Traditional Vampirism....

Tue Jan 13 23:10:59 UTC 2004

No: HPFGUIDX 88622

Okay...this is by no means a complete list...I may add more, once I cna find a few reliable sources, but it might help a little with some of the 'distinctions' between folkloric vamps and what has come out since then in order to entertain the masses. A lot of this is memory from when I was taking mythology and folklore in school, and what little I can dredge up from the remaining books I have (since an ex BF stole all my vamp material....)...keep in mind that I'm NOT referring to 'modern' vamps--of which I include Bram Stoker's version, as well as Camilla, Nosferatu and I Am Legend. I'm dealing here about as exclusively as I can with the original type as most people would know them without entertainment contamination. These sources are varied, so don't expect me to be 100% until I get to a library and can really research it...for now, this is all memory....

Why am I doing this? Because some of the arguement seems to be stemming into "modern" interpertations (which vary greatly) vs. the original, which provided bits and pieces to each of the modern versions, but has a definate set of rules of its own...and although Rowling may yet out her own spin on the myth, I suspect she will work from the original creature, and not from what writers and movie scripters have done with the myth since then--after all, what's the point in copying someone else's idea? Why not twist it your own way...?

The original Vampire was a folkloric explanation for sudden death, wasting diseases, unexplained 'epidemics' of similar sickenesses and/or deaths throughout a village, and the like. It was also, scholars argue, a way for superstitous villagers to explain the condition of certain corpses they dug back up when they 'discovered' that said corpses still looked life-like, seemed to have grown thier hair and nails somewhat, had blood leaking from the lips, and often appeared to have not rotted away as they should have according to what little people knew about decompostion in those times (keep in mind that factors such as the coffin materials, how airtight the coffin was, the soil and what was in it, including any scavaging bugs or worms, were all factors that most men had no clue about at the time the vampire legend took root). Most often, the sick that took a long time to waste away were the ones accused of vampirism after they had died (Assumption being that said vampire had been a victim of another vampire during the sickness), and if the sickness continued after the 'vampiric victim's' death, the villagers would dig up that body (and all the other supposed victims of the vamp), and do the usual desecration of the body, sowing it with salt, and then laying the body upside down back in the coffin so that if the vmap tried to rise agian, it would become confused and be unable to find its way back to the surface, thus ending its predations. It was thought to be no cure for a victim except Gods mercy, as far as I remember...because all the accounts I read were about villagers praying for the victim, but little else. If they made it, God (or the equivilant there-of) must have spared them. Otherwise, the victim simply wasted away and eventually died...and was then the next suspected 'blood sucker'.

The original areas Vampires were found in were around the Slavic countries and up into Russia....Although Romania might be part of this area, I think the association there was more incouraged by Bram Stoker in order to make his "Vlad the Impaler as a Vampire" idea fit.

Traits of the Traditonal Vampire (Traditional, not literary, with RL explainations thrown in for good measure):

1) Very very very dead. Most often had been the victim of a wasting disease of some sort and has had last rites, has been prepared for burial and then buried.

2) When found--in the grave in which they had been buried in--they 'look healthy', if a bit pale and waxy (A result of recently pooled blood), their hair and nails appeared to have grown (The skin recedes from both and make them appear to have done this), and they often have blood droplets around the corners of the mouth and sometimes nose (Natural decompostion taking effect--blood often leaks from various orifices after the rigor mortis stage). Sometimes, if the villagers poke holes in the body of the vampire, it emits a horrid sound, accompanied by a putrid smell, and the 'loss' of its healthy build (bodies bloat while decomposing, and if you puncture one, that wonderful gas will escape, making a nasty noise, smelling horribly, and helping the body to return to its non-bloated state). Sometimes, the eyes seemed to open, or the vampire will sit up when disturbed (if the corpse is pretty fresh--such as the next day, anyone who has worked in a hospital or morgue will know that that's muscle reflex--I don't have the knowledge to use the proper terms, but you get the idea).

3) Because of the blood around the lips, they are thought to drink blood, as well as spread disease throughout the village they are haunting...and, most often, they victimize thier own families (Probably because out of everyone in the village, the family members are the ones most likely to be infected by whatever said 'vampire' had while he or she was still alive due to proximity to the victim while they were sick.)

4) Most Vampires are also thought to have been cursed because of acts done in life--murder, rape, robbery, and the like. Living an 'unclean' or 'unholy' life can also condemn you (IE doing things against the social norm and not participating in the local religion).

5) They victimize thier targets at night--when no one is around to see them crawl out of thier graves (except maybe the village drunk who had one too many that night...)

6) They are repelled by gloves of garlic hung on door frames, a line of salt spread across the threshold and the windowsills, cocks crowing at dawn, and, in some places (those that had recently converted to Christianity), religous symbols such as the cross, the rosary, and holy water can do the trick. None of these things can kill a vampire, however, just discourgae thier interest in getting into your home...

7) They cannot cross running water (such as a river or the ocean--streams may be a different matter however...)

8)They can be killed if they cannot return to thier original gravesite by dawnbreak, or if the villagers dig the vamp back up, do religious rites over them, and desecrate the body.

9) Many villages buried a suspected vampire upside down in its grave to confuse it and keep it from digging out.

10) Vampires are very rarely recorded as having any sort of intelligent conversation with either thier victims or thier killers....they more seem to revert to an animalistic nature....vicious, hungry, and pretty much gone as far as mental capacity is concerned.

Anne

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