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This article was submitted by a highschool student who used Pathway as a resource when researching her essay for school. It's a wonderful beginner's look at vampirism - hopefully it will encourage others to follow the same path of learning and discovery!
Imagine that the year is 1790. Adults and children alike are draping strings of garlic, as well as crosses above and around their doors. They do this because they fear that a vampire will come for them in the blackest of night. Many questions have been asked about the origin and the definition of the vampire. There are also various types and vast amounts of opinions about them as well. Many myths and legends like this have plagued mankind for centuries. The vampire has many definitions describing it. There are also various types and vast amounts of opinions about them as well. The vampire, also known as the walking undead, has been around for many, many years and is probably one of the oldest creatures in the world. Doctors and scientists have even discussed actual medical conditions that may have lead to the belief in vampires.
Among all the creatures and monsters in literature and folklore, the vampire seems to be the most mysterious:
"Throughout the whole vast shadowy world of ghosts and demons there is no figure so terrible, no figure so dreaded and abhorred, yet dight with such fearful fascination, as the vampire, who is himself neither ghost nor demon, but yet who partakes the dark natures and possesses the mysterious and terrible qualities of both" (Summers 1).
The World Book encyclopedia defines a vampire as "a corpse that supposedly returns to life at night to suck people's blood" (Vampire 268). The word 'vampire' seems to catch the attention of people throughout the world. Many people wonder about where the word originated, and very few actually know. The name itself has never been satisfactorily explained:
"In its form of vampire [South Russian upuir], it has been compared with the Lithuanian wepti = to drink, and wempti; wampti = to growl, or mutter, and it has been derived from root pi [to drink] with the prefix u = av, va. If this derivation is correct, the characteristic of the vampire is a kind of blood-drunkenness" (Summers 19).
So, as one can notice the word "vampire" is quite complicated in some ways. Stories of vampires have also been around for centuries. There have been stories as far back as 600 BC about vampires in Ancient Greece, but most of the tales told today began in the late eighteenth century. "In China Tsze-Chan reported in the 'Tsachwen' the existence of vampires in 600 BC. This idea was also prevalent in ancient Babylon and Assyria" (Florenescu 164). Stories of vampire-like creatures have come from many parts of the world. "Most vampire tales originated in Eastern Europe and Balkan countries, such as Albania, Greece, Hungary, and Romania" (Vampire 268).
The vampire has many different names and callings. For example, a vampire might be referred to as a revenant or the classic walking undead. "With a persistent sense of the fitting (and deplorable sense of taxonomy), European scholars have commonly referred to these, and to the undead in far-off cultures-for example, China, Indonesia, the Philippines-as 'vampires' as well" (Barber 2). "Other vampires throughout the world include the Hantu which is Malaysian and the Aswang which is from the Philippines" (Pedigo n. pag.). These two types of vampires are bodiless heads trailing entrails behind them.
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