On a cold and windy night with the widow rattling and the woodwork creaking, the movie of the night on the television screen was the showing of an old Dracula film starring Bela Lugosi, and I assure you it was still quite frightening. Now let us not delve on the film and to prepare ourselves for a trip to the dark world of vampires and read of their history and background. Don't be frightened..
Vampires according to legends and folklore 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. The word "vampire" comes from the Slavic word obyri or obiri, which evolved into the Bulgarian word "vampir". In our culture, the words "vampire" and "nosferatu" are interchanged often.
The fictitious vampire Dracula was and still is a major character in more movies and television than any other series and that includes Sherlock Holmes. Many early films on vampires were either based on the novel of Dracula by Bram Stocker or closely derived from it; and the first was the landmark 1922 German silent film 'Nosferatu' directed by F.W. Murnau and featuring the first film portrayal of Dracula. In addition to this film was Universals Studio's Dracula series beginning in 1931 to 1936 until a real life vampire arose in Germany; it starred Bela Lugosi as the count in what was the first talking film to portray Dracula. Bela Lugosi will always be remembered as the first Count Dracula on the silver screen, and he is primarily responsible for the popular wealthy aristocrat appearance, black cape, fangs, widows peak, and Transylvanian accent that is so characteristic of the vampire stereotype.
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 beginning in 1958 (seven in all), starring Christopher Lee as the Count. Today television brought to its audience its version of Dracula series 'The Night Stalker', 'Buffy the Vampire Killer', 'Angel', etc..
Now we ask ourselves who is the creature called Dracula a vampire in legends, folktales and myths is a vicious creature in the guise of a human being who overcomes death to it victim by sucking its blood. The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori. A successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. However, it is the Bram 1897 novel Dracula that is remembered as the best known vampire story and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend. The vampire myth appears to have originated in Transylvania, according to the Bram Stoker novel, in the dark foreboding hills of Eastern Europe, The most common variation of the myth portrays the vampire as a dead person who rises from the grave and roams the dark of night seeking his victims. The novels of Anne Rice, including 'Interview With a Vampire', are also spreading varied twists in the definition of a vampire. Her vampires are immortal, jaded and mostly ordinary people caught in something they cannot understand.
The film versions of Bram Stoker's celebrated novel added a number of variations to the legends by the ability to fly like a bat, a lust for beautiful women who then become vampires when bitten; It also included the repelling powers of the odor of garlic and garlic plants, the symbol of the cross and death at sunset by a driven stake through the vampire's heart, a fitting end based on the fifteenth century warrior 'Vlad the Impaler'.
The concept of drinking blood to create immortality is not a foreign one to the human mind. Indians, Greeks and Christians have all had a part in this conception. Drinking the blood of another is sometimes understood as obtaining the "life-blood" of someone else for oneself. Therefore, the idea of the vampire stems from cannibalism, and the concept of putting someone's body inside your own to obtain more life. One theory of the origins of the vampire myth lie in the mystery cults of oriental civilizations The Nepalese Lord of Death, The Tibetan Devil, and the Mongolian God of time. (D.P. Varna 'The Vampire in Myth and Legend")
The myth of the fury, or a creature in the guise of a woman that sucks the life from a sleeping victim, was created in Greek times to represent the wrath of the Gods. The 'Chupacabra, a blood-sucking alien creature that feasts on animals, is another vampire-like myth that originated in the hills of South America, and still exists today. The 'Drauger of Icelandic saga and lore is an animated corpse that comes from its grave mount and creates evil all about. Throughout the Adriatic and Aegean regions the 'Vrykolakes' travels by night and knocks on doors on dwellings and calling out the name of householder; if the person responds they will die soon after. The 'Brucolaco' is a nefarious Greek vampire. The 'Myertovjec' haunted the European Russians; he roamed about from midnight to early dawn and Russians peasants were on the lookout for creatures with purple swollen faces during those hours. Other tribes and civilizations through the years had their own hideous creatures of the vampire myth.
Recognition of a vampire differs from one culture to another - It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, Vampires in many European legends were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in color; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. There are many different characteristics of vampires i.e. In Transylvanian tales, the vampires were gaunt, pale, and had long fingernails, while those from Bulgaria the creature only had one nostril, and Bavarian vampires slept with thumbs crossed and one eye open. Some were reported to be able to transform into bats, rats, dogs, wolves, spiders and even moths. (And in the Tropics - we have the 'bloodsucker', a term for any animal that drinks blood.)
But the most notorious creature among the vampires was the Transylvania Countess Erzsebet Bathory, who lived from 1560 to 1614, who killed more that 650 young women, sipped their blood, and then bathed in the red liquid drained from their bodies. From the elixir of their blood she believed would keep her young forever. She had many of her own servant girls killed simply to obtain more blood to soak in. For this, she is historically referred to as the "Blood Countess. History records the downfall of this nefarious creature; Countess Erzsebet Bathory was found kneeling over the dead body of a townsperson, blood dripping from her exposed fangs. She was tried as a witch, convicted, and sentenced to death later commuted to life imprisonment in a windowless room. Fortunately for all concerned, she died three years later.
Now for some preventive measures against vampires:
1) You can keep a vampire in his grave by nailing his clothes to the coffin walls; this will also prevent him from eating the shroud.
2) You can by opening the grave of a kin and checking to see if the corpse has become one of the undead. A child's grave would be opened after three years, a young person would be given five years before the opening, and an adult would be checked after seven years.
3) Also one could try placing a headstone over the grave; it seems that headstones were not originally used as a remembrance of loved ones, but as a weight to prevent a vampire from escaping.
4) Try burying food with the vampire, as a well-fed vampire does not feel the need to cannibalize itself or leave the grave to vampirism others.
5) Potential vampires were most often staked though the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany.
6) 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 other methods included burning of the corpse, burying, or drowning the remains.
Today there are actually some cults of "vampires" that exist (i.e. New York City has many cultic vampire clubs). These people drink small amounts of blood from willing victims in keeping with the ancient belief that it will bring power and life.
A note of warning - An undead will rise from the grave during the night to drink the blood of the living in order to stay 'alive so be careful where you tread in the dark hours.
Bibliography:
1) The Vampire Book: Encyclopedia of the Dead - J. Gordon Melton
2) Vampirism Around the World - the shadowlands.net
3) Vampire - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia