Vampires: more than just Dracula

Long before Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula was written, people were certain vampires or “nosferatu” existed. The word “nosferatu’ itself is a derivative of the Greek word nosophoros whose definition is “plague-carrier.”

The word vampire is said to have come from the Slavic word obyri that eventually evolved into the Bulgarian word “vampir.”

The vampire legends most familiar are said to have originated in the far East and were transported from places like Tibet, India and China by gypsies to Europe, the Mediterranean, Balkans, through the Carpathian mountains and into such places as Hungary and Transylvania.

The Dracula story is an excellent example of the modern beliefs of vampires. It tells of a powerful Transylvanian prince who sleeps during the day and walks at night with an unquenchable thirst for the blood of the living. This creature of the night is able to change at will into a bat or wolf and use his mind to control others.

These types of vampires are said to be unable to enter a home without an invitation, killed by such things as wooden stakes and holy water, and repelled by garlic and crosses.

In his story, Bram Stoker didn’t mention the belief of placing millet or poppy seeds around the gravesites of suspected vampires to keep them so occupied with the counting of the seeds that they are go out and search for human victims.

The Dracula style vampire may be the most well know but it is not the only type to be found.

In Arabia there is the “Algul” legend. It tells of a female demon type vampire that feasts upon dead babies and lives in cemeteries.

Scotland has a type of vampire called the “Baobhan-sith” that is in the form of a beautiful maiden who lures its male victims to their deaths and wears dresses in the color, of course, of green.

The people of India have the “Brahmaparush” vampire who consumes not only the victim’s blood but also the brains.

When it has devoured these items, it then will take the victim’s intestines, wrap them around it self and dance.

There is said to be child vampires in Germany who became such after nursing again after being weaned. These vampires are called “Doppelsaugers” and enjoy eating the breasts of a relative.

The ancient people of Assyria and Babylonia also had their own vampires, as did the Aztec Indians and ancient Greeks.

“Empusas” is a vampire demon from Greek mythology that supposedly was a servant of Hecate.

There are literally hundreds of other forms of vampire legends from almost every area in the world. Although the majority of vampires supposedly have a human form, others have the creatures being fireflies, wolves, cats, sheep, horses, dogs, coyotes, snakes, and yes, even bats.

In some cultures even inanimate objects such as pumpkins and watermelons can be vampiric. These objects are said to become vampires by being left so that they become rotten.

As with the forms a vampire can take, there are a variety of vulnerabilities the traditional creatures have. Vampires are said to be unable to cross running water or enter a home uninvited although public buildings are fair game.

They supposedly must return to the earth of their homeland every morning to sleep throughout the daylight hours and avoid mirrors in which their reflections can’t be seen.

With the advent of Christianity, the crucifix and holy water became protective shields against the common vampire.

The older means of protection were garlic, hawthorn, wood from the rowan tree and the scattering of poppy or some other seeds. This scattering of seeds was supposedly effective because vampires are said to be an obsessive creature that will stop and pick up or count every seed until they would lose interest in their victim or be destroyed as they were caught by the sun’s light.

Unlike the popular werewolf, vampires are not repelled or destroyed by silver. Iron on the other hand was also used to protect the innocent from a vampire’s lust. Shavings of iron would be placed under a child’s cradle and other iron objects were placed in the room to protect the inhabitants from possible harm.

The means to destroy a vampire are numerous. Sunlight is said to cause a fiery death as well as actual cremation.

Vampires can also be killed while in their coffins by cutting off their heads and then stuffing the mouth with garlic. Another means is the ever-popular wooden stake through the heart. This belief may be directly related to the vampire’s susceptibility to the mountain ash or rowan trees. An odd belief is the one where the vampire’s left sock is stolen, filled with rocks and tossed into a river. These beliefs have held up through the centuries and are still popular today although they are losing some ground as new fictional literature is being written about vampires.

In Stoker’s Dracula, written in 1897, all the older traditions were honored concerning the vampire’s needs, vulnerabilities and means of destruction. Many of these rules were broken when a New Orleans author by the name of Anne Rice released her first novel, Interview With A Vampire.

Since that time, tormented vampires such as her character Louis have become a popular story and screen theme. The success of the television show Angel is a prime example of the changing attitudes towards vampires.

As attitudes change, so does the tolerance of the general public. There is a subculture of present day “vampires” who have their own clubs in most major cities and who practice the art of drinking human blood. Sometimes it is done just for the act itself and at other times it is a form of sexual stimulation. The Internet has thousands of websites, groups and message boards focused on self-termed vampires as well.

Although at the time they had no interaction with each other, almost every known culture has had vampire legends.