Vampires

Vampires

         Vampires. The word may conjure up images of horrific demons, romantic evenings, or even a jocular grandfather. The fictional vampire is what is known to us. What about the real vampire?This phrase receives scoffs and laughs, but for many in ancient days, it was a real nightmare. This article will discuss fact and fiction...the truth about vampires.

The Term “vampire”

         It seems appropriate to start with the legend of vampires, but we'll save that for the end. Instead, let's take a look at what the word vampire means and where it came from.

         The earliest form of the word “vampire” (that we know of so far) is documented as coming from the year 1047 A.D. It is recorded as the Old Russian word Upir Likhyi, which roughly means, “wicked vampire” or “foul vampire” This was a self proclaimed nickname recorded on a translated version of “The Book of Psalms”. The term Upir Likhyi is linked to the ancient pagan worship of Upyri. There is no other documentation of “vampire” in any form until the early 18th century where Slavic languages were used such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Russia, among others. Germany adapted the Siberian term “vampir”, meaning blood sucker, which was then translated into English as “vampire” in 1734.

         Does this mean there were no vampires before this time? No. Vampires were once referred to as “blood sucking ghosts and demons centuries before”.



 

  What is a vampire?

         As mentioned above, ancient civilizations associated vampire-ism with ghosts and the devil, but through oral stories, vampires evolved into bloated, purplish undead corpses that ravaged villages. Reports of corpses lying in their coffins with blood around their mouths, the left eye always open, and the lack of decomposition surrounded the stories. Interestingly enough, no fangs were ever mentioned.  It wasn't until 1819, when author John Polidori whote the novel “Vampyre”, that the modern vampire appearance came to be. (romantic, and more human than monster.)

         Most vampire ideas, attributes, and fears developed during the Medieval period. Ideas of how to identify vampires and how to kill them were created, and vampire “hunts” were conducted. Think of the Salem Witch Hunts, only more widespread.  The early 18th century was a time when people were especially frightened of vampires. Books were written and eye witness stories were told that created a frenzy among the people. There was even a treatise made proclaiming the existence of vampires. This period of time is known as the 18th Century Vampire Controversy. In 1755, Empress Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician,Gerard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist, so 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.

Dracula

         Count Dracula is a popular fictional character in the book “Dracula”, a book written by Bram Stoker, being one of the world's most popular vampire novels. Even though the vampire  Dracula was not a real person per se, Dracula the man, was...

         Vlad III, prince of Wallachia is best known for his resistance against the Ottoman Empire and it's expansion, and for the cruel punishments he imposed on his enemies. His Romainan surname, Drakyula, means “son of the dragon”. This was in reference to his father, who had joined the Order of the Dragon. (The Order of the Dragon was a chivalric order for select nobility, defending Christianity.) Vlad Drakyula was also known as Vlad Tepes, Tepes meaning impaler. He earned this name for his obsession with throwing his enemies on large, sharpened wooden stakes, as well as other forms of  impalement. 

          Vlad III was born in Sighisoara, Transylvania in 1431. At age 11, Vlad was imprisoned and beat often. He had a rough life ever since. He eventually came to rule in Wallachia and vowed to get even with the Ottoman Empire for killing his father and older brother. He did succeed in his commitment.

         Stories from Western Europe characterized Vlad III as a man who took sadistic pleasure in torturing and killing his enemies. He was said to torture, burn, skin, and boil or roast people, feeding the flesh to their families or relatives. This may or may not be true, as he was a great ruler for his country, but Bram Stoker obviously read of this and modeled his Dracula character after the so called tyrant.

How to identify and kill a vampire

         There are several ways to prevent the formation of vampires, to identify, and to ward off and kill vampires. Some cultures believed that there was a way to prevent their loved ones who have passed on from becoming part of the undead. One of these ways was by burying the body upside down. Another method was to place scythes or cycles near the grave to satisfy the wants of any demons, preventing them from entering the body.

         A popular method for identifying vampire graves was to have a virgin boy ride a virgin stallion (must be black, but in some cultures it must be white) through a graveyard. The horse would balk at the grave(s) in question. Vampires cannot walk on consecrated ground such as a church, nor are they able to cross water. They cannot enter a house unless invited to do so. Once invited, however, they can come and go as they please. They also have no reflection in the mirror, nor do they cast a shadow. Vampires can walk up walls and on ceilings, but cannot be in sunlight.(These “identifiers” are different from culture to culture, and in different time periods. Some claimed vampires weren't hurt by light. Some claimed vampires did have  reflections, etc.)

         There are also many methods to warding off and killing vampires. These are called apotropaics (jack-o-lanterns are a form of apotropaic for a different belief.) Garlic is a well known apotropaic used to ward off vampires. A branch of wild rose, hawthorn, a crucifix, holy water, silver, and mustard seeds  are also useful apotropaics. The only way to kill a vampire, however, is to drive a stake made out of the ash tree into it's heart. (again, cultures differ. Some required the vampire to be pierced in the mouth or the stomach. Others still, required decapitation of the vampire.)

Vampire eye-witness stories

         

         There are many who claim they have seen vampires. Both modern and ancient stories. Here, we'll look at the two most popular eye-witness cases documented.

         Peter Plogojowitz lived in a village named Kisilova in Serbia. He died in 1725, and his death was followed by a spate of other sudden deaths. Within eight days, nine people died. On their death beads,

these unfortunate souls all claimed to have been throttled by Plogojowitz at night. His wife also stated that he had visited her and asked for his shoes. She then moved to a different village. The village people decided that they should dig the body up to see if the corpse had the characteristics of a vampire. Sure enough, the body had not decomposed, the hair and nails had grown somewhat, and there was blood around the mouth. The villagers staked the corpse through the heart which caused fresh blood the gush from the body. The body was then burned. It was then recorded by authorities with a priest present.

         The second documented account was of Arnold Paole (Arnont Paule). Paole was an outlaw who lived in Serbia. He often mentioned that he had been plagued by a vampire at a location named Gossowa, but that he had cured himself by eating soil from the vampire's grave and smearing himself with his blood. In 1725, he broke his neck in a fall from a hay wagon. Within 20 or 30 days after Paole's death, four people complained that they had been plagued by him. These people all died shortly thereafter. The military leader of this area advised the villagers to open the grave. They did so and discovered that the corpse had not decomposed at all. There was fresh blood around the mouth and eyes, and the clothing was covered in blood. His hair and nails had grown slightly, and his left eye was open. The villagers drove a stake through his heart and burned the body. They then performed the same procedure for the four supposed victims. About five years later, another epidemic occurred with more than ten people dying within several weeks. To make a long story short, these cases, and many more after, were linked to Paole. Supposedly, some sheep that Paole had killed were eaten by some of the villagers, causing them to become vampires when they had died, and causing their children to become as such.

         These are just two popular documented cases. Could there have been other possible reasons for these incidences? Maybe. Maybe not.

Vampire Origin Legends

         It's now time to discover the legends of where vampires came from. There are a few different origin legends, but here, we'll stick with the two most popular and possible legends.

         The first possibility is with Judas Iscariot. Judas betrayed Christ, and was cursed for it. Because of his guilt, he committed suicide. In vampire folklore, one who commits suicide has a great chance of becoming a vampire. Judas was given 30 pieces of silver for his betrayal, but he tried to give it back once he realized what he had just done. Since he couldn't give it back, he cast it away as something harmful to himself. This is a possibility as to why silver can be an apotropaic to vampires.

         The other story is a little more intense and originates much further back into history. It is also the more popular of the two: God created Adam, the first man. He then created a woman out of the same dust named Lilith. In short, Lilith would not obey Adam and did not want Adam to be her superior, so she uttered the holy name of God as was banished. God then created Eve out of Adam's rib, giving Adam dominion over her. Lilith went out to the Red Sea where she mad a bargain with the angels. She was allowed to stay out on her own as a witch, and the mother of all demons. She was allowed to kill newborn infants before their naming, unless the newborn had a special charm above his/her cradle. Now let's learn about Cain. Cain was a son of Adam and Eve, and was cursed for killing his brother, Abel. He was given a mark, and was supposedly forced to be nocturnal as sunlight was painful to him. He traveled to the Red Sea where he met Lilith. Lilith showed Cain the power of blood and the supernatural powers he could possess. They had children, who became demons and vampires. There is even a poem which includes this story. It is titled “Beowulf”:   

...Till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend,

Grendel, who haunted the moors, the wild

Marshes, and made his home in a hell

Not hell but earth. He was spawned in that slime,

Conceived by a pair of those monsters born

Of Cain, murderous creatures banished

By God, punished forever for the crime

Of Abel's death. The Almighty drove

Those demons out, and their exile was bitter,

Shut away from men; they split

Into a thousand forms of evil-- spirits

And fiends, goblins, monsters, giants,

A brood forever opposing the Lord's

Will, and again and again defeated.

(Ll. 101-114)

...Cain had killed his only

Brother, slain his father's son

With an angry sword, God drove him off,

Outlawed him to the dry and barren desert,

And branded him with a murder's mark. And he bore

A race of fiends accursed like their father...

(Ll. 1261-1266)

                                                                           

Vampires today

         Even though it was mentioned earlier that the origin legends were going to be saved for last, there are a few more things that are worth mentioning. The real vampires. As noted earlier, the term “vampire” means blood sucker. Basically, anything that sucks or drinks blood is considered a vampire: mosquitoes, ticks, and vampire bats to name a few. Humans? Well believe it or not, there are humans who practice vampire-ism. They don't fit the descriptions of folkloric vampires, but they do drink blood: human or animal, usually in rituals of sorts. There are also so called “psychic vampires” who have the ability to drain energy from other people (whether willingly or not), however, they are not true vampires.

         The fictional vampire is a fascinating creature, which is considered the king of monsters and horror stories. In whatever form they come in, they will always be among us.









Researched and written by Zach Jensen