as well as some possible candidate diseases for a possible actual zombie outbreak. Something to think about next time you’re chowing down on a mushroom.
And with that we have concluded the Paranormal Alphabet series and I believe this is the first proper series I have finished on this blog. Next up I will be starting a new series where I will be going through all 50 US states one by one and talking about something from the paranormal, a cryptid or something else strange and bizarre from or that has happened in the state in question. So, stay tuned!
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