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This article is about the mythical creatures, for other meanings see Vampire (disambiguation).
A vampire is a mythical or folkloric creature said to subsist on human or animal blood. Usually the vampire is the corpse of a recently
dead person, reanimated or made undead by one means or another. Vampires are
often described as having a wide variety of additional powers and character traits, extremely variable in different traditions,
and are a frequent subject of folklore, cinema, and contemporary fiction.
Vampirism generally refers to a belief that one can gain supernatural powers by drinking human blood.
Vampires in history and culture
Tales of the dead craving blood are ancient. An example is the episode in book 11 of the Odyssey where Odysseus carries out a necromantic ritual; the dead are lured to the fresh blood of sacrificed rams, and Odysseus holds them back
with his sword until the shadow of Tiresias, to whom he had wanted to speak, appears. The historical practice of vampirism can generally be
considered a more specific and less commonly-occurring form of cannibalism.
Slavic people believed in vampires as early as the 4th century. In their mythology, a vampire drank blood, was afraid of silver (but
could not be killed by silver), and could be destroyed by cutting off its head and putting it between the corpse's legs, or by
putting a wooden stake into its heart.
The most enduring incarnation of the vampire dates from ancient Romania, where the
folklore seems to have evolved during the change from a pagan religious culture to
Christian rule, or as an effect of contacts with Slavic people living in the
area. Vampire folklore may have arisen as a response to conflicts in religion and culture; it is also widely theorized that
missionaries and other new elements of the population brought new strains of disease, resulting in a greatly increased number of
"mysterious" deaths during the period. In any event, records from the period indicate that those who died of unexplained causes
were treated as possible victims of vampiric attack, and ritualistic measures were taken in their burial to prevent them from
rising again.
In this mythology, vampires are a self-propagating subspecies: A person killed by a vampire who exchanges blood with it will
rise from the grave and become undead themselves. Vampires will feed insatiably on human blood until destroyed or captured by
specific means. In this ancient myth, vampires were treated as largely nonsapient, behaving more as animal-like demons. Legends
associating the vampire with eternal youth and other powers did not arise until the Victorian era in Europe.
In popular western culture, vampires are depicted as unaging, intelligent, and mystically endowed in many ways. The vampire
typically has a variety of notable abilities. These include great strength and immunity to any lasting effect of any injury by
mundane means, with specific exceptions. Vampires can also change into a mist, wolf, or a bat, and some can control the minds of
others.
It is believed that vampires have no reflection, as traditionally it was thought that mirrors reflected your soul and
creatures of evil have no soul. Fiction has extended this belief to an actual aversion to mirrors, as depicted in Dracula when the vampire casts Harker's shaving mirror out of the window.
Destroying and avoiding vampires
A western vampire (despite not being alive in the classical sense, and therefore referred to as undead) can be destroyed using several methods, which vary among 'species':
- Ramming a wooden stake through a vampire's heart. Traditionally the stake is made from ash or hawthorn and the vampire should
be impaled with a single blow. In some traditions, a red-hot iron was preferred. In many western stories and films, impalement
with a wooden stake only subdues a vampire and further measures must be taken to destroy the body, otherwise the monster will
quickly recover once the stake is removed. This can be done by decapitating the body and burying the head separately, burning,
burying the body at a crossroads or moving the body so it would be exposed to sunlight. Some stories extend the idea with vampire
hunters using arrows or crossbow bolts made
completely of wood to attempt to strike the monster's heart from a distance.
- Exposing a vampire to sunlight. This varies from culture to culture. Vampires that are active from sunset to sunrise often
avoid sunlight as they can be weakened or sometimes destroyed by it. Many species of vampires are active from noon to midnight or
the converse, and consequently sunlight is harmless. The idea of western vampires be vulnerable to sunlight began with the film,
Nosferatu, and has grown to be traditionally seen as the absolute surest
way to completely destroy the monster.
- Removing internal organs and burning them.
- Pouring boiling water into a hole beside the vampire's grave.
Other typical weaknesses of the vampire include:
- Garlic or holy water, which repel
vampires.
- Objects made of silver, which can keep a vampire away or harm them if they are in
physical contact. A popular American addition to the folklore is the idea of
fashioning bullets made of silver so mortal vampire hunters can use firearms against the monster.
- Such small items as rice, which can be strewn in a vampire's path. The vampire is
forced to stop and count all of the rice grains before he or she can continue. This varies by tradition.
- Running water, which vampires cannot cross. This varies by tradition with some stories having vampires simply turning into a
bat and flying over when faced with this obstacle.
- Crosses and Bibles, which can keep vampires
away. One simply holds the object in question in front of the vampire and the monster is kept at distance. Other stories have
established that any religious symbol used by a sincere believer is effective. For example, in some stories, a Jew can use the Star of David to ward off a
vampire. However in many stories, the monster can use its mind control powers to force the wielder to put down the object.
- Requiring an invitation to enter a home: Western vampires are thought to be unable to enter a residence unless they are
invited inside. After that invitation, they can enter the location freely.
According to Orthodox Christian belief, the soul does not depart the body until 40 days after it has been buried. In some
places, bodies were often disinterred between 3 to 7 days after burial and examined: If there was no sign of decomposition, a
stake was driven through the heart of the corpse.
Vampire 'species'
In Eastern Europe, the vampire is said to have two hearts or two souls; because one heart or soul never dies, the vampire
remains undead. Until recently, European vampires were thought to be disgusting monsters often raised from the bodies of peasants
and other lower-class people. Bram Stoker's tale of a vampire built on the
Victorian vampire stories that changed the image of the monster completely into one is that typically refined in social graces
and can operate in human society without suspicion with ease as long as its weaknesses are accommodated.
In Aztec mythology, the Civatateo was a sort of vampire, created when a noblewoman died in childbirth.
In Australian mythology, the Yara-Ma-Yha-Who was a nasty little vampire with
suckers on his fingers that lurked in fig trees.
In Malaysian folklore, the Pontianak was a female vampire whose head could separate from her body, with its entrails dangling from the base
of her neck. The Penanggalan sucked the blood of newborn babies and sometimes that of young children or pregnant women.
In Philippine folklore, the Manananggal was a female vampire whose entire upper body could separate from her lower body and who could fly
using wings. The Manananggal sucked the blood of fetuses.
The Aswang is also from the Philippines. It is believed to always be a female of
considerable beauty by day and, by night, a fearsome flying fiend. The aswang lives in a house, can marry and have children, is a
seemingly normal human during the daylight hours.
In Bulgaria, a vampire had only one nostril and slept with its left eye open and
its thumbs linked. It was also held responsible for cattle plagues.
In Moravia, vampires were fond of throwing off their shrouds and attacking their
victims in the nude.
In Indian and especially from the South Indian State of Kerala the vampire characters were supposedly Yakshis, who were
beautiful women who seduced men, only to kill them later. They were indestructible and could only be chained or imprisoned in a
tree
Other vampire characteristics:
- Brazilian vampires had plush-covered
feet.
- Chinese vampires drew their strength from the Moon.
- Mexican vampires were easily recognizable by their fleshless skulls.
- The Rocky Mountain subspecies sucked the blood out of its
victim's ears using its pointed nose.
Natural phenomena that propagate the vampire myth
Pathology and vampirism
Some people claim that vampire stories might have been influenced by a rare illness called porphyria. The disease disrupts production of hemoglobin.
People with extreme cases of this hereditary disease can be so sensitive to sunlight that they can get a sunburn through heavy
cloud cover. However, the hypotheses that porphyria sufferers "crave" the hematin in human blood, or that the consumption of
blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based in ignorance.
Others believe that there is a relationship between vampirism and rabies. The legend
of vampirism is known to have existed in the 19th century Eastern
Europe, where there were massive rabies outbreaks. Rabies causes high fever, loss of appetite, and fatigue as initial
symptoms. In later stages, patients try to avoid the sunlight and prefer walking at night. Strong light and mirrors can cause episodes characterized by violent and animal-like behaviors and a tendency to
attack people and bite them. Concomitant facial spasms might give the patient an animal-like (or a vampire-like) expression. In a
furious form of the disease, patients might have an increased urgency for sexual activity or occasionally vomit blood. Rabies is
contagious.
Fountain of blood when staked
As a body decomposes, the internal organs rot first because the food that is fermenting there continues fermenting and can't
get out. As a result, a body can swell like a balloon. Put pressure on this and the pressure seeks a way out.
Finding vampires in graves
When the coffin of an alleged vampire was opened, people sometimes found the cadaver in a "healthy state" and beautiful,
meaning that the corpse was a well-fed and pale-skinned vampire. Reasons for this appearance include:
- In life, people were often malnourished and therefore thin. Corpses swell as gasses from decomposition accumulate in the
torso. The implication was that the corpse was not famished and, because blood was sometimes found in the corners of the mouth,
it was assumed that the "vampire" had been drinking blood.
- Before modern times, people had pale skin only when they didn't work on the land, such as nobility. Nobility also commonly
had longer fingernails, as theirs didn't break from doing hard labour. The skin around the fingernails retracts, which make them
seem even longer. Paleness of a corpse occurs because, eventually, the upper skin is shed, revealing the white skin
underneath.
Vampire bats
The three extant species of vampire bat 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 unlikely that the folkloric vampire represents a distorted presentation or memory of the bat. 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. However, once the vampire bats
became known in western culture, their existence certainly reinforced and shaped the vampire legend, and it is common for
vampires to be represented as bat-like in one way or another and have the ability to transform into one when desired.
Vampires in Literature, Art and Pop Culture
Lord Byron introduced many common elements of the vampire theme to Western
literature in his epic poem The Giaour (1813). These include the
combination of horror and lust that the vampire feels and the concept of the undead passing its inheritance to the living.
(Note: In the following excerpt, corse is "corpse".)
- But thou, false Infidel! shalt writhe
- Beneath avenging Monkir's scythe;
- And from its torment 'scape alone
- To wander round lost Eblis' throne;
- And fire unquenched, unquenchable,
- Around, within, thy heart shall dwell;
- Nor ear can hear nor tongue can tell
- The tortures of that inward hell!
- But first, on earth as vampire sent,
- Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent:
- Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
- And suck the blood of all thy race;
- There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
- At midnight drain the stream of life;
- Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
- Must feed thy livid living corse:
- Thy victims ere they yet expire
- Shall know the demon for their sire,
- As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
- Thy flowers are withered on the stem.
Ironically, Byron's own wild life became the model for the protagonist Lord Ruthven in the first vampire novel, The
Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori. An
unauthorized sequel to this novel by Cyprien Bérard called Lord Ruthven on es Vampires (1820) was adapted by Charles
Nodier into the first vampire stage melodrama.
Bram Stoker's Dracula has been the definitive description of the vampire
in popular fiction for the last century. Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease (contagious demonic possession!), with its
undertones of sex, blood, and death, struck a chord in a Victorian England where tuberculosis and syphilis were common. Before the Victorian era,
the romantic connection between vampires and sex did not exist.
Dracula is believed to be based at least partially on legends about a
real person, Vlad Tepes, a savagely cruel prince known also as Vlad III Dracula (Drăculea, or "Dracula", meaning "son of the dragon";
his father was called Dracul (The Dragon) after being "inducted into the Order of the Dragon in 1431") also known as Vlad the
Impaler, who lived in the late Middle Ages in what is now Romania. Stoker is believed to have seen a reference in an article by Emily Gerard who said
that Dracula was a word meaning the Devil. (Emily Gerard, "Transylvanian Superstitions." Nineteenth Century
(July 1885): 130-150). Oral tradition regarding Tepes includes his having made a practice of torturing peasants who displeased
him and hanging them, or parts of them, such as heads, on stakes around his castle or manor house. Tepes may have suffered from
porphyria. His rumored periodic abdominal agony, especially after eating, and
bouts of delirium might indicate presence of the disease.
Stoker also probably derived inspiration from Irish myths of
blood-sucking creatures. He also was almost certainly influenced by a contemporary vampire story, Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu. Le Fanu was
Stoker's editor when Stoker was a theatre critic in Dublin, Ireland.
Much 20th-century vampire fiction draws heavily on Stoker's formulation; early films such as Nosferatu and those featuring Bela Lugosi or
Christopher Lee are examples of this. Nosferatu, in fact,
was clearly based on Dracula, and Stoker's widow sued for copyright infringement and won. As a result of the suit, most
prints of the film were destroyed. She later allowed the film to be shown in England.
Though most other works of vampire fiction do not feature Dracula as a character, there is typically a clear inspiration from
Stoker, reflected in a fascination with sex and wealth, as well as overwhelmingly frequent use of Gothic settings and iconography. A contemporary descendant is the series of novels by Anne Rice, the most popular in a genre of modern stories that use vampires as their
protagonists.
Other literary vampire tales include:
- Carmilla, perhaps the most atmospheric vampire story ever, written by
Sheridan le Fanu
- Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood, by James
Malcolm Rymer, a Victorian best-seller and pot-boiler
- Dracula by Bram
Stoker (also the inspiration for many films)
- Interview with the Vampire (also a
film) and other books in The Vampire
Chronicles, by Anne Rice
- A series of novels by science fiction author Fred Saberhagen.
- I am Legend by Richard Matheson. An interesting twist: Vampirism is caused by a bacterium (the use of a wooden stake
keeps air in the wound, preventing the bacterium from making repairs), and after the pandemic the hero is the last normal person
in a world filled with vampires. It was original filmed as The Last Man on
Earth starring Vincent Price and remade as The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston.
- From Dusk Till Dawn, a film directed by Robert Rodriquez, cowritten by
and featuring Quentin Tarantino. It begins as one of Tarantino's
more usual crime stories, but flips halfway through into a vampire film.
- Vampires, a film by John Carpenter (very
loosely based on the novel Vampire$ by John Steakley)
- Blade, a comic book and film series, one in a subgenre that features half-human, half-vampire warriors or
protagonists.
- 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
- Nosferatu (also in a later remake with a brilliant Klaus Kinski)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its
television spinoff Angel, one in a
subgenre that features Vampire Hunters or Vampire Slayers, destined to kill or specialized in killing the creatures.
- Forever Knight is a television series featuring
vampires
- Fright Night
(movies)
- The Season
of Passage by Christopher Pike
- Japanese anime and manga features vampires in several titles, including Vampire Hunter D, Vampire Princess Miyu, Blood: The Last Vampire, Hellsing and
Shingetsutan Tsukihime.
- Comic books and graphic
novels such as Tomb of Dracula, Vampirella, 30 Days of Night and the
aforementioned Blade.
- Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett pastiches the traditions of vampire
literature, plays with the mythic archetypes and features a tongue-in-cheek reversal of vampyre subculture with young vampires
who wear bright clothes, drink wine, and stay up until noon.
- Body of Myths, a book series in-the-making.
- Role-playing games such as Vampire: The Masquerade, in which the participants play
the roles of fictional vampires.
- The video game series Castlevania is a long-running series in which the protagonist battles a new incarnation of Dracula in every game.
- Another video game series Legacy of Kain is a five game long
series, in which vampires were an ancient wise race and had their blood thirst, imortality and aversion to sunlight inflicted on
them by another race called the Hylden
The "Vampire subculture"
The vampire subculture describes a contemporary subculture marked by an
obsessive fascination with, and emulation of, contemporary vampire lore, including everything from fashion and music to the
actual exchange of blood. Members of the subculture ("vampirists") often prefer the spelling "vampyre" to distinguish themselves
from the "fictional" vampire while simultaneously adding a pseudo-Victorian flair to their activities.
The subculture is typically delineated by a particular style of dress and decor that combines Victorian, Punk, Glam, and styles featured in vampire films and fiction. Although often associated with the Goth subculture, most goths do not enjoy the association with the negative stereotype portrayed in
the media and, as a result, actively dislike members of the vampire subculture. Although this subculture is most popular in the
United States of America, it has members throughout
Europe and eastern Asia.
Most modern practitioners of vampirism do not believe themselves to be undead
creatures; rather, they use vampirism as a means of practicing magic(k). For example, they claim that they are taking life
energy from another (usually a willing donor who also practices vampirism) to increase their own energy and vitality. Vampirists
do not necessarily obtain this energy from blood, but will use other physical, spiritual or psychic means to obtain this energy
(for example, there are self-styled "sexual vampires" and "psychic vampires").
A number of these vampires not only practice vamprirism but actually believe themselves to be the vampires of legend, or some
similar creature (for example, a "lost race" of Homo sapiens; see otherkin for further discussion of this phenomenon). Many outside this group see this as a
form of mental illness (often associating it with disassociative identity disorder, schizophrenia or antisocial personality disorder), or in the case of some vampiric groups a cult.
As a word of caution, it should be noted that consumption of human blood exposes both parties involved to a range of high-risk
blood-borne pathogens and diseases.
For more on the topic of modern vampire cults, see vampire
lifestyle.
Etymology
Eng. vampire < German vampir < early Old Polish *vaper',
[a=nasal "a" - close to Fr -an, e=short "ye", r'=soft "r" similar to "ree" with very very short ee] < OldSlav. *oper' (o=nasal
o); South Slav. (for example:Serbian): "vampir" just like modern
Polish: "wampir" (Pl.w=v) from German. According to the Oxford English Dictionary it probably has its
origins in a Turkish word for "witch", although others dispute
this.
See also
- Chinese vampire
- Elizabeth Báthory
- Vampire bats
- List of vampire movies
- Sharna
External links
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