Vampires
Despite being one of the most infamous legends, Astonishing Legends’ hasn’t covered a whole lot about them…unless you count the Count of St. Germain or Elizabeth Bathory. But, if you ask someone to name a monster there’s a good chance they’ll mention a specific vampire, or at least vampires as a whole. In fact, they may be the monster that has received the most media attention— from TV shows to video games to movies to even things like halloween costumes or decorations, you’re more likely to see a vampire than any other creature (except maybe ghosts). But their origins and tricky (and sickly) and nailing down just what a vampire is, proves difficult.
Despite not covering much of vampire lore, on the blog we have dived into a few different versions of specific vampires. We've discussed Abhartach, an Irish vampire. Dipped our toe into the legend of the Gorbals Vampire of Glasgow. But don’t worry, we don’t just stick to Ireland and the UK for our vampire lore. We’ve explored The Atlas Vampire (of Sweden), China’s Jianghsi, and even Greece’s version, the Vrykolakas. And, we’ve also explored the relation to garlic that many of the legends share. Needless to say, the myth of the vampire is global, looming, and large and containing it to one blog post feels nearly impossible. That being said, let’s explore some general myths and understandings of the vampire.
When it comes to vampire lore, there is no tome I love more dearly than Paul Barber’s Vampires, Burial, and Death. It has one of my favorite quotes about vampires (and phenomena at large): “Lacking a proper ground in physiology, pathology, and immunology, how are people supposed to account for disease and death? The common course, as we shall see, is to blame death on the dead, who are apt to be observed closely for clues as to how they accomplish their mischief.”
Vampires are OLD. The first known reference to vampires (as we understand them today) goes back all the way to Russia in 1047 AD. At the time, the term for vampire was "upir" which, unhelpfully, has unclear origins. Some believe its meaning is "the thing at the feast"...which feels more like a ghost than something looking to kill.
Here are some things that are certain about vampires, across time & culture:
Vampires are seen as evil.
Vampires are immortal (because they’ve already died) - they are “un” dead
Vampires need atypical substances, typically blood or other bodily fluids from living people, thus establishing a need to be physically near people.
Despite being undead, vampires can be killed. The methods vary but include cutting their heads off, burning their bodies, sunlight, or a stake through the heart (bonus points in some culture if it is blessed or holy wood).
Vampires have to live by certain “rules.” What these rules are do vary by culture but can include things like: being nocturnal, sleeping in the coffin they were buried in or needing grave dirt from their original grave to maintain power, having to be invited into a home, having to count fallen items (like rice or grains of sand), being repelled by garlic, etc
What kind of picture this paints is variable, but a recurrent thread remains no matter the culture or time of the vampire story. It does bring up a question though: why is humanity so obsessed with vampires (whether or not they believe they are real or not). My guess is the fact that most people are scared to (or avoid thinking about) death. But there are things that could be worse than death. What? Well…not being able to die. Some folks have tried to find the origin of the vampire mythos..but, since every culture has some type of vampire myth that seems an impossible task. I think focusing on humanity’s obsession with death is likely where we’ll find the inspiration for the vampire.
Or, you could adopt Dr. Barber’s point of view mentioned above. He believes the way humans understood death and disease before the time of modern medicine directly led to the mythos of the vampire due to misunderstandings of how disease spread, when someone was truly dead, etc.
Interestingly, in modern times the vampire in the media has grown its own mythos. A few years ago, Melanie McFarland, a senior critic at Salon wrote a piece that stuck with me: ‘Beware the rise of vampire shows. It could mean a recession is looming’. In the article, she explores a culture theory that links vampires trending and economic uncertainty — whether it’s books, movies, tv shows, video games, etc.
One of my favorite quotes: “From what the ratings show, it’s safe to say we’re ready to trade the bloody apocalypse [of zombies] for gleaming fangs and velvet luxury. Vampires also represent exclusivity, the good (after)life enjoyed by former humans deemed worthy of immortality, as Sam Reid’s Lestat de Lioncourt decided of Louis.”
Thanks to Devilry for this blogstonishing suggestion!
The featured images is of The Vampires grave, Malew, Isle of Man. Taken by Kevin Rothwell and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
