Vampire

Vampires are mythical or folkloric creatures said to subsist on human and/or animal blood (hematophagy), often having unnatural powers, heightened bodily functions, and/or the ability to transform. Some cultures have myths of non-human vampires, such as demons or animals like bats, dogs, and spiders. Vampires are often described as having a variety of additional powers and character traits, extremely variable in different traditions, and are a frequent subject of folklore, cinema, and contemporary fiction.

Folk beliefs in vampires

It seems that until the 19th century, vampires in Europe were thought to be hideous monsters rather than the debonair vampire made popular by later fictional treatments. They were usually believed to rise from the bodies of suicide victims, criminals, or evil sorcerers, though in some cases an initial vampire thus "born of sin" could pass on his vampirism onto his innocent victims. In other cases, however, a victim of an untimely or cruel death was susceptible of becoming a vampire. Most of the European vampire myths have Slavic and/or Romanian origins.

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Slavic vampires

The Slavic people including most east Europeans from Russia to Bulgaria, Serbia to Poland, have the richest vampire folklore and legends in the world. The Slavs came from north of the Black Sea and were closely associated with the Balts. Prior to 8th century AD they migrated north and west to where they are now.

Related Topics:
Slavic people - Russia - Bulgaria - Serbia - Poland - Black Sea - Balts - 8th century AD

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Christianization began almost as soon as they arrived in their new homelands. However, through the 9th and 10th centuries, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the western Roman Catholic Church were struggling with each other for supremacy. They formally broke in 1054 AD, with the Bulgarians, Russians, and Serbians staying Orthodox, while the Poles, Czechs, and Croatians went Roman. This split caused a big difference in the development of vampire lore - the Orthodox church believed incorrupt bodies were saints, while the Roman church believed they were vampires.

Related Topics:
Christianization - 9th - 10th - Eastern Orthodox Church - Roman Catholic Church - 1054 AD - Orthodox church

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Causes of vampirism included being born with a caul, teeth, or tail, being conceived on certain days, irregular death, excommunication, improper burial rituals etc. Preventative measures included: placing a crucifix in the coffin, or blocks under the chin to prevent the body from eating the shroud, nailing clothes to coffin walls for the same reason, or piercing the body with thorns or stakes.

Related Topics:
Caul - Excommunication

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Evidence that a vampire was at work in the neighbourhood included death of cattle, sheep, relatives, neighbours, exhumed bodies being in a lifelike state with new growth of the fingernails or hair, or if the body was swelled up like a drum, or there was blood on the mouth and if the corpse had a ruddy complexion.

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Vampires could be destroyed by staking, decapitation (the Kashubs placed the head between the feet), burning, repeating the funeral service, holy water on the grave or exorcism.

Related Topics:
Decapitation - Burning - Holy water - Exorcism

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Romanian vampires

Tales of vampiric entities were also found among the ancient Romans and among the Romanized inhabitants of eastern Europe, Romanians (known as Vlachs in historical context). Romania is surrounded by Slavic countries, so it is not surprising that Romanian vampires are similar to the Slavic vampire. They are called Strigoi based on the Roman term strix for screech owl, which also came to mean demon or witch.

Related Topics:
Ancient Romans - Romanians - Vlachs - Romania - Strigoi - Screech owl - Demon - Witch

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There are different types of strigoi. Strigoi vii are live witches who will become vampires after death. They can send out their soul at night to meet with other witches or with Strigoi morţi who are dead vampires. The strigoi morţi are the reanimated bodies which return to suck the blood of family, livestock, and neighbours.

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A person born with a caul, tail, born out of wedlock, or one who died an unnatural death, or died before baptism, was doomed to become a vampire, as was the seventh child of the same sex in a family, the child of a pregnant woman who didn't eat salt or who was looked at by a vampire, or a witch. Moreover, being bitten by vampire, meant certain condemnation to a vampiric existence after death.

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The Vârcolac which is sometimes mentioned in folklore was more closely related to a mythological wolf that could devour the sun and moon (similar to Fenris in Norse mythology), and later became connected with werewolves rather than vampires. The person afflicted with lycanthropy could turn into a dog, pig, or wolf.

Related Topics:
Fenris - Norse mythology - Lycanthropy

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The vampire was usually first noticed when it attacked family and livestock, or threw things around in the house. Vampires, along with witches, were believed to be most active on the Eve of St George's Day (April 22 Julian, May 4 Gregorian calendar), the night when all forms of evil were supposed to be abroad. St George's Day is still celebrated in Europe.

Related Topics:
St George's Day - April 22 - Julian - May 4 - Gregorian calendar - Europe

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A vampire in the grave could be told by holes in the earth, an undecomposed corpse with a red face, or having one foot in the corner of the coffin. Living vampires were found by distributing garlic in church and seeing who did not eat it.

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Graves were often opened three years after death of a child, five years after the death of a young person, or seven years after the death of an adult to check for vampirism.

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Measures to prevent a person becoming a vampire included, removing the caul from a newborn and destroying it before the baby could eat any of it, careful preparation of dead bodies, including preventing animals from passing over the corpse, placing a thorny branch of wild rose in the grave, and placing garlic on windows and rubbing it on cattle, especially on St George's & St Andrew's days.

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To destroy a vampire, a stake was driven through the body followed by decapitation and placing garlic in the mouth. By the 19th century people were shooting a bullet through the coffin. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and given to family members as a cure.

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Roma and vampires

Even today, Roma frequently feature in vampire fiction and film, no doubt influenced by Bram Stoker's book "Dracula" in which the Szgany Roma served Dracula, carrying his boxes of earth and guarding him.

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Traditional Romani beliefs include the idea that the dead soul enters a world similar to ours except that there is no death. The soul stays around the body and sometimes wants to come back. The Roma myths of the living dead added to and enriched the vampire myths of Hungary, Romania, and Slavic lands.

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The ancient home of the Roma, India, has many mythical vampire figures. The Bhuta is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wanders around animating dead bodies at night and attacks the living like a ghoul. In northern India could be found the brahmaparusha, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood.

Related Topics:
Bhuta - Ghoul

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The most famous Indian deity associated with blood drinking is Kali, who has fangs, wears a garland of corpses or skulls and has four arms. Her temples are near the cremation grounds. She and the goddess Durga battled the demon Raktabija who could reproduce himself from each drop of blood spilled. Kali drank all his blood so none was spilled, thereby winning the battle and killing Raktabija.

Related Topics:
Kali - Durga

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Sara, or the Black Goddess, is the form in which Kali survived among gypsies. Gypsies have a belief that the three Marys from the New Testament went to France and baptised a gypsy called Sara. They still hold a ceremony each May 24th in the French village where this is supposed to have occurred. Some refer to their Black Goddess as "Black Cally" or "Black Kali".

Related Topics:
France - May 24

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One form of vampire in Romani myth is called a mullo (one who is dead). This vampire is believed to return and do malicious things and/or suck the blood of a person (usually a relative who had caused their death, or hadn't properly observed the burial ceremonies, or who kept the deceased's possessions instead of destroying them as was proper).

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Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry but would exhaust the husband.

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Anyone who had a hideous appearance, was missing a finger, or had animal appendages, etc., was believed to be a vampire. If a person died unseen, he would become a vampire; likewise if a corpse swelled before burial. Plants or dogs, cats, or even agricultural tools could become vampires. Pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood. (See the article on vampire watermelons.)

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To get rid of a vampire people would hire a Dhampir (the son of a vampire and his widow) or a Moroii (the much rarer living, as opposed to undead, offspring of two vampires) to detect the vampire. To ward off vampires, 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 driving stakes into the grave, pouring boiling water over it, decapitating the corpse, or burning it.

Related Topics:
Dhampir - Moroii - Undead - Hawthorn

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According to the late Serbian ethnologist Tatomir Vukanović, Roma people in Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people. However, they could be seen "by a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday

Related Topics:
Tatomir Vukanović - Kosovo

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who wear their drawers and shirts inside out." Likewise, a settlement could be protected from a vampire "by finding a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday and making them wear their shirts and drawers inside out (cf previous section). This pair could see the vampire out of doors at night, but immediately it saw them it would have to flee, head over heels."

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Other Old World vampires

• In Ancient Greece and Medieval Bulgaria the Lamia had the upper body of a woman, the lower body of a winged serpent and craved blood (especially the blood of women). Medieval and later Greek folklore features the vrykolakas, (which is now considered synonymous with "vampire").
• In Moravia, vampires were fond of throwing off their shrouds and attacking their victims in the nude.
• In Albania, a type of vampire known as the Liogat was supposed to be the reanimated corpse of Albanians of Turkish descent. It was covered in a shroud and wore high-heeled shoes. The only way to vanquish it was to have a wolf bite its legs off so it would never rise again from its grave.
• In Bulgaria, a vampire had only one nostril and slept with his left eye open and his thumbs linked. It was held responsible for cattle plagues.

New World

• In Aztec mythology, the Civatateo was a sort of vampire, created when a noblewoman died in childbirth.
• Later Mexican vampires were easily recognizable by their fleshless skulls.
• In the Caribbean, vampires known as Soucoyant in Trinidad and Tobago, Ol' Higue in Jamaica, and Loogaroo in Grenada, take the form of old women during the day, and at night shed their skin to become flying balls of flame who seek blood. They were said to be notoriously obsessive-compulsive, and could be thwarted by sprinkling salt or rice at entrances, crossroads and near beds. The vampire would feel compelled to pick up every grain. They could also be killed by rubbing salt into their discarded skin, which would burn them upon returning to it before morning.
• The Rocky Mountain vampires sucked the blood out of its victim's ears using its pointed nose.
• Brazilian vampires had plush-covered feet.

Asia and the Pacific

• India is home to beliefs in a spirit called the vetala, a wraithly vampire that can leave its host body to feed.
• In Japan, the kitsune is a vampiric shapeshifting fox-spirit that takes its origins from both Chinese and Indian mythology. Kitsune may be either maleficent or benevolent, or both; kitsune are said to drain the life-force of its victims after charming them or becoming their lover, in similar fashion as succubi or incubi. Oni myths also have similarities with Western vampire legends. There are also tales of kamaitachi, a phenomenon where it was said that evil gods would thirst for human blood.
• The Chinese vampire, the hopping corpse (ji?ngsh?), has more in common with Western ideas of corporeal zombies or ghouls but is still depicted as draining the victim of blood.
• 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. She sucked the blood of fetuses. The Aswang was believed to always be a female of considerable beauty by day and, by night, a fearsome flying fiend. She lived in a house, could marry and have children, and was a seemingly normal human during the daylight hours.
• In Malaysian folklore, the Penanggalan was a vampire whose head could separate from its body, with its entrails dangling from the base of its neck. The Pontianak was a female vampire that sucked the blood of newborn babies and sometimes that of young children or pregnant women.
• In Australian aboriginal mythology, the yara-ma-yha-who is a creature with octopus-like suckers on its fingers that it uses to suck blood.