#vampire folklore

[pantwardowskimoved]

map showing the way europe played 5d ping pong with its words for vampires. had to do my own damn map of this so i thought i'd share it cause why not

some words of explanation:

the root of most of these, excluding the blue ones, comes from Turkic languages (most likely Tatar, but we aren't exactly sure, so for simplicity i just made the slightly redder starting point in eastern Turkey, I am ready to face death at the hands of professional linguists) from words like "ubyr", "opyr", "uber", and other variations of that. the general consensus is that they initially meant "witch".

"strix" is Latin for owl; "striges" were owl-like female demons from ancient Rome who fed on human organs, mentioned for example in the Satyricon. "strega" is Italian for "witch".

the Greek "vrykolakas" comes from the Slavic "vukodlak", technically meaning "werewolf", but in reality it was used for vampires as well. the vrykolakas were definitely more vampires than werewolves, being dead bodies who rose from the grave.

the Russian "vurdalak" appeared only in the 19th century with Pushkin's works, because he read Byron's "The Giaour" in which there is a footnote explaining that the Greek word for vampire is "Vardoulacha" (close enough, I guess) and he made his own version based on that

Everyone now uses "vampire" and variations thereof due to pure chance, because it just so happened that the first reports about the living dead reached western Europe from Serbia thanks to Austrian officials recording the panic surrounding Petar Blagojević. It eventually circled back to Eastern Europe in that form overthrowing most of the regional variants like upyr. This map is focused on Poland in this regard because I am Polish and this map is intended for a presentation for a Polish audience.

my sources:

"Upiór. Historia naturalna" by Łukasz Kozak

"Russian "vurdalak" 'vampire' and Related Forms in Slavic" by Francis Butler

"East European Vampires" by Felix Oinas (this one is slightly outdated, but the etymological parts seemed fine when compared to other sources)

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

“The belief in living corpses is a universal phenomenon. Fantasies about revenants who return to wreak havoc and carry out nefarious deeds following their death have been present in all ages and in all cultures. […] Precursors of the European vampire mythos can be found in the Icelandic sagas of the thirteenth century, which cover several cases of revenancy from the period of the island's Christianization around 1000 AD. In Old Norse tales, the living corpse or “walking dead” operated under the name of draugr.

This term, which only rarely appears, designates a deceased person who has left his or her burial mound, inflicted harm on surviving relatives and who can only be stopped through the physical destruction of the corpse. In the context of the overlapping of the world of the living and the world of the dead in the popular imagination, the existence of revenants was not questioned. Their personalities were experienced as real and were described vividly. People who had allowed themselves to be brought into connection with magical elements or evil portents seemed to be particularly predestined for revenancy. However, as a rule, it was largely troublemakers who were reported to have returned, and contemporary stories therefore often reflected social conflicts.”

— Thomas M. Bohn; “The Vampire: Origins of a European Myth” (2019)

THE NORTHMAN (2022) dir. Robert Eggers

[tgirl-tamag0tchi]

Can a vampire enter a home without permission if they don’t know they’re entering a home?

Like what if one walks in through like a secret tunnel in the basement while chasing a rat. Like they were in the sewers, but like were super hungry and followed the tasty little morsel down a passage. And didn’t like even realize they had entered a basement until they’re already munching on that sweet little nu—

…

Like

Is that really even trespassing?

[patchouii]

Currently annotating a research paper on vampire folklore (Slavic Vampires by Dr Uday Dokras for those interested. I ❤️ my museum studies major) and found this wonderful little passage…… hmmmmm…….. the concept of vampire Will Graham………

[ellensferatu]

In early Serbian folklore, neither holy water, nor the cross, nor silver had any effect against vampires. The only way to deal with them was to exhume the corpse, dismember it, and then either drown it or burn it. This indirectly suggests that the belief in vampires predates Christianity. Indeed, even in ancient Greek mythology there are numerous blood-sucking entities associated with Nyx, the goddess of the night. Curiously, the Romans initially seem to have had nothing quite comparable.

There is a theory that the Slavs who arrived in the Balkans already possessed their own pantheon of dark creatures, centered around werewolves. As for vampire beliefs, they likely absorbed them from the region’s indigenous populations—the Illyrians and the Thracians. Philology even lends support to this: the Serbian word vurdalak, now often used to mean “vampire,” literally translates as “a person covered in hair.” In Greek, there is a related term, vrykolakas.

[fuckgoldiwantplatinum]

apparently i’m into southern vampires

[vampirekiller27]

fangs are phallic and so are wooden stakes . vampire hunting = hot gay sex

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

If the following wrestlers were in a vampire movie, who’d be the most cooked?

CM Punk (AJ Lee is the one trying to get invited inside)

AJ Lee (CM Punk is the one trying to get invited inside)

Seth Rollins (Becky Lynch is the one trying to get invited inside)

Becky Lynch (Seth Rollins is the one trying to get invited inside)

Cody Rhodes (Randy Orton is the one trying to get invited inside)

Randy Orton (Cody Rhodes is the one trying to get invited inside)

Jey Uso (Jimmy Uso is the one trying to get invited inside)

Jimmy Uso (Jey Uso is the one trying to get invited inside)

Roman Reigns (both Seth and Dean are the ones trying to get invited inside)

Dean Ambrose (both Seth and Roman are the ones trying to get invited inside)

Seth Rollins (both Roman and Dean are the ones trying to get invited inside)

The entire roster (Danhausen is the one trying to get invited inside)

Voting ended onMar 19