I Heart Vampires.

One of North America's newest Fantastical Vampire Series- True Blood

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I loveeeee Vampire Lore. One of my favorite classes taken at UVic was History of Vampires (take it!) wherein we usually got to settle in and watch Vampire movies every Monday evening. So, for anyone who hasn't yet taken this class and might be equally adoring of the origins of Vampire Myth, here's a little interesting info on how the beliefs surrounding our societies favorite monsters were first created.

In European Legend, Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, red, purplish or dark in color. These characteristics were usually attributed to the recent consumption of a human blood bevvy. When opening the coffin, if a corpse’s mouth was seeping any blood and its left eye was open, or if its teeth hair or nails may have slightly grown, you definitely had a vampire on your hands. 

In original folklore, there were countless ways to decree that a corpse or person was a vampire. If a dog, cat or really any animal jumped over a corpse you were in trouble. A body with a wound untreated with boiling water was also at risk. Those who might have rebelled against the Orthodox Church were also deemed both witches and vampires. 

To prevent a deceased loved one from returning from the dead to suck your blood, a corpse had to be buried upside-down and an earthly object placed near the grave to satisfy demons (scythes, wax crosses, pieces of pottery..). Other methods included severing the tendons or placing poppy seeds, millet, rice or sand on the ground so that the Vampire would be too occupied counting the number of these to rise up and attack the living. Often you could identify these vampires by leading a virgin boy through a graveyard on the back of a virgin stallion, and where the horse (usually a black horse was required, but in Albania it had to be white) balked at a grave, therein lay the vampire.

As you may have already guessed, a lot of the vampire beliefs resulted from people of early societies attempting to explain the natural but to them, inexplicable, process of death and decomposition. Vampire hunters would mistakenly interpret different signs of decomposition as signs of continued life. Often corpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate, and will make a corpse seem plumper, healthy and red cheeked. In addition, the exuding blood from the mouth, giving the impression of a freshly fed vampire, is generally the result of the body bleeding by force of the accumulated gases in the body. In addition to this, premature burials may have often occurred in these early times, as it was often reported that sounds would be heard coming from coffins and when later dug up, fingernail marks discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. As well, vampires were associated with unidentifiable or mysterious illnesses. Rabies victims, in fact, are quite hypersensitive to garlic and light, more sexual, and certain portions of their brains are often affected which disturb normal sleep patterns. 

Since even 1922, Vampires have been a intriguing part of Cinema; Nosferatu.

Nosferatu is my fave!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire#Folk_beliefs