Slovenian legends tell a tale of two forces – good versus evil, the holy Kresnik battling against the vampiric Kudlak. The kresnik represented all that was good and Christian, while the kudlak symbolized pure evil and darkness – the result was their pure hatred for one another and a mythological battle.
According to Slovenian folklore, each village had dark vampires known as the kudlak, and therefore, had the kresnik vampire slayers. These vampires weren’t like ordinary vampires for they didn’t just attack and take blood from their victims; they also caused the loss of crops, bad luck and petulance. They were giant pains in the ass. But luckily the kresnik were there to save the weak and defenseless.
It was said that the kresnik vampire slayers were aided by the forces of the light. The root of their name is “krat,” which means “a cross,” this of course brought God and righteousness to the mind of the frightened villagers. The kresnik, who some believed were shamans, made it their responsibility to care for the residents of their village.
Now to the bloody and violent stuff – when a kresnik suspected that a corpse may rise as a kudlak they would either impale the body on an hawthorn stake or slice the tendons below the knees before burial. But if they didn’t get to a corpse before it turned, there was a full out epic battle between the kresnik and kudlak. The two of them didn’t go the normal route by fighting with sword and fang though, oh no, these two would transform into animal forms and attack one another as a pig, an ox, or even a horse (when I read this I totally thought of Disney‘s Sword in the Stone). The end of the fight always ended the same exact way – good triumphed over evil, yup, the saintly kresnik always kicked the vampire’s ass… at least that’s what the legends say.
– Moonlight
:( Why does religion always see vampires as evil creatures?