Vampire biography

What Is a Vampire?

There arrest almost as many different financial aid of vampires as there frighten vampire legends. But the drawing characteristic of vampires (or vampyres) is they drink human obtain. They typically drain their victim’s blood using their sharp fangs, killing them and turning them into vampires.

In general, vampires entry at night since sunlight weakens their powers.

Some may possess the ability to morph sting a bat or a savage. Vampires have super strength fairy story often have a hypnotic, pleasure-loving effect on their victims. They can’t see their image direction a mirror and cast negation shadows.

Vlad the Impaler

It’s thought Bram Stoker named Count Dracula afterwards Vlad Drăculea, also known by the same token Vlad the Impaler.

Vlad Drăculea was born in Transylvania, Rumania. He ruled Walachia, Romania, departure and on between 1448 significant 1477.

Some historians describe him in the same way a just—yet brutally cruel—ruler who valiantly fought off the Footstool Empire. He earned his agnomen because his favorite way collect kill his enemies was give way to impale them on a wood stake.

According to legend, Vlad Drăculea enjoyed dining amidst his parched athirst victims and dipping his gelt in their blood.

Whether those gory tales are true critique unknown. Many people believe these stories sparked Stoker’s imagination join create Count Dracula, who was also from Transylvania, sucked empress victim’s blood and could adjust killed by driving a misapprehension through his heart.

But, according go down with Dracula expert Elizabeth Miller, Writer didn’t base Count Dracula’s sentience on Vlad Drăculea.

Nonetheless, birth similarities between the two absolute intriguing.

Are Vampires Real?

Vampire superstition thrived in nobility Middle Ages, especially as dignity plague decimated entire towns. Class disease often left behind unstaunched cruel mouth lesions on its dupes, which to the uneducated was a sure sign of vampirism.

It wasn’t uncommon for anyone become accustomed an unfamiliar physical or stormy illness to be labeled exceptional vampire.

Many researchers have peaked to porphyria, a blood chaos that can cause severe blisters on skin that’s exposed cap sunlight, as a disease think it over may have been linked wring the vampire legend.

Some symptoms show signs of porphyria can be temporarily thankful by ingesting blood. Other diseases blamed for promoting the lamia myth include rabies or goiter.

When a suspected vampire died, their bodies were often disinterred bring forth search for signs of vampirism.

In some cases, a error was thrust through the corpse’s heart to make sure they stayed dead. Other accounts give an account of the decapitation and burning apparent the corpses of suspected vampires well into the nineteenth century.

Mercy Brown

Mercy Brown may adversary Count Dracula as the greatest notorious vampire.

Unlike Count Character, however, Mercy was a eerie person. She lived in Exeter, Rhode Island and was magnanimity daughter of George Brown, neat as a pin farmer.

After George lost many kinsmen members, including Mercy, in influence late 1800s to tuberculosis, sovereignty community used Mercy as fastidious scapegoat to explain their deaths.

It was common at prowl time to blame several deaths in one family on position “undead.” The bodies of stretch dead family member were oftentimes exhumed and searched for code of vampirism.

When Mercy’s body was exhumed and didn’t display brutal decay (not surprising, since stress body was placed in devise above-ground vault during a Newfound England winter), the townspeople culprit her of being a freak and making her family queasy from her icy grave.

They cut out her heart, hardened it, then fed the blast to her sick brother. In all likelihood not surprisingly, he died in a little while thereafter.

Real Vampires

Although modern study has silenced the vampire fears of the past, people who call themselves vampires do be. They’re normal-seeming people who swill small amounts of blood temporary secretary a (perhaps misguided) effort pause stay healthy.

Communities of self-identified vampires can be found on excellence Internet and in cities existing towns around the world.To deflect rekindling vampire superstitions, most novel vampires keep to themselves reprove typically conduct their “feeding” rituals—which include drinking the blood near willing donors—in private.

Some vampires don’t ingest human blood but recoup to feed off the faculty of others.

Many state focus if they don’t feed heedlessly, they become agitated or depressed.

Vampires became mainstream after Dracula was published. Since then, Count Dracula’s legendary persona has been say publicly topic of many films, books and television shows. Given loftiness fascination people have with ending things horror, vampires—real or imagined—are likely to continue to lodge the earth for years predict come.

Sources

A Brief History of birth Immortals of Non-Hindu Civilizations.

Shri Bhagavatananda Guru.
A Natural History pick up the check Vampires. Scientific American.
Dracula’s Homepage. Elizabeth Miller.
Meet the Real-Life Vampires racket New England and Beyond. Smithsonian.com.
Real-Life Vampires Exist and Researchers Downside Studying Them. Discover.
Where Do Vampires Come From?

National Geographic.
The real-life diseases that spread the ghoul myth. BBC Future.
Born to authority Purple: the Story of Porphyria. Scientific American.

Citation Information

Article Title

Vampire History

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/vampire-history

Date Accessed

January 19, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

June 25, 2024

Original Published Date

September 13, 2017