shadow-stalker

English

Etymology

Alliterative literary calque of Old English sceadugenga, from sceadu (“shadow”) + genga (“goer, walker”).

Noun

shadow-stalker (plural shadow-stalkers)

  1. A monster or other malevolent figure that moves about at night.
    • 1898, Stopford A. Brooke, English literature: From the Beginning to the Norman Conquest, New York: The Macmillan Company, page 73:
      In the wan darkness, while the warriors slept, the shadow-stalker drew near from the moorland.
    • 1952, John A. Nist, The Structure and Texture of Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 53:
      [T]he shadow-stalker will not draw anyone down to the shades unless God wills it.
    • 1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 23:
      The out of the night
      came the shadow-stalker, stealthy and swift.
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