Vampires: Eternal Bloodlust

Everybody knows vampires, those immortal creatures that drink the blood of their victims. Hollywood is especially fond of them -- there are probably as many vampire pictures as there are gangster movies. In fact, it's mostly through this medium that they've gained their popularity.

With the new vampire flick Eternal coming out soon, interest in the genre is expected to shoot up again. Let's get prepped by exploring the mythical world of vampires from a scientific, historical and sociological standpoint.

Some info:

Let's start with what most of us know of the vampire myth.

Notes on a Strange World - In Search of Dracula

I recently had the opportunity to travel through Europe in search of the reality behind some famous ancient legends. I was part of a team of investigators for a TV show called "Legend Detectives," which subsequently aired in December 2005 by Discovery Channel Europe.

I was particularly interested in the legend that was scheduled for May: Count Dracula, the world's most famous vampire. Such is the enduring power of Bram Stoker's classic horror story, first published in 1897 and never out of print, that modern-day Transylvania in Northern Romania has become a tourist Mecca.

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.

Why Vampires Have Fangs

You're cover-shopping at the bookstore. If you're lucky there's a horror section: otherwise, you may be in sci-fi, fantasy, romance, or that wondrous catchall, "novels." You want to find vampire books, of course. Other than the word "vampire" in the title, what will tip you off? You look at the cover paintings. A masked woman gazes at you haughtily, fangs like an adder's at the corners of her mouth; disembodied red lips smile around the claw-like teeth protruding between them; a gilt-framed portrait could be period art ... except for the tusk-tips resting on the man's lower lip.

Who Is Elizabeth Bathory?

Some call her the queen of blood. Others call her the first true vampire. Whatever her label, Elizabeth Bathory has gone down into the history books as a sadistic woman, and whose horrific crimes have made her one of the most infamous women in vampire lore.

Elizabeth Bathory was born a noblewoman in 1560. Her family held lands throughout Transylvania, and were considered one of the most powerful families in the country. When she was teenager, she was betrothed and married to an equally powerful nobleman by the name of Count Ferencz Nadasdy. Throughout their marriage she took many lovers.

From Fear to Fascination: A study of the transformation of social roles of the Slavic and American vampire.

Part One

In America today, we are surrounded by borrowed images. People from all over the world flock here, and bring with them a background of cultures and beliefs, filled with imagery reflecting those ideas. Often times, these elements take on a life of their own in the cauldron known as the American "melting pot," and through interaction with their new surroundings, evolve into something quite different from their original form, becoming an integral part of our culture. Perhaps one of the most fascinating figures to undergo this process is that of the vampire. With its original association with evil, disease, and death, it is surprising that this creature of the dark has garnered the appeal it has in American culture today. Indeed, our fascination with something that was once feared seems to indicate that the vampire's function in today's society is fundamentally different from that which it was originally.

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.

Vampire Bats

The Bat in Nature

Indigenous to Central and South America, vampire bats live in a very strong social culture. The develop bonds with other bats in the colony, and learn to recognize each other through sound and scent. Vampire bats tend to live in caves, trees, or buildings. Their colonies can reach numbers of up to 2000 bats, but most colonies tend to house approximately 100 bats.

Vampire Physiology

Blood

Blood has been a symbol of life since very ancient times. The blood in our veins has always been iconic of our continuing life. To lose too much blood is to lose consciousness, breath, and eventually, our very lives. If a person or animal is already dead and is cut open, blood does not flow. Only the living have blood that flows. Blood has been used throughout the ages as a ceremonial sacrifice. In pagan times our forefathers worshipped their gods with blood sacrifice. And today, indeed, we are not so different. Even in modern times, in our churches, there are those taking communion or the Eucharist, and drinking of the wine that symbolizes Christ's blood.

It seems appropriate, then, that this creature who is an antithesis of both death and life should gain his strength from feeding from the life's blood of humans. For the vampire, the drinking of blood is its life, its sustenance, and the single thing that makes it identifiable all around the world, regardless of the culture in which you were raised or the language you speak.

Vampire Hunter's Guide

Over the ages, certain artifacts have gained a reputation among popular cultures as ways to ward off, or even kill, vampires. This guide takes you through the historical meaning and reasoning behind the ways we've found to hunt the vampire. So grab your crucifix, and wade on in!



Coffins

Early mythological vampires did not sleep in coffins. Up until the 19th century, only the very rich could afford coffins, and so much of the history of vampires did not include a 'secured' burial - indeed, it was the very precarious nature of medieval burial that fostered the fear that vampires could very easily rise from their final resting place in the earth.

Famous Vampire Places

Transylvania

Every childhood lover of vampire movies will remember the chilling line, "I come from...Transylvania!" No other place is so easily identified with vampires as Transylvania. Bram Stoker made this area famous by making it the homeland of his fictional character Dracula. Vlad Tepes, a historical figure upon whom Dracula was loosely based, was from Transylvania.

Transylvania is territory in central Romania; in fact, it's the largest territory in the country. It's surrounded on three sides by the Carpathian mountains. Romania has strong Hungarian and German influences as well. One of the more famous cities in Transylvania is Sighisoara, a beautiful medieval town. Of particular interest in the town in the house where Prince Vlad Dracul, father of Vlad Tepes, was born.

Essence of a Vampyre

First, I think it best to define the essence of the vampire (fictional) before attempting to define the Essence of the Vampyre (magical). In this way, I hope to invite discussion and/or debate on the topic, and to hear from other magicians' experience with this type of magic.

The word "essence," as defined by my Random House Dictionary, is "the basic intrinsic constituent or quality of a thing." It also means "the substance obtained from a plant or drug, by distillation or infusion, and containing its characteristic properties in concentrated form."

Vampire Creation Myths

Cain and Lilith

This myth begins at the very creation of man. Lilith, according to Hebrew/Jewish texts, was the first woman created for Adam.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.
Genesis 1:27-28

Vampires in Modern Culture

Commercials

Vampires in capitalism? You bet! A far cry from the days of horror stories and signs to ward off the evil eye, vampires now sell us all kinds of things. My favorite commercial has to be the one for Ray Ban® sunglasses.

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.

Dracula and Frankenstein: A Tale of Two Monsters

[This article is a slightly revised chapter from Reflections on Dracula, published by Transylvania Press in 1997. Sections of the chapter were previously published by Greenwood Press in Visions of the Fantastic (1996).]



“I considered the being whom I had cast among mankind, and endowed with the will and power to effect purposes of horror - my own vampire.” (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 73)

Beware of the Vampires in the Human Mind

An atypical thirst for blood, an ominous debonair presence, an aversion to sunlight - these are the ingredients of vampire lore.

But don't beware of the pointed bicuspids or flashy capes, rather heed your own relationships.

The vampires may already be there.

That's according to Julia McAfee, a practicing Jungian analyst from Florida, who will lecture tonight at Old Dominion University.

Vampires Never Die: No one's been able to drive a stake through the heart of vampire legend, professor says

If Jonathan Harker, the character in Bram Stoker’s famous novel “Dracula,” had set out for Castle Dracula in the late 1980s, his journey might have looked a lot like the one Dr. Thomas Garza undertook at the time. Garza boarded a rickety bus out of Budapest headed for the area known as Transylvania near the Hungarian/Romanian border. After the bus began its climb into the Carpathian Mountains, it deposited Garza and his companions on a narrow road. They then climbed onto donkeys to complete the trip up the steep incline.

Marginalization and Eroticization in Vampire Fiction

In studying vampire fiction, I've noticed that homoeroticism is given more significance and time than in most other genres. Whether it be innudendo or plain statement of desire, this dynamic exists in almost every work where vampirism is involved. Because homoeroticism is not usually highlighted to such a degree in most other genres, one could conclude that homoeroticism is somehow a key element of vampirism. In researching for this paper, I set out to discover from where that importance originates, but instead discovered a different dynamic, which I had before interpreted as homoeroticism.


I now hypothesize that it is not homoeroticism which is important to vampirism, but bieroticism, or sexual tension between two vampires, regardless of their genders. For example, in The Hunger, the female vampire character is "married" to David Bowie's character, also a vampire, but upon his death, she takes a female lover, played by Susan Sarandon. Later in the movie, the viewer discovers that this female vampire has taken a multitude of lovers over the centuries, without showing a preference for either gender. It is not gender that is important, but some other dynamic. I began to explore what this other dynamic might be.

The Compulsion of Real/Reel Serial Killers and Vampires: Toward a Gothic Criminology

ABSTRACT

The most gripping and recurrent visualizations of the "monstrous" in the media and film lay bare the tensions that underlie the contemporary construction of the "monstrous," which ranges in the twilit realm where divisions separating fact, fiction, and myth are porous—a gothic mode. There appear to be two monstrous figures in contemporary popular culture whose constructions blur into each other, and who most powerfully evoke not only our deepest fears and taboos, but also our most repressed fantasies and desires: the serial killer and the vampire.