The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

In my wandering over the net and thru books I have noticed a few odd things in the myths of how to deal

with a vampire. Either how to stop them from rising or how to stop one that is after you.



Most of us of course have heard of the sun or holy objects being a a way to slow or destroy a creature of the night. As I was reading on this I noticed a great deal of the different ways to slow a vampire are the same to stop a witch that is after you as well. Most of the ways seem to make little to no sense to me as to why it would make an undead creature stop chasing its meal.



The best known one I would say is the holy objects. It does not seem to matter which variety of belief system the object is from. If shown to a vampire it will slow, freeze or even harm them. Placed in their resting places it will cause the vampire to be unable to return to that place, makes it holy ground and of course the evil blood drinker can not abide that. There is also the factor of where the power of these objects come from. Most of the

myths state that it is the belief of the one wielding said object. Yet in a few that I managed to roam across it the belief of the vampire itself that was needed for said object to work, so a cross would have little to no effect on a Jewish vampire.



Of course we have all heard of the sun and or fire. In many places around the world it is advised if you believe your loved one is going to rise to walk the night to burn the body and scatter the ashes, over running water if you can manage it. Again this would be part of the vampire being the evil creature of the night and the sun and fire being cleansing agents. Some places believed if you mixed the ashes (or blood from said vampire) from a burned

vampire into food or drink this would help protect you from vampires.



There is also the sharp objects myth. Altho I must admit this one make sense to me. Keeping sharp objects in general is said to be a a way to ward against a vampire (and anything else that may attack you I would imagine) Wolvesbane and a silver knife under a child's bed is said to keep the child safe from attack. Small hawthorn pegs driven into the ground near the cross at the head of the grave will keep a vampire from rising. Thorny roses

and other thorny vines can be used to bind the vampires feet and hands to keep the vampire from rising when it snags the burial clothes and pins them to the coffin.



Garlic and other plants are said to ward or slow a vampire. The garlic can be used in many ways. Stuffed in the mouth and nose of the body to keep it from raising. Garlic can also ward your home or person from a vampire. It is also said that a vampire is not able to change shape when close to garlic. I mentioned the use of wolvesbane before , another plant that is used is poppy seeds. Not to count, the drugging effect of the poppy seeds will make

the vampire simply wish to stay in his grave and not rise. And for some reason the vampire must eat the

seeds.



Counting things is another of the ways to slow a vampire. The seem to have a compulsion to count anything in their path ( again very like the ways to deal with a witch) toss seeds or grain or just about anything and the vampire will have to stop and count or pick up each one. A version I found was to put a dead animal on your doorstop and the vampire will have to stop to count the hairs , of course the sun will rise before he can finish

causing him to flee or perish.



To stop a vampire from returning to the village in some areas people would wear masks to stop them from being known to the vampire. Also long twisting paths from the grave side would be taken so as to confuse the vampire so that they could not find their way. There is also the belief that if you bury the corpse facing down it will rise and

dig farther into the earth instead of rising to walk along the living.



Most of these myths simply do not make much sense to me. Why would a vampire be forced to stop and count seeds or sand? Or why would a cross or other symbol effect a vampire in any way? And as to the others, it seems that they

were ways to keep the boogy man from coming to visit. More a way of if we do this in a certain way... nothing bad will happen to us. And like so many of the vampire myths I find them amusing, yet senceless.