What I've Learned...

Throughout this short, yet in-depth exploration of historical accounts of vampires I’ve learned that stories are changed by each individual who tells them. Everyone hears and interoperates things differently, and the accounts of what happened in vampire sightings change based on where it comes from and who’s saying it. I have learned to take the incongruities and through them out as they are most likely exaggerations. I went from taking all the facts I could find and believing they were reasonable, to being more skeptical about what details were plausible for that time.

I can’t truly say I’ve found any sort of real answer; however I’ve dug up some interesting stories about real sightings of “vampire” dating back hundreds of years. Cleary these people were scared of something real in existence, but it seems they let their fear only get the best of them. I believe people were just seeing things that they couldn’t understand that we do today. But there are some great accounts that have undeniable similarities throughout Europe, Asia, India and Russia.

I could go on and on about what I would like to find in these historical accounts about the blood sucking monsters. Some of these accounts seriously interest me with their shocking ideas and the reactions these people had to possible vampire cases. I understand that people would shiver toward any clue set my “vampire hunters” of how to identify a vampire, but what I’m still most uncertain of is how exactly people identified possible future vampires and vampires themselves.  Another thing I’d like to know is how long this vampire craze existed and what brought along the demise of their hysteria that lasted hundreds of years.

I’d like to argue that there are more credible accounts of documents cases that exist about vampires that can lead to a plausible explanation for these crazy allegations. 

Creation?

Last time I explored the rituals of how accused vampires were destroyed. Now I would like to discover how late 18th-century Europeans believed this creatures came to be. This led me to a source titled "Vampires Galore!", published in Readers Digest Association (1988). Here the author explores the odd beliefs of how ancient vampires came into existence. The causes of the vampiric outbreak varied in traditional folklore.

As I discussed in my last post, I found that the vampire scare was wide spread over Europe, Russia, Asia and India. So I wondered if there were any similarities surrounding the appearance of vampires and how they came to be? In Asia and Slavic beliefs, it was said that if an animal were to jump over a recently dead body or grave, especially a cat or a dog, was believed to be an omen that the body would become undead. In Russian tradition, it was believed that vampires were once witches that were rejected by the Roman Catholic Orthodox Church, when they were alive that is. Or even if a body with open wounds that weren't treading with boiling water couple be susceptible.

Even more strange are the ways they would prevent recently deceased family members from becoming the undead. Often bodies were buried upside down, while placing objects like sickles and scythes near the grave. Which apparently would satisfy demons that would enter the body, making them less likely to rise the body from the dead. Some of the more interesting traditions from Europe were the severing of the tendons at the knees, then placing seed, millet, or sand on the grave of a possible vampire; this was done in the belief that if a vampire did rise, that it would be forced to count every grain, distracting the vampire for some time.

Evil Entities

When did the name 'vampire' come about? It's hard to estimate exactly when from the research I've found, but most point to the early-18th-century southeastern Europe. However I have found examples of ancient creatures that sought the blood and flesh of human victims to obtain their life essence. These entities were referred to as demon's or even thought to be devilish spirits inhabiting human bodies. There were many names associated with vampires, such as vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. Stories of vampires or vampire like creatures spread all over Europe, Asia, India, and Russia. If this was just a myth as we know today, then what was a whole continent of people scared of?

During the late 18th-century, an influx of vampire stories and accounts aroused a mass hysteria, people became so scared that it led to corpses being staked in their coffins and people being accused of vampirism. So I've always wondered why the wood stakes? My educated guess would be that it comes to what is most available and the cost. Wood was everywhere and steel blades were expensive. They believed that to turn into a vampire you had to die first and then be possessed by the evil spirit, and by staking a corpse through the heart it would stop the dead from rising again. Wood stakes were easy and cheap to make, and would need to be left in the body in order for it to be effective.

So we all know the tradition methods on how to kill vampires in today's movies and T.V. shows. A wood stake through the heart, wooden bullets, garlic and even sunlight. But how did they deal with vampires in the 18th-century? Well every country had their own methods or rituals to destroy these evil beings. Methods varied, but the most common method was the staking of suspected vampires, each culture believing that certain woods must be used or they would not be effective. However the way the stakes were administered varied to being staked in the heart, the most common method. To being staked in the mouth and even the stomach (it was believed that staking in the stomach would deflate the body, not allowing it to be taken over by the evil spirit). I also wondered if there were an other methods that seems disturbing or odd, as people often result to extremes when dealing with extremes? I found examples like dismembering the body, then boiling it and serving the liquid to families of the accused vampire as a remedy to cure them from becoming vampires as well. Other examples of staking the body through the limbs and torso several times, removing the lower jaw, decapitation, bullets through the coffin, and pouring boiling water over the body to help incinerate the accused vampire.

700 Year Old Graves and Vampires Disease?

Are Vampires only as real as we make them? It seems everyone has their own idea of what a real 'Vampire' is and what they are capable of. Is their skin extremely sensitive to sunlight, do they have superhuman strength, can they compel people into forgetting, are they afraid of garlic? In todays media we see a multitude of Vampire varieties and it seems no two are completely alike. But as the old hollywood movies convey, lets assume Vampires at least have these features: The need for human blood, hurt by sunlight, pale skin, stronger than average, afraid of garlic and crosses, finally when they feed on a human they will then turn into a Vampire. 

-Skeleton of 700 Year Old Bulgarian Vampire

According to Time Magazine's Catherine Traywick's research, over one hundred 'vampire' graves were discovered in Bulgaria dating back to around 700 years ago. It was tradition in old Bulgaria to nail and stake a person several times through the chest and limbs, stopping them from returning from the dead and killing the innocent. But why were there so many people that were believed to be Vampires? Did they show traits and try to feed from a humans blood? Obviously these Bulgarians were afraid of something terrifying, why else would they stake a human through the heart, nailing them into their coffin?

Could Vampires be the result of a disease? It seems hard to believe, and if there was such a disease you would think we'd have caught on sooner. Well as The New York Times Philip Boffey states, Vampirism could be narrowed down to a disease called Porphyria. Porphyria causes its host to be extremely sensitive to sunlight, so much that it can instantly burn the skin, cause gums to recede exposing incisors, the need for a blood product known as 'heme' (patients today would receive injections for heme, but in old times suffers could have been found drinking blood from a host to help increase their heme levels), and even an aversion to garlic (supposedly this exacerbates porphyria symptoms).

 Although these symptoms fit some of the attributes of a vampire, it's hard to believe that someone suffering from a disease like this could attack people with super human-like strength and overpower a healthy person. But maybe Vampires weren't as strong as we think today? Could it be that someone infected with such a disease as Porphyria be so stricken by their need to survive, and attack a person by surprise to take their blood? Possibly they had to resort to these dreadful measures.

Vampires: Fiction or Fact?

Were Vampires created merely as “ghost stories” to frighten the masses of ancient times, or did the original reporters actually believe in their existence, and did they have some sort of physical or visual contact of these frightening beasts?

We are so obsessed with myths and legends that they flood the media with their beauty, mystery and terror. Vampires have been a recent craze, their luster shines through recent TV shows, movies and we even wear their fangs on Halloween.

I believe that like many myths, we’d like to imagine that Vampires could exist in the real life, along with the mystery, terror and maybe even the romance they could possibly come with. And although Vampires are typically known as evil and demonic, it seems that the media has honed into their humanity, bringing the mortal out of the immortal. I believe that we like to find the good in everything, even if it scares the living daylights out of us.

It is my goal to explore Vampires dark history and try to help shed some light on why we adore them today. I want to find some factual reports on persons who were labeled Vampires in the past, why they were labeled that, and is there any circumstantial evidence.

As far as research I need to go as far back as possible, such as Vlad III the Impaler during the 15^th century, Arnold Paole and Peter Plogojowitz of the 18^th century. I would like to check credible library book sources, chronological accounts of events and historical documented records of towns with Vampire sightings or speculation. 

^^,