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| 1. Dracula Famously inspired by the notorious Vlad 'The Impaler' Tepes, this is doubtless the most infamous vampire in existence. The archetype of the Western sophisticated modern Vampire, Bram Stoker had no idea what he was doing when he loosed this monster onto the the world. Every mention of the words 'Vampire', 'Bloodsucker' or 'Tax-collector' rapidly conjure an image of the Transylvanian aristocrat, whose gentlemanly charisma and demonic supremacy make him the stuff of elemental Awesomeness. |
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| 2. Edward Cullen An unfortunate by-product of Vampire popularity, Ed is nothing more or less than a 'Nice' lecherous Immortal with a thirst to master his thirst. Ed is neither legend nor myth nor folklore but is simply popular with teenage girls- I really shouldn't mention him here, but he is probably the second most popular Vampire of today. He is victim to a lot of 'Bieberism' today- that is, he is unpopular with those whom his marketing does not target. |
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| 3. Lilith Lilith was- according to Judaism and Islam- the wife of Adam, the woman who took the Fruit. Rather than repenting like Eve, she 'turned to the Dark Side', and bore the Fiend many children. She survived by drinking blood, and was - and still is- an important figure in the two religions. There are possibly links with Lamia and Lamashtu, other vamps of the Mediterranean. |
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| 4. Nosferatu Made famous by the 1979 film and the 1922 Opera, Nosferatu is commonly believed to be but inspired by Dracula- however, the myth seems to stretch back into the glory-days of Vampiric Terror, the days of the Strigoi. His name means 'Through the Forest' in Romanian, and some sailors' myths claim him to be the first vampire ever to have migrated to America, colonising Mexico with the now-common Vampire Bats. A variety of myths prove that Vampires were venerated there before Nosferatu, but the legend persists. |
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| 5. Chupacabra From the Spanish 'Chupar Cabra', 'Goat Sucker', Chupacabra epitomises the livestock-devouring Vampire. For centuries, the farmers of Mexico and Southern USA have been complaining of various supernatural beasts sucking their cattle dry of blood. This could be blamed on anything from vampire bats to coyotes- indeed, the most recent reported sighting has been proved to be a coyote with mange. However, the continuous sightings of strange unidentified animals and the frequent unexplained loss of cattle- 30 chickens dead in two days, for instance- seem to point to some unknown agent. This being an American myth, the Chupacabra has obviously been called an alien, as well as a vampire... |
