Well, I imagine some people know these things. In fact, I bet a bunch of people know them, and are now wondering why I am even bringing this up.
The next book from the Anna Katherine Co-op of Evil will be set in our Door-filled New York, and it will star vampires. I’ve gotten into a couple of comment-conversations with people regarding vampires and their current sexy popularity (while trying to explain that there are no sexy vamps in Salt and Silver!), and those conversations — and the thinking we’re doing regarding vampires in general — led me to wonder: How much does the average reader know about the foundations of vampire literature and/or folklore?
Vampire Lit
There is so much cool stuff out there, it is unbelievable. I am also vastly unqualified to talk about it, since it has been years since I wrote an academic paper, and I do not have a university library at my fingertips. Let us say the vampire has been a sexy (or at least highly/inappropriately sexed) thing in literature for a very long time — early 1700s, at least. Examples of this include John Polidori’s The Vampyre, the penny-dreadful Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood, Le Fanu’s Carmilla, and, of course, Stoker’s Dracula.
On top of this, there is the long history of balladry and so forth that talks about romantic (or pseudo-romantic) “undead” figures, much of which influenced the vampire fiction listed above, such as Gottfried August Bürger’s Lenore and the Child ballad The Suffolk Miracle. I can’t delve too deep into these, though, because really then I start heading into the realm of…
Vampire Folklore
Oh, I am so in love.
I say in one of the comments on the Darque Reviews blog post that:
In straight-up folklore, though, while there can be a sexual edge to whatever’s going on, mostly vampires are just representatives of the Unacceptable Other (for instance, in Mediterranean regions people with red hair are or could become vampires. And let’s not even talk about Bulgarian vampires — the one-nostril thing? Yeah, I’d stake one of those in a heartbeat).
The Other is what “monsters” typically are — they are those who are socially cast out of humanity due to unfortunate physical abnormalities, mental difficulties, personal/social nonconformity, or simply being “not from around here” (which is often related to “boy, you look just like our god of death, maybe that is not such a good thing”).
Folkloric/historic vampires are also representatives of death and disease. Dead bodies (due to soil composition and other such mundane things) don’t necessarily decompose at the same rate — mix that up with mass graves being continually reopened, and you can have a case of a dead girl being suspected of vampirism during a plague year. Chinese vampires apparently have a greenish fuzz on them — either from the fungus that grows on the funeral clothes, as suggested by Montague Summers in The Vampire: His Kith and Kin (1928), or perhaps from decomposition in general. Death isn’t pretty, and it’s tough to understand what’s going on if you don’t have a microscope and a lot of time on your hands with which to desecrate the dead.
Of course, death/disease/Othering all fall under a single psychological drive: they’re all a function of humans trying to describe/systematize the Unknown, and then apply logic thereafter. Why do livestock die off suddenly? What’s up with plagues? Why would anyone want to become a cannibal? Can anyone explain why young Lucille is so sexed up? Or is Lucille instead “wasting away” for unknown reasons? Heinrich-the-new-guy is awfully weird — almost too weird. Butterflies eating carrion is really… gross. And you know, cats aren’t a good idea (for reasons we won’t go into here), so I bet it’s extra bad if they jump over the dead.
If you follow the “humans will do what their brains tell them” psychological idea of folklore creation/perpetuation (which I sort of bring up in the magic post from earlier), then a lot of folklore regarding vampires becomes a lot more understandable — and manipulatable in a fictional context, if you’re so inclined (which I am). You can see this in all that wacky Victorian vampire literature, which took the Unknown concepts from folklore and applied them to both the views (either personal or popular) of sex at the time, and to the dangers of the widening world of communication and travel (hence why so many of the books listed above feature either Eastern European — rather than strictly British — locales, or feature vampires from locations other than England).
Interesting Things
Which gets me to the point of this post: Here, have some interesting vampire folklore! I’ve stolen them utterly from the Summers text, but you can find other (and more varied) sources easily. You might want to consider how this folklore could’ve started — maybe even how it’s changed into the sparkly sex-darlings we have today. And, of course: Wouldn’t it be neat if someone wrote vampire romances using some of this stuff?
All suicides, after death, become vampires.
A man who is murdered will arise as a vampire to avenge his death.
Vampires, upon rising from their graves, will first attack their family or loved ones.
Being cursed by one’s godfather can lead to becoming a vampire.
Being unbaptized (or not Christian) can lead to becoming a vampire.
Babies born between Christmas and Epiphany will probably become vampires after death (and their lives prior to death aren’t exactly fantastic either — for some explanation of this, you might want to consider both the religious significance of these dates, and also the medieval safe sex flowchart).
If you eat a sheep that’s been killed by a wolf, you’re vampiric chances are pretty high.
Of course, if you’re bitten by a vampire, well. We all know what that means.
If you’re a witch, odds are you’re dabbling in vampirism.
Vampires are generally nocturnal — except when they’re not.
Vampires often have long claws or nails.
Vampires can appear very bloated following, presumably, a feast of blood.
Vampires can turn into mist — or may exist as mist. Like, you know, the plague.
Vampire breath smells super-bad.
People with hare-lips are probably vampires.
People with vast facial port-wine birthmarks are likely to be vampires.
Blue-eyed? Will probably become a vampire.
Red-haired? You totally are a vampire.
Born with teeth? Guess.
Do you hold the traits of someone totally charismatic and sexy? Vampire. No, really.
And finally, I’m just going to quote this directly, because how can I not? Enjoy!:
The vampire is, as we have said, generally believed to embrace his victim who has been thrown into a trance-like sleep, and after greedily kissing the throat suddenly to bite deep into the jugular vein and absorb the warm crimson blood. It has long since been recognized by medico-psychologists that there exists a definite connexion between the fascination of blood and sexual excitation. Owing to custom, to inhibitions and education this emotion generally remains latent, although a certain mental sadism is by no means a mark of degeneracy.
