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Vampire History
[edit | edit source]Although reports of vampiric 'beings' have been recorded in cultures from around the world, the term vampire was coined in Western Europe, after being popularized following reports of mass hysteria during the 18th century. These reports fueled a pre-existing folk belief in vampires in Southeastern and Eastern Europe.
This delusion led to accusations of vampirism, and led to the corpses of suspected future vampires being pierced with wooden stakes.
In modern times, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity. Early folk beliefs in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of decomposition, the body's process of decaying after death.
Perhaps people in pre-industrial societies tried to reason about death, creating the vampire archetype to explain the mysteries of death.
Porphyria was linked with vampirism in 1985, and generated many media reports in popular culture, but has largely been discredited.
Cultural practices, designed to keep the recently deceased from turning into a undead revenant, often arose around the world.
For example, burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects near the grave, in order to appease the dead, so they would stay in their coffins.
In Greek folklore, about the vrykolakas, a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "Jesus Christ conquers" was put on the corpse, to prevent the body from turning into a vampire.
Other methods popular in Europe, included disjoining the tendons at the knees, or placing poppy seeds, or sand on the grave site of a presumed vampire, this was to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the grains. A similar Chinese narrative reports that if a vampiric being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain. This archetype emerged in many myths from the Indian subcontinent, as well as in South American tales of witches and other mischievous beings.
| Historic Media Vampiric Reports |
The 12th century British historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants. [1] [2]
An early recording of the time came from the region of Istria in modern Croatia, in 1672. Local reports reported a panic amongst the villagers, reacting on their belief that Jure Grando had become a vampire after dying in 1656, drinking his victim's blood and sexually harassing his widow. The leader of the village ordered a stake be driven through Grando's heart. His corpse was later beheaded. [3]
In the 18th century, the belief in vampires was once again on the rise.
One infamous vampire occurrence involved the corpse of Peter Blagojevic from Serbia. At the age of 62, Blagojevic was reported as dead, but he allegedly returned after his death, asking his son for food. After the son refused, he was found dead the following day. It was believed that Blagojevic returned and attacked some of his neighbors who died from blood loss. [4]
Another infamous case, is of the ex-soldier-turned farmer, Milos Cecar. He was allegedly attacked by a vampire years before he died while haying. After his death, people in the surrounding area began to die. It was believed that Milos had returned from the dead to prey on his neighbors.
The Blagojevic and Cecar incidents were well-documented. Officials examined the bodies, wrote reports, and even published books, popular throughout Europe.
Many rural vampire attacks generated much superstition, and influenced actions taken by locals, such as digging up bodies, and in some cases, stalking them. Government officials joining the village people, engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires. [4]
The hysteria commonly referred to as the "vampire controversy," continued for a generation. [5] Dom Augustine Calmet, a French Theologian and Scholar, published a comprehensive treatise in 1751 titled Treastise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants which investigated and analyzed the evidence for vampirism.
In modern day Romania, in February 2004, Toma Petre's relatives, fearing he had become a vampire, dug up his corpse. They tore out his heart, burned it, then mixed its ashes with water, to better drink it. [6]
| References |
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire |
| 1. Cohen, Daniel (1989). The Encyclopedia of Monsters: Bigfoot, Chinese Wildman, Nessie, Sea Ape, Werewolf and many more ... London: Michael O'Mara Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0-948397-94-3. |
| 2. William of Newburgh; Halsall, Paul (2000). "Book 5, Chapter 22–24". Historia rerum Anglicarum. Fordham University. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2007 |
| 3. Bohn, Thomas M. (2019). The Vampire: Origins of a European Myth. Cologne: Berghahn Books. pp. 47–49. ISBN 978-1-78920-293-9. |
| 4. Barber, Paul (1988). Vampires, Burial and Death: Folklore and Reality. New York: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-04126-2. |
| 5. Melton, J. Gordon (1994). "Vampire". The Vampire Book. Visible Ink Press. p. 630. the vampire controversy of the 1730s [p.467] ... the eighteenth-century vampire controversy [p. 630] |
| 6. Taylor, T. (28 October 2007). "The real vampire slayers". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 19 December 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2007 |