Showing posts with label Mythology/Folklore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mythology/Folklore. Show all posts

The House of the Devil - First Vampire Film?

Courtesy of WikiMedia and the Internet Archive, this is one of the earliest known vampire movies. (IMDB

400-Year-Old ‘Vampire Child’ Was Buried with Their Foot Padlocked so They Wouldn’t Rise from the Grave

This child was buried 400 years ago in what is now Poland, face-down and with an iron padlock on their foot.

Grave containing 450 'VAMPIRES' is discovered during roadworks in Poland

The grim discovery in the village of Luzino in the northeast of the country found that some of the 450 skeletons had been beheaded and their skulls placed between their legs and a coin placed in their mouths.

The practice which was common in the region during the 19th century was believed to remove the ‘vampire curse’.

Remains of Polish vampire found

Remains of a female 'VAMPIRE' pinned to the ground with a sickle across her throat to prevent her returning from the dead are found in Poland

  • The remains were found during archaeological work at a 17th century cemetery in the village of Pien, Poland
  • Professor Dariusz Poliński said sickle was placed over the neck to 'protect against the return of the dead'
  • In addition to the sickle, the skeleton was found with a padlocked toe as another precautionary measure
  • Researchers also found a silk cap on its head, indicating she had held a high social status
  • Poliński said other measures used at the time would have involved cutting off the head and legs

Alnwick Castle vampire

Some 800 years before the publication of Dracula, and long before the term "vampire" was popularized, an English historian, William of Newburgh, recorded a tale recounted to him by a devout and reputable priest. He told of a most dishonest sinner who escaped the law by retreating to Alnwick Castle. 

The Legend Of Jure Grando, The First Person Described As A Vampire

Jure Grando was a peasant who lived in the small village of Kringa, just outside of Tinjan, Croatia. He died in 1656, leaving behind a widow and a wake of terror that haunted Kringa for the next 16 years.

Every night for those 16 years, the good people of Kringa would hear knocks throughout the city in the middle of the night. The knocks were warnings, a promise that someone who lived in a house that had its door knocked had little time left on this world.

Video submission: In Search of the Highgate Vampire

David Farrant, one of the world's leading psychic investigators, takes you on a strange and terrifying journey into the realms of the undead. This program deals with the true life events surrounding the sightings of the ghostly apparition known as the Highgate Vampire. 

Shot in 1997, this film represents the first foray of the BPOS into independent film making. Directed and produced by BPOS stalwart Dave Milner in association with his then film company Darkhouse Productions, it rapidly became an underground cult classic through its distribution at 'outsider' outlets such as Forbidden Planet. 

The Bohemian Blow Vampire - A Blood-Sucking Ghost

Superstitious Bohemians Rid Themselves of a Vampire.

The people of Bohemia (the most superstitious of all Europe), were formerly great believers in muroniea vampires and other uncanny apparitions. The most terrible vampire, and perhaps, the most popular one in the annals of that country. Made its appearance in the year 1706. In that year Hans Blow, a herdsman, died and was buried.

Why we are living in 'Gothic times'?

There is a surge in goth-lit that channels our fears and anxieties. Hephzibah Anderson explores how the genre's past and new stories delve deep into disorder and darkness.

"We live in Gothic times," declared Angela Carter back in 1974. It's a theme Carlos Ruiz Zafón took up several decades later: "Ours is a time with a dark heart, ripe for the noir, the gothic and the baroque", he wrote in 2010. Both authors had good reason. The Gothic has always been about far more than heroines in Victorian nightgowns, trapped in labyrinthine ancestral homes, and along with the supernatural, its imaginings probe power dynamics and boundaries, delving deep into disorder and duality.

Monsters of Gothic Fiction

During the 1700s, as the world became better known through exploration and scientific experimentation, mythical monsters disappeared from studies of nature and medicine. But they became increasingly popular in the Gothic fiction that arose in the late 1700s and persisted as an important genre through the 1800s. Monsters of this literature personified the fears of society: fear of what happens when science is allowed to go too far; fear of the encroachment of contagious disease; and fear of the demons within ourselves.

Legend of the "Hunderprest" Vampire of Melrose Abbey

Melrose, Scotland

 In the heart of the Scottish Borders, Melrose is the perfect holiday destination for, walking, cycling and rugby. Melrose also boasts some of the best salmon and trout fishing in Scotland. Visitors to Melrose are drawn by a range of attractions. Best known is the ruins of the Melrose Abbey, which lies on the north east side of the centre of the town and, off course the ‘Hunderprest’ vampire that roams the ruins at the dark of night.

Political Vampires

Taken from The London Magazine, May 1732, courtesy of University of Michigan and Google

Submission: The Creepy Truth About Chupacabras

The Americas have many legendary creatures in their folklore like Bigfoot and the Mothman, but arguably its most terrifying legend is the Chupacabra. The name for the creature literally means “goat sucker,” and is derived from reported vampirism of livestock like goats.

Its first sightings were reported in Puerto Rico in 1995, and it's often described as either dog-like or lizard-like in appearance. The chupacabra is also said to be the size of a small bear with a row of spines that goes from its neck to its tail. It’s definitely not a creature you want to encounter in the middle of the night. If that’s not enough, we’ve made a video that looks into more creepy truths about the Chupacabra.

The Vjesci: A Canadian Vampire

The Vjesci, also known as the Vjeszczi or Vjescey, is a Vampire from Polish folklore.   Much like the European Vampire, The Vjesci retained their mortal characteristics and blended well within society.  Legends indicate that humans were destined to become Vjesci at birth if born with teeth or a more common condition, ‘cradle cap”.  If the child was born with a cap, the mother could protect the child by drying the cradle cap, grinding it into a fine dust and retaining it until the child’s 7th birthday; when she would feed it to him to ward off curse.

A Vampire Legend from the Cherokee Nation

 The Jumlin is widely referred to within the Cherokee Nation as the father of vampires.  His Legend is as follows:

The Nephilim Theory: Creators of the First Vampire?


To begin with, there is no “theory” of the Nephilim, it is a fact that they did exist, as stated in the Old Testament. The “Theory” is that the Nephilim were the creators of the first Vampire. As a matter of opinion, I must admit that I agree. Let’s start from the beginning!

The Judas Origination Theory

There is a legend among the Hebrew people that tags Judas, betrayer of Christ, as the original vampire. We know from ancient texts that vampires were present on the earth prior to Jesus’ crucifixion, yet the legend is still quite intriguing.

Was Lilith the mother of the vampire race?


Lilith was said to have been the first mate to Adam, created by God from the dust of the earth, just as Adam. Because of this, she saw herself as his equal, Adam failed to see things the same way. After years of struggling between each other Lilith put and end to their marriage by refusing to submit to him and fleeing the Garden of Eden.

The Carter Brothers: A New Orleans Vampire Legend

The Carter brothers, John and Wayne, seemed normal in every aspect. It was the 1930’s in New Orleans and the brothers made their living on the Mississippi river. One day before returning home from work it is said that a young girl had escaped from their apartment in the French Quarters and ran to the authorities.

The Rougarou - Cajun Werewolf Lore

Don't go too deep into the dark woods or wetlands in Cajun country at night. You might find yourself face-to-face with a tall, terrifying, blood-thirsty creature called the rougarou. He stalks through the sugar cane fields looking for prey, tearing his victims apart, drinking their blood, and then turning them into unworldly beasts as well. Even if you don't believe that he's real, you may want to take precautions to stay out of his way.

The Cain Vampire origination theory

 Both the modern day Bible and the Quran identify Cain as the first son born of Adam and Eve, his brother Abel being the second. Cain was said that have been a cultivator of the land while Abel was a shepherd. One evening Cain selected the finest of his harvest to present to God the Father as an offering. Abel also presented an offering, comprised of the finest calf of his flock and other choice cuts of meat from fatted calves among his herd. God found favor in Abel’s offering and showered praise down upon him, while no praise was given to Cain.

The Living Dead: Chinese Hopping Vampires

The Hopping Vampires (jiang shi) are a type of undead creature found in Chinese folklore. Although its Chinese name is often translated as ‘Chinese hopping vampire / zombie / ghost), its literal meaning is ‘stiff corpse’. These creatures may be identified by their attire – the uniform of a Qing Dynasty official. Additionally, the jiang shi is recognizable by its posture and movement. The arms of these creatures are permanently outstretched, apparently due to rigor mortis, and they hop, rather than walk. As a result of the stiffness in their bodies, there are many ways to turn a corpse into a jiang shi, and as many ways to defeat them. These undead creatures appear in quite a number of Chinese films.

Vampire Stories from Siret

Vampires story from Siret (I)

A woman from Siret tells the following: 

Vampires are just like other folk, only that God has ordained that they should wander over the country and kill people. There was one that wandered through ten villages, killing their inhabitants. He had a little house in the plain, which was always empty except when he himself was there. One day he thought of going on a journey, and baked bread in preparation. He made ten loaves and put them on the table.

Vampire Stories from Botosani

Vampire Story from Botosani (I)

A girl and a young man were once in love, but the youth died and became a vampire. The girl knew nothing of this. She happened to be alone in her parents' house, and she put out all the lights and went to bed as usual. Now vampires can enter into empty houses or into unclean houses, but the girl's house was clean and holy, so he could not come in.

Vampires in history

Vampire myths go back thousands of years and they are found in almost every culture around the world. Their variety is almost endless; from red eyed monsters with green or pink hair in China to the Greek Lamia which has the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a winged serpent; from vampire foxes in Japan to a head with trailing entrails known as the Penanggalang in Malaysia.


Chinese Hopping Vampires: The Qing Dynasty roots behind the Jiangshi legend

Now a cult obsession thanks to Hong Kong horror movies of the 1980s and 1990s, the legend of the hopping vampire was first detailed in a series of supernatural reflections compiled between 1789 and 1798 by Ji Xiaolan (also known as Ji Yun) and collected posthumously in an 1800 volume entitled Yuewei Caotang Biji (閱微草堂筆記) – it’s English-language translation being the rather beautiful Random Notes at the Cottage of Close Scrutiny.

The Vampire in Romania

 (by Agnes Murgoci - selections)

 

In Russia, Roumania, and the Balkan states there is an idea - sometimes vague, sometimes fairly definite - that the soul does not finally leave the body and enter into Paradise until forty days after death. It is supposed that it may even linger for years, and when this is the case decomposition is delayed. In Roumania, bodies are disinterred at an interval of three years after death in the case of a child, of four or five years in the case of young folk, and of seven years in the case of elderly people. If decomposition is not then complete, it is supposed that the corpse is a vampire; if it is complete, and the bones are white and clean, it is a sign that the soul has entered into eternal rest. The bones are washed in water and wine and put in clean linen, a religious service is held, and they are reinterred.

The Girl and the Vampire

Once in a village there were a girl and a youth who were deeply in love, their parents did not know, and when the relations of the youth approached the parents of the girl with a proposal of marriage they were repulsed because the youth was poor. So the young man hanged himself on a tree, and became a vampire. As such he was able to come and visit the girl. But, although the girl had loved the man, she did not much like to have to do with an evil spirit. What could she do to escape from danger and sin? She went to a wise woman, and this wise woman advised her what to do.

Abhartach the Dwarf King

They do say that good things come in small parcels, but often forget to add that not all small parcels are filled with good things! And so it was in the little village of Slaughtaverty in the distant past, ruled as it was by a fearsome dwarf-tyrant known as Abhartach.

Vampires and Garlic

Halloween.  That yearly tradition of kids dressing up as their favorite character all in order to gather copious amounts of candy from total strangers while their parents pull a wagon full of adult beverages.

We have a tradition of going over to some friends neighborhood that contains a lot more kids than our neighborhood and pull said wagon.   It is always a blast to see the costumes that the kids come up with – witches, werewolves, angry birds, and the assorted super hero.  Zombies also appear to be the “hot” character this year.  Every now and then you would see the classic vampire get up and that got me thinking about the whole vampires and garlic thing.  I mean why no garlic love from the Nosferatu?

Once upon a time in Serbia: The Tale of Sava Savanovic

In a small and quaint village, in the beautiful countryside of Serbia sits a lonesome windmill with a big story to tell. The windmill was once in use, but now it stands in disrepair, a dilapidated shell of its former glory.

The windmill was once the home of Sava Savanovic, a well-respected livestock trader. Unlike his brother, Stanko, Sava had never married and had never had children.

An Accurate Reporting on the Serbian Government Issuing a Vampire Warning

I have written about countless vampire cases over the years, reports of real vampires preying on villages and towns. All of those cases took place well over a hundred years ago, but now I’ve got a current one for you today. The local council in western Serbia recently issued a public health warning that a vampire was on the loose.

The warning came after an old crumbling mill, said to once have been the home of the vampire Sava Savanovic, collapsed.

Vampire myths originated with a real blood disorder

The concept of a vampire predates Bram Stoker's tales of Count Dracula—probably by several centuries. But did vampires ever really exist?

In 1819, 80 years before the publication of Dracula, John Polidori, an Anglo-Italian physician, published a novel called The Vampire. Stoker's novel, however, became the benchmark for our descriptions of vampires. But how and where did this concept develop? It appears that the folklore surrounding the vampire phenomenon originated in that Balkan area where Stoker located his tale of Count Dracula.

Video submission: The Strange Origin Of Vampires

Submitted by: Benjamin Michael

Have you ever wondered where vampire legends came from? It turns out the origin is pretty strange and unexpected, and the creature you're used to thinking of isn't much like how they began. Vampires weren't always the pale, gaunt figure we think of when we see them today. And they definitely weren't glittery teenagers. They were something much more primal, and ugly, and... Weird. The vampire you think of today was inspired by Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula. But the first appearance of the word vampire was almost 200 years earlier, so what did they look like in that time? Keep watching to find out!

Fact or Fiction: Are Vampires Real?

Raise the stakes with this all encompassing guide on all things vampires.

Author:


It's not your imagination: Vampires are everywhere. They're in vampire movies (hello, Interview with the Vampire) and all over television (we see you, The Vampire Diaries). They're the subject of countless books. (Twilight may have spawned a million vampiric copy cats, but if you want to get good and scared, try a classic: Stephen King's Salem's Lot.)

Jewett City Vampires

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126708052/elisha-h-ray


Connecticut: In the first half of the 19th century, Henry and Lucy Ray of Jewett City had a comfortably-sized family of five children who all grew up and survived the many natural perils and hardships of childhood that were present in colonial America.

The Icelandic Translation of ‘Dracula’ Is Actually a Different Book

The mysteries of this Gothic classic aren’t over yet
 
The Icelandic version of Dracula is called Powers of Darkness, and it’s actually a different—some say better—version of the classic Bram Stoker tale.

Makt Myrkranna (the book’s name in Icelandic) was "translated" from the English only a few years after Dracula was published on May 26, 1897, skyrocketing to almost-instant fame. Next Friday is still celebrated as World Dracula Day by fans of the book, which has been continuously in print since its first publication, according to Dutch author and historian Hans Corneel de Roos for Lithub. But the Icelandic text became, in the hands of translator Valdimar Ásmundsson, a different version of the story.


The Wild Evolution of Vampires, From Bram Stoker to Dracula Untold

As we’ve discussed here before, the tropes that define fantasy and horror literature are fluid, which is exactly why they persist. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, witches, ghosts—for several centuries, these archetypes have figured prominently in genre fiction, in no small part because they’ve adapted to suit the specific needs (and fears) of society at any given time.

The vampire in particular has had quite a colorful tenure. Vampiric creatures and spirits date at least as far back as Mesopotamia and Ancient Greece, but the vampire as we know it emerged in the early 1700s, when natives and foreigners alike began recording the folklore and superstitions of the Balkans, that cluster of eastern European countries that would become home to the most famous vampire of all time: Count Dracula.

Pantry Preventatives

Believe it or not, there are things that are common to most household kitchens that were once considered to be vampire-fighting ingredients.

Vampires and Biochemistry

Perhaps you are a fan of Twilight the movie or the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, or True Blood the television drama series created and produced by Alan Ball, based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris. Vampires with their frightening appearance and unusual powers and weaknesses can cause one to pause and question how this is possible. Can this mythicalogical being brought to life in Dracula, the 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula, have any basis in reality? Is there any connection to what we know about biological systems that could explain vampirism? I doubt that you would be surprised if I said yes, since this is a biochemistry course website.


Scientific Reasons to Believe in Vampires, Werewolves & Zombies

Let's take a look at some of the real-world events and phenomena that may have inspired the creation of vampires, werewolves and zombies.

The Words on Nelly's Tombstone

Originally printed in Yankee Magazine, January 1994

The villagers of Exeter, Rhode Island, knew that farmer George Brown had a problem. First, in 1883 his wife, Mary, succumbed to a mysterious illness. Six months later, his 20-year-old daughter, Mary Olive, also fell ill and died. Within the next several years, his 19-year-old daughter, Mercy, was also dead, and George's teenage son, Edwin, a healthy lad who worked as a store clerk, became suddenly frail and sick. The village doctor informed George that "consumption" was taking his family. But the country folk of Exeter had another explanation.


Was she a victim ... or a vampire?

Written By KAREN LEE ZINER

The secret lies buried in Historical Cemetery No. 22, behind Exeter's Chestnut Hill Baptist Church on Route 102, on a hill framed by rustling dark woods that harbor their own uneasy mystery. The death certificate says that Mercy Brown went to her grave at age 19 on Jan. 17, 1892, a victim of tuberculosis. The legend says she was a vampire.


New England vampires? Folklore battled a genuine specter

Written By JOHN CASTELLUCCI

Every Halloween, Rhode Islanders tell the story of Mercy Brown: How she was stricken by a mysterious illness more than 100 years ago and followed her mother and sister to the grave. How her brother Edwin fell ill, too, and their father was persuaded that Mercy was a vampire who was rising from the dead to feed on Edwin's flesh. How old George T. Brown and some neighbors in Exeter dug up her body one wintry March day and found that it had shifted in the coffin. How her heart was burned on a rock after it was found to contain fresh blood. However Edwin was fed the ashes as a cure but died less than two months later, on May 2, 1892.


Real Vampires

"Real Vampires"-how can this be anything but a contradiction in terms? We all know about vampires. Stock characters of fiction, guaranteed box-office draws, the media vampire has been familiar to us since childhood. Generally speaking, our blood-suckers appear with a tongue planted firmly in one toothy cheek-from Bela Lugosi hamming it up in the 1950's, to last summer's teenage "vamp" movies, to Count Chocula breakfast cereal, the media seldom treat the vampire as truly fearsome. The stereotyped vampire traits are familiar to any child: vampires have big fangs, sleep in coffins, are instantly incinerated by sunlight, and are best dispatched by a stake through the heart. But the most important "fact" that we all know of course is that there are no such things.


Vampires - Succubi

I received an email, a while back asking me if I was disregarding Succubi as vampires or thinking the idea too far-fetched to even mention it. The fact is I just didn't really research the subject and couldn't write about something I didn"t know. Still today, I do not know much about it, but I will be using what little information I could gather on the Internet to talk about these creatures. Hope not to offend anyone with my lack of knowledge!


Myth vs. Reality

What are some of the stories you've heard about vampires? Surely, in this day and age, there isn't a person out there who hasn't heard of, or read about Dracula. Yes, that undead, night prowling count of over-told powers and unlimited appeal has caused quite a stir. And perpetuated the frightening myths that can make reality hard to live in.


Vampires in Myth and History

Vampire myths go back thousands of years and occur in almost every culture around the world. Their variety is almost endless; from red eyed monsters with green or pink hair in China to the Greek Lamia which has the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a winged serpent; from vampire foxes in Japan to a head with trailing entrails known as the Penanggalang in Malaysia.

However, the vampires we are familiar with today, although mutated by fiction and film, are largely based on Eastern European myths. The vampire myths of Europe originated in the far East, and were transported from places like China, Tibet and India with the trade caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Here they spread out along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans and of course the Carpathian mountains, including Hungary and Transylvania.


Phlebotomy: The Ancient Art of Bloodletting

The practice of bloodletting seemed logical when the foundation of all medical treatment was based on the four body humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Health was thought to be restored by purging, starving, vomiting or bloodletting.

The art of bloodletting was flourishing well before Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C. By the middle ages, both surgeons and barbers were specializing in this bloody practice. Barbers advertised with a red (for blood) and white (for tourniquet) striped pole. The pole itself represented the stick squeezed by the patient to dilate the veins.


Count Dracula and the Folkloric Vampire: Thirteen Comparisons

“There are such beings as vampires ...The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once.” -- Van Helsing (Dracula 286-87)

Western European words such as vampire (English and French) and vampiros (Spanish) derive from vampir which occurs in the Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian languages. The term entered the mainstream press of Western Europe during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century along with sensational reports of “vampire plagues” from Eastern Europe. The original vampir of Slavic folklore was indeed a revenant who left his grave in corporeal form (at least in appearance -- there are cases where the revenant was considered to be the spirit of the dead person), brought death to the living, and returned to his grave periodically. There were other Slavic names for such revenants such as vorkudlak (Serbo-Croatian), obour (Bulgarian), upir (Russian, Ukranian, and Polish). But the name vampire became so fixated in western Europe that it has come to be applied to all the corporeal revenants bringing death to the living which occur in the folk beliefs of Eastern Europe.


Do Werewolves Really Exist?

Do werewolves really exist? Very good question, but first we must define just what a werewolf is.

We all know about the werewolf myths, stories about people who turn into evil wolf-like monsters under the light of the full moon to eat the flesh of humans, and who only can be defeated by silver. Okay, now you can forget everything that Hollywood has taught you.


Why Vampires can Exist

There is a comparatively new science of symbols called semiotics which partly explains why humans can actually create something new under the sun.


On the terms "Sanguine" and "Sanguinary"

The words sanguine and sanguinary are opposing terms which describe a state of mind. They are NOT plural and singular terms referring to vampyres. To be “sanguine” is to be hopeful, optimistic, enthusiastic and lively, to be “sanguinary” is to be bloodthirsty, savage, ruthless and cruel. Some have misappropriated the term Sanguinary as a noun, as in The Sanguinary. However, when referring to individual members, you should probably be using sanguinary or a non-existing construct such as sanguinarium as the singular and construct a plural form of the noun such as sanguinaries. It is probably massively incorrect to use “sanguine” for both the plural and singular, which is basically saying that vampyres are cheerful ruddy faced cherubs. To be referred to as “sanguinary” may be just as bad, since we would like to assume that vampyres would not want to consider or label themselves as bloodthirsty, cruel ruthless and ferocious murdering savages.



Author: Rev. Osiris Spindell

Vampires

No creature haunting Western society's collective imagination has proven more enduring, more compelling, or more alluring than the vampire. But it was only with the his transformation from emaciated, plague-carrying "nosferatu" (literally, "not dead") to suave, sexually appealing anti-hero that the vampire's status as pop cultural icon was assured.


Youth Vampire Culture: From the Darkness Toward the Light

As a growing number of youths in America begin to challenge the notion of inequality and repression, they are turning their heads away from the darkness of society's constraints and toward the light of the freedom of a vampire lifestyle. Vampires today symbolize power and life for many youth, including Asian Americans.

The idea of what is a vampire has changed across time. As legend has it, vampires are creatures of the night, damned for eternity to feed on the blood of the living for survival, feared and hated by the world. If this is the legend of vampire, how did their image change over the years? To understand the evolution of vampires, you must first look at its very beginnings.


Staking Claims: The Vampires of Folklore and Fiction

We know about Dracula and the would-be vampires in the news, but what were the "real" vampires all about? People who learn that I wrote a book on vampire lore often say, "Oh, you mean like Vlad Drakul?"


The Lexicon of the Werewolf

    Order I: What is the word lycan mean? Order II: What is otherkin? Order III: What does a lycan entail? Order IV: What are Totem Spirits Order V: What are the four types of shifting Order VI: The Awakening of Lycans Order VII: Manifestation of Lycans Order VIII: How do Zoans communicate with the host Order IX: Furries Vs Weres Order X: A little bit of Demonology

Foreword:
I shall refer to the subjects with in this text as "Lycanthropes, Lycans, Werewolves" But I also mean to say Otherkin at the same time, this saves on length of this text. Thank you for understanding this.


Therianthropy

A belief of werewolves has been in every culture since the earliest reported history. A lot of falsehoods have come about through the years about Werewolves .They have often been an object of fear and superstition and seen as savage untamed beasts. Here in this report we will discuss Werewolves in history and a more modern approach to the subject.


The Bloody Gospel

Christ of the Vampires

Christ of the Vampires is a Bible study that concerns parallels and differences between Vampirism and Christianity. It is my intention to prove that Jesus is the real Christ of the Vampires. The Bible study will probably shock both Christians and non-Christians alike. So read with an open mind.


Was Dracula Irish?

Alternative Origin of Dracula

It has always been assumed that the original Dracula story, written by the Irishman Abraham (Bram) Stoker in 1897, was based on the Transylvanian folk hero Vlad Dracul, known as "the impaler" because of his favourite method of punishment.

However, an intriguing alternative inspiration for the Dublin civil servant's story has been put forward by Bob Curran, lecturer in Celtic History and Folklore at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, in the summer edition of History Ireland, a sober academic journal edited by historians from the Univeristy College, Cork.


Mercy Brown vampire incident

The Mercy Brown vampire incident, which occurred in 1892, is one of the best documented cases of the exhumation of a corpse in order to perform certain ritual activities, such as the conduct of 'magical' rites, supposedly for the purpose of banishing an undead manifestation.


What is a Dhampir?

It is a Serbian word, for the living offspring of a vampir and a mortal. The belief goes that the gypsy "mulo" was said to be a spirit of the dead person. It was also believed that the male mulo was capable of impregnating living women, most often their grieving widows. The resulting child was variously called a "vampijorivic", a "vampiric", or a "lampijerovic", all of which mean "little vampire" ... another name for such an offspring is "dhampir".

There are various variations of this, but the most common is that the impregnated female does not come to full term and the baby is lost. In other instances, the mother comes to term and gives birth to a stillborn. In extremely rare cases will a dhampir be born and grow to adulthood.

Dracula used the term to refer to someone who cannot be turned into a vampire.

(And to answer what may be another question, the words "vampeal" and "dunpeal" are mistranslated Japanese "danpiru" from Vampire Hunter D, who is a Dhampir.)

Where did the word "Vampire" come from?

The exact origin of Vampire is disputed. Most sources, including the Oxford English Dictionary, derive it from the Hungarian vampir. The word has cognates in several Slavic tongues and may originally derive from the northern Turkish ubyr or uber, meaning witch.

Merriam-Webster, on the other hand, contends that vampir is originally Serbian and that the Hungarian word traces a path from Serbia, through Germany, to Hungary. The word entered English through German as well.

English usage dates to at least 1734. Bram Stoker wrote the novel Dracula in 1897.



Source: WordOrigins.com

Beast of Gevaudan - Werewolf or a Huge Wolf Like Beast?

In June 1764, in the Gevaudan region of southeastern France, a young woman was tending cows and saw a horrid beast lumbering towards her. It was the size of a donkey, but it resembled a wolf. Her dogs ran away in terror, but the cattle chased the beast away with their horns.

This was the first sighting of what became known as the Beast of Gevaudanan. The woman was fortunate. Others were not so lucky. Men, women and children were killed, their bodies, savaged and mangled by the beast. The first victim, in July, 1764, was a young girl whose heart was ripped out. The slaughter resumed later that summer. Soon, the beast was attacking groups of men. It showed no fear. The people believed it was loup-garou, werewolf.


Werewolves: Legends, Cases, Theories

The wereanimal belief or legend is universal. In the European and American cultures, the predominant theme is that the werecreature is a wolf. In other cultures, there are were- panthers, werejaguars and werebears. Some societies believed that the person shape shifted and appeared to be the animal while others believed the person became the animal.

During the Middle Ages, people in Europe believed in werewolves. Some believed the creature was a wolf whose body was possessed by a demon. Others believed the devil put the person in a trance and transported the soul into a wolf’s body. Another theory was that a demon got into a wolf’s body and charmed the person into believing that he or she committed savage acts that were revealed in dreams. Another theory believed that the person actually changed into a wolf and that the devil substituted a human form in the werewolf’s place.


The Mysterious Vampyre of Croglin Grange

Croglin Grange was a low stone house on a hill that overlooked a valley near an ancient churchyard and church. Legend has it that the Fisher family owned it for centuries. In the 1800s, the Fishers moved into a larger dwelling and decided to rent out the property. The house was empty all winter, but, in the spring was rented to Edward, Michael and Amelia Cranswell, siblings.


Vampyres: Legend, Cases and Theories

In 1730, the Count of Cabreras, an Imperial officer who investigated vampires, sent a documented a case to a professor at Freiburg University in Brisgau which involved similarities of vampyre incidents in Hungary.


Vampire Research versus Vampire Hunters

This short piece is about Vampire Research as opposed to Vampire Hunting. What then is Vampire Research ? I can not answer that question for you. So many people, so many different views. But at least I can give you my own opinion on what Vampire Research should be about. To me Vampire Research is the scientific investigation of the possible existence of vampires. It is about one question, really: Do vampires exist ?


Garlic against Vampires

The use of Garlic (Allium Sativum) as a charm against the powers of evil seems to date back to ancient times. According to Lewis Spence, the ancient Egyptians believed in a vampire-like ghost that killed sleeping children by sucking up their breath. Believe it or not, the repellent that was used against the attacks of this murderous monster was a wreath of garlic.


Vampire Evolution

The modern idea of the vampire is open to many different possibilities. What defines a vampire? And where did these traits come from?

Certain ideas about the vampire are now fixed. Sie almost always survives by drinking blood. Sie has died, and come back to life. Almost always, sie is unable to be active during the daylight hours. Often, sie fears holy objects such as crucifixes and blessed wafers, and is also allergic to garlic. Sie can be killed by means of a stake through the heart, or, sometimes, by burning.


Vampires: a pain in the neck

Dr. Stephen Kaplan met me in a coffee shop at an anonymous intersection of Queens, New York.

He was cautious about having strangers over to his house, he said, because in his line of work he ran into some very weird people. "Murderers, psychopaths, blood cultists, vampiroids, degenerates...last year I got fan mail from a werewolf in Georgia…"


Unquiet Coffins

Church records document the tossed coffins in the French crypt in Stanton. Loud thuds were heard emanating from the crypt. When the vault was opened for an interment, large coffins, covered with lead, were found strewn about. One of the coffins, found on the fourth step of the stairs that led into the crypt was so heavy that it took eight men to put it in its resting place. People blamed grave robbers, but the lock to the crypt had not been tampered with.


Real Vampires

There are many myths surrounding vampirism in the context of reailty. Some of these myths serve to amuse real vampires and other tend to frustrate them. Perhaps most frustrating of all is that the myths perpetrate this idea of what a vampire is and the romantized version leaves some believing that they want to be a vampire Then of course there is the other end of this which mostly encompasses the unbelievers.


Introduction to Cinematic Vampires

For almost ninety-five years, from THE DEVIL'S CASTLE (1896) to BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1992), the vampire has freely stalked movie theatres and preyed upon the willing patrons of over three hundred films. Though his origins may have been lost in the cave etchings of primeval mythology, obscured by the superstitions of folklore, or exploited by the "penny-dreadfuls" of Victorian melodrama, the vampire has remained a popular subject for motion pictures and television.


In the age of ignorance

Throughout history the legend of the vampire has been used to "explain" other natural phenomena that primitive people who lacked scientific knowledge could not otherwise explain. Possibly the most astonishing belief which people associated vampires with was the Black Death during the Middle Ages in Europe.


Moving Coffins

In Barbados there is a famous legend of coffins that are moved by unnatural forces. Though some details are sketchy the enigma is one that has fascinated researchers for over a century.


What's That in the Mirror?

Looking at Mirrors, Vampires, and You the Reader

Part I
Why Dracula Hates Mirrors -- Bram Stoker


"The now popular idea that vampires cast no reflection in a mirror (and often have an intense aversion to them) seems to have been first been put forward in Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula. Soon after his arrival at Castle Dracula, Jonathan Harker observed the building was devoid of mirrors. When Dracula silently came into Harker's room while he was shaving, Harker noticed that Dracula, who was standing behind him, did not appear in the shaving mirror as he should have. Dracula complained that mirrors were the objects of human vanity, and, seizing the mirror, he broke it.


Vampire as Path to Meaning

Or What Does It All Mean?

THE VAMPIRE is a myth. Now hold on a minute! Don't just stop reading! At least ask yourself what you think I mean. Okay, so what do I mean by myth? The word myth is Greek in origin, mythos, meaning: Word, speech, story and legend. Confused yet? I was. Try this:

Vampires and Evil

Greetings and salutations. My name is Craig, and I'll be your professor this evening. Bear in mind, that I'm only referring to myself as "professor" because I only 'profess' to know something about the subject which I'm about to teach. Whether I actually DO know anything about it, well, that's another story.

My subject is vampires, as you may well have guessed. Those evil, malignant creatures of darkness who crawl forth from their tombs to drain the blood of the living. Hmmmm? What's that? You say that vampires aren't really evil? That vampires are really just misunderstood monsters who heroically fight to save their humanity against the forces of darkness seeking to claim their souls? How interesting. Well then, let's explore this further. Are vampires evil creatures, or tragic heroes? Where and when did vampires become the good guys? Tonight I'll try to answer this question, and maybe even come up with some good, solid questions of my own for others to ponder. (Oh, and if any of you happen to actually BE vampires, feel free to jump in at any time)


Dream Symbols - Bat, Vampire

During my second week of my exciting new job with child protective services, I walked into the office at 8:00 a.m. to find my co-workers and supervisors running around screaming hysterically. One nearly mowed me down as she pushed past me to get out the door. Those who weren't running were crouched under their desks. I seriously wondered what I'd gotten myself into. People had warned me that the job would be stressful, but this was a bit much! Several people hollered at me to "Get down! There's a bat!" I looked up just in time to see a frightened creature with a four foot wing span desperately trying to find a way out amid the fluorescent lights.

Garlic vs Evil - The Power of Garlic

Garlic (Allium Sativum) has been used as a charm against evil and dates back to Ancient times. the ancient Egyptians believed in a Vampire-like ghost that killed sleeping children by sucking up their breath. The protection that was used against the attacks of this murderous monster was a wreath of garlic.


Origin of Lilith

We dunno what you've heard. You could have heard Lilith is a model for Oppressed Womanhood. You could have heard she's a succubus who gives men wet dreams. You could have heard that she's a demoness who murders babies. You could have heard that she's a goddess, the wife of Death.



The Morbach Monster

Have you ever heard of the Morbach Monster?

I first learned of the legend while I was stationed at Hahn Airforce Base, Germany. Morbach was a munitions site just outside of the village of Wittlich.


Lilith: From Demoness to Dark Goddess

Lilith: Queen of the Night, Mother of Demons, First Wife of Adam, and one of my own patron Goddesses. Unfortunately, I have found that modern authors often leave much to be desired on the subject of Lilith. Modern interpretations of Her nature are presented as historical, and the historical facts themselves are regularly misrepresented. Does She originate in ancient Sumeria, a maiden connected to the Temple of Inanna? Was She once a benevolent Mother Goddess Herself, later demonized by patriarchal religious leaders? Is it female strength She embodies, or has She persecuted women for centuries via birth complications and crib death? Was she actually deleted from the story of Eden? These are some of the questions, myths, facts, and errors that will be covered in this essay- hopefully laying to rest the many misconceptions that surround this ancient and powerful figure.


Is There A True "American Vampire" Myth?

The European settlers and African slaves brought the vampire mythology of their homelands to the New World. In some cases these myths became intertwined as settlers from many backgrounds melded into a single nation. While Native American mythology has some very fascinating monsters, some of them being flesh-eaters, others being shape-changers, none are true bloodsuckers. Yet, there is a true "American vampire," one born of this young nation, one found only here in America.


Burial Matters: How to prevent your loved ones from rising up -- taking a look at the mythology of vampire prevention.

How can you protect your friends and family from vampirism? What steps can you take to ensure that when their corpse goes in the ground, it stays there? Here are a few ideas, gathered from folk mythology, that have helped in the past.


In The Blood: A serious look at vampire-myth origins

Part One

For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement. (Leviticus 17:11)

Any broad exploration of pre-Industrial European society cannot help but touch upon the plethora of peasant tales that both served to entertain the populace and teach morality to the children of Europe. On surface examination, at least, this function of folklore seems apparent enough. It is a perfectly valid assessment of the function of common fable--but in many respects, it is inadequate. Peasant tales served, in many cases, as more than simple fables. The fact that the vast bulk of European humanity remained illiterate in pre-Industrial Europe should stimulate questions about the more complex and subliminal purposes of this entirely oral form of literature.


Women in the Vampire World

There are essentially three roles of women in the vampire world. Women may be victims or vampires themselves. The third level of attachment to the vampire world (VW) is an outside attachment, and that belongs to the women who are mere observers, such as anyone who reads a vampire book and is drawn to it. Though harder to analyze, a woman's attraction to vampire movies or literature speaks something for the appeal of the vampire in this culture, which this essay series is all about.


Vampire and Ghost Stories from Russia

The Coffin Lid

A moujik was driving along one night with a load of pots. His horse grew tired, and all of a sudden it came to a stand-still alongside of a graveyard. The moujik unharnessed his horse and set it free to graze; meanwhile he laid himself down on one of the graves. But somehow he didn't go to sleep.

He remained lying there some time. Suddenly the grave began to open beneath him: he felt the movement and sprang to his feet. The grave opened, and out of it came a corpse -- wrapped in a white shroud, and holding a coffin lid -- came out and ran to the church, laid the coffin-lid at the door, and then set off for the village.


El Chupacabra

Etymology

The name translates to 'goat sucker' in Spanish, originated from the creature's earliest attacks, where goats and other livestock are found with puncture wounds on their necks and most of their blood drained.


Vampires in Myth and History

Vampire myths go back thousands of years and occur in almost every culture around the world. Their variety is almost endless; from red eyed monsters with green or pink hair in China to the Greek Lamia which has the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a winged serpent; from vampire foxes in Japan to a head with trailing entrails known as the Penanggalang in Malaysia.

However, the vampires we are familiar with today, although mutated by fiction and film, are largely based on Eastern European myths. The vampire myths of Europe originated in the far East, and were transported from places like China, Tibet and India with the trade caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Here they spread out along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans and of course the Carpathian mountains, including Hungary and Transylvania.


The Vampire and Holy Symbols

Did you know?

In the late 1400s, Pope Innocent VIII released a treatise recognizing the phenomena of incubi and succubi, male and female nocturnal demons. In the mid-1700s, Christian Monks wrote about various beliefs in the Undead that had developed in Western Europe, with hopes of dispelling the stories as superstition. These books of accumulated tales were available to the population at large, and the Undead within - previously known by any number of terms - were systematically named 'vampire'. As a result, the term vampire, vampyr, vampyre, wampire or wampirus - and all it's other translations - has become a household name (probably not the Monks' initial intention ...).


Vampires of Tlaxcala Mexico

Some time back I promised I would post my findings after I read the book _Bloodsucking Witchcraft: an Epistemological Study of Anthropomorphic Supernaturalism in Rural Tlaxcala. Well here they are...


Lore of the Vampire

The vampire has held its place in superstition as long as any other creature. The vampire of today is, for the most part, quite different from the one of ancient times. In researching the vampire lore, I attempted to find out just how different they are. I wondered what people thought of them now compared to yesteryear.


Deconstructing the Myths of Vampire Folklore and Examining the Truths of Modern Day Vampires

Why do we, as humans, have a long standing fascination with vampires? Is it our own morbid love affair with death? Or perhaps the twisted psyche of the unknown afterlife which has incarnated into this hideous, Earthly creature? It may be impossible to ever say. There is one thing for certain, however, and that is this: vampires have always, and will always, continue to emerge in various forms throughout history. They have already been with us for many generations, through a myriad ghoulish lore.


Jewish Vampirology

The Blood Is the Life

"The blood is the life", states the Torah, and also declares "the life-force of all creatures resides in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11). Eating blood is strictly forbidden by the Torah. Yet if one were to do so, he would acquire some measure of the semi-spiritual nature of the demons. They are not truly spiritual, since they must eat blood to live; yet they are not strictly bound to physical matter, insofar as they possess the power of invisibility, and the ability to travel great distances quickly. These are precisely the attributes ascribed to vampires! As the Sforno explains (Leviticus 17:7):


Creatures of the Night

There is no known culture on this planet that has not at one time or another cowered in fear because of the savage attacks of a nocturnal predator known as a therianthrope, a human-animal hybrid such as a werewolf, "werebear," "werelion," or a "were-something." Such creatures were painted by Stone Age artists more than 10,000 years ago and represent some of the world's oldest cave art—and they probably precipitated some of the world's first nightmares.


The History of Vampires

I. It Started With Blood

The Vampire persona has evolved from many true and untrue facts, legends and myths. At various times vampires, real and imagined, have been considered fiends, supernatural beings, shape-shifters, mentally disturbed deviants, satanic servants and fetish followers. However, it all began and still revolves around a taste for blood!

Contrary to the popular belief that Vampire history, stories and legends began with Vlad the Impaler, they go back much further than that. Many ancient societies worshipped blood thirty gods. This caused people to begin to associate blood with divinity, leading to the development of the early vampire cults. Regardless of the spiritual value, some people have always had a desire to drink blood and the reasons are as varied as the practitioners. In some societies the practice was accepted, as in ancient Egypt. But in others, vampirism was considered deviant behavior and condemned.

Vampires: Origins of the Myth

The Blood is the Life

"My Friend -- Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well tonight. At three tomorrow the diligence [traveling party] will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will await you and bring you to me. I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land."


Lilith, the first Eve

According to Rabbinical mythology, the Talmudists say that Adam had a wife before Eve, whose name was Lilith. Refusing to submit to Adam, she left Paradise for a region of the air. She still haunts the night as a spectre, and is especially hostile to new-born infants. Some superstitious Jews still put in the chamber occupied by their wife four coins, with labels on which the names of Adam and Eve are inscribed, with the words, “Avaunt thee Lilith!” The fable of Lilith was invented to reconcile Genesis i with Genesis ii. Genesis i represents the simultaneous creation of man and woman out of the earth; but Genesis ii represents that Adam was alone, and Eve was made out of a rib, and was given to Adam as a helpmeet for him.