Vampire
Vampire
A creature of Eastern European folklore, the vampire is an undead being said to rise from its grave to feed on the blood of the living. This mythological figure, rooted in medieval Slavic and Balkan beliefs, has endured through the centuries to become one of the most powerful archetypes in the Western imagination.
Key Facts
- The earliest written mentions of vampires appear in Slavic and Byzantine chronicles around the 11th–12th century
- In 1721–1722, official Austrian investigations in the Balkans (the cases of Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole) documented reported cases of vampirism
- In 1819, John Polidori published 'The Vampyre', the first modern vampire story in Western literature
- In 1897, Bram Stoker created the character of Dracula, inspired by Vlad III the Impaler (15th century), cementing the myth in global culture
- In 1922, Murnau's film 'Nosferatu' brought the vampire figure to widespread popularity on screen
Works & Achievements
The first scholarly and comparative study of the vampire phenomenon, written by a learned Benedictine monk. The work was considered authoritative throughout the 18th century and helped spread belief in vampires among educated Europeans.
The first Gothic short story to feature an aristocratic, seductive vampire. It established the archetype of the 'Byronic vampire' and directly influenced vampire literature throughout the 19th century.
A precursor to Dracula featuring a female vampire. It introduced the psychological dimension and the play on hidden identity that would become defining codes of the genre.
The founding epistolary novel that established the modern conventions of the vampire (black cape, Transylvanian castle, transformation into a bat). It remains the most influential work in the genre, adapted hundreds of times.
The first unofficial film adaptation of Dracula and a masterpiece of German Expressionism. It established the image of the vampire as a repulsive creature and menacing shadow — a stark contrast to the seductive vampire archetype.
Anecdotes
In 1725 and 1732, two 'vampirism' affairs shook Serbia under Austrian rule: the cases of Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole. Austrian military officers wrote official reports describing exhumed corpses with fresh complexions and uncoagulated blood, triggering a genuine panic across Western Europe.
The word 'vampire' entered Western languages in the early 18th century, probably from the Serbian 'vampir'. Before that, the French spoke of 'revenants' or 'ghouls' — similar figures from different traditions. The term spread so rapidly that it already appeared in Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie in 1765.
The philosopher Voltaire openly mocked the belief in vampires in his Dictionnaire philosophique (1764), ironically comparing it to the practices of the financial 'vampires' of his day — speculators and stock-jobbers — whom he considered far more dangerous than the undead of Slavic folklore.
Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, troubled by vampirism reports coming from her Balkan provinces, tasked her personal physician Gerard van Swieten with investigating the matter. In 1755, he concluded that the phenomenon was explained by a poor understanding of bodily decomposition, and the empress officially banned exhumations tied to these beliefs.
The Vampyre (1819) by John Polidori, Lord Byron's personal physician, is the first modern Gothic story to feature an aristocratic and seductive vampire. Polidori drew directly on Byron's personality to create the character of Lord Ruthven, thereby establishing the archetype of the elegant vampire that would influence all subsequent literature, up to Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897.
Primary Sources
We found the body of Arnold Paole, dead for forty days, fresh and undecayed, with fresh blood flowing from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. His shirt, shroud and coffin were stained with coagulated blood.
These vampires were dead men who left their graves to come and suck the blood of the living, either at the throat or at the stomach, after which they returned to their cemeteries. The persons sucked by them grew thin and fell into a languishing condition.
It is well established that reports of vampires and revenants have been widespread in Hungary, Moravia, Silesia and Poland. It is claimed that men who have been dead for some time reappear in certain places, speak, walk about, infest villages, and mistreat both men and animals.
Everything that is reported about vampires is imaginary. These are bodies which, under certain conditions of soil or season, decompose more slowly than usual. Ignorance and superstition have done the rest.
Key Places
Village where the Petar Blagojevich affair broke out in 1725, one of the first 'vampire epidemics' officially documented by the Austrian authorities, which popularized the term 'vampire' across Europe.
Medieval fortress associated in popular imagination with Vlad the Impaler and popularized as 'Dracula's castle' following Stoker's novel, although Vlad most likely never lived there.
Coastal town with medieval abbey ruins where Bram Stoker set Count Dracula's arrival in England in his novel; a real location that Stoker visited and which inspired the gothic atmosphere of the work.
Village where the Arnold Paole case was investigated in 1732; the Visum et Repertum report compiled on-site became the most widely cited official document across Europe on the question of vampirism.
Gallery
Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Anonymous[1]
Character portraits from Dickens
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 Welsh, Charles, 1850-1914, ed
Portrait of the Actress Fanny Janauschek
Wikimedia Commons, PDM-owner — Arnold Böcklin
Portraits : poems to Marias, and other poems
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Gordon, Ralph
Polish: Aniela Zagorska jako wampirek Aniela Zagorska as a little vampiretitle QS:P1476,pl:"Aniela Zagorska jako wampirek "label QS:Lpl,"Aniela Zagorska jako wampirek "label QS:Len,"Aniela Zagorska
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz
Haeckel Chiroptera
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Ernst Haeckel
Lahad-Datu Sabah Mount-Silam-Red-Crab-Geosesarma-aurantium-02
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 — CEphoto, Uwe Aranas
Newcastle Vampire Rabbit close up
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Gem Yram
Haeckel Chiroptera tags added
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Ernst Haeckel
Oregon Historical Quarterly
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Oregon Historical Society
