Eiko Kyaruoru
This is more of a little, post a quick summary. If people want to know more, or you want to create a thread about a specific historical figure, then we can go into more detail. But many people don't even know the basic background. So this is just to get people interested.
There's no such thing as "a quick summary" when it comes to the history of vampires, but I'll give it a shot.
stare The vampire myth has been a part of human culture throughout recorded history. It has existed in some form all over the world, predating ancient Egypt and persisting into modern times. There has rarely been a people on earth who did not incorporate into their folklore and legends this idea of a creature that absorbs the life of another into itself through the blood. The earliest recorded evidence comes from Persia and Babylon, but the myth is found all over the world from the Aztecs in Mexico to the Inuit in Alaska. Whether or not these cultures were in contact with each other, or with anyone at all, the myth is present. It seems to have originated independently as a response to unexplained phenomena common to most cultures. As Dr. Van Helsing says in
Dracula, "[the vampire] is known everywhere that men have been".
The modern vampire stereotype, on the other hand, originated in the 19th century. It was influenced by such works as John Polidori's
The Vampyre, James Malcolm Rymer's
Varney the Vampire, J. Sheridan Le Fanu's
Carmilla, and Bram Stoker's
Dracula, which were based upon Eastern European myths and legends. The vampire has transformed from an obscure folkloric figure to an aristocratic fiend who pretends to be human as he preys among high society. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre. This steady and persistent increase in popularity has been ascribed to a combination of two factors: the representation of sexuality and the perennial dread of mortality.
There. I think that's enough to whet some people's appetites.
twisted Ledlin
When it comes to "modern" vampires I think that Bram Stroker started how people view vampires and brought it more into a mainstream thought. Things like vampires sleeping in coffins, the stake, the holy wafers, the ring of salt, climbing vertical walls, changing into a bat/wolf, making other people into vampires, stuff like that.
You are quite right. Bram Stoker's influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for many theatrical, film, and television interpretations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Without him, and the great authors that preceded and inspired him, vampire fiction would not be what it is today.
biggrin Ledlin
I'm not really sure where the sunlight thing came from. I don't remember it specificly saying he couldn't go out in the day, but I could be wrong (haven't read it in a while).
Vampires' vulnerability to sunlight was first fabricated in F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent film
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. Until then, vampires were not harmed by sunlight. In
Dracula, Dr. Van Helsing, when describing the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of vampires, says only that "[their] power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the day". Furthermore, Count Dracula is seen walking about during the day on at least three occasions throughout the course of the novel.
Ledlin
The whole Lilith thing is from Jewish folklore. Supposedly Lilith was Adam's first wife and she would not be subjagted by a man so she rebeled and God ejected her from the garden having not eaten of the fruit she was in immortal state. At least that is the basics I think. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Lilith was derived from the Lilitu, a female Mesopotamian storm demon associated with wind and thought to be a bearer of disease and death. In Jewish tradition, Lilith was Adam's first wife. When Adam demanded that she lay beneath him during sexual intercourse, she refused, arguing that, since they had been made by God from the same earth, they were equals. Adam would not admit this, so she fled from the Garden of Eden and consorted with demons in the desert, eventually becoming a demon herself.
That is why Eve was made from Adam's rib.
3nodding
Reply
