Blood. Gallons of the red stuff flow in every vertebrate. Look at it flow, alive like no other liquid, look at its vivacity, its abundance, its ability to keep man alive... it's little wonder blood was subject to much dread fascination in the earliest myths. Liquids in general have always fascinated philosophy- considered to be beyond physical, spiritual- and this, the vivacious sustainer of life, was considered by the first Physicians as the soul, the emotions, the spark of life of a sentient being.Thus it was believed that another's blood had to be beneficial, life-giving: Egyptian physicians gave rodent blood to their patients, Indian doctors used squashed leeches, the Greeks used chicken blood...- The Demon vampire- usually some kind of monster in the guise of a human, who needs the blood to survive and not to come back to life.
- The Bestial vampire, an animal surviving on Blood as its sole source of nutrition (Science has now taken into account the existence of these- Bats, mosquitoes, leeches).
- The Human vampire- A human who harnesses the power of another's blood for his own gain-usually called a witch.
The vampire known today all over the world- the Transylvanian Undead, whose most famous representative is known as Dracula- can be traced back to Greece.
It is unclear exactly which type of Greek vampire spawned Dracula, but, in my opinion, the Vrykolakas seems the more likely progenitor. This vampire originated in the folklore of the Ionian countryside (though possibly imported from Persia); it was a dead body, from which the spirit had failed to depart- sometimes because his relatives would not let him go, more often because he had an oath to fulfill or a vengeance to take; this reanimated corpse would set about his business with superhuman strength and some of the characteristics of the typical Transylvanian; he only came out at nighttime, could only enter a house upon invitation, and survived on blood.
This myth migrated to Romania, along with many other stories; in the shadow of the Carpathian the idea of Blood-suckers flourished; these were ideal conditions for such a grim idea. The old Dacian mythology had believed that the souls of the Dead sometimes stayed on earth, were they to be found unworthy; these were called Strigoi. As such, Romanian peasantry were well-versed in the idea of Undeath, even before the arrival of Greek vrykolakas. This arrival caused a number of folkloric eruptions- the idea of lecherous Undeath was unheard of, and popular. It merged with the Strigoi idea, to produce the Medieval Strigoi- the soul of a dead person, who has not stuck to Christian virtue (i.e. a murderer etc.) or has certain signs condemned by superstition (redhead, seventh son of seventh son, born-with-caul, etc.) will come back from the dead, and be able to possess bodies- whether his own, or another's, or an animal's- and will need to sustain himself by drinking the blood or sapping the life essence of a victim. The Strigoi entered a body through cuts and scars, and used it to drink the blood of his relatives.
Strigoi were to blame for the Black Death- the rats seen in abundance were feeding on the life-essence of the dying- and for the repeated mountaineering deaths in the Carpathians; their folkloric cousins- vampiric witches, Moroi, Viustrigoi, and Moartstrigoi- were blamed for basically everything else, from bad weather to oddly behaving relatives, passing through rotten food and pest problems. In the grim Carpathians, the idea of Lechery completely revolutionized folklore, making of vampires what a witch is to other countries (quite some improvement, in my opinion).
As the Lecherous myth gained potential in Eastern Europe, it became known in Russia as the Upyr, or witch. This became 'Vampyr' when it made its way across Hungary, and into Bavaria- where it came under the attention of certain German poets; the first entrance of the Vampire in literature.
The first recorded poet to write about the Vampire was Ossenfelder, who in 1748 wrote it- quite simply called Der Vampyr, it was not considered of interest, but inspired Burger and Van Goethe to experiment with the Bloodsucker idea- both were successful, especially the last one, which- if truth be told- has nothing to do with the Strigoi, but talks of the Greek Lamia (never mind that now).
The poets paid attention to one of the minor traits of a vampire- it was said that a Strigoi was more attracted to blood of the opposite sex- and used it to eternally characterize the vampire as a romantic figure.
This success made its way to Britain, where Byshe, Southey, and Stagg all tried their hand at Vampire literature. It must be said that Stagg's The Vampyre was the most popular by far, and the first to coin the sophisticated vampire elemental to our current image.
The vampire image was made more sympathetic by Varney the Vampire, a landmark in both the evolution of the Vampire and of the Gothic horror genre; this image was reinforced by LeFanu's Carmilla, written in 1871.
It came in 1897- the Masterpiece, the Final chapter- Bram Stoker's Dracula. The charismatic, intelligent, strong Vampire, afraid of garlic and crosses, sneaking out at night to drink blood and to turn into rats and bats and wolves, was cornered, romanticized, and made popular beyond recall, in this Gothic novel. All following vampire novels followed Stoker, and Dracula has become the epitome of the Modern Vampire.
The next stage in Vampiric Evolution is Hollywood: several films have come out over the years- indeed, Dracula was one of the first books ever adapted to the Screen, and the only person subject to more films than Dracula is Sherlock Holmes. Hollywood has, put roughly, 'Polished the Vampire, and served him to the crowds'- the future of the Vampire now resides on the screen.
The most recent fluctuation in the image of the Vampire is the New York Bestseller Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer. This can be seen as the commercialization of the Vampire- the marketing is just about as narrow as Justin Bieber's, and the image has been 'Polished' to exclude all the un-politically correct Vampiric characteristics- no longer are the vampires scared of the Cross, and we have now seen a Black vampire- hitherto unheard of. Undeath has disappeared, as has the fear of daylight. Overall, the vampire is now a dazzling, lecherous Immortal, who can learn to control his thirst! Is nothing sacred anymore?
To the common man, the vampire will never be more than Ed the Super-Leech or Dracula the Cloaked-and-Makeup, but to us folklorists, the Vampire represents one of the greatest denizens of the dark ever to have stalked our dreams.
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| New York Vampires protest against Twilight Film- 'We don't do Sparkly Skin!' BUUUT maybe I'm just naive... Yours in the Darkest Dreams of Man, JAFHR |
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