I love research.
I love it almost as much as I love Wikipedia.
I was working on TSW's outline (yes, I'm still struggling with that) and decided to involve a vampire attack...so I looked up vampires on a whim and this is what I found.
What I started with.
The Vetala
Having played Neverwinter Nights, I always wondered where "stirges" came from...
And from the parent vampire article:
"Preventive measures included ... putting sawdust in the coffin (vampire revives in the evening and counts sawdust until he dies again in the morning) ... "
At what point did the Slavic peoples sit down and think to themselves: "You know, I think we could easily counter this horrifyingly evil force by using sawdust! Because obviously these terrible creatures will be unable to help themselves from sitting down and counting out each grain." Were the vampires of old all suffering from OCD or something?
From the same article:
"A person born with a caul, extra nipple, extra hair, born too early, black cat crossed the mothers' path, born with a tail, born out of wedlock, one who died an unnatural death, or died before baptism, was doomed to become a vampire, as was the seventh child of the same sex in a family, the child of a pregnant woman who did not eat salt or who was looked at by a vampire or a witch."
Poor cats. They get blamed for everything. Goats and cats. And while I can totally understand being freaked out by your kid being born with a tail, and I can understand why the Church/religious entity of the time would want to discourage people having children out of wedlock - seventh child of the same sex? And not eating salt? How do you think something like that up? At what point does it occur to you that these things are indicative of vampirism? I'm sure it must have made sense at the time, (or at least they pretended it did) but I would really love to know how they came up with all that.
" The Vârcolac, which is sometimes mentioned in Romanian folklore, was more closely related to a mythological wolf that could devour the sun and moon (similar to Fenris in Norse mythology) "
I'm having the tiniest little squee right now since the Curse of Fenric was a really good Doctor Who episode with the Seventh Doctor in it. (And vampires too, now that I think about it. Though of course they were just blood-sucking aliens from the future. =D)
"(A person afflicted with lycanthropy could turn into a dog, pig, or wolf.)"
How cool is that?! Shame on you, Hollywood, for popularizing only one of those three. True, wolves are the scariest of that lot and have deep significance in American folklore/legend/history/etc., but it seems a shame that there's all this great ancient folklore that movies, books, and television have all been ignoring. You can't make this stuff up, people.
"Living vampires were identified by distributing garlic in church and seeing who did not eat it."
It suddenly occurs to me that Romanians might smell a bit.
"For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and given to family members as a cure."
Um. EW.
Also:
I want this book.
" Plants or dogs, cats, or even agricultural tools could become vampires. Pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood."
Spoof vampire story ideas abound. XD
"According to the late Serbian ethnologist Tatomir Vukanović, Roma people in Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people. However, they could be seen "by a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday who wear their drawers and shirts inside out." "
...???
" Vampires are sometimes considered to be shape-shifters not limited to the common bat stereotype put out by cartoons and movies. Rather, a multitude of animals are available such as wolves and spiders, and many more. "
SWEET. Again, shame on you Hollywood/TV/etc.!
I also like the section about the eighteenth century vampire controversy. It lends itself perfectly to any kind of tale or story about vampirism, which is probably why so many vampire movies/books are set in that time. (In fact I'm already trying to think up ways I could write that into something) Also interesting is this:
"... the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies."
I wonder if that's where the modern mindset of exhuming bodies being a horrible thing to do comes from? (Aside from religion, of course) I've often wondered about that. I mean, hey, they're dead. They're not exactly going to care if somebody digs them up, are they?
"Some psychologists in modern times recognize a disorder called clinical vampirism (or Renfield Syndrome, from Dracula's insect-eating henchman, Renfield, in the novel by Bram Stoker) in which the victim is obsessed with drinking blood, either from animals or humans."
How cool would it be for people in the future to name an actual medical condition after a character in one of your books? =D That is just awesome.
"Bats have become an integral part of the traditional vampire only recently, although many cultures have stories about them. In Europe, bats and owls were long associated with the supernatural, mainly because they were night creatures. Conversely, the Gypsies thought them lucky and wore charms made of bat bones."
Sometimes I think Gypsies just ask to be negatively stereotyped. =P
OK, I'm done now. =D /geekery
I was working on TSW's outline (yes, I'm still struggling with that) and decided to involve a vampire attack...so I looked up vampires on a whim and this is what I found.
What I started with.
The Vetala
Having played Neverwinter Nights, I always wondered where "stirges" came from...
And from the parent vampire article:
"Preventive measures included ... putting sawdust in the coffin (vampire revives in the evening and counts sawdust until he dies again in the morning) ... "
At what point did the Slavic peoples sit down and think to themselves: "You know, I think we could easily counter this horrifyingly evil force by using sawdust! Because obviously these terrible creatures will be unable to help themselves from sitting down and counting out each grain." Were the vampires of old all suffering from OCD or something?
From the same article:
"A person born with a caul, extra nipple, extra hair, born too early, black cat crossed the mothers' path, born with a tail, born out of wedlock, one who died an unnatural death, or died before baptism, was doomed to become a vampire, as was the seventh child of the same sex in a family, the child of a pregnant woman who did not eat salt or who was looked at by a vampire or a witch."
Poor cats. They get blamed for everything. Goats and cats. And while I can totally understand being freaked out by your kid being born with a tail, and I can understand why the Church/religious entity of the time would want to discourage people having children out of wedlock - seventh child of the same sex? And not eating salt? How do you think something like that up? At what point does it occur to you that these things are indicative of vampirism? I'm sure it must have made sense at the time, (or at least they pretended it did) but I would really love to know how they came up with all that.
" The Vârcolac, which is sometimes mentioned in Romanian folklore, was more closely related to a mythological wolf that could devour the sun and moon (similar to Fenris in Norse mythology) "
I'm having the tiniest little squee right now since the Curse of Fenric was a really good Doctor Who episode with the Seventh Doctor in it. (And vampires too, now that I think about it. Though of course they were just blood-sucking aliens from the future. =D)
"(A person afflicted with lycanthropy could turn into a dog, pig, or wolf.)"
How cool is that?! Shame on you, Hollywood, for popularizing only one of those three. True, wolves are the scariest of that lot and have deep significance in American folklore/legend/history/etc., but it seems a shame that there's all this great ancient folklore that movies, books, and television have all been ignoring. You can't make this stuff up, people.
"Living vampires were identified by distributing garlic in church and seeing who did not eat it."
It suddenly occurs to me that Romanians might smell a bit.
"For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and given to family members as a cure."
Um. EW.
Also:
I want this book.
" Plants or dogs, cats, or even agricultural tools could become vampires. Pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood."
Spoof vampire story ideas abound. XD
"According to the late Serbian ethnologist Tatomir Vukanović, Roma people in Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people. However, they could be seen "by a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday who wear their drawers and shirts inside out." "
...???
" Vampires are sometimes considered to be shape-shifters not limited to the common bat stereotype put out by cartoons and movies. Rather, a multitude of animals are available such as wolves and spiders, and many more. "
SWEET. Again, shame on you Hollywood/TV/etc.!
I also like the section about the eighteenth century vampire controversy. It lends itself perfectly to any kind of tale or story about vampirism, which is probably why so many vampire movies/books are set in that time. (In fact I'm already trying to think up ways I could write that into something) Also interesting is this:
"... the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies."
I wonder if that's where the modern mindset of exhuming bodies being a horrible thing to do comes from? (Aside from religion, of course) I've often wondered about that. I mean, hey, they're dead. They're not exactly going to care if somebody digs them up, are they?
"Some psychologists in modern times recognize a disorder called clinical vampirism (or Renfield Syndrome, from Dracula's insect-eating henchman, Renfield, in the novel by Bram Stoker) in which the victim is obsessed with drinking blood, either from animals or humans."
How cool would it be for people in the future to name an actual medical condition after a character in one of your books? =D That is just awesome.
"Bats have become an integral part of the traditional vampire only recently, although many cultures have stories about them. In Europe, bats and owls were long associated with the supernatural, mainly because they were night creatures. Conversely, the Gypsies thought them lucky and wore charms made of bat bones."
Sometimes I think Gypsies just ask to be negatively stereotyped. =P
OK, I'm done now. =D /geekery