Vampire

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Vampires are mythological or folkloric creatures, described as undead beings who feed by draining the blood of humans. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures, the term vampire was not popularised until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire folklore into Western Europe from the Balkans and Eastern Europe.^[1] Folkloric vampires were depicted as revenants who visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's fanged vampire.

The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori; the story was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.^[2] However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century with books, films such as the 1931 Dracula and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures such as the chupacabra still persists in some cultures.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Folk beliefs 2.1 Description and common attributes 2.1.1 Creating vampires 2.1.2 Identifying vampires 2.1.3 Protection 2.2 Ancient beliefs 2.2.1 Mesopotamia 2.2.2 Ancient Egypt 2.2.3 Ancient Greece 2.2.4 India 2.3 Medieval and later European folklore 2.3.1 Slavic 2.3.2 Romanian 2.3.3 Roma 2.3.4 Greek 2.3.5 Western Europe 2.3.6 Jewish traditions 2.4 World beliefs 2.4.1 Africa 2.4.2 The Americas 2.4.3 Asia 2.5 Modern beliefs 3 Natural sources of vampire belief 3.1 Pathology 3.1.1 Decomposition 3.1.2 Premature burial 3.1.3 Contagion 3.1.4 Porphyria 3.1.5 Rabies 3.2 Psychodynamic understanding 3.3 Psychopathology 3.4 Vampire bats 4 Modern fictional vampire 4.1 Literature 4.2 Film and television 5 Footnotes 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Etymology

The word vampire appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1734^[clarify] as much mention on the subject had been made in German literature. After the 1718 Treaty of Passarowitz, in which parts of Serbia and Wallachia came under Austrian control, the Austrian officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and "killing vampires". These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity.^[3] Several theories of the word's origin exist.^[4] The English term was derived (possibly via French vampyre) from the German Vampir, in turn thought to be derived in the early 18th century^[5] from Serbian вампир/vampir,^[6][7][8][9] or Hungarian vámpír.^[10][11] The Serbian and Hungarian forms have parallels in virtually all Slavic languages: Bulgarian вампир (vampir), Czech and Slovak upír, Polish wąpierz and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Russian упырь (upyr'), Belarusian упыр (upyr), Ukrainian упирь (upir'), from Old Russian упирь (upir'). (Note that many of these languages have also borrowed forms such as "vampir/wampir" subsequently from the West). Among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь.^[12] The Slavic word might, like its possible cognate that means "bat" (Czech netopýr, Slovak netopier, Polish nietoperz, Russian нетопырь / netopyr' - a species of bat), contain a Proto-Indo-European root for "to fly".^[12]

The first recorded use of the Old Russian form Упирь (Upir') is commonly believed to be in a document dated 6555 (1047 AD).^[13] It is a colophon in a manuscript of the Book of Psalms written by a priest who transcribed the book from Glagolitic into Cyrillic for the Novgorodian Prince Vladimir Yaroslavovich.^[14] The priest writes that his name is "Upir' Likhyi " (Упирь Лихый), which means something like "Wicked Vampire"^[15] or "Foul Vampire."^[16] This apparently strange name has been cited as an example of surviving paganism and/or of the use of nicknames as personal names.^[17] However, in 1982, Swedish Slavicist Anders Sjöberg suggested that "Upir' likhyi" was in fact an Old Russian transcription and/or translation of the name of Öpir Ofeigr, a well-known Swedish rune carver. Sjöberg argued that Öpir could possibly have lived in Novgorod before moving to Sweden, considering the connection between Eastern Scandinavia and Russia at the time.^[15] This theory is still controversial, although at least one Swedish historian, Henrik Janson, has expressed support for it.^[16] Another early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise "Word of Saint Grigoriy," dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, where pagan worship of upyri is reported.^[18][19]

[edit] Folk beliefs

The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia; cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. However, despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from Southeastern Europe.^[1] In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims or witches, but can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire itself. Belief in such legends became so rife that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires. Although the original lore has been distorted due to later fictions such as Dracula, there are numerous cited methods to destroy a vampire, including decapitation, a stake to the heart, incineration, and immersion in water.^[20]

[edit] Description and common attributes

It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. It was usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open.^[21] It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature.^[22]

Other attributes varied greatly from culture to culture; some vampires, such as those found in Transylvannian tales, were gaunt, pale and had long fingernails, while those from Bulgaria only had one nostril,^[23] and Bavarian vampires slept with thumbs crossed and one eye open.^[24] Moravian vampires only attacked victims while naked and the vampires of Albanian folklore wore high-heeled shoes.^[24] As stories of vampires spread throughout the globe to the Americas and elsewhere, so did the varied and sometimes bizarre descriptions of them: Mexican vampires had a bare skull instead of a head,^[24] Brazilian vampires had furry feet and vampires from the Rocky Mountains only sucked blood with their noses and from the victim's ears.^[24] Even broad descriptions were implemented, such as having red hair.^[24] From these various legends, works of literature such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the influences of historical figures such as Gilles de Rais and Vlad Tepes, the vampire developed into the modern stereotype.^[24]

[edit] Creating vampires

In modern stories, vampires most often create new vampires by biting humans. However, the causes of vampiric generation were far more varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse which was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or cat, would become one of the undead.^[25] If a body had a wound which had not been treated with boiling water, it may become a vampire. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who rebelled against the Church while they were alive.^[24]

Cultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles,^[26] near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the Ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay their way across the River Styx in the underworld; it has been argued that instead, the obolus was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in regard to modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "Jesus Christ conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming one.^[27] Other methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains.^[28] In similar Chinese narratives about vampire-like beings, it is stated that if one came across a sack of rice, he would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.^[29]

[edit] Identifying vampires

The rituals behind identifying a vampire were elaborate in many cases. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question.^[24] Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white.^[30] Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism.^[31]

Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition.^[32] In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face.^[33] Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-like activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects,^[34] and pressing on people in their sleep.^[35]

[edit] Protection

Apotropaics, that is, mundane or sacred items able to ward off revenants, such as garlic,^[36] sunlight or holy water, feature commonly in vampire folklore. The items vary from region to region; a branch of wild rose and hawthorn plant are said to harm vampires; in Europe, sprinkling mustard seeds on the roof of a house was said to keep vampires away.^[37] Other apotropaics include sacred items, for example a crucifix, rosary or holy water. Vampires are said to be unable to walk on consecrated ground, such as those of churches or temples, or cross running water.^[38] In Asian legends, vampiric creatures are often warded off by holy devices such as Shinto seals.^[39] Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door has the same function in South American superstition.^[29] Although not regarded as a vampire apotropaic, mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed facing outwards on a door (vampires do not have a reflection and in some cultures, do not cast shadows, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a soul).^[39] This attribute, although not universal as the Greek vrykolakas/tympanios was capable of both reflection and shadow, was utilized by Bram Stoker in Dracula and has since remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers.^[40] In addition to apotropaics, some traditions hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner, although they only have to be invited once as after this they can come and go as they please without further permission.^[39]

Traditional methods of destroying vampires were varied, with staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in southern slavic cultures.^[41] The preferred wood is ash in Russia and the Baltic states,^[42] or hawthorn in Serbia,^[43] with a record of oak in Silesia.^[44] Potential vampires were most often staked though the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany^[45][46] and the stomach in northeastern Serbia.^[47] The original folkloric revenants were described as bloated, thus the act of piercing the skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the vampire; this is similar to the act of burying sharp objects, such as sickles, in with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently whilst transforming into a revenant.^[48] Decapitation was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the buttocks or away from the body.^[49] The act of cutting off the head was also seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul from the body, which in some cultures, was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising.^[50] Gypsies drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. Further measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In the Balkans a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, as well as having the funeral service repeated, by the sprinkling holy water on the body, or by exorcism. In Romania garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the coffin was taken. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. Even a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected Saxon vampires in Germany.^[51]

Vampires are sometimes endowed with special abilities when described in folklore; some are given great strength, while others have the ability to transform into bats, rats, dogs, wolves, spiders and even moths. An attribute shared by the 19th-century literary vampires Lord Ruthven and Varney the Vampire was the ability to be healed by moonlight, although no account of this is known in traditional folklore.^[52] Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight. This vulnerability developed with subsequent vampire fiction.^[53]

[edit] Ancient beliefs

Tales of the undead consuming the blood or flesh of living beings have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries.^[54] Today we know these entities predominantly as vampires, but in ancient times, the term vampire did not exist; blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to demons or spirits, such as the Empusa,^[55] Lamia,^[56] and Lilitu,^[57] who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the devil was considered synonymous with the vampire.^[58] Modern vampire mythology was acquired from Eastern Europe; however, early vampiric creatures have been described throughout the world — from Europe to Asia, from the Americas to the Pacific. Almost every nation has associated blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon. Indeed, some of these legends could have given rise to the Eastern European folklore, though they are not strictly considered vampires by historians when using today's definitions.^[59][60]

[edit] Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia was an area rampant with superstition of blood-drinking demons. The Persians were one of the first civilizations thought to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shards.^[59] Ancient Babylonia had tales of the mythical Lilitu, synonymous with Lilith (Hebrew לילית) and her daughters the Lilu from Hebrew demonology who were derived from their Babylonian counterparts. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies. However, the Jewish Lilu and their mother Lilith were said to feast on both men and women, as well as newborns.^[57] The legend of Lilith was originally included in some traditional Jewish texts: according to the medieval folk traditions, she was considered to be Adam's first wife before Eve.^[61][62] In these texts, Lilith left Adam to become the queen of the demons and, much like the Greek striges, would prey on young babies and their mothers at night, as well as males. Because Hebrew law absolutely forbade the eating of human flesh or the drinking of any type of blood, Lilith's blood drinking was described as exceptionally evil. To ward off attacks from Lilith, parents used to hang amulets from their child's cradle.^[62]

An alternate version states the legend of Lilith/Lilitu (and a type of spirit of the same name) originally arose from Sumer, where she was a described as an infertile "beautiful maiden" and was believed to be a harlot and vampire who, after having chosen a lover, would never let him go.^[63] Lilitu (or the Lilitu spirits) was considered to be an anthropomorphic bird-footed, wind or night demon and was often described as a sexual predator who subsisted on the blood of babies and their mothers.^[62] Other Mesopotamian demons such as the Babylonian goddess Lamashtu, (Sumer's Dimme) and Gallu of the Uttuke group are mentioned as having vampiric natures.^[64][65]

Lamashtu is a historically older image that left a mark on the figure of Lilith.^[66] Many incantations invoke her as a malicious "Daughter of Heaven" or of Anu, and she is often depicted as a terrifying blood-sucking creature with a lion's head and the body of a donkey.^[67] Akin to Lilitu, Lamashtu primarily preyed on newborns and their mothers.^[68] She was said to watch pregnant women vigilantly, particularly when they went into labor. Afterwards, she would snatch the newborn from the mother to drink its blood and eat its flesh. In the Labartu texts she is described; "Wherever she comes, wherever she appears, she brings evil and destruction. Men, beasts, trees, rivers, roads, buildings, she brings harm to them all. A flesh-eating, bloodsucking monster is she."^[67] Gallu was a demon closely associated with Lilith, though the word (like "Utukku") is also used as a general term for demons, and these are "evil Uttuke" or "evil Galli".^[64] One incantation tells of them as spirits that threaten every house, rage at people, eat their flesh, and as they let their blood flow like rain, they never stop drinking blood. Lamashtu, Lilitu, and Gallu are invoked in different amulet texts, with Gallu showing up in Graeco-Byzantine myth as Gello, Gylo, or Gyllo. There she appears as a child-stealing and child-killing female demon,^[64] in the manner of Lamia and Lilith.

[edit] Ancient Egypt

The Ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was closely associated with bloodlust, death and vampiric behaviour derived from her role in an older legend known as The Revenge of Ra. Possessing the head of a lion, Sekhmet was considered the greatest hunter known to the Egyptians and was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt, who devoured humans and drank blood after battle. She was closely related with the warrior goddess Bast, but was often depicted as the fiercer of the two, with names such as Lady of Slaughter, Mistress of Dread, Avenger of Wrongs and the Scarlet Lady. Sekhmet was usually shown in red was seen as a special goddess for women as well as a patron god of menstruation. In The Revenge of Ra, she was created by Ra in order to take vengeance on mankind after he found them to be plotting against him. She soon had destroyed most of mankind, devouring humans and drinking blood. However, Ra relented and ordered her to cease destroying the land; Sekhmet refused, now thirsty for more blood and no longer wishing to listen to Ra. Fearing the worst, Ra decided to trick her by turning the Nile red as if it were blood. Sekhmet went to drink the river, but when she did so Ra turned the red water into beer, intoxicating the goddess; Sekhmet fell asleep and awoke much later, having forgotten why she was on earth. She returned to Ra^[69] and turned into a more benign god named Hathor.^[70]

There are many variations on this legend; one is that Sekhmet drank the Nile in order to save the world from its overflowing waters. Another is that it was the humans, not Ra, that turned the Nile River red, with beer mixed with pomegranate, in order to stop her bloodlust. Whatever the case, the legend is closely linked to the Nile's own flood cycle; at the beginning of each calendar year during the river's inundation, the Nile is often laden with sand and silt from the lands upstream, giving the water a red, blood-like appearance due to the Arabian sand's red properties. This depiction gave rise to Sekhmet's portrayal as a vampiric being in later mythology.^[69] In order to appease the goddess, a special festival was held by the Ancient Egyptians each year during the Nile's inundation, with records of thousands attending. At the festival, all the alcohol was coloured red in her honour.^[70]

[edit] Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek mythology contains several precursors to modern vampires, though none were considered undead; these included the Lamia, Empusa and striges (the strix of Ancient Roman mythology). Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess Hecate and was described as a demonic, bronze-footed creature. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood.^[55] Lamia was the daughter of King Belus and a secret lover of Zeus. However Zeus' wife Hera discovered this infidelity and killed all Lamia's offspring; Lamia swore vengeance and preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood.^[56] Like Lamia, the striges, feasted on children, but also preyed on young men. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and were later incorporated into Roman mythology as strix, a kind of nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood.^[71] The Romanian vampire breed named Strigoï has no direct relation to the Greek striges, but was derived from the Roman term strix, as is the name of the Albanian Shtriga and the Slavic Strzyga, though myths about these creatures are more similar to their Slavic equivalents.^[72][60]

[edit] India

In India, tales of vetalas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, are found in old Sanskrit folklore. Although most vetala legends have been compiled in the Baital Pachisi, a prominent story in the Kathasaritsagara tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one. The vetala is described as an undead creature who, like the bat associated with modern day vampirism, hangs upside down on trees found on cremation grounds and cemeteries.^[73] Pishacha, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes.^[74] Since Hindus believe in the reincarnation of the soul, they maintain that leading an unholy or immoral life (e.g. committing sin or suicide) will lead the soul to reincarnate into such evil spirits. This type of reincarnation does not arise out of birth from a womb, but is achieved directly and such evil spirits' fate is predetermined as to how they shall achieve liberation from that yoni, and re-enter the world of mortal flesh in the next incarnation.^{[citation needed]}

The Indian deity Kali bears fangs, wears a garland of corpses or skulls and has four arms. She is intimately linked with the drinking of blood and her temples are located near cremation grounds throughout India. In one tale, Kali and the goddess Durga battled the demon Raktabija (Sanskrit for "Blood Seed") who could reproduce himself from each drop of blood spilled. She drank all his blood so none was spilled, thereby winning the battle and killing the demon.^[75]

[edit] Medieval and later European folklore

Legends of vampires were rife throughout the medieval period and many of the myths surrounding them originated during this time. The 12th-century English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants,^[76] though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant.^[77] These tales are similar to the later folklore widely reported from Eastern Europe in the 18th century and were the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularised.

During the 18th century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe, with frequent stakings and grave diggings taking place in order to identify and kill the potential vampires; even government officials were compelled into the hunting and staking of vampires.^[78] Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in what could only be called a mass hysteria throughout most of Europe. The panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. Two famous vampire cases, which were the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole from Serbia. Plogojowitz was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. Plogojowitz soon supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.^[78] In the second case, Arnold Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area and it was widely believed that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbours.^[79]

The two incidents were well-documented: government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe.^[79] The hysteria, which is commonly referred to as the "18th-Century Vampire Controversy", raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them. Although many scholars reported during this period that vampires did not exist, and attributed reports to premature burial or rabies, superstitious belief continued to increase. Dom Augustine Calmet, a well-respected French theologian and scholar, put together a comprehensive treatise in 1746, which was ambiguous concerning the existence of vampires. Calmet amassed reports of vampire incidents; numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and supportive demonologists, interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed.^[80] In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote:^{[citation needed]}

These vampires were corpses, who went out of their graves at night to suck the blood of the living, either at their throats or stomachs, after which they returned to their cemeteries. The persons so sucked waned, grew pale, and fell into consumption; while the sucking corpses grew fat, got rosy, and enjoyed an excellent appetite. It was in Poland, Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, Austria, and Lorraine, that the dead made this good cheer.

The controversy only ceased when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician, Gerhard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies, sounding the end of the vampire epidemics. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local superstition.^[80]

[edit] Slavic

Some of the more common causes of vampirism in slavic folklore include being a magician or an immoral person; suffering an "unnatural" or untimely death such as suicide; excommunication; improper burial rituals; an animal jumping or a bird flying over the corpse or the empty grave (in South Slavic folk belief); and even being born with a caul,^[81] teeth or tail, or being conceived on certain days. In southern Russia, people who were known to talk to themselves were believed to be at risk of becoming vampires.^[82] Slavic vampires were able to appear as butterflies,^[83] echoing an earlier belief of the butterfly symbolizing a departed soul.^[84] Some traditions spoke of "living vampires" or "people with two souls", a kind of witch capable of leaving their body and engaging in harmful and vampiric activity while sleeping.^[85]

Among the beliefs of the East Slavs, those of the northern regions (i.e. most of Russia) are unique in that their undead, while having many of the features of the vampires of other Slavic peoples, do not drink blood and do not bear a name derived from the common Slavic root for "vampire". Ukrainian and Belarusian legends are more "conventional", although in Ukraine the vampires may sometimes not be described as dead at all,^[86] or may be seen as engaging in vampirism long before death. During cholera epidemics in the 19th century, there were cases of people being burned alive by their neighbours on charges of being vampires.^[85][87]

In South Slavic folklore, a vampire was believed to pass through several distinct stages in its development. The first 40 days were considered decisive for the making of a vampire; it started out as an invisible shadow and then gradually gained strength from the blood it had sucked, forming a (typically invisible) jelly-like, boneless mass, and eventually building up a human-like body nearly identical to the one the person had had in life. This development allowed the creature to ultimately leave its grave and begin a new life as a human. The vampire, who was usually male, was also sexually active and could have children, either with his widow or a new wife. These could become vampires themselves, but could also have a special ability to see and kill vampires, allowing them to become vampire hunters. The same talent was believed to be found in persons born on Saturday.^[85]

In order to ward of the threat of vampires and disease, twin brothers would yoke twin oxen to a plow and make a furrow with it around their village. An egg would be broken and a nail driven into the floor beneath the bier of the house of a recently deceased person. Two or three elderly women would attend the cemetery the evening after the funeral and stick five hawthorn pegs or old knives into the grave: one at the position of the deceased's chest, and the other four at the positions of his arms and legs. Alternately, they may surround the grave with a red woolen thread, ignite the thread and wait until it was burnt up.^[88] If a noise was heard at night and suspected to be made by a vampire sneaking around someone's house, one would shout "Come tomorrow, and I will give you some salt," or "Go, pal, get some fish, and come back."^[89]

[edit] Romanian

Romanian vampires were known as moroi and strigoi, with the latter classified as either living or dead. Live strigoi were described as living witches with two hearts or souls, sometimes both.^[90] Strigoi were said to have the ability to send out their souls at night to meet with other strigoi and consume the blood of livestock and neighbours. Similarly, dead strigoi were described as reanimated corpses that also sucked blood and attacked their living family. Live strigoi became revenants after their death, but there were also many other ways of a person becoming a vampire. A person born with a caul, an extra nipple, a tail, or extra hair^[91] was doomed to become a vampire. The same fate applied to the seventh child in any family if all of his or her previous siblings were of the same sex, as well as someone born too early and someone whose mother had encountered a black cat crossing her path. If a pregnant woman did not eat salt or was looked upon by a vampire or a witch, her child would also become a vampire. So too would a child born out of wedlock, although many of these superstitions rose from the clergy in order to keep their subjects compliant. Others who were at risk of becoming vampires were those who died an unnatural death or before baptism. Finally, a person with red hair and blue eyes was seen as a potential strigoi.^[92]

Romanian vampires were said to bite their victims over the heart or between the eyes,^[93] and sudden deaths could indicate the presence of a vampire. Graves were often opened three years after the death of a child, five years after the death of a young person, or seven years after the death of an adult to check for vampirism.^{[citation needed]} Vampires were believed to be especially active in the winter and more specifically on the eve of two religious holidays, the Feasts of St. George and St. Andrew.^{[citation needed]} Bram Stoker makes reference to this in his novel Dracula (1897) when Jonathan Harker is warned that at midnight "all the evil things in the world will have full sway".^{[citation needed]} During these nights, people kept their houses lit and used apotropaics such as thorns, crosses or garlic to prevent the vampires from entering their homes.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Roma

Among the Romani people, mullo (literally one who is dead) are believed to return from the dead and cause malicious acts as well as drink human blood, most often that of a relative or the person who had caused their death. Other potential victims were those who did not properly observe the burial ceremonies or kept the deceased's possessions instead of properly destroying them. Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry but would eventually exhaust the husband.^[39] Similar to other European beliefs, male vampires could father children, known as dhampirs, who could be hired to detect and get rid of vampires.^[94]

Anyone who had a horrible appearance, was missing a finger, or had appendages similar to those of an animal was believed to be a vampire. A person who died alone and unseen would become a vampire,^[95] likewise if a corpse swelled or turned black before burial.^[95] Dogs, cats, plants or even agricultural tools could become vampires; pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood.^[96] According to the late Serbian ethnologist Tatomir Vukanović, Roma people in Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people, but could be seen by a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday who wore their clothes inside out. Likewise, a settlement could be protected by finding a pair of twins, who could also see the vampire out of doors at night, who would have to flee immediately after they saw it.^[43]

[edit] Greek

Bearing little resemblance to its Ancient Greek precursors, the modern Greek vrykolakas has much in common with the European vampire. Belief in vampires (usually called βρυκόλακας, vrykolakas, though reportedly referred to as καταχανάδες, katakhanades, on Crete)^[97] persisted throughout Greek history and became so widespread in the 18th and 19th centuries that many practices were enforced to both prevent and combat vampirism. The deceased were often exhumed from their graves after three years of death and the remains placed in a box by relatives; wine was poured over them while a priest would read from scriptures.^[98] However, if the body had not sufficiently decayed, the corpse would be labeled a vrykolakas and dealt with appropriately.^[99]

In Greek folklore, vampirism could occur through various means: being excommunicated, desecrating a religious day, committing a great crime or dying alone. Other causes included having a cat jump across one's grave, eating meat from a sheep killed by a wolf and being cursed. Vrykolakas were usually thought to be indistinguishable from living people, giving rise to many folk tales with this theme.^[98] However, this was not the case everywhere; on Mount Pelion vampires glowed in the dark, while those on the Saronic Islands were described as hunchbacks with long nails, and vampires on the island of Lesbos were reported to have long wolf-like canine teeth.^{[citation needed]}

Various wards were employed for protection in different places, including antidoron (blessed bread) from the church, crosses, and black-handled knives.^{[citation needed]} To prevent vampires from rising from the dead, their hearts were pierced with iron nails whilst resting in their graves, or their bodies burned and the ashes scattered. Because the Church opposed burning people who had received the myron of chrismation in the baptism ritual, cremation was considered a last resort.^[98]

[edit] Western Europe

The malign and succubus-like Baobhan sith from the Scottish Highlands^[100] and the Lhiannan Shee of the Isle of Man are two fairy spirits with decidedly vampiric tendencies.^[101] The Dearg-due, literally "Red Blood Sucker" in Gaelic, from Ireland may have contributed to the storylines of Irish authors Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker.^[102] The Bruxsa of Portugal, which takes the form of a bird at night and assails travellers, is another female vampiric spirit hostile to humans.^[103]

[edit] Jewish traditions

Some vampiric folklore arose out of the traditions of medieval European Jews, in particular the legend of Lilith.^[104] Lilith possesses several characteristics in common with vampires: the ability to transform herself into an animal, usually a cat, and charming her victims into believing that she is benevolent or irresistible.^[104] Lilith and her daughters usually strangle rather than drain victims, however, and in the Kabbalah, she retains many attributes found in vampires. A late 17th- or early 18th-century Kabbalah document was found in one of the Ritman library's copies of Jean de Pauly's translation of the Zohar. The text contains two amulets, one for male (lazakhar), the other for female (lanekevah). The invocations on the amulets mention Adam, Eve, and Lilith, Chavah Rishonah and the angels—Sanoy, Sansinoy, Smangeluf, Shmari'el, and Hasdi'el. A few lines in Yiddish are shown as dialog between the prophet Elijah and Lilith, in which she has come with a host of demons to kill the mother, take her newborn and "to drink her blood, suck her bones and eat her flesh". She informs Elijah that she will lose power if someone uses her secret names, which she reveals at the end.^[105] Other Jewish stories depict vampires in a more traditional way. In "The Kiss of Death", the daughter of the demon king Ashmodai snatches the breath of a man who has betrayed her, strongly reminiscent of a fatal kiss of a vampire. A rare story found in Sefer Hasidim #1465 tells of an old vampire named Astryiah who uses her hair to drain the blood from her victims. A similar tale from the same book describes staking a witch through the heart to ensure she does not come back from the dead to haunt her enemies.^[106]

[edit] World beliefs

[edit] Africa

Various regions of Africa have folkloric tales of beings with vampiric abilities: in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling asanbosam,^[107] and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children.^[108] The eastern Cape region has the impundulu, which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the Betsileo people of Madagascar tell of the ramanga, an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles.^[109]

[edit] The Americas

The Loogaroo is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here a mixture of French and African Vodu or voodoo. The term Loogaroo possibly comes from the French loup-garou (meaning 'werewolf') and is common in the culture of Mauritius. However, the stories of the Loogaroo are widespread through the Caribbean Islands and Louisiana in the United States.^{[citation needed]} Similar female monsters are the Soucouyant of Trinidad, and the Tunda and Patasola of Colombian folklore, while the Mapuche of southern Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the Peuchen.^[110] Aztec mythology described tales of the Cihuateteo, skeletal-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad.^[24]

During the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England, particularly in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family, although the term "vampire" was never actually used to describe the deceased. The deadly disease tuberculosis, or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves.^[111] The most famous, and most recently recorded, case is that of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown, who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death and her heart was cut out and burnt to ashes.^[112]

[edit] Asia

Rooted in older folklore, the modern belief in vampires spread throughout Asia with tales of the Kyūketsuki (吸血鬼, Kyūketsuki^? lit. "blood sucking demon") from Japan, to ghoulish entities from the mainland, to vampiric beings from the islands of Southeast Asia. India also developed other vampiric legends. The Bhūta or Prét is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wanders around animating dead bodies at night, attacking the living much like a ghoul.^[113] In northern India, there is the BrahmarākŞhasa, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood.

Legends of female vampire-like beings who can detach parts of their upper body occur in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. There are two main vampire-like creatures in the Philippines: the Tagalog mandurugo ("blood-sucker") and the Visayan manananggal ("self-segmenter"). The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, thread-like tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim. The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses off these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the heart and the liver) and the phlegm of sick people.^[114]

The Malaysian Penanggalan may be either a beautiful old or young woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklores to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women.^[115] Malaysians would hang jeruju (thistles) around the doors and windows of houses, hoping the Penanggalan would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns.^[116] The Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore.^[117] A Pontianak, Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia,^[118] or Langsuir in Malaysia,^[119] is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, which she sucked the blood of children with. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off. Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming langsuir.^[120]

Jiang Shi (traditional Chinese: 僵屍 or 殭屍; simplified Chinese: 僵尸; pinyin: jiāngshī; literally "stiff corpse"), sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence (qì) from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul (魄 pò) fails to leave the deceased's body.^[121] One unusual feature of this vampire is its greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses.^[122]

Jiang Shis were a popular subject in Hong Kong movies during the 1980s; some featured both Jiang Shis and "Western" zombies. Cinematic Jiang Shis can be put to sleep by placing a yellow piece of paper with a spell written on it on their foreheads (Chinese talisman or 符 pinyin fú).^[123] Generally in the movies the Jiang Shi are dressed in imperial Qing Dynasty clothes, their arms permanently outstretched due to rigor mortis. Like those depicted in Western movies, they tend to appear with an outrageously long tongue and long fingernails. They can be evaded by holding one's breath, as they track living creatures by detecting their breathing.^[124] It is also the conventional wisdom of feng shui in Chinese architecture that a threshold (traditional Chinese: 門檻; simplified Chinese: 门槛; pinyin: ménjiàn), a piece of wood approximately 15 cm (6 in) high, be installed along the width of the door at the bottom to prevent a Jiang Shi from entering the household.^[125]

[edit] Modern beliefs

See also: Vampires in modern fiction

In modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic villain, a far cry from the bloated, decaying revenants of old.^[22] Despite the general disbelief in vampiric entities, sightings or reports of vampires arise from time to time. Claims of alleged vampire attacks swept through the African country of Malawi during late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one individual to death and attacking at least four others, including Governor Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires.^[126]

Rumours were spread by the local press in early 1970 that a vampire haunted Highgate Cemetery in London. Amateur vampire hunters flocked in large numbers to the cemetery. Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the first to suggest the existence of the "Highgate Vampire" and who later claimed to have exorcised and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area.^[127] And again in January 2005, rumours began to circulate that an attacker had bitten a number of people in Birmingham, England, fuelling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets. However, local police stated that no such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be an urban legend.^[128]

In one of the more notable cases of vampiric entities in the modern age, the chupacabra ("goat-sucker") of Puerto Rico and Mexico is said to be a creature that feeds upon the flesh or drinks the blood of domesticated animals, leading some to consider it a kind of vampire. The "chupacabra hysteria" was frequently associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly during the mid-1990s.^[129]

In Europe, where much of the vampire folklore originates, the vampire is considered a fictitious being, although many communities have embraced the revenant for economic purposes. However, in some cases, especially in small localities, vampire superstition is still rampant and sightings or claims of vampire attacks occur frequently. In Romania during February of 2004, several relatives of the late Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire. They dug up his corpse, tore out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water in order to drink it,^[130] and in March 2007, self-proclaimed vampire hunters broke into the tomb of Slobodan Milošević, former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia, and staked his body through the heart into the ground. Although the group involved claimed it was to prevent Milošević from returning as a vampire, it is not known whether those involved actually believed this or if the crime was politically motivated.^[131]

[edit] Natural sources of vampire belief

[edit] Pathology

[edit] Decomposition

People sometimes suspected vampirism when a cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse should when disinterred. However, rates of decomposition vary depending on temperature and soil composition, and many of the signs are little known. This has led vampire hunters to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed at all, or, ironically, to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued life.^[132][133] Corpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate in the torso and the increased pressure forces blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. This causes the body to look "plump", "well-fed" and "ruddy"—changes that are all the more striking if the person was pale or thin in life. In the Arnold Paole case, an old woman's exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbours to look more plump and healthy than she had ever looked in life.^[134] The exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had recently been engaging in vampiric activity.^[33] Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition.^[135] The staking of a swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could produce a groan-like sound when the gases moved past the vocal cords, or a sound reminiscent of flatulence when they passed through the anus. The official reporting on the Peter Plogojowitz case speaks of "other wild signs which I pass by out of high respect".^[136]

After death, the skin and gums lose fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails, and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the skin peels away, as reported in the Plogojowitz case - the dermis and nail beds emerging underneath were interpreted as "new skin" and "new nails".^[136]

[edit] Premature burial

It has also been hypothesized that vampire legends were influenced by individuals being buried alive due to primitive medical knowledge. In some cases in which people reported sounds emanating from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. In other cases the person would hit their heads, noses or faces and it would appear that they had been "feeding".^[137] A problem with this theory is the question of how people presumably buried alive managed to stay alive for any extended period without food, water or fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of bodies.^[138] Another likely cause of disordered tombs is grave robbing.^[139]

[edit] Contagion

Folkloric vampirism has been associated with a series of deaths due to unindentifiable or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community.^[111] The "epidemic pattern" is obvious in the classical cases of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole, and even more so in the case of Mercy Brown and in the vampire beliefs of New England generally, where a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism (see above).

In De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis (1725), Michaël Ranft attempted to explain folk beliefs in vampires. He writes that, in the event of the death of every villager, some other person or people—most likely a person related to the first dead—who saw or touched the corpse, would eventually die either of some disease related to exposure to the corpse or of a frenetic delirium caused by the panic of merely seeing the corpse. These dying people would say that the dead man had appeared to them and tortured them in many ways. The other people in the village would exhume the corpse to see what it had been doing. He gives the following explanation when talking about the case of Peter Plogojowitz:^{[citation needed]}

This brave man perished by a sudden or violent death. This death, whatever it is, can provoke in the survivors the visions they had after his death. Sudden death gives rise to inquietude in the familiar circle. Inquietude has sorrow as a companion. Sorrow brings melancholy. Melancholy engenders restless nights and tormenting dreams. These dreams enfeeble body and spirit until illness overcomes and, eventually, death.

[edit] Porphyria

In 1985 biochemist David Dolphin proposed a link between the rare blood disorder porphyria and vampire folklore. Noting that the condition is treated by intravenous haem, he suggested that the consumption of large amounts of blood may result in haem being transported somehow across the stomach wall and into the bloodstream. Thus vampires were merely sufferers of porphyria seeking to replace haem and alleviate their symptoms.^[140] The theory has been rebuffed medically as suggestions that porphyria sufferers crave the haem in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a misunderstanding of the disease. Furthermore, Dolphin was noted to have confused fictional (bloodsucking) vampires with those of folklore, many of whom were not noted to drink blood. ^[141] Similarly, a parallel is made between sensitivity to sunlight by sufferers, yet this was associated with fictional and not folkloric vampires. In any case, Dolphin did not go on to publish his work more widely.^[142] Despite being dismissed by experts, the link gained media attention^[143] and entered popular modern folklore.^[144]

[edit] Rabies

Rabies has been linked with vampire folklore. Dr Juan Gómez-Alonso, a neurologist at Xeral Hospital in Vigo, Spain, examined this possibility in a report in Neurology. The susceptibility to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of rabies. The disease can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to disturbance of normal sleep patterns (thus becoming nocturnal) and hypersexuality. Legend once said a man was not rabid if he could look at his own reflection (an allusion to the legend that vampires have no reflection). Wolves and bats, which are often associated with vampires, can be carriers of rabies. The disease can also lead to a drive to bite others and to a bloody frothing at the mouth.^[145][146]

[edit] Psychodynamic understanding

In his 1931 treatise On the nightmare, Welsh psychoanalyst Ernest Jones noted that vampires are symbolic of several unconscious drives and defence mechanisms. Love, guilt and hate are emotions that fuel the idea of the return of the dead to the grave. Desiring a reunion with loved ones, mourners may project the idea that the recently dead must in return yearn the same. From this arises the belief that folkloric vampires and revenants visit relatives, particularly their spouses, first.^[147] However in cases where there was unconscious guilt associated with the relationship, the wish for reunion may be subverted by anxiety. This may lead to repression, which Freud had linked with the development of morbid dread.^[148] Jones surmised in this case the original wish of a (sexual) reunion may be drastically changed: desire is replaced by fear; love is replaced by sadism, and the object or loved one is replaced by an unknown entity. The sexual aspect may or may not be present.^[149]

The innate sexuality of bloodsucking can be seen in its intrinsic connection with cannibalism and folkloric one with incubus-like behaviour. Many legends report various beings draining other fluids from victims, an unconscious association with semen being obvious. Finally Jones notes that when more normal aspects of sexuality are repressed, regressed forms may be expressed, in particular sadism; he felt that oral sadism is integral in vampiric behaviour.^[150]

[edit] Psychopathology

A number of murderers have performed seemingly vampiric rituals upon their victims. Serial killers Peter Kurten and Richard Trenton Chase were both called "vampires" in the tabloids after they were discovered drinking the blood of the people they murdered. Similarly, in 1932, an unsolved murder case in Stockholm, Sweden was nicknamed the "Vampire murder", due to the circumstances of the victim’s death.^[151] The late 16th-century Hungarian countess and mass murderer Elizabeth Báthory became particularly infamous in later centuries' works, which depicted her bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain beauty or youth.

Vampire lifestyle is a term for a contemporary subculture of people, largely within the Goth subculture, who consume the blood of others as a pastime; drawing from the rich recent history of popular culture related to cult symbolism, horror films, the fiction of Anne Rice, and the styles of Victorian England.^[152] Active vampirism within the vampire subculture includes both blood-related vampirism, commonly referred to as Sanguine Vampirism, and Psychic Vampirism, or 'feeding' from pranic energy. Practitioners may take on a variety of 'roles', including both "vampires" and their sources of blood or pranic energy.^[153]

[edit] Vampire bats

Main article: Vampire bat

Bats have only recently become an integral part of the traditional vampire lore, although many cultures have stories about them. In Europe, bats and owls were long associated with the supernatural, mainly because they were night creatures.^[154] Conversely, the Gypsies thought them lucky and wore charms made of bat bones. In English heraldic tradition, a bat means "Awareness of the powers of darkness and chaos".^[155]

In South America, Camazotz was a bat god of the caves living in the bathhouse of the Underworld. The three species of actual vampire bats are all endemic to Latin America, and there is no evidence to suggest that they had any Old World relatives within human memory. It is therefore extremely unlikely that the folkloric vampire represents a distorted presentation or memory of the bat. During the 16th century the Spanish conquistadors first came into contact with vampire bats and recognized the similarity between the feeding habits of the bats and those of their legendary vampires. The bats were named after the folkloric vampire rather than vice versa; the Oxford English Dictionary records the folkloric use in English from 1734 and the zoological not until 1774. Though the literary Dracula's initial flying shapeshifted form was originally described as merely bird- or lizard-like, it was not long before vampire bats were adapted into vampiric accoutrements; they were used in the 1927 stage production of Dracula, and Lon Chaney Jr. played the first onscreen vampire to change into a bat in 1943's Son of Dracula.^[156]

[edit] Modern fictional vampire

The vampire is now a dominant fixture in popular fiction; this stems from the series of vampiric novels released in the early 1800s, but fictional vampires certainly date back further into the late 18th century when the revenant appeared in poems such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1797 Die Braut von Corinth (The Bride of Corinth).^[157] Lord Byron introduced the vampire theme to Western literature in his epic poem The Giaour (1813), but it was his personal physician John Polidori who authored the first vampire story called The Vampyre. The vampire made the transition into prose works when Polidori used Byron's own wild life as the model for his undead protagonist Lord Ruthven. The Vampyre was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.^[2] The continuing popularity of the vampire theme has been ascribed to a combination of two factors: the representation of sexuality—something which has become more overt in the modern Internet age—and the perennial dread of mortality.^[158]

Over time, some attributes now regarded as integral became incorporated into the vampire's profile: fangs and vulnerability to sunlight appeared over the course of the 19th century, with Varney the Vampire and Dracula both bearing protruding teeth,^[159], and Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) fearing daylight.^[160] The cloak appeared in stage productions of the 1820s, with a high collar introduced by playwright Hamilton Deane to help Dracula 'vanish' on stage.^[161]

[edit] Literature

Main article: Vampire literature

Varney the Vampire was a landmark popular mid-Victorian era gothic horror story by James Malcolm Rymer (alternatively attributed to Thomas Preskett Prest), which first appeared from 1845 to 1847 in a series of pamphlets generally referred to as penny dreadfuls because of their inexpensive price and typically gruesome contents. The story was published in book form in 1847 and runs to 868 double-columned pages. It has a distinctly suspenseful style, using vivid imagery to describe the horrifying exploits of Varney.^[52] Other examples of early vampire fictions exist, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished poem Christabel and Sheridan Le Fanu's lesbian vampire story "Carmilla" (1871). Like Varney before her, the vampire Carmilla is portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light as the compulsion of her condition is highlighted.^[162]

Despite all earlier efforts to portray the vampire in popular fiction, none was as influential nor as definitive as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).^[163] Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with its undertones of sex, blood and death, struck a chord in Victorian Europe where tuberculosis and syphilis were common. The vampiric traits described in Stoker's work merged with and dominated folkloric tradition, eventually evolving into the modern fictional vampire. Drawing on past works such as The Vampyre and "Carmilla", Stoker began to research his new book in the late 1800s, reading works such as The Land Beyond the Forest (1888) by Emily Gerard and other books about Transylvania and vampires. A member of the Order of the Golden Dawn cult, he was keen to travel around Eastern Europe to learn about the folkloric vampires and the occult. In London, a colleague mentioned to him the story of Vlad Ţepeş, the "real-life Dracula", and Stoker immediately incorporated this story into his book. The first chapter of the book was omitted when it was published in 1897, but it was released in 1914 as Dracula's Guest.^[164]

The latter part of the twentieth century saw the rise of multi-volume vampire epics. The first of these was gothic romance writer Marilyn Ross's Barnabas Collins series (1966-71), loosely based on the contemporary American TV series Dark Shadows. It also set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic tragic heroes rather than as the more traditional embodiment of evil. This formula was followed in novelist Anne Rice's highly popular and influential Vampire Chronicles (1976-2003).^[165]

[edit] Film and television

Main article: Vampire movies

Considered one of the preeminent figures of the classic horror film, the vampire has proven to be a rich subject for the film and gaming industries. Dracula is a major character in more movies than any other bar Sherlock Holmes, and many early films were either based on the novel of Dracula or closely derived from it. These included the landmark 1922 German silent film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau and featuring the first film portrayal of Dracula—although names and characters were intended to mimic Dracula's, Murnau could not obtain permission to do so from Stoker's widow, and had to alter many aspects of the film. In addition to this film was Universal's Dracula (1931), starring Béla Lugosi as the count in what was the first talking film to portray Dracula. The decade saw several more vampire films, most notably Dracula's Daughter in 1936.^[166]

The legend of the vampire was cemented in the film industry when Dracula was reincarnated for a new generation with the celebrated Hammer Horror series of films, starring Christopher Lee as the Count. The successful 1958 Dracula starring Lee was followed by seven sequels. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these and became well known in the role.^[167] By the 1970s, vampires in films had diversified with works such as Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), an African Count in 1972's Blacula, a Nosferatu-like vampire in 1979's Salem's Lot, and a remake of Nosferatu itself, titled Nosferatu the Vampyre with Klaus Kinski the same year. Several films featured female, often lesbian, vampire antagonists such as Hammer Horror's The Vampire Lovers (1970) based on Carmilla, though the plotlines still revolved around a central evil vampire character.^[167] Later films showed more diversity in plotline, with some focusing on the vampire-hunter such as Blade in the Marvel Comics' Blade Trilogy movies and the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy, released in 1992, foreshadowed a vampiric presence on television, with adaptation to a long-running hit TV series of the same name and its spin-off Angel. Still others showed the vampire as protagonist such as 1983's The Hunger, 1994's Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and its indirect sequel of sorts Queen of the Damned. Bram Stoker's Dracula was a noteworthy 1992 remake which became the then-highest grossing vampire film ever.^[168] This increase of interest in vampiric plotlines lead to the vampire being depicted in movies such as Underworld in 2003, the Russian Night Watch and a TV miniseries remake of 'Salem's Lot, both from 2004.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Circumcising Dracula - Vampirism and Anti-Semitism
• How Stuff Works - Vampires
• Journal of Dracula Studies

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