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Very rarely the woman would become pregnant from this unholy union. Almost always the child would be born
boneless..and thus would die quickly. However, on rare rare rare occasions, the child would be born with bones and lives.
Always the child of this union was male. And this child had special powers that allowed him to become a powerful vampyre hunter. He was able to feel a vampyre just by looking at him. He was able to destroy a vampyre without special weapons. As well, the Dhampir could enchant a pistol and make it slay a vampyre as surely as a wooden stake would.
The dhampir was considered a powerful member of the gypsy community, but treated normally. They were not immortal and they did not have powers similar to the ones Vampyre Hunter D displays...but some dhampirs did have a semi-slippery like body due to the fact they were normally born without bones.
The powers of a dhampir would be passed to the male offspring that he created and that they created and so on. These abilities could only be inherited, never learned. In the real world the dhampir was a bit different. Someone claiming to be a dhampir would come to a village looking for work as a hunter or else he would go to where a town reported a vampyre problem. He would start by mentioning an unholy stench in the air that only he could smell. He would then attempt to find the source of this scent. He hold then take off his short and look through the sleeve as if it was a telescope. He would then describe the shape and appearance of the invisible undead that only he could see. He would then engage in a dramatic fight with the undead...but sometimes would just shoot it.
Once killed the vampyre would stink even more...and sometimes a pool of blood would run on the ground. Most often he would not be killed and the vampyre would flee to another town. The dhampir would stick around long enough to get his pay and go to the next town...and fight the vampyre anew.
~ The Vampyres of Malaysia ~
The are two kinds of vampyre in Malaysia.
The first is the langsuyar. The langsuyar is a beautiful woman who reacted strongly to the loss of her stillborn baby. She flew into the trees and became a night demon who sucked the blood from other people's children. Another way to become a langsuyar is to die during childbirth. To prevent the dead mother from rising from the grave, the body would be treated with a needle in the palm of the hand, eggs under her arms, and glass beads were placed in the mouth. Sometimes the langsuyar would repent and live a normal life, marrying a new husband and having children.. Although at night she would still go off and feed from others. They also had long hair that would cover the tell-tale hole in her neck. It was through that hole which they sucked the blood.
The other vampyre of Malaysia is the pontianak. This is a stillborn child who would become a vampyre. It was similar to the langsuyar in every way though.
~ Vampyre's form ~
No doubt most of you think of a vampyre in terms of Annie Rice, Buffy, V:TM pictures or Hollywood films when picturing the vampyre. But that is a more modern vampyre.
You see, the vampyre of folklore was a lot ickier than that. (Although not as icky as Count Orlok. ew.)
The original vampyre of Eastern Europe was a corpse, but a corpse notable for several uncorpselike characteristics. It's body would be bloated and swollen, thus making the skin as tight as a drum. It's fingernails would be long and hard, still growing as the creature lived it's undeath. It would be buried in the rags it was sent to the grave in. It would stink of death. The ends of the appendages might be rotting away, after all...it WAS dead. In appearance, the vampyre's visage was horrible, but not because it was monsterous...but because it was still decaying. Not to mention all vampyres in recorded history were peasants and serfs.
Try living a life of hard labor in the fields for 40 years and see how pretty you are! So, if one was to take the vampyre of recorded history and use it's appearance for a modern day vampyre, you can bet a lot of teen-age girls would daydream about one coming to visit.....
~ Peter Kurten: a "real" Vampyre ~
Often cited as the real thing when it comes to the vampyric, Peter Kurten---the so-called Dusseldorf vampyre was a serial killer in Germany during 1929-1930.
He was born in Mulheim, Germany and was one of ten children. He was the son of an Alcoholic and a brutal father. He lived part of his youth with the town dogcatcher and enjoyed killing the unclaimed dogs. Kurten was 9 when he killed his first person. He pushed a playmate into the alter and repeated the act with a second boy to attempted to save the first. His next known attempt at homicide was 8 years later when he tried to rape and kill a young woman. He was sent to jail for 4 years for his unsuccessful effort. He lived on the streets after his release, but was back in the slammer a year later after a series of thefts and burglaries. He would later claim to have killed two of his prison mates with poison.
I in 1913, back on the streets in Dusseldorf, he killed again, this time a 10 year old girl. He cut her throat with a knife and repeatedly experienced orgasm as the blood spurted out.
It was not until 1929 that Kurten began his series of crimes that were to earn him his place in criminal history. In February of that year, he attempted the murder of one woman and succeed in the murder of 2 children, one male and one female. All died by stabbing. His attempts at murder, often unsuccessful, did not aid police. They accused a mentally-ill man to be convicted of the murder of the boy Kurten had actually killed! That summer, he was more successful, killing 9 people in August alone.
All of these crimes involved blood-drinking from the dead victim. He continued his killing spree until the winter of 1929-1930. In may he attempted the strangling death of a young woman, then for reasons unknown...stopped and let her go. She identified him and he was arrested. During his crime spree, he confused the police by continually changing his method of killing.
Only as he began his confession and accurately related each crime was any doubt of him perpetrating them removed. He was convicted and executed by decapitation on July 2, 1931.
~ The German Vampyre ~
Like in most of Eastern Europe, the vampyre and Germany have had a long history together. This country's version of the undead varies slightly from the commonly known folklore vampyre.
The most well-known German vampyre is the Nachtzeherer, which means, "Night waster." This was the vampyre of Northern Germany. In the southern part of the country it was named, "Bluatsauger" or bloodsucker. Other synonyms for these members of the Undead are, "NAchttoter" (Night Killer) and "Neuntoter" (Killer of nine).
These vampyres were created by unusual death and birth occurrences. As usual in folklore, a suicide victim would become a vampyre, but in Germany, any person who died through accidental death became undead as well. Similar to the Polish vamp, a German child born with a caulk on his head was destined to be a vampyre...especially if the caulk was blood red! A final quirky nature of German vampyres is that is a person's name is not removed from his/her burial clothing, it would rise from the dead as a vampyre!
The Nachtzehrer was also identified with epidemics and plagues, and thus could be associated with Nosferatu. When a group of people suddenly died from a similar disease, the first to die was deemed vampyre and was dispatched with. When the Nachtzehrer was found in the tomb/grave, it was known to have chewed on their own flesh and clothing, although this was most likely from rats and the like which dug up the shallow grave where there were no coffins. This type of vampyre would rise from the grave and attack the living, but unlike other vampyres...this one did not drink blood. Instead it consumed the entire body of it's victim, like a ghoul would. It would also raise from the dead a bride. This bride would be the corpse of a woman who died in childbirth. When the undead were unearthed from their coffins the Nachtzehrer would be found laying in pools of blood, because it had gorged itself to the point where it could not hold down all that the greedy vampyre had consumed. Here the vampyre was dispatched with..but not by the means we all are accustomed towards hearing. Sometimes the vampyre was destroyed by placing a clump of earth underneath it's chin. Other times a stone or a coin were placed in the corpses mouth.
Another method was to tie a white hankerchief around the vampyre's neck. And the most drastic measure of all was not the stake through the stomach, but the head was cut off and a spike was driven through it's mouth to pin the head and tongue into place. Some belief in folklore vampyre still exists in rural Germany to this day.
In the late 1980's Affons Schweiggert investigated reports in Germany that a Bluatsauger was terrorizing local villages. In these villages, the vampyre was still taken deadly serious.
~ The Italian Vampyre ~
The vampyre first reached Italy when "the vampyre plague" hit Serbia and Eastern Europe in the 17th century. The vampyre plague is the Golden Era for the undead. Countless sightings and reports from Man, clergy, officer and doctor remain from that time about firsthand accounts of vampyres.
As the plague was beginning, a Franciscan from Pavia, Ludovico Maria Sinistrari included the vampyre in his study of demonic phenomena, "de Daemonialitate, en Incubus et succubus." He then explained the vampyre in theological terms. He believed that vampyres were a separate race from those of Adam and Eve. Vampyres had souls like those of humans, but their corporeal selves were of a different, perfect nature. I could understand this thought if he used 20th century Americanized vampyres, but back then, the vampyre was a festering fat, balding exhausted reanimated corpse munching on family and cattle. Not too romantic, and a far cry from perfection in my opinion. He also stated vampyres were creatures that were parallel human beings....not evil opposites.
A more modern view of our vampyre bloodsucker came from JH Zedler and his "grosses volstandige Universal-lexicon aller wissenschften und kunste" in 1745. He stated vampyres were just a superstition and excuse to explain diseases science could not rationalize. Cardinal Giuseppe Davanzati echoed these beliefs, stating that vampyre outbreaks only occurred in rural and popular areas of the world...thus making vampirism, "The fruit of imagination" as well as ignorance, fear, superstition and to use a modern term, trendy. It became almost a fad to have a vampyre outbreaks. Hey, it got your town noticed and explained a lot of problems you were having. Besides, peasants didn't have much else to do besides mulch and die.
I'm sure this is much to the Cardinal's chagrin, but vampirism became even more widespread in the mid 18th century throughout central and eastern Europe. The first Romance to ever be published in Italy was, "IL Vampiro" by Franco Mistrali in 1869. This was preceded by an opera by the same name in 1801 by A. De Gasperini. I've never seen the opera, but I think it would be interesting. franco's tale took place in Monaco and revolved around blood and incest. His vampyre was presented in the same decadent, aristocratic manner akin to kaets, goethe, polidori and Byron. Only one real folklore work on the undead ever came out of Italy, and that
was 1908's Vampiro, by Enrico Boni. It is about the historic vampyre plague and is one of the only books ever printed about the superstitions and fear of Italy at that time of the plague.
Italy doesn't have much original works on the vampyre. It has tended to take from Western Europe and use their mythology. Perhaps this is because for the most part, as the vampyre mythos was being built up in the 1600's, the "plague" of the Undead passed over the boot shaped country until near the end of it.
~ The Greek Vampyre ~
I will tell you there are five variations of the Greek vampyre. I would like to start by saying This vampyre, like other Greek vampyres are and were not revivified corpses. Rather they were evil spirits.
The Lamiai was named after Lamia (Which is where the mistake of that word being used with vampyres comes from) who was a Libyan queen. Lamia was the daughter of Belus and Libya... the latter was was loved By Zeus, the King of the Greek Gods (But hey, back then, who didn't get it on with Zeus?). Hera, as usual, became jealous and took her vengeance on Lamia by stealing all her children that had been fathered by Zeus. Lamia retired to her cave, and being unable to strike at the Queen of the gods, used human mothers as her scapegoat and drank the blood from their children. Her actions transformed her into a hideous beast, and thus Lamia and her lamiai were born. Later Lamia became identified with the class of beings that resembled her; course ugly women with serpentine lower bodies. Their feet were totally different.
One would be brass, while the other was shaped like a goat, donkey or Oxen's hoof. The Lamiai were known primarily as demonic spirits that sucked the blood from children, as I have already said. They were, however, able to transform into beautiful woman in order to seduce men for breeding. Although the lamiai are not believed to exist any longer in Greece, they have become a method for scaring children, much the same way the US uses the bogeyman...
~ Vampyre ~
One of the more famous "real vampyre" reports was that of a man who served the Lord of Alnwick Castle.
The man, who was known for being exceedingly wicked, was plagued by an unfaithful wife. Having hidden himself on the roof above his bed to spy on her, he fell to the ground and died the next day. Following his burial, the man was seen walking through the town. People became increasingly afraid and locked themselves in their houses after dark. During this time an unknown disease broke out, which of course, was blamed on the vampyre.
Finally, on Palm Sunday, the local priest assembled a group of devout residents, as well as some of the leaders of the community, and they entered the cemetery. They uncovered the body, which appeared gorged on blood and they struck it with a spade.
The body was deemed evil, set on fire and the epidemic ended.
The town went back to their happy little ways.
~ The blood is the life ~
Okay everyone and their gerbil has seen someone use "The Blood is the Life" with vamp lit, movies and the like. And most of you also know that it is a bible quote. Just for facts the line is Deuteronomy 12:23 and it reads, "Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life, and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh." It still has the same connotations in relations towards the Undead.
~ Polish Vampyres ~
A type of vampyre found amongst the Kashubian people of northeast Poland in the Vjesci, also spelled vjeszczi or vjescey. According the myths, a person who would become a vampyre was born with a caul (membrane cap) on his head at the time of birth. When such a child was born, the cap was removed, dried, ground up and fed to the person on their seventh birthday. These actions would prevent the man
from becoming a Vjesci. Otherwise...bam! Undead.
The Potential vjesci looked perfectly human, but was restless and easily excitable. He also had a ruddy complexion. At the time of his death he would renounce God. His body would cool much much slower then a normal corpse and the limbs would remain limber. The lips and cheeks would remain red and spots of blood would seep from his cheeks and fingernails. The Vjesci never actually died. At Midnight after his burial, he would awake and eat his clothing and then bits of his own flesh. He then left the grave and attacked family member, by sucking out all their blood. Not sated, he'd move on to the neighbors. There were several steps to be taken in ridding the community of the vampyre.
First all people in the town would receive a Eucharist wafer. Then a little earth was placed in the undead's coffin to prevent it from returning there. A crucifix or a coin would be placed in the Vjesci's mouth if it was till in the coffin for it to suck on. A net would be wrapped around the vampyre with the understanding that the vampyre could only untie one knot from the net a year and he could not rise from the coffin until all the knots were untied.
A bag of seeds would be placed in the coffin for similar reasons. Lastly the body would be placed face down in the coffin, so when the vampyre awoke, it would merely dig deeper into the earth instead of coming up to terrorize peasants. (Man, those polish don't mess around!).
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