(Disclaimer: The article written and posted in here are not my own ideas. They were taken from different sources throughout the internet. Enjoy reading!)
The concept of a vampiric culture truly is catching on like the common cold. It's almost a religion to some and not wrongfully so. A religion in a core sense, when scrubbed raw to the point, is a spiritual belief that gives a kind of drive to the living. Even money can be a religion to some. It's a belief that pulls one forward or adds paranormal flavour to otherwise mundane life. After all, if you cannot place belief in the mystical, even magical unseen, life almost doesn't seem worth trudging through when taken at face value, does it? Work, sleep, clean, buy, work, sleep, clean, buy. As we all know, the basis of vampirism is as old as time. Technically, even parasitic, or one celled organisms consuming each other is vampiric in nature. Dog eat dog, if you will. In actuality, it is a beautiful, complicated practice with roots, as aforementioned, deep as the oceans, strong as steel.
Regretfully, (though names and purposes will be left unspoken) there are those whom corrupt and dilute it. Swords taken through the back are even dealt to unrelated role players, through whom some find this practice. As an affirmation to those still confused, yes, you can play a game and still not believe you ARE your character.
Even worse still, pop culture has created a rise in those drawn to the subject for the wrong reasons. It encourages individuals to seek it out based on cinematic and romanticized falsities. Creating legions of flaky pretenders who discourage all who don't believe Anne Rice's words are any god's, from furthering their innocent, natural attraction to practices and sites such as this. In all honesty, this is more than half the reason I have never outwardly pursued it prior to now. Even artwork, the showing of soul, must be censored due to those who fail to separate fact and fantasy. All the fruit loops act as a barrier betwixt understanding and the rationally cautious.
There are those who refuse to acknowledge that the word "vampire/vampyre" is generally a metaphor, nod, symbol etc. and take it to it's folklore roots. While I myself do dress in black and occasionally wear fake fangs, I do not believe these aesthetic preferences make me more powerful or, especially immortal. Nor do I avoid sunlight other than for a few personal reasons...I don't want to tan, I find it ugly and it hurts my eyes. I certainly don't feel that it burns or curses me any further than the promotion of skin cancer. The sad truth is, some do. Fashion and popular trends can even heavily sway personality and beliefs in those types.
Within itself even, vampiric energy exchange has been divided. There are those who go too far, those who know it's all basic energy exchange given a more attractive title, those who become lecherous, fool hardy, fetish driven fanatics, those whose intentions are historically noble and those who are swayed by what the fool hardy do to the point of looking down at their brethren for seeking a different medium. In other words, the tainting of sanguine or more physical nature. Energy can be shared in a variety of forms and it seems rather crusade-ish for us to limit those outlets if they be not sloppy, careless or malicious.
Let's go into the basic truth of the method, regardless of the means. Even scientifically, factually and medically, the body contains electrical charges. The brain even fires these for a short time after death, proving the body itself is a battery. Being deprived of vital "battery" life is a common problem even in modern times. Think of energy drinks, coffee and even over sleeping. Humans have been deriving "go juice" from each other in simple, undetectable ways such as drama queens, intimate contact and stimulating conversation.
The human race has been feeding off of each other unknowingly each and every day. Everyone can manipulate energy but only some need to and have a gift for it. Some can see auras while others cannot, some need to touch, some need to ingest and others can do so with a single focused thought. Yet others can use any of the above mentioned methods to fulfill their needs. It has also become a debate whether the depriving of such an exchange can physically effect these individuals in a negative manner.
Why not? It seems every minuscule veritable can contribute to one's well being. Maybe it cannot be studied in a solidly scientific nature, but then, it's not a wholly scientific topic. The intangible has continued to elude or fence in one dimensional minds for ages. Even bees can't fly according to logic and at one point, the world was flat.
I won't go into too much length herein about the historical importance being as how I have previously covered it, but if you bother to inspect any past culture, there are always strong indications of both human vampires and those creatures of folklore. In a rough sense even psy vampirisim isn't so much different than the dated tales of succubi and incubi, whom were said to withdrawal an individual's "life energy" via sometimes no more than their presence in the same room.
Vampirism is a varied, difficult subject for the sane, believer or no. It is a religion, life style, practice, way of life, that has been distorted and lost in the uproar of the now. The important point is to remember your roots and stay true to your nature, ignoring what outside sources try to inject you with. Magic can be lost when you get swept up in the nine to five, in the talk of gravity, mortality and yes, even fantasy. Regardless of all the madness, stay true to the method.
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The Shifting Spiritual Nature of Vampyrism E-mail
Written by Allin
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
General Vampirism“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” - William James, 1842-1910
I can without much uncertainty state that a great plethora of my own prejudices in support of the broad thinkers and the great debaters that I personally have come to admire in and throughout this vast community is due to the ability of many who veil themselves with the label of Vampyre, tend to also be cogent and valued thinkers in their own right. Not in any attempt to place one body of people outside the family of mankind or the realm of other thinkers in the world in any way.
It simply remains that some of the most enduring personalities that I believe I personally have ever encountered tend also to reside for at least a part of their conscious life, in this community and share of themselves, of their knowledge for their own fascinations connected to these plain issues and their abilities to recognize an apple for an apple and a proverbial orange for an orange. What then happens when one states that the apple has become the orange, when in frank terms it still for all seeming reasoning appears as an apple? Surely this person’s opinion is valued enough by me to consider the possibility that in fact it might now be an orange? Could it, would it?
Being so clouded in metaphors as it is might appear a bit extraneous in its own right, but the intent surely is apparent. Because someone might have an altered opinion on something that in the past appeared to be largely couched in certain terms, one way or the other doesn’t mean there is any reduced passion or an ever lessened sense of fascination in something. In many cases it can merely mean that things have begun to shift in the mind and in the soul and the spirit of someone and as a result their world and their innate definitions that construct that world have taken on a shifted change from where in the past, it all seemed to an outside view to be placed on a firm yet different foundation. With time spent in thought and the events and the contemplation of life’s experiences, comes ones certain growth and change from one state of being to another state of being. This cycle and process to the physical nature of life cannot be denied, for the proof lies only a mirror away, and so then it must be true that ones inner spiritual and soulful self also must grow, and shift and change from one specific state of being to another. This process has been likened in past circles to an awakening in short order to meet ones advent of an awareness and then the eventual growth of this awareness from one state of spiritual being, then into another state of being that in many communities such as these is seen by many as a sensible reaction to a very real metaphysical condition. This certainly makes most sense to those who in one way or another have taken the time and effort to focus their own mind and thoughts inward to contemplate this over some time. The end point of this kind of an awareness we quickly find isn’t an endpoint at all, but rather the starting point on a vast journey of ones soul across another azure sea to a new land with grand new ideas that enamor the mind and tantalize ones spiritual self with all of the ways of life as once held as they were, and as they now seem to be shifting towards.
This shifting of life as it happens to everyone regardless of circumstance reminds me of all of the souls I’ve heard speak of one of the greatest life changing events that can ever be, the birth of ones child. I can recall hearing an interview with one Actor who I quite admire, Johnny Depp. He sat in the interview and verbally related to the best of his ability how all of his life had seemed to him up until the point when he became a Father. He stated that suddenly the entire meaning to his life came into crystal focus, probably for the first time ever. He stated that the road was never the same after that event and probably wouldn’t ever be again. This certain and most extreme case of a life changing event does exhibit in a purist sense, just how changing some amount of time can be on someone’s life. Ones entire landscape varies, ones priorities shift and they move from a focus on the importance of one set of values and into another set of values, with some values remaining at the core of the self, unchanging and set in stone as guiding principles. Sometimes this process is slow, rather sure in its frequency and at a manageable pace, and then other times the process can be a virtual whirlwind, so uncertain that one hasn’t a real clue to its nature until some time settles in and one can proceed along the new course one suddenly finds themselves along. Johnny Depp related how his life had just “been” as it was up to the birth of his child, and after this event, it all started to make some sense to him. I never forgot his words for those were the loving words of a Father who had undergone a major “re-awakening” of his spirit. The shine in his eye said everything to anyone looking at it.
Many times its spoken that some of the things that absorb ones concern and do matter one day, just don’t seem to matter as much the next as life moves along and as ones priorities and the soulful nature of the self shifts from one manner of ones own nature to the next. A great part of this resides in the very aspect of living a spiritual life, for nothing of any spiritual nature can ever as it’s said, exist in a vacuum. Nothing remains stagnant and certainly nothing is without its own change.
Even the core values of ethics, of decency and of community that seem to take on such a hue of brilliance as they do often times become the subject of relevance and irrelevancy as compared to the relativistic society that seems to be such the nature in today’s common age. Many would state that in a manner of thinking of oneself as a soulful and a spiritual being as one who identifies as Vampyric, would need to stand on some firm grounding or foundation of responsible ethics in order to structure ones own spiritual self in relation to the world around them. Without such core principles in an active and a shifting dymanic life, much might rather become the victim of irrelevancy and an eternally relativistic outlook on things. The results of this have been seen and witnessed many times for what they are; an unbound sense of entropy and a complete lacking of responsibility to either oneself or to anyone in proximity. Life simply cannot exist without such basic structure and discipline and to state that it can is neglecting common sense. The nature to growth can easily become decline simply guised in another suit and without ones core, growth can easily degrade into an entropy effect in life.
This however doesn’t retract the fact that as time moves on many Vampyric souls do shift and change their perspectives on the things of life as they relate to them. This is normal, and certainly an expected path that everyone follows in life, and without much of a doubt its why we often see mindful, brilliant and soulfully spiritual souls come, spend much time in thought and in laughter, and eventually we no longer see them. They have left the rubric of our presence and gone on with their lives. This isn’t a negative turn of events, while however remaining sad and certainly mournful ones for the great loss that is often felt by their absence. This shifting of faces and of personalities can however be viewed as the greatest benefit of having been in the presence of a community such as this one. Along with the growth of ones spiritual and soulful nature, comes ones eventual exit and departure for new and meaningful particulars in life. Not in the least a two dimensional view of life at all, as might be the case for other varied communities of souls caught into the rubric of their own natures. Many of those who consider themselves Vampyric and have spent time sharing of themselves and of growing through the process of giving as much as they take in terms of learning and of enlightenment give everyone the greatest gift they can of themselves. They give their thoughts and their passions, the philosophy of their loves and their hates, their likes and their dislikes and when all is done and someone feels the time has come to move on to other things, its okay for them to move on. This is the landscape view of a three dimensional thinker who is able to view their benefits and their drawbacks hand in hand with their physical life and their metaphysical one. They realize that life sometimes moves down a different course for them, and sometimes this course is different from your own.
As Straczynski spoke so well and I believe it to be a great spiritual truth to all relationships in any group or gathering of people:
“As you continue on your path, you will lose some friends and gain new ones. The process is painful but often necessary. They will change and you will change because life is change. From time to time, they must find their own way and that way may not be yours. Enjoy them for what they are, and remember them for what they were.”
This spiritual vision I believe sometimes can be experienced to an even greater extent amongst a vast and wide community of sensitive, empathic and spiritual souls as the Vampyric who all, even sometimes to their dismay and argument, are in some way over time and through a fashion tied to one another in a fellowship that for most of society moves outside of their understanding. We are three dimensional people, three dimensional thinkers by our very nature and thereby our reactions can also exhibit this in our loves and in the passion of our needs and our relationships. This is at the core of the shifting nature of our spiritual selves and this is what speaks loudest to the reactions often witnessed when some as James said, re-arrange their prejudices in life. Nothing is ever lost in the experience and certainly never to the memory of what has come and gone and transitioned into a new state of being.
People come and go and places come and go as do our perceptions of our lives. This is simple and yet sometimes the most difficult of things to grasp at in life. It is and it remains however one of the greatest of definitions of our self and ourselves as we compare our lives as vampyric to those who do not. The experience tends to be one in the same, only the spiritual perception has shifted.
Think on it. Life comes into focus again, and again, and again…and with it, our own re-awakening time and again…
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The Vampire, by Philip Burne-Jones, 1897
Vampires are mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living. In folkloric tales, the undead vampires often 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 gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early Nineteenth Century. 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 superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although local variants were also known by different names, such as vampir (вампир) in Serbia, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism.
In modern times, however, 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. Early folkloric belief in vampires has been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalise this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but this link has since been largely discredited.
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 arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula that 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, and television shows. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre.
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Etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first appearance of the word vampire in English from 1734, in a travelogue titled Travels of Three English Gentlemen published in the Harleian Miscellany in 1745. Vampires had already been discussed in German literature. After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia in 1718, officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and "killing vampires". These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity.
The English term was derived (possibly via French vampyre) from the German Vampir, in turn thought to be derived in the early 18th century from the Serbian вампир/vampir. The Serbian form has 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; these are distinct from the original local words for the creature.) The exact etymology is unclear. Among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь. Like its possible cognate that means "bat" (Czech netopýr, Slovak netopier, Polish nietoperz, Russian нетопырь / netopyr' - a species of bat), the Slavic word might contain a Proto-Indo-European root for "to fly". An older theory is that the Slavic languages have borrowed the word from a Turkic term for "witch" (e.g., Tatar ubyr).
The first recorded use of the Old Russian form Упирь (Upir') is commonly believed to be in a document dated 6555 (1047 AD). 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.[15] The priest writes that his name is "Upir' Likhyi " (Упирь Лихый), which means something like "Wicked Vampire" or "Foul Vampire".[16] This apparently strange name has been cited as an example both of surviving paganism and of the use of nicknames as personal names.[17]
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]
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 early 18th century Southeastern Europe,[1] when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires.[20]
Description and common attributes
Vampyren "The Vampire," by Edvard Munch.
It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were 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 Transylvanian 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 while naked, and those 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] Common attributes were sometimes described, such as red hair.[24] Some were reported to be able to transform into bats, rats, dogs, wolves, spiders and even moths.[25] From these various legends, works of literature such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the influences of historical bloodthirsty figures such as Gilles de Rais, Elizabeth Bathory, and Vlad Ţepeş, the vampire developed into the modern stereotype.[20][24]
Creating vampires
The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse which was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead.[26] A body with a wound which had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had 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,[27] 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 the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld; it has been argued that instead, the coin was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in 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 a vampire.[28] 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.[29] Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampire-like being came across a sack of rice, it 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.[30]
Identifying vampires
Many elaborate rituals were used to identify a vampire. 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.[31] Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism.[32]
Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition.[33] In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face.[34] 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,[35] and pressing on people in their sleep.[36]
Protection
An image from Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté
Apotropaics—mundane or sacred items able to ward off revenants—such as garlic[37] or holy water are common 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 them away.[38] 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.[39] Although not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic, mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed facing outwards on a door (in some cultures, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a soul).[40] This attribute, although not universal (the Greek vrykolakas/tympanios was capable of both reflection and shadow), was utilized by Bram Stoker in Dracula and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers.[41] Some traditions also hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner, although after the first invitation they can come and go as they please.[40] Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight.[41]
Methods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in southern Slavic cultures.[42] Ash was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states,[43] or hawthorn in Serbia,[44] with a record of oak in Silesia.[45] Potential vampires were most often staked though the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany[46][47] and the stomach in northeastern Serbia.[48] Piercing the skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the bloated 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 while transforming into a revenant.[49] 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.[50] This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, 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.[51] 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, by repeating the funeral service, by 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. In Saxon regions of Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires.[52]
Ancient beliefs
Lilith (1892), by John Collier.
Tales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries.[53] Today we would associate these entities with vampires, but in ancient times, the term vampire did not exist; blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to demons or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the devil was considered synonymous with the vampire.[54] Almost every nation has associated blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India, for example, tales of vetalas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, 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.[55] Pishacha, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes.[56] The Ancient Indian goddess Kali, with fangs and a garland of corpses or skulls, was also intimately linked with the drinking of blood.[57] In Egypt, the goddess Sekhmet drank blood.
The Persians were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shards.[58] Ancient Babylonia had tales of the mythical Lilitu,[59] synonymous with and giving rise to Lilith (Hebrew לילית) and her daughters the Lilu from Hebrew demonology. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies. However, the Jewish counterparts were said to feast on both men and women, as well as newborns.[59]
Ancient Greek and Roman mythology described the Empusae,[60] Lamia,[61] and the striges. 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.[60] Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood.[61] 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.[62]
Medieval and later European folklore
Main article: Vampire folklore by region
Many of the myths surrounding vampires originated during the medieval period. The 12th century English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants,[20][63] though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant.[64] 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 to identify and kill the potential revenants; even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires.[65] Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in a mass hysteria throughout most of Europe.[20] 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, 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 supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.[65] In the second case, 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.[66] Another famous Serbian legend involving vampires concentrates around certain Sava Savanović living in a watermill and killing and drinking blood from millers. The folklore character was later used in a story written by Serbian writer Milovan Glišić and in the Serbian 1973 horror film Leptirica inspired by the story.
The two incidents were well-documented: government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe.[66] The hysteria, 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 increased. 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.[67] In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote:[68]
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.[67]
Non-European beliefs
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,[69] and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children.[70] 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.[71]
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.[72] 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.[73] Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American superstition.[30] 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.[74] The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism 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, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes.[75]
Asia
Rooted in older folklore, the modern belief in vampires spread throughout Asia with tales of 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.[76] 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. Although vampires have appeared in Japanese Cinema since the late 1950s, the folklore behind it was western in origin.[77] However, the Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night.[78]
Legends of female vampire-like beings who can detach parts of their upper body also 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.[79]
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.[80] 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.[81] The Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore.[82] A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia,[83] or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia,[84] 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.[85]
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.[86] One unusual feature of this vampire is its greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses.[87]
Modern beliefs
In modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic villain.[22] Despite the general disbelief in vampiric entities, occasional sightings of vampires are reported. Indeed, vampire hunting societies still exist, although they are largely formed for social reasons.[20] Allegations of 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.[88]
In early 1970 local press spread rumors 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.[89] In January 2005, rumours circulated 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.[90]
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.[91]
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. 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 2004, several relatives of 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.[92]
Vampirism also represents a relevant part of modern day's occultist movements. The mythos of the vampire, his magickal qualities, allure, and predatory archetype express a strong symbolism that can be used in ritual, energy work, and magick, and can even be adopted as a spiritual system. The vampire has been part of the occult society in Europe for centuries and has spread into the American sub-culture as well for more than a decade, being strongly influenced by and mixed with the neo gothic aesthetics.[93]
Origins of vampire beliefs
Le Vampire,
lithograph by R. de Moraine
Les Tribunaux secrets (1864), stakings often resulted in dramatic explosions of organic material from the corpse or other phenomena, suggesting a supernatural origin. However, this may have been caused by the build-up of natural gas and fluids that the body endures after death.
Many theories for the origins of vampire beliefs have been offered as an explanation for the superstition, and sometimes mass hysteria, caused by vampires. Everything ranging from premature burial to the early ignorance of the body's decomposition cycle after death has been cited as the cause for the belief in vampires.
Slavic Spiritualism
Although many cultures possess revenant superstitions comparable to the Eastern European vampire, the Slavic vampire is the revenant superstition that pervades popular culture's concept of vampire. The roots of vampire belief in Slavic culture are significantly based in the spiritual beliefs and practices of the pre-Christianized Slavic peoples and their understanding of life after death. Despite a lack of pre-Christian Slavic writings describing the details of the Old Religion, many pagan spiritual beliefs and rituals have been sustained by Slavic peoples even after their lands were Christianized. Examples of such pagan beliefs and practices include ancestor worship, household spirits, and beliefs about the soul after death. The origins of vampire beliefs can in Slavic regions can be traced to the complex structure of Slavic spiritualism.
Demons and spirits served important functions in pre-industrial Slavic societies and were considered to be very interactive in the lives and domains of humans. Some spirits were benevolent and could be helpful in human tasks, others were harmful and often destructive. Examples of such spirits are Domovoi, Rusalka, Vila, Kikimora, Poludnitsa, and Vodyanoy. These spirits were also considered to be derived from ancestors or certain deceased humans. Such spirits could appear at will in various forms including that of different animals or human form. Some of these spirits could also participate in malevolent activity to harm humans, such as drowning humans, obstructing the harvest, or sucking the blood of livestock and sometimes humans. Hence, the Slavs were obliged to appease these spirits to prevent the spirits from their potential for erratic and destructive behavior.[94]
Common Slavic belief indicates a stark distinction between soul and body. The soul is not considered to be perishable. The Slavs believed that upon death the soul would go out of the body and wander about its neighborhood and workplace for 40 days before moving on to an eternal afterlife.[94] Because of this, it was considered necessary to leave a window or door open in the house for the soul to pass through at its leisure. During this time the soul was believed to have the capability of reentering the corpse of the deceased. Much like the spirits mentioned earlier, the passing soul could either bless or wreck havoc on its family and neighbors during its 40 days of passing. Upon an individual's death, much stress was placed on proper burial rites to ensure the soul's purity and peace as it separated from the body. The death of an unbaptized child, a violent or an untimely death, or the death of a grievous sinner (such as a sorcerer or murderer) were all grounds for a soul to become unclean after death. A soul could also be made unclean if its body were not given a proper burial. Alternatively, a body not given a proper burial could be susceptible to possession by other unclean souls and spirits. An unclean soul was so fearful to the Slavs because of its potential for vengeance. [95]
From these deeply implicated beliefs pertaining to death and the soul derives the invention of the Slavic concept of vampir. A vampire is the manifestation of an unclean spirit possessing a decomposing body. This undead creature is considered to be vengeful and jealous towards the living and needing the blood of the living to sustain its body's existence. [96] Although this concept of vampire exists in slightly deviating forms throughout Slavic countries and some of their non-Slavic neighbors, it is possible to trace the development of vampire belief to Slavic spiritualism preexisting Christianity in Slavic regions.
Pathology
Decomposition
Paul Barber in his book Vampires, Burial and Death has described that belief in vampires resulted from people of pre-industrial societies attempting to explain the natural, but to them inexplicable, process of death and decomposition.[97]
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.[98][99] 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.[100] The exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had recently been engaging in vampiric activity.[34] Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition.[101] 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".[102]
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."[102]
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."[103] 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.[104] Another likely cause of disordered tombs is grave robbing.[105]
Contagion
Folkloric vampirism has been associated with a series of deaths due to unidentifiable or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community.[74] The epidemic allusion 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. As with the pneumonic form of bubonic plague, it was associated with breakdown of lung tissue which would cause blood to appear at the lips.[106]
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.[107] 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.[108] 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.[109] Despite being dismissed by experts, the link gained media attention[110] and entered popular modern folklore.[111]
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.[112][113]
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.[114] 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.[115] 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.[116]
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.[117]
Political interpretation
The reinvention of the vampire myth in the modern era is not without political overtones.[118] The aristocratic Count Dracula, alone in his castle apart from a few demented retainers, appearing only at night to feed on his peasantry, is symbolic of the parasitic Ancien regime. Werner Herzog, in his Nosferatu the Vampyre, gives this political interpretation an extra ironic twist when his young estate agent hero becomes the next vampire; in this way the capitalist bourgeois becomes the next parasitic class.[119]
Psychopathology
A number of murderers have performed seemingly vampiric rituals upon their victims. Serial killers Peter Kürten 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.[120] 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.[121]
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.[122] 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.[123]
Vampire bats
Main article: Vampire bat
A vampire bat in Peru
Although many cultures have stories about them, vampire bats have only recently become an integral part of the traditional vampire lore. Indeed, vampire bats were only integrated into vampire folklore when they were discovered on the South American mainland in the 16th century.[124] The vampire bat was revered in Central American culture; Camazotz was a bat god of the caves who lived in the bathhouse of the Underworld. Although there are no vampire bats in Europe, bats and owls have long been associated with the supernatural and omens, although mainly due to their nocturnal habits,[124][125] and in modern English heraldic tradition, a bat means "Awareness of the powers of darkness and chaos".[126]
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 unlikely that the folkloric vampire represents a distorted presentation or memory of the vampire 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.[dubious – discuss] The bats were named after the folkloric vampire rather than vice versa; the Oxford English Dictionary records their folkloric use in English from 1734 and the zoological not until 1774. Although the vampire bat's bite is usually not harmful to a person, the bat has been known to actively feed on humans and large prey such as cattle and often leave the trademark, two-prong bite mark on its victim's skin.
Though the literary Dracula's 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 the resulting film, where Bela Lugosi would transform into a bat. The bat transformation scene would again be used by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1943's Son of Dracula. Ironically, vampire bats are small creatures and have never been used in the film industry; instead, the much larger flying fox bat is used in bat transformation scenes.
In modern fiction
The vampire is now a fixture in popular fiction. Such fiction began with eighteenth century poetry and continued with nineteenth century short stories, the first and most influential of which was John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), featuring the vampire Lord Ruthven. Lord Ruthven's exploits were further explored in a series of vampire plays in which he was the anti-hero. The vampire theme continued in penny dreadful serial publications such as Varney the Vampire (1847) and culminated in the pre-eminent vampire novel of all time: Dracula by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. 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 Count Dracula both bearing protruding teeth, and Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) fearing daylight. The cloak appeared in stage productions of the 1820s, with a high collar introduced by playwright Hamilton Deane to help Dracula 'vanish' on stage. Lord Ruthven and Varney were able to be healed by moonlight, although no account of this is known in traditional folklore. Implied though not often explicitly documented in folklore, immortality is one attribute which features heavily in vampire film and literature. Much is made of the price of eternal life, namely the incessant need for blood of former equals.
Literature
Main article: Vampire literature
"Carmilla" by D. H. Friston, 1872, from The Dark Blue
The vampire or revenant first appeared in poems such as The Vampire (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, Lenore (1773) by Gottfried August Bürger, Die Braut von Corinth (The Bride of Corinth (1797) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished Christabel and Lord Byron's The Giaour (1813). Byron was also credited with the first prose fiction piece concerned with vampires: The Vampyre (1819). However this was in reality authored by Byron's personal physician, John Polidori, who adapted an enigmatic fragmentary tale of his illustrious patient. Byron's own dominating personality, mediated by his lover Lady Caroline Lamb in her unflattering roman-a-clef, Glenarvon (a Gothic fantasia based on Byron's wild life), was used as a model for Polidori's undead protagonist Lord Ruthven. The Vampyre was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.
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. Another important addition to the genre was 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.
No effort to depict vampires in popular fiction was as influential or as definitive as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). 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 by Emily Gerard and other books about Transylvania and vampires. A member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 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.
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' 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).
The twenty first century has brought more examples of vampire fiction, such as Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and other highly popular vampire books which appeal to teenagers and young adults. Such vampiric paranormal romance novels and allied vampiric chick-lit and vampiric occult detective stories are a remarkably popular and ever-expanding contemporary publishing phenomenon.[138] L.A. Banks' The Vampire Huntress Legend Series, Laurell K. Hamilton's erotic Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, and Kim Harrison's The Hollows series, portray the vampire in a variety of new perspectives, some of them unrelated to the original legends.
Film and television
Main article: Vampire films
Count Orlock, a well-known example of vampire fiction, from the 1922 film Nosferatu
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 but 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.
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. 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.
The pilot for the Dan Curtis 1972 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker revolved around reporter Carl Kolchak hunting a vampire on the Las Vegas strip. Later films showed more diversity in plotline, with some focusing on the vampire-hunter such as Blade in the Marvel Comics' Blade films 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. This increase of interest in vampiric plotlines led to the vampire being depicted in movies such as Underworld and Van Helsing, the Russian Night Watch and a TV miniseries remake of 'Salem's Lot, both from 2004. The series Blood Ties premiered on Lifetime Television in 2007, featuring a character portrayed as Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII of England turned vampire, in modern-day Toronto, with a female former Toronto detective in the starring role. A new series from HBO, entitled True Blood, gives a Southern take to the vampire theme. 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 Internet age — and the perennial dread of mortality. In some cases of modern fictionalised representation of vampires, the condition or lifestyle is more strongly revealed to be purely a curse, rather than having any good merit. An example of this would be Moon Child where Kei hates that he continues living while watching friends die, and that he hates he has to end a life to continue living himself. When he refuses to 'save' Yi Che (his initial love interest who dies from a tumor) and only reluctantly (so as not to be alone while Kei follows through with his promise to care for Sho's daughter, Hana) 'saves' Sho from death. His condition is fixed when Kei and Sho decide to let the sunrise kill them, revealing an afterlife where he is apparently free from vampiric qualities, and happy.
