Our ancestors did not have an easy life. They had to worry for months to stockpile enough for the long and often harsh winter. They fought the disease, nature, and other adversities. In addition, there were conflicts between the tribes or, worse, invasions from outside.
In all this struggle for survival, it was also impossible to forget about the creatures not of this world, the monsters of dark beliefs that always scared you when it was getting dark. Among the Slavic monsters, there were those that were especially terrifying, and they were the undead.
The undead has terrified humans since the dawn of time, and I think every culture had its own vampires. Already in ancient Egypt, mention was made of returning to life, empty mummies wrapped in bandages.
In Africa, people were threatened with zombies rising from their graves. The North American Indians also believed in their own evil beings who appeared in the world in the guise of the dead to drink the blood of the innocent.
Death is an irreversible event that we accept painfully. Therefore, when, by magic or other unclean forces, the bodies of the dead come back to life, our deepest fears are built up in us.
Since the whole world was afraid of vampires, no one should be surprised that hideous bloodsuckers, brought back to life by some cruel spell, also appear in Slavic myths.
In the distant days, when the gods interacted with people on earth, by fires burned after dark, stories were told of the undead who, instead of rotting in the ground, rose from the grave and hunted the living. Although this hysteria was often intended to frighten young people and sensitize them to the dangers of the night, it aroused fear and anxiety among all the villagers.
A vampire was described as a dead corpse that was still moving and wielding great strength. Such a creature had many traits that increased with each new story. So in turn: vampires had the power to hover in the air and hypnotize their victims. In the stories told, the unfortunates, possessed by a vampire, obediently followed the wraith into the dark forest, not having enough strength to resist the torturer.
In other stories, vampires have been able to change form. They could turn into a bat, a wolf, or look like an ordinary person. The monster was depicted differently depending on the surroundings. In Ukraine, a vampire was a living animal in a burrow he had dug, only roughly human.
In southern Europe, on the other hand, vampires lived in houses, just like ordinary people, and it was difficult to recognize them. There were also monsters that lived in trees or in caves.
The image of a vampire served to us today by pop culture has nothing to do with the creatures of tales and legends.
Even though vampires are now seen as alluring women and handsome, mysterious men, the original wraiths in tales and legends were rotting undead.
There were no jokes about vampires, and their appearance was a great danger, as it was believed that a vampire bite could turn a victim into another monster.
The fight with the undead was not easy, but first, you had to find him. According to Slavic beliefs, the vampire was a phantom at night and returned to the ground during the day. Therefore, when it was decided that a vampire might hunt in the area, the villagers started digging up the graves.
It was expected that the undead creature would not rot and can be identified by this. It happened that the corpses of recently deceased people, still not decomposed, were taken as vampires. In such a case, the body was dismembered, and the heart and brain of the corpse were pierced with nails or wooden stakes. Some tribes burned suspicious bodies or drowned them in lakes.
You know, it's always easier to prevent than to treat later, which is why many ways to protect against vampires have been developed. Legends and tales indicate that vampires did not like garlic and did not have access to holy places.
Compared to other pagan religions of Europe, the religion of the Slavs is very little known. Therefore, it is difficult to find any sources from before Christianization. However, some clues about how our ancestors dealt with evil before Christianity changed their fortunes have survived in folk folklore.
So, in pre-Christian times, Slavic priests called Żerce were involved in the ordination of households and protection against evil. They cared for places of worship and communicated with the world of the dead. With the advent of Christianity, their role was taken over by priests.
To protect themselves from monsters, people took refuge in temples and churches, ordained farmyards, and hung amulets. With time, to fight vampires, they received a powerful weapon, which was a cross and a holy vice.
To prevent the dead from rising from the graves, large stones were placed on them, and the graves were dug on the blessed ground. Another means of protection was to put a coin in the mouth of the deceased, which was to be a fee for transporting the soul to the afterlife. In extremely extreme situations, the head of the deceased was cut off and placed in the legs of the coffin.
Archaeologists also found graves in which a corpse with a sickle around the neck was found so that it would cut off the head of the deceased if he accidentally wanted to get up.
The belief in vampires has survived to this day. There are still places in eastern Europe where people who are particularly bad and suspected of dealing with unclean forces are rummaged face down. This is to confuse the undead, so that after waking up, instead of digging out of the grave, he digs deeper and deeper.
Although bloodsuckers have virtually disappeared from our lives, they have become a permanent part of pop culture and entertainment. A whole bunch of books, movies, and even computer games have been created, in which vampires play the main role.
Personal prefer to meet these monsters on the big screen instead of in a dark and damp alley.
THE LEGEND OF THE VAMPIRE
In a village, or in fact, a settlement distant from others, where news from the world rarely reached, the inhabitants lived for years in harmony with nature and with each other. There were no tragedies there, apart from the natural ones, which have always haunted the poor.
Life in the village revolved around daily work, rituals, and, rarely, games. Children were born and old people died. Exactly as it should be.
One fall, however, something changed. A healthy girl died recently, followed by a boy and a kid. Initially, it was considered a tragedy and sheer bad luck. However, after a month, two more people, also young and seemingly healthy, fell ill again and died quickly.
People began to worry about the fate of their children. They searched for the guilty parties in the old and dark tales. In the end, it was recognized that the intervention of unclean forces had occurred and sent for a priest.
Before the priest and the old nun reached the village, one more child died, and another one was lying without any strength.
The priest prayed, sprinkled the inhabitants with holy water, and left, leaving a nun in the village to look after the sick. However, as several more young people fell ill, turning pale and languid, the old nun told the village elders about a rather similar incident.
Namely, a similar disease broke out in another village many years ago. Its perpetrator was a monster, the undead specter drank blood from people and led to death. Unfortunately, she could not advise what to do and how to behave.
At the same time, a camp of Gypsies was passing near the village and they were asked to help in this tragedy. Gypsies without unnecessary words went to work because as a people who were never civilized, they knew the world perfectly well from the shadow, where monsters prowl, about which everyone else has already forgotten.
Together with peasants from the village, they dug up graves in a nearby cemetery and found the culprit.
She was an inhabitant of a village who, after her death, was not buried in the consecrated ground for evil and selfish deeds towards the rest of the inhabitants. Even though it had been three years since the funeral, the woman's body lay completely unchanged in the coffin, ruddy and plump, and blood was still dripping down the protruding teeth.
One of the older gypsies jumped bluntly into the coffin and with great force drove the corpse into the chest on a quick hewn stake.
From the wound, blood rushed high into the sky. It was hot and fresh, and it didn't fit the corpse in any way. Worse, the deceased opened her eyes and screamed horribly. At this point, another Gypsy chopped off the monster's head with a spade and rolled it out of the coffin.
When the wraith's convulsions stopped and the blood stopped pouring, a pile of branches was built and the carcass was burned.
After all, the graves of those killed by the vampire were dug up and the same ritual was performed so that none of them would ever return to the world of the living.
After all, the gypsies went their own way, and the peasants returned to their former, peaceful life.
Only the nun, torn between her faith and what she saw, could not explain to the priest what really happened in the village.
THE AMERICAN LEGEND FROM THE INDIAN SENEKA Tribe
Once upon a time, when the world was a completely different place than we know it today, the Seneca Iroquois lived in vast clearings amid dense forests where New York is today. Their longhouses were clustered in villages surrounded by strong, pointed palisades designed to protect the community from external threats.
The militant Iroquois were not so much afraid of the attacks of other tribes as terrified of the dark side of the forest. They believed that demons, sorcerers, and creatures lurked in the dark recesses of an ancient forest so terrible that their eyes alone chilled the blood in their veins.
Their rhythm of life was simple, determined entirely by the nature around them. In the summer, the sun smiled on the corn, bean, and pumpkin fields, and the men and women tended the crops with great care. They watered the plants with water brought in from nearby streams, removed weeds, and fought unevenly against pests.
They knew very well that what they would collect later would ensure their survival in winter when all the surrounding areas were covered with a thick layer of white down.
As autumn approached, and the leaves on the trees began to lose their green hue, they would sit by the fire and listen to the stories of the tribe's elders. They told, among other things, the story of hunters who chased a great heavenly bear.
When they finally managed to hunt him, his blood spilled onto the ground and colored the leaves of the trees red. This is how they explained to themselves the many changes taking place in nature.
The Iroquois loved stories where man wrestles with nature. After all, hunting was part of their daily routine. It is true that walking into the forest was dangerous because the forest backwoods were inhabited by many powerful animals and demons, but the vision of a juicy, aromatic roast sizzling over the fire was a suitable motivator for heroic deeds.
Once upon a time, the desire to fill the belly with caloric meat prompted the man and woman taking care of a little daughter to go hunting. Preparations for going outside the village took several days. During this time, the woman prepared and secured adequate supplies for them and the child, and the man arranged the weapon so that it would not fail when he came to use it.
They also pleaded with the gods for a successful hunt, and having packed their possessions, they set off for their destiny. Their goal was the well-known rich fishery, where it was not difficult to track large game, next to which a friendly, helpful old man lived for years.
After a long and exhausting journey, a man and a woman carrying a baby in a small bundle reached a small hut standing in a tiny clearing at night. The surrounding silence and the lack of any signs of human presence disturbed them. The hunter motioned his wife to stay where he was, and he walked over to the rotting door and pushed it gently inside.
The pale moonlight gently illuminated the interior. It was empty. The man clenched the horn-hilt of the knife in his hand and entered the room. For a woman hugging her little daughter, every passing second took forever. Finally, the hunter left and signaled her to follow him.
It took a while for her eyes to adjust to the dim light, and as it did, she noticed a chest in one corner of the room. It was now clear what happened. The old man died having prepared earlier, as was customary, a box of bark into which he had crawled while waiting for death. The desiccated body, now more like a skeleton covered in brown leather, had been here for a long time.
The man and woman were cold and hungry, and the child was whimpering in the bundle, demanding a meal as well. So they decided, despite the corpse company, to light a fire in the hut, eat and rest until morning. When they filled their bellies with nutritious supper, they spread the skins on both sides of the hearth and fell asleep.
It was not, however, a restful sleep. The woman dreamed of ghosts, sorcerers, and demons. In the end, terrified by nightmares, she woke up. Sweat ran down her face as her rapid heartbeat filled the room.
Then she heard a strange sound as if a herd of mice was munching furiously on a dried corn cob. She looked around the room. Flickering light, from the fading fire in the hearth, danced over the primitive furniture, playing tricks on the mind.
Then she saw it. Above her, their sleeping husband crouched the deformed skeleton of an old man. The sound she mistook for a flock of mice feasting came from crushed hunter's bones. His body, shaken by convulsions, was torn apart by the monster's strong jaws.
The terrified woman stared at the chilling scene in silence. Time stood still for her and she would have remained paralyzed with fear, waiting for her turn, if the soft crying of her daughter had not reached her ears. The impulse caused by the desire to save her child forced her to act. Pretending to be talking to her husband, she said.
- Our daughter is thirsty. I'll take her to the stream and give her a drink there. Then she wrapped the girl in a blanket and quickly left the door.
She was running away through the forest, cradling a tangle-free bundle to her chest. She ignored the branches that smacked her face, leaving bloody furrows. She just wanted to get away from the cursed place as far as possible. A howl she heard not long after her escape and an unnatural voice calling out
- The woman tricked me! - He added wings to her.
She ran feeling the monster's breath on her back. She heard the crackles of trees cracking and the terrifying patter of dead, dry legs. She realized that despite her efforts, she would not be able to escape and would soon share the miserable fate of her husband. In a final act of desperation, she stripped the baby's blanket and wrapped it around the broken tree limb, hoping to confuse her persecutor.
Managed to. The hideous monster caught up with its "victim" and with all its rage began to tear the material, trying to get to the warm meat. His bloodlust was immense. When he realized that he had been deceived, he once again howled and grunted at the top of his throat:
- The woman tricked me!
After many hours of non-stop running, the exhausted Indian woman returned to the village. After hearing her terrifying story, the tribal chief said that the people were wrong about the helpful old man from the forest hut.
- He must have been an evil wizard and by dying he became a monster. Then he called a council of elders who decided that the bravest warriors of the tribe would return to the cursed hut and end the demon's life.
Drums rang in the village, and the faces of the Iroquois who were to face the impure force were covered with the colors of war.
Under the cover of night, the unit approached a tiny hut standing in a small clearing. As before the hunter and his wife, an unnatural silence greeted these newcomers. They entered the cabin and then they saw them.
The dead, torn body of the hunter lay beside the extinct hearth, and the old man's skeleton, clothed with dried skin, rested peacefully in its chest. The men quickly closed the box with a previously prepared lid and tied it tightly with leather ropes.
Then they piled dry pieces of wood into a primitive funeral pyre and set it on fire.
Flames erupted almost immediately, illuminating the faces of those gathered in the clearing. From inside the tiny hut came the howl of a monster, whose dry skin quickly turned charcoal to gray dust.
The structure of the hut creaked, and in the end, the wood gnawed at by the flames gave up. The whole thing collapsed with a thud, sending a beam of merrily dancing sparks into his night of him.
There was silence.
Since this event, the Seneca people changed their funeral rituals. Now all died and were burned at the ritual stake. So that their soul, along with the rising smoke, could go to the Land of the Eternal Hunt.
CURIOSITIES ABOUT VAMPIRES
- According to historians, the first mentions of vampires in the Slavic accounts appear in IV and come from southern Europe.
- Legends say that the first vampire was the biblical Cain. For killing his brother, God sentenced him to wander on the earth forever.
- Undead legends appear in every culture and at all times.
- The most famous vampire is Count Dracula, known as the impeller. Vlad Tepes is a historical figure, burdened by his opponents with the title of a bloody and cruel ruler. Today we know that the stories about him are very colored.
- The character of the vampire was popularized by the Irish writer Bram Stoker, considered the leading creator of world horror literature. He created the figure of the prince of darkness in 1897 and became the spark that ignited the imaginations of people around the world, bringing to life a whole lot of other monsters similar to the original.
- As the writer himself said, he drew his ideas for the book from legends brought from Eastern and Southern Europe.
- Made by Stoker, Count Dracula was a haughty and honorable creature in his own way. However, in folk accounts, vampires are almost animals hiding in the dark, wild beasts that only care about satisfying their hunger.
- Belief in vampires and other evil creatures was often a response to all epidemics that occurred in Europe. When people died for no apparent reason, unclean forces were blamed for this.
- A figure close to the accusation of vampirism was the Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory, known as the Blood Countess of Cechtice. As a member of one of the richest and most influential noble families in the world at that time, she could indulge in many cruel practices that she did not regret. Historical sources say that this woman, without blinking an eye, killed young girls to take a bath in their blood, which was to keep her forever young. In addition, it has been proven that the bloody tortures and torments she inflicted on the unfortunates in her castle were an everyday reality. Ultimately, the countess was captured and during the trial, it was proved that she had murdered over 600 people. For her actions, she was sentenced to death by walling up alive in one of the castle's chambers. Interestingly, the countess' servants involved in the murders were accused of vampirism.
- There is a disease called porphyria. It manifests as pallor, photophobia, and trouble sleeping. No wonder then that those affected were suspected of vampirism.
- There are blood-eating bat species. Thanks to their culinary preferences, they were combined with the figure of a vampire who could change into this flying mammal.
- Thanks to vampires appearing in literature and cinema, we all know today that vampires do not like garlic, aspen stakes, holy water, and the sight of a cross, and it takes a lot of courage to fight them.
- In Romania, on a high rock in Bran, there is a castle considered to be the place where Count Dracula lived and ruled. Of course, this is only smart marketing, but for more information, see Michał Baranowski's article about the castle in Bran.
- The first vampire movie was shot in the Orava Castle in Slovakia.
VAMPIRE MOVIES
- Dracula - Vampires without Teeth (Dracula - Dead and Loving) is - Cool comedy directed by Mel Brooks and starring Leslie Nielsen.
- 30 Days of Night - A horror film based on the comics of the same name.
- Dracula was directed by Francis Ford Coppola with the fantastic Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder.
- Terror of the Night - A horror film directed by Craig Gillespie with Colin Farrell in the lead role.
- Blade the Eternal Hunter - A series of action and horror films based on comic books. Wesley Snipes played the role of the title hunter.
- From Dusk Till Dawn - Action-horror directed by Robert Rodriguez, written by Quentin Tarantino.
- Underworld - A series of films created by Len Wiseman with the beautiful Kate Beckinsale in the lead role.
BOOKS ABOUT VAMPIRE
- Dracula - Bram Stoker.
- Necroscope by Brian Lumley.
- Salem Town - Stephen King.
- Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice.
- Moganville Vampires by Rachel Calne.
- The damned ferry - Mats Strandberg.
- Let me in - John Ajvida Lindqvist.
- Sweet silver blues by Glen Cook.
- Hotel Transylvania - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
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