Vampires » vampire history

The Blow Vampire

Moonlight — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:00:44 +0000

Throughout the centuries countless cases of vampirism have been reported and recorded, leaving a massive trail of death, blood and superstition for us to follow. Today’s event, recorded in the book Magia Posthuma, brings us to Kadam, Bohemia in the year 1706.

This case begins with a herdsman named Myslata of Blow that continued to return to the town even after his death. The undead Myslata would wander the streets while calling out the names of those he recognized as he passed them by.

It may have been the fact that they were scared out of their skulls, but these individuals always died a few days later. This was when the town officials felt it was needed to take out the threat, Myslata. So the body of the Blow Vampire (also called the Blau Vampire) was exhumed, and a stake was pounded into its heart.

Unfortunately, that did not do the trick and the vampire returned in a horrifying state, frightening several villagers to death and then suffocating others. The Blow Vampire laughed at those that attacked him, mocking them and thanking them for providing him with a fine stick for beating off dogs.

Now absolutely desperate, the villagers gave the vampire’s sleeping body to an executioner, who pierced it with several whitethorn stakes. Once he was finished turning the vamp into a pin cushion, he then burned it. While the flames consumed the Blow Vampire, suffering screams of the undead could be heard by all.

What do you guys think of these stories? After all they are actual events reported by city officials of the time. Do you think they are true, that these events took place just as described? Or do you think that they are simply stories created by overactive imaginations? Perhaps these people believed them at the time, but due to the lack of science and far too much superstition didn’t see the truth.

Hmmm.

- Moonlight

The Infamous Sergeant Bertrand

Moonlight — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:00:44 +0000

In the late 1800s there was notorious criminal known at the time only as “The Vampire.” It was later discovered that this criminal was Sergeant Bertrand and before he was caught in 1849, he terrorized the city of Paris.

Bertrand, a military engineer of the 74th Regiment, had been breaking into multiple cemeteries. Once he was in one of the graveyards he would then desecrate tombs, exhume bodies, and then inflict all sorts of horrifying mutilations upon the corpses.

The superstitious guards and caretakers spread mass hysteria throughout Paris by claiming to see shadows darting among the old tombstones and declaring that the sturdy walls and iron gates should have been strong enough to keep out any mortal man. Thus the rumors of the mysterious and terrifying vampire began.

Once “The Vampire” hit a cemetery the guards and security were greatly increased there so that there could be no more attacks, the only problem is that Bertrand never returned to the same cemetery, he always chose a new one. This made it incredibly difficult to find and catch him.

But the guards got lucky and one night the filthy Sergeant Bertrand was captured, but only after being shot and accidentally leaving behind a small piece of his uniform at the scene in his haste to escape. Using the bit of uniform and the knowledge that “The Vampire” was wounded the officials traced Bertrand to a military hospital. Once caught he was arrested, tried and imprisoned for one year. And so ended the devilish deeds of the mysterious vampire of Paris.

Later on in 1901 Sergeant Bertrand’s case was examined by Dr. Alexis Epaulard in his treatise on vampires. In his paper Epaulard suggested that anyone who loved corpses, platonically or not, should be called a necrophile. Epaulard also introduced the term “necrosadism” as a label for those who mutilated corpses, most likely after researching the sick and twisted Bertrand.

- Moonlight

Explorer: Vampire Forensics

Moonlight — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:00:51 +0000

Excellent news for us vampire fans and history buffs – the National Geographic Channel is taking a deeper look into vampires in their upcoming program, Explorer: Vampire Forensics, which airs Tuesday, February 23 at 10PM ET/PT.

“Did vampires roam the earth in the time of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci? Historical records indicate that people thought so and even describe how to safely bury them. Now, more than 400 years later, a 16th-century mass grave is unearthed near Venice that includes a skeleton with a brick apparently inserted between the jaws of the skull. This appears to be evidence of a macabre ritual designed to “kill” a vampire and sparks a highly unusual forensic investigation.”

The show follows forensic anthropologist Matteo Borrini as he digs deeper into the legend of “shroud eaters” in the 16th century Venice. Dr. Matteo Borrini worked as a CSI specialist and academic at the University of Florence but used his spare time to research the strange skull with the brick between its jaw. Deep in the University’s renaissance library, Borrini finds the answer. An ancient text describes a macabre ritual whereby a brick was placed in the mouth of the corpse to kill a vampire.

I wrote about this mysterious skull a while back, here. The skull was discovered about a year or so ago in Venice, it was believed to be the remains of a female “vampire.” She was buried with a brick jammed between her jaws to prevent her from feeding on her grave shroud, or on others. You see, in the 16th century a plague had spread through the area and people at the time took all precautions to keep it from spreading even farther, hence the brick.

This is one of the things Explorer: Vampire Forensics will take a much deeper look into. I find the entire thing fascinating and can’t wait for them to dig deeper into the science of vampires, as well as the superstitions behind them. I will be catching the program for sure.

- Moonlight

A True Rhode Island Vampire

Moonlight — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:00:25 +0000

In Rhode Island in the late 1700s lived a 19-year-old girl named Sarah Tillinghast. Sarah was a dreamy girl, spending her days wandering small graveyards where Revolutionary soldiers lay. She was known to bring a book of poetry to these places and seat herself on a grave slab and read for hours on end. One day as she returned home from one of her visits she professed herself ill and took to her bed. Soon after she had a horrible fever and within weeks she was dead.

The Tillinghast family was still grieving some weeks later when Sarah’s brother, James, came down to breakfast looking pale, shivering and complaining of a weight on his chest. He claimed that Sarah had come to him and sat on his bed. Sarah and James’ parents thought it was nothing but his grief playing tricks with his mind.

The next day James was even paler and could barely breathe. Soon after, James was also dead.

But Sarah and James were just the beginning – shortly after their deaths two more Tillinghast children died, both saying beforehand that Sarah had visited them. These claims were quite frightening for the Tillinghast parents, for it meant that Sarah was returning from the dead to draw the life from remaining family members. The rumors spread through the town, all saying one word – Vampire!

Not before too long there were more deaths, and all of the victims claimed that it was Sarah that they saw right before the sickness took hold. Then finally Honour Tillinghast, the mother of all the dead children, too became sick. Honour lay in her death bed swearing that her lost children were calling out to her.

This was when Snuffy Tillinghast, the father, finally took a stand. With the help of his farmhand, Caleb, he went out early morning to the cemetery where Sarah was buried. He took with him a long hunting knife and a container of lamp oil.

The two men reached Sarah’s grave and together dug up her casket and opened its creaking lid. Even though she had been put to rest 18 months ago Sarah looked as if she were asleep, there was no decomposition. After seeing his daughter’s face flushed as if with blood he took his knife and cut out her bleeding heart. It is said her body gushed with blood. Snuffy Tillinghast then set his daughter’s heart on fire and burned it to ashes.

After the heart was burned the deathly ill Honour Tillinghast recovered fully and there were no more strange deaths or Sarah sightings in the Rhode Island town again.

- Moonlight

Make Him Burn

Moonlight — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:00:14 +0000

Time to go back to the 1600s for another reported case of vampirism! This time our story takes place in Silesia, which is a historical region of central Europe, now known as Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. But on to the vampires!

In Silesia lived a man named Cuntius who was a well-loved member of the city council and highly respected. One day when Cuntius was around the age of 60, he was kicked in a sensitive spot by one of his horses. While he didn’t show any sign of serious injury, a few days later Cuntius fell deathly ill and claimed that because of his many sins, he would never be pardoned by God. As he lay dying a black cat jump onto his body and attacked him.

At Cuntius’ funeral a massive rain storm came out of nowhere and didn’t stop until his body had been placed inside the earth. Shortly after his burial rumors, stories and sightings of Cuntius spread like fire throughout the town. It was decided that they would exhume his body to see if there was anything strange.

Even though the bodies around Cuntius’ were all old and decayed, his remained perfectly preserved. This of course led the townsfolk to believe that he had become a vampire and therefore needed to be destroyed. They lifted his body out of the grave so that they could burn it, and found that it was unnaturally heavy. With great difficulty they placed his corpse into the fire. But, the flames didn’t burn him at all. The panicked executioner then chopped Cuntius’ body into tiny bits, he then threw each piece back into fire and this time they burned. After the cremation was finished they threw the remaining ashes into the river and that was the end of Cuntius the vampire.

This story was published by Henry More in 1653 in An Antidote Against Atheism. It is possible More made the story of Cuntius up to scare people into being moral for fear of becoming the undead. This was quite common back in the day; they often used the belief of supernatural evils to scare people into behaving. Tsk tsk.

- Moonlight

The First Vampires?

kate — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:47:14 +0000

Well it turns out that the first vampires might not be Dracula or Elizabeth Bathory. And the first vampires might not have acted anything at all like the images we’ve dreamed up vampires to be today. One of the most adamant arguments on this site is that real vampires need to drink blood. And up until today, I would have agreed with you. But then I came across this piece of information about vampires in Eastern Europe in the mid 1600s. These creatures, which are thought in some parts to be the true first vampires, seem to come to be what they are more out of the way they died and such, and that the focus of the stories is that they come back from the dead.

It was during this time that communities throughout Eastern Europe and Greece started seeing some sort of paranormal phenomenon. It wasn’t vampire-like activity per se, but rather things that you would expect from a poltergeist, such as dishes flying, drawings slamming shut, etc. After these happenings, panic broke out among the people.

It’s also important to note that these communities were made up of mostly people from the Eastern Orthodox faith. This is of particular importance because it was this faith that believed strongly in the rituals of death and associated the way a person died and how they were buried, had a lot to do with what happened to their soul once they were gone. The Eastern Orthodox people who were experiencing the terrifying incidences explained their experience as being attacked or seeing something that seemed human yet unnatural and hadn’t decayed. There was also a strong believe attached to the Eastern Orthodox faith that if the soul wasn’t set free properly, the physical body would be unable to decompose. This was to reflect the state their soul was feeling, rather than what was really physically happening. And because of their faith, believed these to be souls that had come back due to a wrongdoing in the death ritual, or a spot on the person’s soul. Those in the same areas however that weren’t of the Eastern Orthodox faith said that the creatures did seem to be decayed to them.

It wasn’t thought that these first vampires came back to drink anyone’s blood. It was common knowledge that they came back to eat and drink but they would feast on either animal or human, whichever they came upon or fancied. These first vampires of the Eastern Orthodox faith were also thought to have a very healthy sexual appetite. If they were married when they had died it was thought that they came back to be with their spouse, or that they would bother strange men and women to sleep with them. And just like our storytelling still goes today, these vampires were also very beautiful and hard to resist.

These vampires weren’t thought to live on generation after generation however. It was widely assumed that once a vampire appeared on the scene in these areas, they would have only a certain amount of time before they were eventually eliminated or just died out.

This particular piece of history surrounding what could have been the first vampires applies only to the Eastern Orthodox people of the is area during this particular time. Like all vampire mythology and vampire history, this is one piece of the puzzle and applies to a specific group of people.

– Kate

Vampire Discovered in Italy

Moonlight — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:00:03 +0000

Last year, archaeologists and news crews were all in a flutter over the discovery of a vampire grave in Venice, Italy. What I find surprising is that I am still hearing people talk about this amazing historical find so long after the discovery.

Last year Italian researchers found the remains of a female “vampire” in Venice; she was buried with a brick jammed between her jaws to prevent her from feeding on her grave shroud, or on others. In the 16th century a plague had spread through the area and people at the time took all precautions.

If you are a long time reader of ours and have read the vampire folklore posts then you know that a common belief back in the day was that not only did some vampires feed on blood, but that they also spread the plague. At the time villagers took all sorts of precautions to keep vampires from terrorizing them; some involved putting a brick in a corpse’s mouth, hammering nails into various body parts, placing stakes in the grave and many many more.

Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery of the vampire woman was on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black Death.

“This is the first time that archaeology has succeeded in reconstructing the ritual of exorcism of a vampire,” Borrini told Reuters by telephone. “This helps … authenticate how the myth of vampires was born.”

The vampire was unearthed in a mass grave from the Venetian plague of 1576. The plagues devastated Europe between 1300 and 1700. Due to the lack of knowledge on decomposing corpses at the time, the people held onto the belief that corpses were becoming vampires and spreading the plague.

Gravediggers reopening mass graves would sometimes come across bodies with hair still growing, bloated by gas, and blood oozing from their mouths and believe them to be alive, or undead. The shrouds used to cover the faces of the dead were often decayed by bacteria in the mouth, revealing the corpse’s teeth, and vampires became known as “shroud-eaters.”

According to medieval medical and religious texts, they believed that vampires spread disease in order to suck the remaining life from corpses until they acquired the strength to walk again.

“To kill the vampire you had to remove the shroud from its mouth, which was its food like the milk of a child, and put something uneatable in there,” said Borrini. “It’s possible that other corpses have been found with bricks in their mouths, but this is the first time the ritual has been recognized.”

This was quite an influential discovery for not only archeologists but also for vampire fans. I find it fascination how the many vampire myths and legends are born, from rabies to this. It’s incredible.

- Moonlight

A Native American Vampire

Moonlight — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:00:33 +0000

Believe it or not American vampire fans, but we actually have a few vampire legends here in the States. Today’s supernatural tale of blood and terror is an old Native American legend that has been passed down. The tale of a Medicine Man and his wife, Laughing Sky.

There was once and very talented and powerful Medicine Man who ruled his tribe kindly and wisely. This man married the lovely woman Laughing Sky and the two of them were blissfully happy – until they learned that she was barren and that they would never be able to have a son.

The Medicine Man prayed and prayed to the Great Spirit, but his prayers were never answered. To make matters worse, Laughing Sky was losing time, for she was reaching the end of her child-bearing years. In desperation the Medicine Man cried out that unless the Great Spirit granted him a son, he would no longer serve and obey. Time passed and still Laughing Sky was without child.

This was when the Medicine Man turned to the darker and sinister arts for help. He opened a portal and brought out a powerful spirit from the realm of the shadows. The spirit, Jumlin, in return promised the Medicine Man many fine sons and daughters. But the wicked Jumlin lied and instead took over the mind and heart of the Medicine Man.

Jumlin was a truly cruel and evil spirit that feed on the blood of all living things. He first feed on the blood of the braves, then on the women and even on the children. Not only that but he slept with the women in the tribe and sired many children of his own. The tribe, who had loved the Medicine Man, now lived in fear of the monster that had taken him over. They sent hunters to other tribes to learn of a way to kill the spirit since he was so powerful none of their methods worked.

When they returned they found Laughing Sky very sick and close to giving birth to Jumlin’s creation. After her son Laughing Bear was born, Jumlin drained her blood and took his newborn baby and some of the tribe’s women and escaped across the plain.

Laughing Bear grew up to be strong and just as evil as his father, but one day the hunters caught up to him and his father. The Medicine Man and the spirit inside him were destroyed, but Laughing Bear escaped. It is said the he and his bloodsucking brothers and sisters still walk the earth even today.

- Moonlight

Vampires and Animals

Moonlight — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:00:28 +0000

Believe it or not animals and vampires have a big part in vampire folklore. Sometimes it’s simply the malevolent vampire controlling the animal, making it carry out his evil deeds, or it’s the animal itself that is the bloodsucker.

According to the vampire-crazed gypsies in Yugoslavia damn near anyone or anything can become a creature of the night aka vampire. On their list of possible vampires they have dogs, cats, horses, sheep and even… chickens. Can you imagine a vampire chicken? Pretty ridiculous. But out of all these vampire animals the one that they were the most fearful of were vampire snakes due to Satan’s ties to snakes.

Then you have the tradition that says if a certain animal, like a cat or dog, jumps over a corpse then that body will turn into a vampire. Or some other stories saying that if the dog or cat jumps over the corpse the soul of the person will then enter the animal.

You also have the belief that some vampires can control an assortment of animals like wolves, flies, cats, dogs, butterflies, and the well known vampire bat. But it’s not always that they can control animals, some tales say that they can also transform into the animal, especially bats, but also rats and even frogs.

Animals can be used against vampire as well. Horses were once used to find the grave of a vampire, while black dogs and black crows were said to make excellent vampire hunters. And Romanian gypsies believed that some cemeteries were guarded by vampire killing white wolves. So animals can be pretty useful for the vampire hunters.

Now when you come across a growling dog or a snake in the grass you’ll probably wonder if it’s a vampire or if it’s a wicked creature being controlled by a vampire. Who knows for sure. But if you wake up one night with your pet cat Fluffy sitting on your chest, staring at you with glowing eyes you better hope it’s kitty kibble it wants… and not your blood.

- Moonlight

Leech Lover Facts: Part 3

Moonlight — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:00:22 +0000

It’s been a while since I have done a “Leech Lovers Facts” post, so you’re all getting one today. For those of you new readers this is where I post some random bits of delicious vampire info; for past posts check out Leech Lovers Facts Part One and Part Two.

Whiskey: In Romania this booze is known as rachia and once they used it to prevent a vampire from returning home to feast upon its old relatives. The family would first bury a bottle of whiskey with the corpse, the say, “drink this and go away, and don’t come home!” While the vampire drinks the whiskey and prepares to travel to some other village, the family members go home in silence. You see, if they speak the spell is broken and they are vulnerable to attack.

Bebarlangs: This is a tribe found in the Philippines that supposedly had members who practiced a kind of psychic vampirism. They had the ability to send out their astral bodies to prey on fellow tribe members or on strangers. They fed not on blood but on the vitality or life force of others.

Deafula: This 1974 flick was the very first full-length movie for the hearing impaired, all the dialog in the film is done in sign language. It’s about a student becoming a vampire and going after his classmates.

Roses: Some once belived that the petals and fragrance of the roses were a terrible bane to all evil, including, witches, werewolves and vampires. Its aroma repels them, and its flowers burn them like acid. In Romania they placed a branch of wild rose over a corpse to prevent its return as a vampire. When placed upon a grave, the rose will supposedly trap a vampire within the earth.

Sun Block: Vampires going out into the sun thanks to the use of sun block (probably not SPF 30) was used in two movies, Blade and Sundown: The Vampire in the Retreat.

- Moonlight

Vampires » vampire history

The Blow Vampire

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The Infamous Sergeant Bertrand

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Explorer: Vampire Forensics

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A True Rhode Island Vampire

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Make Him Burn

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The First Vampires?

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Vampire Discovered in Italy

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A Native American Vampire

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Vampires and Animals

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Leech Lover Facts: Part 3

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