The Magical World Of Vampires: Origins and Evolution

Dracula

It is clear that the word “vampire” today evokes fantasy monsters. Regarding its origin and evolution, works on the subject such as the classic one by Summers (1928) and the most recent one by Beresford (2008), erroneously consider as “vampires” all the imaginary beings that have been described as blood drinkers throughout the history. As shown in this paper, the word “vampire” and its synonyms applied to an imaginary being that drinks blood emerged at the end of the 17th century in Eastern Europe. In this way the first “vampire” is entirely different from what is stipulated in the cited works.

That is why we are focusing on answering several questions. The first one is to know the definition of “vampire” according to its original meaning and thereby differentiate these fantasy monsters from others with a thirst for blood that have been described throughout history. The second is to know the origin of the archetype and its diffusion in written records. The last one is to know the origin and the variants of the ”Vampire” stereotype over time until our century. Based on the above, we need to clarify the process of formation of this figure that holds such contrasting and widely imprecise notes.

Pre-Vampire Bloodthirsty Fantasy Monsters

The “vampire” in its primitive definition evokes a corpse that, in popular belief, sucks the blood of the living and enters it into its own inert body. The first time that the meaning of “vampire” is disclosed is in a report by the Austrian officer Flückinger (1732), on a case of this belief. In the title of his report he equates a Serbian phoneme pronounced by him in German as “vampyr”, which he equates to the German word “blutaussaugers (leech/bloodsucker)”. By then Calmet’s early definition, it is possible to differentiate “vampires” from other bloodthirsty monsters of fantasy that have been described as such in the treatises of Summers (1960[1928]) and Beresford (2008). ): Ekimmus, Lilitús, Lamias, Striges, Draugrs, Witches, Revenants, Brucolacos, Jiang Shi, Ghouls, etc.

In the Sumerian culture there was a belief in the Ekimmus, demons and spirits of deceased people, who in the deserts sucked the blood of people (Summers, 1960). These figures can be understood metaphorically as a representation of dehydration in the deserts that caused death. In no case was anyone believed in the power of the Ekim-mus to enter the blood sucked from others into their own corpses. In ancient Babylon and Jerusalem there was a belief in Lilitú or Lilith, a female demon, who devoured and sucked the blood of newborns. Possibly Lilith was a representation of the unexplained diseases that attacked babies and caused their death, such as sudden infant death syndrome (Moon, Horne, & Hauck, 2007). There is also no evidence that the blood, which Lilith was believed to suck, entered any corpse .

Lilith in history

In ancient Greece, there was a belief in the Lamia, a figure similar to Lilith, and in the Striges4, the latter based on the belief that owls (of which they are synonyms) sucked the blood of newborns (Beresford, 2008 ). Both are metaphorical figures for sudden infant death syndrome. In Homer’s Odyssey in song XI, lines 23 to 50, a blood sacrifice is described by Odysseus to the shadows of the dead, who, when the blood is spilled, approach and drink it (they materialize slightly) can transition from unconsciousness to consciousness. Within the beliefs of the Vikings there was a belief in the draugr5, corpses that come to life briefly to defend their graves, devouring men or killing them with their stench (Keyworth, 2006).

In medieval England, William of Newburgh, describing the history of his country from 1066 to 1198, describes the appearance of a dead man who appeared at night. When the villagers uncovered his corpse, it was found swollen with blood, mentioning that it looked like a leech full of blood, however the belief that the corpse had sucked it from other people is not mentioned at any time (Keyworth, 2006). In the Malleus maleficarum6 written in 1486, in order to serve as a manual for the inquisitors against witchcraft, the case of a town almost depopulated by the plague is mentioned, where it was believed that a deceased witch devoured her shroud and would not stop the disease until he finished eating it. When the tomb was discovered and half of the shroud devoured, his head was cut off and by doing so the plague apparently ceased (Institoris, Sprenger, & Sprenger, 2000).

In 1645 there are reports that the Orthodox Greeks believed, for at least the last 100 years, in the existence of the Brukolaka, corpses animated by the devil that roamed the streets bringing disease and death. It is mentioned that in general they were excommunicated persons. The Orthodox Church denied their existence and preferred to absolve them than burn them as was popular custom. Other corpses that swell, bounce and do not decompose are also mentioned, which are referred to as Timpaniaios8. There is no mention of any ability to suck the blood of the living on the part of the Burculacam or Timpaniaios (Allatius, 1645).

The same belief is mentioned in 1657, mentioning cases of corpses that swell and resonate when thrown to the ground, which are named as doupi (drum). It is also mentioned that the Greeks believe that these corpses are of excommunicated persons. Brucolacos are similarly described as walking corpses who may even return to work with their families. These stories are not credited, yet this belief was widespread among the inhabitants of the Greek islands (Richard, 1657). The same reports of being brought back to life are reported in general for the entire area of ​​influence of the Greek Orthodox Church (Rycaut, 1679) but without mentioning in the original writings the ability to suck blood by such imaginary entities (Valvasor, 1689).

Le Vampire Lithography R. de Moraine

In countries outside of Europe and the Middle East there are beliefs in their religion and folklore about demons that suck the blood of the living, as figures of unexplained diseases, however being mostly stories that were put in writing after the great European explorations from the 16th to the 17th centuries they were able to receive its influence. The case of the so-called Jiang Shi (rigid corpse) of China is notorious, a figure that emerged at the end of the 17th century during the Qing dynasty. The belief describes the fantasy that corpses with outstretched arms walk through the fields. The legend is based on the custom of moving the bodies of deceased people away from their families. The transfer was carried out at night, the corpses were placed vertically and with outstretched arms held in bamboo carried by people. At no time did traditional Chinese folklore turn them into blood drinkers until the 20th century before the European influx (Weiser, 2015). As it is possible to observe, in no case described here, spirits of the deceased, demons or walking corpses, which are described by popular beliefs, are reported as placing the blood of the living in some corpse, that is, they are not “vampires”.

Emergence of the Vampire Archetype: Not Understood Natural Characteristics of Corpses in Eastern Europe

The word “vampire” has a very probable etymology from Slavic (Wilson, 1985). Its meaning would be leech or bloodsucker (Calmet, 1746) as was made clear in the previous section. This word, its cognates (such as the Russian phoneme “upir”) and synonyms, emerged during the eleventh century, however applied only to proper names and places (Wilson, 1985). Only in the late 17th century is it applied to fantasy monsters very similar to “vampires”, in records mentioned below. In private correspondence one can find the cognate “Uinor” mentioned in letter CCXXXV of Pierre Des Noyers, written December 13, 1649. The fragment of interest mentions:

We must, for our part, say a word about a disease in Ukraine, I think that if people are faithful in their testimony, and if it happens truthfully in the country, we would be ridiculous if we want to doubt it. They call it, in Ruthenian “Uinor”, and “Friga” in Polish. This is what he means: when a person who was born with teeth dies, he eats in his coffin, first his clothes, piece by piece; then his hands and arm; and, during that time, his family and everyone in his house die one after another (Des Noyers, 1859: 561).

Des Noyers mentions that the remedy for these epidemics is to discover the corpse in its grave and cut off its head, apparently it gives results to the inhabitants of these places, although he confesses not to believe in this superstition. In our century, multiple archaeological records of this belief have been discovered, such as decapitated corpses, with a ring around the neck or a stone in the mouth (Barrowclough, 2014), practices of Slavic folklore at the time Des Noyers writes (Gregoricka, Betsinger , Scott, & Polcyn, 2014). Similar beliefs can be traced to the Malleus maleficarum already cited.

Vampires and illnesses throughout History

One answer to this parallelism and the account described by William of Newburgh is that from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century there were numerous plague epidemics in Europe, among the consequences that they caused was the fear of those infected. On numerous occasions, people still alive were buried who died a very painful death while trying to get out of the coffin. The natural course of plague epidemics is the cessation in a place after less than a few months, so they would end regardless of whether apotropaic actions were applied or not (Zietz & Dunkelberg, 2004).

The first printed report of any cognate of “vampire” is found in a 1693 fragment by Claude Comiers, which mentions:

The Poles prefer to cut off the heads of their parents before burying them, or put a collar on them so that they do not chew their shroud, to prevent them from sympathy, they say, drawing the blood from themselves, whose buried corpses they sometimes find all covered with blood (Comiers, 1693: 115-116).

Although Comiers does not mention the word “Uinor” that Des Noyers mentions, the actions described are similar, adding the presence of blood.

In a report from the same year written by Comiers, Des Noyers publishes:

    You may have already heard about a very extraordinary thing that occurs in Poland, and especially in Russia. Dead bodies which are called in Latin “Striges”, and in the language of the country “Upierz”, and which have a little fluid which the common people and many respectable people mention to be blood. It is said that the devil takes the blood from the body of a living person, or a little of that of cattle, and puts it in a corpse, because they say that the devil is in the corpse and comes out sometime between twelve and midnight. midnight, after which he goes back there and puts the blood.

This occurs in such abundance that it flows through the mouth, the nose, and especially the ears, drenching the corpse in its coffin. There is more, this same corpse consumes his own clothes, and part of it can be found in his mouth. The demon that dominates the corpse causes trouble at night for the relatives of the deceased, causing them great discomfort while they sleep. He hugs them, pinches them, presents himself with the figure of their fathers or mothers, and weakens them by sucking their blood to transport it to the corpse and when they wake up they ask for help. Relatives become sick, and the devil will not leave the body of the dead, until the whole family dies one after another. There are two types of these spirits or demons. Some go to men, and others to beasts that are also dying of the same disease. The remedy against them is in their corpses. A mixture made of flour and blood from the corpses is made, kneaded, baked and consumed. In the coffins these bodies are flexible, swollen and ruddy, and not rotten or dry like other corpses, some retaining these features weeks after being buried. After appearing in dreams to their relatives, they open their hearts and a lot of blood gushes out (Des Noyers, 1693: 62-67).

Vampires in Folklore. Burying an undead.

Along with the remedy of bread, Des Noyers later mentions the remedy mentioned in his cited letter CCXXXV, that of cutting off the heads of suspected corpses. The word “Upierz”, cognate with “Uinor” on his chart, applies to this type of corpse. Currently cognates of this word can be found in modern “кръвопиец” (kruvopiets) and “krwiopijca”, which mean leech or bloodsucker in Bulgarian and Polish respectively. Although on this occasion Russia is mentioned as the main site of this phenomenon, it is known that Ukraine became a Russian province as of 1654. The Ruthenian zone, at the time of Des Noyers was a Ukrainian zone, is located in the current south from Poland, western Ukraine and northern Hungary and Romania, the area of ​​origin of the belief it describes.

It is worth commenting on these reports that some anthrax epidemics occurred in Eastern Europe between the 17th and 18th centuries. Anthrax was not an identified disease, it causes purple and black ulcers in its cutaneous version, diarrhea in its gastrointestinal version and fever, difficulty breathing and purple discoloration in areas of the skin in its pulmonary version. In the most severe cases, it can cause septicemia and death. The corpses of people infected with anthrax present the peculiarity of delayed decomposition and lack of blood coagulation. The disease attacks cattle and humans, most likely the cases reported by Des Noyers have some relationship to some outbreaks, which the doctors of the time, versed in diseases such as plague and rabies, could not identify (Sternbach, 2003).

Des Noyers’ report was of interest, so in 1694 Marigner published an explanation of this phenomenon. He concludes that it is possible that part of the spirit of the deceased remained with their corpses and these could materialize slightly. This slight materialization allowed them to move, obtain the blood of their relatives and enter it into their corpse (Vermeir, 2012). It is possible to trace this thought about spirits that materialize slightly in what Homer describes in the Odyssey canto XI, lines 23 to 50 already mentioned. Years later, as a curiosity, the presence of this type of corpse in Poland, Lithuania and Russia is described, identifying them with the word “Upier” (Rzączyński, 1721).

As a brief parenthesis and mention of other fantasy monsters reported in these years, the work Magia Posthuma is published, where its author mentions some cases of dead people coming back to life or “revenants”, who came out of their graves in the form of ghosts or bodily and caused suffocation and paleness in people and livestock. Suspecting attacks, people from Silesia and Moravia (mostly in present-day Czech Republic, southern Poland and eastern Germany) dig up corpses that look suspicious to them (flexible, with uncoagulated blood), cut off their heads and they burned them He mentions that they appear day and night, although he offers the curious fact that they move the things that belonged to them from their place and that despite their flexibility they present a stench, which testifies to a superstition based on the presence of strange corpses; he does not mention that they were believed to drink blood as Des Noyers does (Schertz, 1704).

Some time later in the work Relation d’un Voyage du Levant the execution of a “brucolaco” is mentioned. In this work the author describes his testimony of having been present at the execution as an enlightened person. He mentions that on the Greek island of Mykonos in 1701 the inhabitants heard noises at night and suspected that they were caused by a brucolaco. They exhumed the body of a recently deceased excommunicated and apparently orally described it as fresh as in life, the author describes it however in a state of putrefaction and is surprised at the foolishness of the locals in seeing it fresh. In the end the noises do not stop even after cutting off his head and that is how they end up burning him. The noises ceased, however the author believes that the cause of the noises were some beggars who, although they were arrested as suspects, were soon released (De Tournefort, 1718). The story in this work indicates how a fear or a belief can provoke and suffocate reason, although applied to the “brucolacos” there is a similarity with the irrational belief in vampires.

Vampire skeleton with a stake through mouth

Continuing with the topic, after the Des Noyers report, a similar case was described in the report of the imperial official of the Holy Empire Frombald of July 31, 1725. The official mentions that residents of the city of Kisolova, in the territory of the current Serbia but at that time part of the Holy Roman Empire, they reported the case of Peter Plogojoviz. The villagers reported that nine weeks after he died, he began to appear to nine people, he appeared to them in dreams and suffocated them, ultimately causing their death. The officer in the company of the local priest discovered the tomb and reported the corpse a little skinned and missing part of the nose. A stake was driven through his heart, and he mentions that blood gushed from his bodily orifices and the corpse was ultimately burned. The officer mentions that apparently the nails and hair had grown and did not look completely decomposed, in addition to blood in the mouth. The officer concludes by apologizing if he was negligent (Ranft, 1728). In Frombald’s report he mentions cases of these corpses with an unknown Serbian word pronounced by him as “Vampyre”, the first German mention of his cognate “Upierz” mentioned by Des Noyers.

On December 12, 1731, the imperial physician Glaser reports his visit to the village of Metwett, also in present-day Serbia, where the inhabitants were complaining about the recent death of 13 people, who had apparently died after fevers, chest pains and joints, believing they were due to attacks from “Vampyres”. The doctor discovers the corpses and some finds them in an advanced state of decomposition and others not, in the same way he finds out that the inhabitants believe that a deceased had consumed the blood of dead sheep attacked by “vampires” and in another case, of one that was he had bathed in the blood of a dead “vampire” (Braunlein, 2012).

The doctor Glaser’s father, Johann Friedrich Glaser, receives a letter from his son dated January 18, 1732, the content of which is unknown but which apparently publishes his argument with a drastic distortion of his son’s report. It is possible that in the report his son did not really put his feeling about the fact that some bodies were very decomposed and others were not, or that what his father mentions is the report of his son about the belief of the villagers and not the yours, the text is as follows:

My son, an imperial physician from Paracin in the Turkish territory of Serbia, 25 miles from Belgrade, wrote to me on January 18 that in this region, in particular in the village of Medwegya, not far from Barachin, for some time a magical disease is raging. Dead buried in the most normal way rise intact from their graves and murder people. These, in turn, dead and buried, rise from their graves and kill others in the same way. This happens in the following way: the dead attack the sleepers at night and suck their blood, so that on the third day they all die. No cure for this disease has been found so far. Since many have died in a very short time in this way, the local authorities ordered that the matter be examined in the greatest detail. Among those ordered to come was my son, a doctor and physician.

Summoned in unison by the judge and principal of the town and the members of the jury, it was stated that these things did indeed happen, although it was not known how. It wasn’t until it was noticed that people were anxious, scared and worried about their dreams and complaining etc. that a visit to the cemetery could be organized and the delegates could open the graves, finding ten people in their coffins, almost as when they lived, totally incorrupt, but with their coffins, clothes, dresses and shrouds stained with fresh blood that flowed of the nose, mouth, ears, and genitals and having new fingernails and toenails. All these “Vampiri”, as they are called there, were beheaded, after which their bodies were burned, and their ashes were scattered in the Morava River. My son had the opportunity to autopsy them earlier and the intestines were all healthy and unharmed, but the stomach and diaphragm were full of blood. That is what he hastily wrote to me and promised me a detailed report for our government and for the Collegium Sanitatis where he will add more (Glaser, 1732: 82-83).

On January 7, 1731, the document Visum et repertum20 of the case of Arnont Paule in Medwegya is published, describing a corpse like the one described in Glaser’s report attacking and drowning the victims during their dreams. It is the first time that it is mentioned that vampirism is contagious and that the gypsies, fearing the villagers, are the only ones who have the courage to execute the vampire. It is suspected that he took the blood of his victims and slightly materialized his body in the form of a specter. An interesting excerpt from the document mentions:

To put an end to this evil, 40 days after his death, Arnont Paole was unearthed following the advice of his Hadnack, who had previously encountered similar situations; and they found him to be whole and incorrupt, and fresh blood flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; as well as that the shirt, the lid, and the coffin were totally bloody; that her fingernails and toenails had fallen off, along with the skin, and that new ones had grown; and since upon seeing this they were convinced that it was a “Vampyr”, they pierced his heart with a stake according to their custom, bleeding profusely and a moan being clearly heard. The same day the body was burned and the ashes were thrown into the tomb. These people go even further and claim that everyone who was tormented and killed by the “Vampyr” becomes a “Vampyr” in turn.

To put an end to this evil, 40 days after his death, Arnont Paole was unearthed following the advice of his Hadnack, who had previously encountered similar situations; and they found him to be whole and incorrupt, and fresh blood flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; as well as that the shirt, the lid, and the coffin were totally bloody; that her fingernails and toenails had fallen off, along with the skin, and that new ones had grown; and since upon seeing this they were convinced that it was a “Vampyr”, they pierced his heart with a stake according to their custom, bleeding profusely and a moan being clearly heard. The same day the body was burned and the ashes were thrown into the tomb. These people go even further and claim that everyone who was tormented and killed by the “Vampyr” .Therefore they unearthed the four aforementioned persons and proceeded in the same way. They added that this Arnont Paole not only attacked people but also cattle by sucking their blood. And since the people used the meat of the attacked cattle, some vampires still roam the region, since in a period of three months 17 healthy young and old had died, some of them dying in two or at most three days without having contracted previously. no sickness. In addition, Haiduk Jowiza reported that his stepdaughter, named Stanacka, had gone to sleep refreshed and healthy 15 days ago, but woke up at midnight screaming terribly, trembling and terrified; complaining that the dead son of a haiduk named Milloe, who had died nine weeks earlier, had tried to suffocate her causing great pain in her chest, and that her condition worsened until she finally died on the third day. At that point we went that same afternoon to the tombs accompanied by the older haiduks mentioned above, in order to open the suspicious tombs and examine the corpses inside (Flückinger, 1732: 3-4).comes a “Vampyr” in turn.

Shortly after Flückinger’s report, the first reports of vampires appear in newspapers with wide circulation, reporting a summary of Glaser’s and Flückinger’s reports. The newspaper of today’s Netherlands, Le Glaneur historique, moral, littéraire et galant, Volume II, number XVIII (March 3, 1732) mentions the term “Vampires”, the first mention in French of the phenomenon, from which our current “vampires” in Spanish. Similarly The Gentleman Magazine, Volume 2, number XV (March 1732), mentions the word “Vampyres”, the first printed mention in English and that will evolve into the current “Vampires” (Calmet, 1746). In both newspapers, the position of disbelief about these events is rightly taken.

After these publications, various Holy Roman scholars tried to explain the phenomenon as Marigner did decades ago. In these treatises the idea that they are real events is refuted (Stock & Nõbling, 1732). The belief in “vampires” is attributed to lies and imagination (Zopft, 1733). The method of driving a stake to kill vampires is reported to be similar to the punishment meted out to murderers. In this case, it is applied to vampires for believing that they are the cause of the death of the living (Harenberg, 1733).

It is noteworthy that while the previous treatises reflected on the official reports, there was at the same time an entire oral diffusion with obvious misunderstandings and additions, where the story of the father of officer Glaser is a clear example. In 1738 the Marquis d’Argens in his letter 137 mentions, in reference to an oral distortion of the Peter Plogojoviz case:

At the beginning of September, a 62-year-old man died in the town of Kisilova, three leagues from Gradisch; three days after being buried, he appeared to his son during the night and asked him to eat. Once this one served him to eat and once he had finished eating he disappeared. The next day the son told his neighbors what had happened. That night the father did not appear but the following night he showed up and asked for food. It is not known whether the son fed him or not, but the next day he was found dead in his bed. On the same day, five or six people in the city suddenly fell ill and died, one after another, within a few days. The officer or Bailif of the place, informed of what had happened, sent a report in turn to the Belgrade court which sent two of its officers to the city with an executioner to examine this case. The Imperial officer in charge of this report went there from Gradisch to witness an event he had heard of so often. The graves of those who had died six weeks ago are opened. When it is the turn of the old man, he is found with his eyes open, fresh and breathing naturally, although motionless and dead. From there it was concluded that he was a vampire. The executioner drives a stake through his heart. A fire is made, the corpse is put there and reduced to ashes. No marks of vampirism were found either on the son’s corpse or on the others (D’Argens, 1738: 145-146).

In 1734 three Englishmen traveled from Venice to Hamburg and described the case of Arnont Paole in rather distorted oral comments:

The “Vampyres”, which come out of the tombs at night, rush over the people sleeping in their beds, suck all their blood and destroy them. They attack men, women and children; without losing age or sex. The town, attacked by them, complains of suffocation, and a great interception of spirits; after which, they soon expire. Some of them, questioned about to die, what happens to them? they say that they suffer in the way that is related to people who have died lately, or rather with the ghosts of those people; on which their bodies (from the description given by them, by the sick) are detached from the graves everywhere, such as the nostrils, the cheeks, the chest, the mouth, etc. turgid and full of blood. Their faces are fresh and ruddy; and his nails, as well as his hair, very long. And, although they have been dead much longer than many other perfectly rotten bodies, not the slightest sign of corruption is visible on them. Those who are destroyed by them, after their death, become “Vampyres”; so that, to prevent the spread of an evil, it becomes necessary to drive a stake through the corpse, whence, on this occasion, the blood flows as if the person were alive. Sometimes the body is removed from the grave, and burned to ashes; upon which all disturbances cease (Anonymous, 1745: 358).

Given these events, the high clergy participated in the reasoning, declaring the alleged cases of vampirism to be false, a superstition that the lower clergy took advantage of to obtain alms for exorcism and blessings (De Lambertinis, 1743). Similarly, the poetic field could not be left behind, in 1748 “Der Vampir” is published, a German poem, where the protagonist threatens his girlfriend with becoming a vampire if she does not agree to his passion; the word is used as it evokes a metaphor of surrender in his arms:

And if you fall asleep sweetly on your beautiful cheeks

the purple liquid i’ll sip then when you’re scared that’s when

I kissed you

and it will be the kiss of a “Vampir”: when you are trembling

and in my cold arms

like a dead man who collapses it will be then when I ask you Are my lessons better

what about your good mother? (Ossenfelder, 1743: 380).

Der Vampire Heinrich August Ossenfelder 1748

In 1746 the French monk Calmet published a treatise on the revenants and vampires (excommunicated, “vampires” or “upires”, Brucolacs), concluding that it is impossible for the revenants to come out of their tombs without removing the lid of their tomb. As for the belief in “vampires”, he marks it as a figment of the imagination. The corpses in the state that the official reports report, he attributes to a lack of knowledge at that time of the decomposition process of the corpses or to unknown diseases (Calmet, 1746). He is emphatic in declaring that there was no similar belief in ages past, leaving these monsters separate from the imagination of lamias, striges, witches, revenants, draugrs, and wraiths.

In 1755 Gerad van Swieten published a work on the case of a woman named Rosina Iolackin. People in the German city of Hermesdorf exhumed her corpse in the belief that she was a “Vampyr”. Faced with the scandal and based on imperial orders, Van Swieten investigated the real sustenance of the belief. In his report criticizing doctors for not knowing how to distinguish the signs of real death, this as a possible reference to the official reports of Glaser and Flückinger, where especially the former, as a doctor hesitates to consider what he describes as something natural. He considers that the corpses placed on dry land can be a cause of the slowness of their deterioration. Along with the superstition of the people, based on the distorted oral accounts of the Arnot Paole case, it considers these practices of posthumous magic as cruel and unworthy of enlightened people (Mayer, 1768).

In 1765 the Spanish monk Feijoo, on Calmet’s work, supports his conclusion by adding that deceivers take advantage of such superstition (1765). In the same year Voltaire supports both and mentions that there are no longer vampires in Europe, perhaps because there were no news in the newspapers of his time, in addition to applying this word for the first time as a metaphor for greedy and swindlers (De Beaumarchais & Decroix , 1821).

In 1773 the poem Leonora is published, where the protagonist looks for her lover to return from the grave, which darkly happens. It is not a literary case of “vampire,” but it is echoed in subsequent writing (Summers, 1960). In 1774 Davanzati, a high cleric, returns to declare on the subject on behalf of the Roman Church, refuting the belief in vampires, a position already taken by Lambertini (Davanzati, 1774).

Die Braut von Korinth

In 1797 The Bride from Corinth (Die Braut von Korinth) is published, a long poem, in which the protagonist is a “revenant”, who returns from the grave to quench her passion with her lover, which was denied her in life, being of religions different. It is not a “vampire”, however it will influence future stories of female vampires (Summers, 1960). In 1801 Robert Southey’s “Thalaba the destroyer” is published, in the writing, a woman’s husband goes to her grave and sees a glow or a specter, sticks a spear into it, a demon comes out and the spirit of his wife rests. There is no reference to the sucking of blood by the demon, but the combat scenes will be a precedent in later vampire literature (Southey, 1801).

Based on what has been exposed so far, it is possible to mention that the vampire archetype would be that corpse that, through a demon, takes blood from the living and adds it to its own corpse, not coming bodily out of a coffin or its tomb. The distorted oral accounts of what is reflected in the official reports will be present until their appearance in the literature and the emergence of their stereotype.

Emergence and evolution of the variants of the vampire stereotype: from the aristocrat to the superhero

In 1810 “The Vampyre” was written, a story that can be considered related to the archetype of “vampire” and that, due to its plot, is the immediate predecessor of what is considered the first stereotype. It is a story where a ghost in the form of a goblin comes out and drinks the blood of a friend, who turns pale and weakens. His wife watches him die and at that moment she can see the ghastly goblin with a lamp. The villagers of the place cross both corpses with a spear because the dead man had told his wife that he would return for her much to her regret. When the corpse of the first “vampire” is discovered, it is discovered fresh and lush. As an introduction to the poem, the author comments on the numerous explanations for these phenomena in Hungarian stories, evoking, without mentioning it, the case in the oral tradition of Arnot Paole. The author mentions the belief that demons take over corpses. The most interesting part of the poem is the following:

At night, when, enveloped in deep sleep, all mortals share a soft repose, my soul keeps frightful vigilance more intense than hell hardly knows. From the gloomy mansion of the tomb from the deep regions of the dead the ghost of Sigismund wanders and horribly haunts me in my bed. There, dressed in hell (in a way I don’t understand) the goblin lies close to me and drinks my lifeblood. Suck from my veins the life that flows and drains the source of my heart.

The Vampyre (1810)

Oh Gertrude, Gertrude! My dear wife! Unspeakable is my pain. When it is satiated, the hideous goblin with the feast of suckled blood retires to his sepulcher until the night invites him to come once more (Stagg, 1810: 265).

In 1813 in the work “The Giaour” the narrator mentions the possibility of becoming a “vampire”, a corpse that will come out of his grave and feed on the blood of his loved ones; It is noteworthy that unlike all previous literary stories, feelings are presented in the monster:

                                                          But first, on earth, as “Vampire” sent, your corpse from the sepulcher will be exiled;

                                       then, livid, you will wander through what was your home, and the blood of yours you will start;

                                                                              there, of your daughter, sister and wife,

                                                                              at midnight, the source of life will dry up;

Even if you abominate that banquet, you must perforce nurture your livid walking corpse,

your victims, before they expire, in the devil they will see their lord; cursing you, cursing yourself,

your withering flowers are on the stem. But one that for your crime must fall,

the youngest among all, the most beloved, calling you father, will bless you:

this word will engulf your heart in flames!

But you must finish your work and observe in his cheeks the last color; from his eyes the final sparkle,

and his glassy gaze you must see freeze on the lifeless blue; with impious hands you will then undo the braids of her golden hair,

that were caressed loops by you

and with promises of tender love disheveled;

but now you snatch it away, monument to your agony!

With your own and best blood your gnashing teeth and haggard lips will drip; then, to your gloomy grave you will walk;

go, and with ghouls and afrits raves,

until shaken with horror, they flee

The Vampyre by Polidori

of a specter more abominable than they (Byron, 1813: 42-43).

In 1816 “Christabel” is published, a story that bears similarities to the true later vampires, but in this case it is about a demon or sorceress who seduces a young woman (Coleridge, 2017). In 1819 Polidori’s “The Vampyre” was published, the first stereotype of the vampire. Stereotype identified as that dead person who obtains blood not from a demon or its specter, but directly, melee. The “vampire” in this tale is a copy of a rakish English aristocrat mixed in with vampire tales. He is rich, he hypnotizes easily through his words, he lives day and night, he does not live in a tomb, he sucks blood leaving marks on his neck and is widely successful with the ladies. It is worth noting the metaphors that the author makes between gallantry and vampirism. It takes the blood it sucks from living people and puts it into its own body directly. In a pericope where a victim of the vampire is observed, it is mentioned:

There was no color in his cheeks, not even in his lips, and there was an immobility in his countenance that was almost as alluring as the life that had once animated him. On the neck and chest there was blood, on the throat the marks of the fangs that had sunk into the veins.

-A “Vampire”! A “Vampire”! shouted the components of the party before that spectacle (Polidori, 1819: 48).

In 1823 the German work “Lab die toten ruhn” (Leave the dead alone) was published. It describes a female vampire created by a sorcerer at the request of her husband who wanted his wife back to life. The “Vampiress” feeds on young people, leaving her husband’s castle almost deserted. It is possible that the author was influenced by the accounts of the 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman Erzsébet Báthory, Erzsébet murdering maidens and bathing in their blood, in the belief that such practices would keep her young (Miller, 1999). It is not clear if she lives only at night, but the vampire avoids the sun’s rays. In the end, the husband, with the help of the sorcerer, executes her by sticking a stake into her. In the most interesting passage the sucking of blood is described as follows:

That same afternoon, Walter returned to the castle. Brunilda’s magic perfume had no effect on the man and for the first time in many months he fell asleep naturally. He began to feel a sharp pain in his chest, opened his eyes and saw the most horrible and terrifying image of his life: Brunilda’s lips sucking the hot blood that came out of his chest. She screamed in horror and Brunnhilde jerked away with blood running from her mouth (Raupach, 1823: 56).

In 1839 the family of “Vurdalak” was written, although published until 1884 from French to Russian. The story returns slightly to the historical cases, but embodying the “vampires”. Unlike the characters of Polidori or Raupach, they are not aristocratic vampires but peasants. In a fragment the fight with a vampiress is mentioned:

And, linking me with his arms, he tried to make me fall on my back and bite my neck. A terrible fight broke out between us. For a long time I defended myself with difficulty, but finally, gathering all my strength, I grabbed Zdenka by the waist with one hand and the other by her braids and, holding on to the stirrups, I threw her to the ground (Tolstoy, 1884: 38).

Varney the vampire 1847

In 1847 “Varney the vampire” is published, the protagonist, a nobleman and “vampire”, has been killed several times. It has two fangs, it leaves two wounds on the neck of its victims, it enters through the window into the maidens’ rooms. In these two actions the influence of Polidori and Raupach can be observed. He has extensive hypnotic powers, superhuman strength, lives day and night, is not afraid of crosses or garlic, eats and drinks human viands as camouflage. He is aware of his condition as a “vampire” and suffers for it, he is capable of holding a grudge and seeking revenge. On this last point it is possible to trace the influence of Byron. A character who lives tormented and who in the end commits suicide by throwing himself into the crater of a volcano (Prest, 2014).

In 1853 “The Mysterious Stranger” is published, a story where a vampire is presented as an ancient nobleman, the Romanian knight Klatka and at the time of the story called knight Azzo. Unlike Polidori’s story, this “vampire” lives in the ruins of his castle, has a noble but corroded costume, is cold with hatred for mankind and enjoys being a vampire. He is able to dominate the wolves with his gaze and enter through a window like Varney, but with the difference that he enters in the form of mist. He is only active at night and during the day he lives in a coffin in the ruins. While alive he was known for his superhuman strength. In a very interesting passage the attack on a maiden is described:

Then I dreamed, but as clearly as if I had been fully awake, that a kind of mist filled the room, and out of it the gentleman Azzo stepped. He looked at me for a while, and then, slowly getting down on one knee, he pressed a kiss to my throat. Long his lips rested there; and I felt a slight pain that was always increasing, until I couldn’t take it anymore. With all my strength I tried to force the vision on me, but succeeded only after a long struggle. Without a doubt, I uttered a scream, which is why I woke up from my trance (Anonymous, 1853: 17).

carmilla-illustration-friston-1872

In 1872 the play “Carmilla” appeared, in which a “vampiress” is described who sleeps in her tomb at night like Azzo. The “vampiress” has lived for centuries in the likeness of Varney, hypnotizes easily although she has no superhuman strength, she is able to easily seduce maidens, in clear influence with Christabel. At the end, as in other stories, they kill her by nailing her with a stake, as described in the following fragment:

The following day, the scheduled acts took place in the Karstein chapel, with the usual formalities. The grave of the Countess of Karstein was opened. The general and my father recognized in her the most beautiful and perfidious guest. Even though she had been buried for more than a hundred and fifty years, her features were full of life. His eyes were wide open. The corpse did not appear to have undergone the decomposition process. The two doctors who attended the ceremony witnessed the prodigious fact that the corpse was breathing, albeit very weakly, and that it was possible to detect the slight beating of its heart. The limbs retained their flexibility and the flesh was elastic. The lead coffin was full of blood, which soaked the corpse. It was an irrefutable case of vampirism. In accordance with ancient practice, they raised the corpse and drove a stake through its chest. His head was then cut off, and blood gushed from the severed neck. Then they placed the body and head on a pile of wood and set it on fire, until nothing was left but a pile of ashes. The ashes were scattered to the four winds, and from then on the region was free of “Vampires” (Le Fanu, 1872: 258-260).

Dracula 1897

In 1897 “Dracula” is published, a very elaborate “vampire” that mixes elements of previous literary stories and certain bases in reports from the 18th century. Falsely related to Vlad Draculea, a 15th-century Transylvanian nobleman famous for impaling his Turkish enemies by the thousands, with whom he is only similar in noble being and name (Miller, 1999). Has superhuman strength, commands the elements, commands wolves, lives at night, fears holy objects, can be killed with a stake, hypnotizes easily. It enters the rooms in the form of mist, in a clear attempt to explain how the vampire came from the tomb to the victim based on what is mentioned in the Visum et Repertum report and the work “The Mysterious Stranger”. It is the first time that the vampire is related to bats, due to its similarity with some species that feed on blood in America (Greenhall, Joermann, & Schmidt, 1983). The story revolves around the belief about vampires mentioned in the following fragment:

There are beings called “Vampires”; we all have proof of its existence. Even if we did not have our own unfortunate experiences, the teachings and records of ancient times provide enough evidence for sane people. I admit that I was skeptical about it myself at first. If I had not prepared myself for many years so that my mind remained clear, I would not have been able to believe it as long as the facts showed me that it was true, with convincing and irrefutable evidence. If, alas, I had known before what I know now and even what I guess, we might perhaps have saved a life that was so precious to all of us who loved it. But there is no remedy for that, and we must continue to work so that other poor souls do not perish, as long as it is possible for us to save them. Nosferatu does not die like bees when they have stung, leaving behind their stinger. He is much stronger and, because of this, has much more power to do evil. That “Vampire” among us is personally as strong as twenty men; it has a sharper intelligence than that of mortals, since it has been growing through the ages; he still possesses the aid of necromancy, which is, as its etymology implies, divination by death, and all the dead who perish from him are at his command; he is rude and more than rude; it can, without limitation, appear and disappear at will when and where it wishes and in any of its own forms; it can, within its limits, direct the elements; the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can give orders to harmful animals, to rats, owls and bats… To moths, foxes and wolves; it can grow and shrink in size; and can sometimes make itself invisible. So how are we going to carry out our attack to destroy it?

How can we find the place where it hides and, having found it, destroy it? My friends, it is a great work. We are about to undertake a terrible task, and there may be enough to make the brave shudder. For if we fail in our fight, he will necessarily have to defeat us, and where will we end up in that case? Life is nothing; I don’t care. But, failure in this case does not mean only life or death. It is that we would become like him; that from now on we would be nefarious beings of the night, like him… Beings without heart or conscience, who dedicate themselves to the prey of the bodies and souls of those they love the most. For us, the gates of heaven will remain closed forever, because who can open them for us? We will continue to exist, despised by all, like a stain before the splendor of God; Like an arrow in the side of the one who died for us. But, we are face to face with duty and, in that case, can we back down? As for me, I say no; but I am old, and life, with its brightness, its pleasant places, the song of the birds, its music and its love, has been left far behind. All the others are young. Some of you have known pain, but many happy days still await you. What do you say? (Stoker, 1897: 260-261).

Around this time beliefs are reported in Eastern Europe about the superstition that when a person becomes very pale and weak a “vampire” attacks them at night, this shows that the oral accounts of Arnot Paole have passed entirely to the folklore:

In Herzegovina it is said that a “Vampire” is the soul of a dead person, who leaves his grave during the night to suck the blood of his living victim. I was told very seriously that when one of these monsters was exhumed near Belgrade it showed all the signs of being alive, and that it slept and breathed as peacefully as before it died a century before! This happened thirty years ago, and according to custom the corpse was decapitated, and a stake was driven through the body, which was finally burned – the grave was purified with water and vinegar. I was pointed out to a skinny, cadaverous individual, who frequented the Hotel Cafe in Mostar, as a victim of the nocturnal visits of a “Vampire”, for which he himself would become one when he died. My informant was a grey-haired commander, who took deep offense when I suggested that indigestion and similar ailments caused unnatural pallor. But the commander was Hungarian, and there this superstition is almost as entrenched as in White Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Serbia, so the suggestion was greeted with quiet disdain (De Windt, 1907: 88-89).

The Vampire: his kith and kin – Montague Summers

In 1928 “The Vampire: his kith and kin” (Summers, 1960) and later The vampire in Europe (Summers, 1962) were published. In the work, vampires are considered to be lamias, striges, witches, brucolacos, revived, etc. Although he defends his position, it is shown that they are fantasy monsters different from the vampire, as Calmet already demonstrated at the time. During the second half of the 20th century there was a diversification of what was related to “vampires”. TV series (Morowitz, 2007), movies, novels, comics, cartoons, games, etc. However, the variants of the stereotype are related to what is embodied in the literary “vampires”. Among the most notable works of worldwide impact stands out the 1976 novel Interview with the vampire in which the protagonist Louis, widely related to the stereotype of Dracula, does not find the meaning of his life as a “vampire”. It is a “vampire” that can only be destroyed with sunlight and fire, with great force, Louis lives tormented and initially decides to only feed on animal blood but fails. The character finds no meaning in immortality and his pain, making it one of the first works to humanize these monsters (Rice, 1990a). In 1988 the author claims her characters and writes The Queen of the damned, in which, along with giving her vampires more positive feelings, she describes the origin of her characters from the interest of a spirit named Amel 6000 years ago for possessing a Body:

And with the union with the body of a queen the first vampire was created: “We don’t have a name for what you are,” he said. We have no reference that such a thing has ever happened in the world. But what happened is very clear.

He fixed his eyes on the Queen. While you contemplated death, your soul tried to quickly escape from suffering, as souls usually do. But when she began to ascend, the spirit Amel captured her, that being that is invisible like the soul. If events had followed their normal course, you could easily have defeated this terrestrial entity and gone to realms unknown to us. But the spirit Amel had set in motion, long ago, a great change in himself; a change that completely transformed him. This spirit had tasted the blood of humans, of humans it had stung or whipped, as you yourself could see. Your body, lying there covered in blood, was still alive, despite its many injuries. So the spirit, thirsty, plunged into your body, with its invisible form, still interwoven with your soul (Rice, 1990b:339-340).

Given the similarity of vampires with superheroes in other media, due to their powers and strength, in the versions of our century, vampires, under the Dracula stereotype, can feel love (Meyer, 2007), union, revenge, be superheroes defending human beings and fight for political (Hoglund, 2013) and humanitarian (Louis, 2017) ideals.

In one of the most famous stories of our century, a character in the play mentions the following about some vampires who not only feed on animal blood to avoid harming humans, preferring to live peacefully with them even protecting them from other vampires who try damage them:

You never know when they’re going to get too thirsty to bear. -What do you mean by “civilized”? – They maintain that they do not hunt men. Supposedly they are able to substitute animals as prey instead of men. I tried to make my voice as casual as possible. -And how do the Cullens fit into all this? Do they resemble the cold ones your great-great-grandfather knew? “No.” He paused dramatically. They are the same. He must have thought the expression on my face was one of panic caused by his story. He smiled pleased and continued:

-Now there are more, another male and a new female, but the rest are the same. The tribe already knew its leader, Carlisle, in my ancestor’s time. He came and went through these lands even before your people arrived. He suppressed a smile. -And what are they? What are the cold ones? He smiled darkly. “Blood drinkers,” he replied, his voice trembling. Your people call them vampires (Meyer, 2006: 129-130).

Sleep Paralysis

As we mentioned in the second section, the emergence of the archetype arose as a belief due to the lack of knowledge about certain strange corpses. It is highly probable that diseases such as anthrax and sleep paralysis were involved (Gordon, 2015). Other contemporary explanations of the phenomenon are not possible, since they explain not the archetypes but the stereotypes that appeared in the 20th century (Da Costa Santos, Lucinda, Da Costa Santos, & Silva, 2013). In this way, explanations such as rabies, pellagra, porphyria or clinical vampirism (Jaffe & DiCataldo, 1994) are spurious (Jaffe & DiCataldo, 1994), since, as we have described, “vampires” arise from reports such as that of Des Noyers and that of Glaser, where there is no trace for such explanations. Currently outside the field of literature, cinema, comics and games there is a whole folklore about vampires in Eastern Europe (Gordana, 2004), the cradle of this belief, believing in its two variants, on the one hand spirits that suck blood or they scare the living or bodily “vampires”, all based on the distant oral memory of the Arnot Paole case (Gordana, 2004).

Along with this folklore in Eastern Europe it is also in folklore in other parts of the world. For example, in New England, based on cases where it was believed that those affected by tuberculosis were vampires, there is a current belief deeply rooted in them (Sledzik & Bellantoni, 1994). Given the taste that vampires arouse, there are clans in cities of countries like the United States where their members are considered vampires, in stages from the psychic vampire to those who suck the blood of others. The latter only obtain it from a voluntary donor and with strict ethics. Their clothing, makeup and behavior are a whole way of life (Browning, 2015). These clans developed based on the influence of the television series “Dark Shadows”, an adaptation of “Varney the vampire” and the works of Anne Rice.

As it was possible to appreciate in this tour, the sucking of blood has undoubtedly aroused great interest. It is very notorious that numerous variants of the stereotype, such as Dracula, mention the sucking of blood from young people, especially maidens, due to the influence of folklore about Erzsé-bet Báthory. Possibly the habit of sucking young blood is based on the belief of keeping the vampire’s corpse fresh and in the best of cases rejuvenating. Interestingly, today there are anti-wrinkle products based on human plasma and a blood change treatment for older people with young blood is theoretically possible. In laboratory animals a change of blood has generated a “rejuvenation” and is applied on a trial basis in some laboratories. Perhaps at the end of all the “vampires” will continue to evolve (Oakley, 2017).

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