Traditional vampirism

[olivierfouquet2000]

I have moved the discussion here from the main board, as my contribution has no 
more reference to HP. I have done some research on traditional vampirism. Claim that 
I have checked beyond reasonable doubt (at least two independents sources) are 
marked with a star.

*1) Vampirism (human-like being that feed on human blood) exist in many culture.

*2) The jewish and christian belief in vampirism seems to stem from ancient assyrian 
legends that have passed in the Bible in the story of Lilith.

*3) The vampire psychosis started in the eighteenth century, especially in Eastern 
Europe. At that time, it is easy to find references to vampires in political decrees and 
scholarly works.

*4) The "official" works of that time speak of human being that have raised from the 
dead to attack human beings and feed on their blood. Official recommendations 
against vampire was to kill them a second time with a picket, presumably the origin of 
that popular belief.

*5) It is very reasonable to suppose that "vampires" were victim of the terrible plague 
epidemic of the first half of the eighteenth century. The description of vampires from 
that time match the symptoms of plague.

*6) A terrible rabies epidemic plagued Hungary, starting in 1721. Vector of rabies 
include dogs, wolves, bats. Symptoms of rabies match some description of the 
vampire behavior (aggressive behavior, biting, dislike for sunlight...).

>From that, it is reasonable to surmise that many attribute of the vampire come from 
that time : biting, raising from the dead (plague induce coma, that could be very easily 
mistaken with death, only the "dead" was bound to come out of his grave and 
contaminate other humans, making them vampires), the fact that you could kill him 
with a picket, the fact that you can be contaminated by biting....

*7) The link between vampire and sexuality can be found at least since the end of the 
eighteenth century. Instance can be found in the early works of german romanticism. 
At that time, the seductive vampire is more often female. One of the first litterary 
work called The Vampire is a poem by Ossenfelder.

Maybe the well-known myth of Lilith has intermingled with the horrible tales coming 
from east europe. At that time the link between vampires and sexuality is already very 
present (more than one century before Dracula and the victorian era).

8) The romantic vampire we know, a pale and seductive but dead gentleman appears 
during the famous contest between Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Byron and Byron's 
assistant, Polidori. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, Polidori wrote the first instance of 
a dandy-vampire, probably to mock the manner of Byron (the fact it is the first 
instance is doubtful, so no * for that claim).

Then came Bram Stoker, and his Dracula set the standard for vampires : Dracula 
comes from Eastern Europe, has an affinity with wolves and bats, is dead (the first 
generation vampire), is seductive and alienated with society (the romantic generation 
vampire), dislike garlic, has no reflection in a miror...

What does that teach us about Snape ? Probably nothing but it was fun anyway.

Olivier