Interesting facts about vampires

It’s only since the eighteen hundreds that vampires have been described as gaunt pale (white) creatures, before this the myths described them as wearing shrouds, bloated and dark creatures. The early films about Count Dracula, featuring actors such as Bella Largosi were older men who were neither handsome nor charismatic. The advent of films such as Interview with a vampire and Twilight changed the image of vampires in popular culture as devastatingly handsome, charismatic and drop dead gorgeous.

 The term 'vampire' wasn't popularised until the 1800's after an influx of vampire superstitions from Eastern Europe, where they were rife. There are many different names for vampires, such as Strigoi in Romania which the authors of today utilise in their books. Richelle Mead actually uses the term Strigoi in her Vampire Academy books.

 The pioneering authors of the first vampire novels featuring charismatic and sophisticated vampires were The Vampyre by John Polidori published in 1819 and the best remembered (and read) Dracula by Bram Stocker published in 1897. These two books formed the bases of modern vampire legend, which has become a dominant feature in the fantasy genre, with many authors and film makers adapting it to great success.

 There are many cultural practices in relation to vampires, for example burying someone upside down was commonplace to prevent them becoming vampires, but the one that made me laugh were putting seeds or rice on the graveside which were intended to keep the vampire busy all night counting every grain as they couldn’t resist counting them. One way to identify a vampire’s grave was to lead a virgin boy on a virgin black horse, which would recoil at a vampire’s grave.

 Traditional ways to ward off vampires such as religious object and buildings, garlic and even mirrors have been manipulated in recent years by authors and film makers. Garlic is the biggest myth busted in most works about vampires but the religious ones have also been reworked. In Vampire academy, the mortal vampires actually go and worship in their form of a church and in True Blood vampires enter a church to rescue Sookie and others held there. Another myth tells us vampires can only enter a place when invited by someone, yet it isn’t used in all vampire novels, True Blood use it, but others such as The Nightlife series by Travis Luedke and Vampire Academy don’t mention it.

 The traditional wooden stake used to kill vampires, varies in the type of wood dependent on the region you are in. In Russia the preferred wood is Ash, in Serbia it’s Hawthorne and the use of Oak is also noted widely. Even the parts of the body to be staked varies, with the heart being the most popular, in Russia and North Germany it’s the mouth whilst it’s the stomach in north eastern Serbia. Novels written in recent times are pretty consistent in going for the heart. In some books the stakes are silver and silver also features as a method of restraint for vampires, yet I’ve not found it mentioned in the research I’ve done, so maybe this is a modern adaptation used by authors. Other common methods to kill vampires noted in the myths are decapitation, burning and holy water and these are commonly used by authors in their books as alternate methods to the stake.

 In early literature such as Dracula there is no mention of vampires being fried in the sun, Van Helsing claimed that Dracula is limited to the power of a human man and not that daylight would destroy him. In Poldoris book Vampyre it is written that the protagonist spends days travelling with the vampire. It’s only in later books that the vampires show the aversion to sun and that it would burn them to death.

 If you thought you only became a vampire when you were bitten by one, then think again. There are some amazing myths surrounding vampires in many different cultures, in Eastern Europe and china it was believed that a corpse jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or cat may turn into vampire. Also in Russian folklore it was believed witches and those against the Russian Orthodox Church could also become vampires. Here are some other interesting ways to becoming a vampire, they include;

·         Committing suicide

·         Eating the meat of a lamb killed by a wolf

·         Practicing witchcraft or Satanism

·         If an animal such as a cat or dog passed over the corpse of the recently deceased

·         A corpse which is improperly buried may come back as a vampire

·         Having a spell cast on you at birth

·         Dying before baptism