Vampires

 

But first, on earth as Vampire sent,
Thy corpse shall from the tomb be rent:
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corpse.
Shall know the demon for their sire,
At cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.

-Lord Byron, The Giaour - A Fragment of a Turkish Tale, 1813, reputedly the first reference to vampires in English literature


I have a personal dislike to Vampires, and the little acquaintance I have with them would by no means induce me to reveal their secrets."

-Lord Byron

Vampires are lucky: they can feed on others.
We gotta eat away at ourselves.
We gotta eat our legs, so that we got the energy to walk.
We gotta come so that we can go.
We gotta suck ourselves off.
We gotta eat away at ourselves
'til there's nothing left but appetite.

-From 'The Bad Lieutenant'

The Origins of the Term 'Vampire'

F. Miklosich, an eminent scholar of Slavic languages, claims that 'vampire' derives from ‘uber’, the Turkish word for witch. But undoubtedly the source of 'vampire' is the Hungarian word ‘vampir’.

-McNally, Raymond T., A Clutch of Vampires

...if we look at the earliest derivations of the word "vampire" itself, we find that its common root from most of the Mediterranean languages is formed from "vam", meaning blood, and "pyr", meaning monster..."blood-monster"...

In other languages, such as those closer to Dracula's home, there are similar meanings in almost every language. The very earliest reference to the word arises in Slavonia in the Magyar form "vampir", which is the same in Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbian and Bulgarian, with some variations: "vapir", "vepir", "veryr", "vopyr", "upier". In Lithuanian derivations there is an interesting variation on the idea of the vampire being not just a blood-monster but a blood-drunk. The word that gives rise to the idea of a vampire is a mixture of "wempti", meaning to drink, and "wampiti", to growl or mutter, and the use of the word gave an intonation of drunkenness. In Croatia the word for the vampire was "pijauica", meaning one who is red-faced with drink. In Albania the name for vampire means the restless dead, and in Greece and the surrounding territories there is no word for vampire at all. In the European languages the name has always been somewhat similar: Danish and Swedish "vampyr", Dutch "vampir", French "le vampire", Italian, Spanish, Portuguese "vampiro", modern Latin "vampyrus". In the Oxford English Dictionary in its earlier editions the definition is :

A preternatural being of a malignant nature (in the original unusual form of the belief an animated Corpse ), supposed to seek nourishment and do harm by sucking the blood of sleeping persons; a man or woman abnormally endowed with similar habits.

[I was recently e-mail about this word: ["It (the quote) said the dutch word for Vampire is 'vampir' when in fact it is spelled 'vampier'. Well, just to be sure I looked it up in the dictionary. Vampier is the only correct spelling. But it did mention the origin of the word was the German or Hungarian vampir, so it might have been spelled this way once." I've double checked with the book and I've quoted it correctly. Perhaps it was a spelling error that was not corrected by the editors or maybe the book is using the origin of the Dutch word instead. Thank you Joachim!]

-Dunn Mascetti, Manuela. Vampires: The Complete Guide to the World of the Undead

Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476) is considered to be the original historical Dracula that Bram Stoker used as a 'model' for his 1897 novel ‘Dracula’. Vlad’s father, also known as Vlad, joined the Order of the Dragon shortly after his son’s birth in Schassburg, Transylvania. The name 'Dracula' means 'son of Dracul', or son of the dragon or evil.

-G. Gordon Melton, The Vampire Book

According to Hindu mythology, ‘Ralarati’ was both a witch and a vampire. In Assyrian demonology, the ‘Ekimmu’ was a vampire demon. The Singalese called him ‘Katakhanes’, while the Burmese worshipped their ‘Swawmx’. The classical Greeks were afraid of the bisexual demon ‘Lamina’, who stole children and sucked their blood. In Solomonic legend, ‘Ornias’ was a handsome vampire. A Slavic expression for vampire is ‘Vikodlak’, while in Poland these are called ‘Upirs’. Even in remote valleys and clustering villages of Greece, the vampire stalks, unquestioned and accepted as ‘Brucolacas’.

-Varma, Devendra P., Voices from the Vaults

Vampires in Australia are called ‘yara-ma-yha-who’ in aboriginal cultures. This vampire-like being is said to be four feet tall, entirely red, with a large head and mouth, and no teeth, who swallows his food whole.

-G. Gordon Melton, The Vampire Book

Dictionary Definitions

Vam*pire n. 1. a reanimated corpse said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night. 2. a person who preys ruthlessly upon others. 3. vamp(2).

The Random House Dictionary, 1980 Edtion

vampire, n. bloodsucker, bat; parasite. SLANG siren, seducer, vamp, temptress

The New American Roget's College Thesaurus, 1978 Edition

Vamp (2) n. 1. a charming, unscrupulous woman who exploits or ruins men she seduces. -v.t., v.i. 2. to allure or seduce (a man) by playing the vamp.

The Random House Dictionary, 1980 Edtion

Vam*pir*ism n. 1.belief in the existence of vampires. 2. the acts or practices of vampires.

The Random House Dictionary, 1980 Edtion

The Methods of Becoming a Vampire

A very common belief, reported not only from eastern Europe but also from China, holds that a person becomes a revenant when an animal jumps over him. In Romania, there is a beliefe that a bat can transform a corpse into a vampire by flying over it.

-Masters, Anthony. The Natural History of the Vampire

Their Methods of Feeding

When vampires and revenants in European folklore suck blood--many do not--they bite their victims somewhere on the thorax. Among the Kashubes, a Slavic people of northern Europe, vampires chose the area of the left breast; among the Russians, they left a small wound in the area of the ear; and in Dazig (now Gdansk), they bit the victim’s nipples.

-Masters, Anthony. The Natural History of the Vampire

Reasons Behind Gravestones

The gravestone was placed above the head of the body in the grave so that, if a returning spirit should occupy the dead, the body would not be able to sit up. Only criminals, alcoholics and great sinners were not accorded formal burial, just the sorts of character one might expect to be occupied by floating souls! Where there was no gravestone a vampire could come to life again. Where there was moral weakness, therefore, life could be forever.

-Dunn-Mascetti, Manuela. Vampire- the Complete Guide to the World of the Undead

Various

For the vampire must kill, his duty being to bring evil to the communities of fair men, for he is the servant of she who is insatiable - Mistress Death.

-VAMPIRE: Complete Guide

One sign of the vampire is the power of the hand.

-Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873)

For the blood is the life . . .

-Unknown

The lips which will be markedly full and red are draen back from the teeth which gleam long, sharp as razors, and ivory white.

-Montague Summers, The Vampire, His Kith and Kind (1928)

Vampire: the animated corpse that preys upon the living, usually by night, sucking blood to continue its existence.

-Olga Hoyt, Lust For Blood (1984)

Goodie-two-shoes: Tell me, I'd like to know. What did my blood taste like?
The Filthy Beast: Delicious...now come on.
Goodie-two-shoes: No, no, no, no...I'm being serious. What did it taste like?
The Filthy Beast: Well, how would I know, I'm not a vampire.
Goodie-two-shoes: Oh, oh...was it salty?
The Filthy Beast: A little salty.
Goodie-two-shoes: Too salty!
The Filthy Beast: No, it was just right.
Goodie-two-shoes: No...you thought it was too salty. I can tell, you didn't like it.
The Filthy Beast: No, no, I liked it.
Goodie-two-shoes: Oh, really?
The Filthy Beast: I liked it.
Goodie-two-shoes: You're not just saying that?
The Filthy Beast: Great blood!

-The Filthy Beast (Cary Grant) and Goodie-two-shoes (Leslie Caron), Father Goose (1964)

It is natural to die through loss of blood, it is logical to think one could live again through drinking blood.

-Masters, Anthony. The Natural History of the Vampire

Note that when a saint’s body failed to decompose it was a miracle, but when the body of an unpopular person failed to decompose it was because he was a vampire.

-Masters, Anthony. The Natural History of the Vampire

Vampires provided a perfect mirror of the worst fears of the pious and perfect. Vampires were dangerous, sexually rampant, enormously powerful, absolutely unconcerned about human dignity and preservation of the soul, and finally...dead. And it was this last aspect of their nature that made them the most fascinating to legend-makers.

-Dunn Mascetti, Manuela. Vampires: The Complete Guide to the World of the Undead

Vampires are popular because, of all the monsters, they're the most dangerous...the most human. Their habitat is night, and you cannot tell who's a vampire and who's not. Everyone loves the vicarious danger.

-Charles L. Grant, author of 'The Soft Whisper of the Dead

Women are interested in terror for the sake of terror.

-Bela Lugosi, who played Dracula several times

Men are attreacted to him because of the irresistible power he wields. For women there is the complete abandonment to the power of a man...It is like being a sexual blood donor. What greater evidence of giving, than your blood flowing from your own bloodstream.

-Christopher Lee, who played Dracula almost a dozen times

We've trivialized the vampire. I think it happened about the time 'Count Chocula' found its way to cereal boxes.

-F. Paul Wilson, author 'Midnight Mass' a vampire novella

A close analysis will show that the only emotions which in the long run harm are those arising from sexual impulses, and when we have realized this we have put a finger on the actual point of danger. ...A number of books have been published in England that would be a disgrace to any country less civilized than our own. They are meant by both authors and publishers to bring to the winning of commercial success the forces of evil inherent in man. The evil is grave and dangerous, and may, if it does not already, deeply affect the principles and lives of the young people of this country.

-Bram Stoker, author of "Dracula"

"You mean you want the woman for yourself," Mr. Lorpicar said with cynical contempt.
"No, I don't take those that are unwilling." He heard Mr. Lorpicar 's incredulous laugh. "It isn't the power and the blood, Mr. Lorpicar," he sais, with such utter loneliness that the tall man was silenced. "It is the touching."

-Chelsea Quinn Yarbro,"Cabin 33"

On swift tail flaming
From storm and south
He comes, pale vampire,
Mouth to my mouth.

-James Joyce, "Ulysses"

He held up his cross and pressed it against the window. She hissed, as if scalded...hung suspended in the air, her body becoming misty and indistinct. Then, gone. But not before he saw (or thought he saw) a look of desperate unhappiness on her face.

-Stephen King, "Salem's Lot"

For all those vampires who eschew blood but want to keep up appearances, Damien Vanian, London's most famous living vampire, offers this recipe for a blood substitute. According to Damien, it delivers the taste and consistency of clotting blood without the risks of illness associated with blood drinking. Take a liter container and fill it half and half with tomato juice and orange juice. Stir well, let the mixture sit for a while, and then serve warm, preferably at body temperature (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit). For adventure, replace the plain tomato juice with Bloody Mary mix, clam and tomato juice, or spicy tomato juice.

-Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Fun? How would you like to go around dressed like a headwaiter for the last seven hundred years?

-Count Dracula to Reinfield in "love at First Bite" 1979

The power of the vampire is very great and many-sided, even in his lifetime can kill people and even eat them alive; can bring into being, or remove, various sicknesses and epidemics, storms, rain, hail, and such; he casts spells on cows and their milk, the crops and the husbandry generally; he knows all secrets and future, ect. Because this he can make himself invisible or transform himself into various objects, especially into animal forms.

-a verse from Galician folklore

Oh you never see a vampire with a full-grown beard, Yet a vampire can't see his reflection. So no facial hair is unbelieveably weird, 'cause you'd think shaving'd be out of the question.
- Red Green