A vampire is a mythical creature with a human-like appearance that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (usually the blood) of humans. In European folklore, vampires are undead humanoid creatures that visit loved ones and cause mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited while they were alive. They wear shrouds and are often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, contrasting with the modern gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century.
Vampiric entities have been recorded in cultures around the world, but the term vampire was first popularized in Western Europe following reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria drawing on a pre-existing folk belief in Southeastern and Eastern Europe. This delusion led, in certain cases, not only to individuals being accused of vampirism, but also to the corpses of such suspected vampires being pierced with stakes. Local variants in Southeastern Europe were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania, cognate with Italian , meaning 'witch'.
In modern times, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures (such as the chupacabra) still persists in some cultures. Early folk belief in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalize this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. In 1982, scientist David Dolphin suggested that Porphyria was linked with legends of both vampirism and werewolves, receiving much media exposure. This theory has since been largely discredited.
The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of "The Vampyre" by the English writer John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend, even though it was published after fellow Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novel Carmilla. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, television shows, and video games. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre.
Etymology and word distribution In English The exact etymology is unclear. ("Myths of the Peoples of the World"). Upyr' The term vampire finds its earliest record in English in the 18th century or arguably the late 17th century. It is spelled Vampyre in its first prominent English-language appearance in the 1730s, in news reports about vampire panics in eastern Europe, such as the 1725 Serbian panic. After 1718, Austrian officials noted the local Serbian and Oltenian practice of exhuming bodies and "killing vampires".Barber, p. 5. The English-language reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity.
Before the English term The English term was possibly derived via French or German . In the 1690s, French sources first referred to vampirism as a superstitious belief in Russia, Poland, and North Macedonia, while the Polish Jesuit priest Gabriel Rzączyński introduced the concept to German readers in 1721. The French and German terms in turn derived from the Serbian (). The Serbian term is either native or a borrowing from Bulgarian, both of which are South Slavic languages. Cognates (or transliterations) like upior, uper, upyr, and upir already long-existed in non-South Slavic languages. It may be noted that a pagan worship of similar demonic creatures was attested in Old East Slavic in the 11–13th centuries.
Alternatively, some claim an origin from Lithuanian, a Baltic language.Matthew Bunson: Das Buch der Vampire. Scherz Verlag, p. 273 and following However, Oxford and others maintain all of these have an ultimate Turkish origin, with meaning "witch", which later passed to English via Hungarian and French. However, the Hungarian theory is invalidated by the term first appearing in Hungarian over a century after most Western European languages. The uber belief is alleged to have spread across the Eurasian steppes through the migrations of the Kipchak-Cuman people, after having its origins in the regions surrounding the Volga (İtil) River and the Pontic steppes.
In conclusion, it is almost universally accepted that the modern English word vampire traces back through South Slavic languages, namely Bulgarian or Serbian, to at least Proto-Slavic. The addition of the "v" sound to the Old Slavic form "" () in front of the large nasal vowel (on) is characteristic of Old Bulgarian. Parallels are found in virtually all Slavic and Turkic languages: Turkish: , Tatar language: (), Chuvash language: (), Bulgarian and Macedonian (), Bosnian: (), Slovene and Croatian , Czech and Slovak , Polish and , Old East Slavic (), Ukrainian (), Russian (), and Belarusian (). Many of these languages have also borrowed later forms such as "vampir/wampir" subsequently from the West that are now distinct from the original local words.
Folk beliefs
The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, Manipuri and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Despite the occurrence of vampiric creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century southeastern Europe, when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires.
Description and common attributes
It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood, which was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin, and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature. Chewing sounds were reported emanating from graves.
Creating vampires
The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead. A body with a wound that had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Russian Orthodox Church while they were alive.
In Albanian folklore, the is the hybrid child of the (a lycanthropic creature with an iron mail shirt) or the (a water-dwelling ghost or monster). The sprung of a has the unique ability to discern the ; from this derives the expression "the knows the ". The cannot be seen, he can only be killed by the , who themself is usually the son of a . In different regions, animals can be revenants in the form of a ; also, living people during their sleep.
Prevention Cultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles, near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld. The coin may have also been intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "Jesus Christ conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire.
Other methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains, indicating an association of vampires with arithmomania. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampiric being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent, as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.
Identifying vampires Many rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question. Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white. Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism.
Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition. In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face. Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-styled activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects, and pressing on people in their sleep.
Protection
Apotropaics—items able to ward off revenants—are common in vampire folklore. Garlic is a common example; a branch of wild rose and hawthorn are sometimes associated with causing harm to vampires, and in Europe, mustard seeds would be sprinkled on the roof of a house to keep them away. Other apotropaics include sacred items, such as crucifix, rosary, or holy water. Some folklore also states that vampires are unable to walk on consecrated ground, such as that of churches or temples, or cross running water.
Although not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic, mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed, facing outwards, on a door (in some cultures, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a soul or their weakness to silver). This attribute is not universal (the Greek was capable of both reflection and shadow), but was used by Bram Stoker in Dracula and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers.
Some traditions also hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner; after the first invitation they can come and go as they please. Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight.
Reports in 1693 and 1694 concerning citings of vampires in Poland and Russia claimed that when a vampire's grave was recognized, eating bread baked with its blood mixed into the flour, or simply drinking it, granted the possibility of protection. Other stories (primarily the Arnold Paole case) claimed the eating of dirt from the vampire's grave would have the same effect.
Methods of destruction