The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

http://legendandlore.wordpress.com/........ In part....

Ever the preferred method of killing or immobilizing a vampire, stakes are possibly the most widely recognized method by which a vampire my be dealt with. It’s the number one literary and theatrical vampire bane, it’s so dramatic that authors simply can’t say no. However, like many other vampire myths, killing with a stake has it’s historical significance. The stake driven through the heart is said to strike a killing blow to the undead, it is a technique by which a vampire may be put down while other, more permanent methods may be met, such as decapitation and burning.

Throughout central and eastern Europe this method was taken very seriously. No just any table leg or shard of wood would do. The stakes had to be made of specific materials. In Russia and through the Baltic, for example, the stakes had to be crafted of ash because of it’s magical qualities. In Silesia the stakes were carved of oakwood, while in Serbia they were crafted of hawthorn because of it’s thorny shrub quality, as vampires are said to be highly allergic to thorns and thistles. Each old mythology had it’s very real and very purposeful beginning.

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This poses interesting questions in my mind. These descriptions on the website mentioned were used to kill a vampire. But you have to remember back in those times, taking care of the dead people was handled in a different way than what we do now days. Back then sometimes they would not be dead when they were buried therefore, buried alive, some graves having bells put on them as alarms so that the living would know where to dig up the person buried alive.

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How do you know when to stake a vampire? Is it a true vampire that you are to stake? What happened to the "don't kill them, destroy them!" method - (also mentioned on the site) - isn't that what most people have been taught to believe over time? Where is the fact and fiction separated?

Fact: Driving a stake through the body, not nesessarilly the heart mind you, was to pin the vampire to the ground. This was to prevent the vampire from both attacking as well as running away.

Fiction: All movies show the emphasis of the stake through the heart for the sake of final death, to explain why the heart is the most vital organ. To kill the heart, is to kill both body as well as soul.

Unless of course the masquarede is involved, with the displaced heart syndrome, the heart could be in the gut instead. A good example would be Kindred: The Embraced, when the cop shoulds Luna in the heart. After which Luna explains to the cop what just occured since he did not die from the bullet.

Yes indeed soulshroude to use the steak is a mistake pun intended ( I am English after all)lol
I guess to go a little deeper if love is what causes vampirism (need to find love again) then the heart would obviously be the target metaphorically speaking…
Unfortunately it only pins one to the grave… nothing more… remove the heart n burn it then mix ashes with water n feed to bitten people breaks the spell…. Then were on to the path of spells… not many understand the power of magic..lol

If a vampire is truely dead then driving a stake through the heart would not kill them because they would not have a functioning heart.

The stake to the heart was mainly to hold the intended victim to the ground, not to kill it, to kill it one would decapitate the victim, set fire to both pieces, the head away from the body, scatter the ashes.

MasterEmmanuelo that would make more sense because then by burning them u get rid of the host body

Fire is considered to be a clensing, or purifying step, giving the vampire final rest, I agree the stake is simply to hold the vampire to the ground while it can be properly dealt with, but in movies it makes a nice killing blow. I do recall a dracula movie where it took a stake through the heart as well as prayers from a preist to finilize his dying.

I agree staking our kind doesn't make as much sense, my first thought is burning as the best means. While staking maybe a temporary fix it does not rid you of us completely and if that's the intension then you best go with burning...oh sure you can do the silver bullet through the heart (blessed by a priest)but you only get one shot ...anyways, whatever choice you make when you come across one of us, know that you best choose quickly & wisely cause it very well may be infact your last choice you ever make.

well, i've never believed in the undead kind of vampire. the Bram Stoker Dracula kind, so no, i wouldn't stake them because their heart would not be beating. but i've always thought that the staking of the vampire was to keep them stable and not moving cause they would be stuck to something without being able to move.

Well to me I also feel that to Stake them was to immobalize them , so that they could be burned and the ashes dispensed with, that way there is no way for them to return.

I mean there are so many different stories out there for Vampires that to just stake them would be useless. That to burn them to ashes is the best means of ridding yourself of them.

Actually to burn anyone or anything to ashes ... well they are gone, unless you truely believe in the power of magic anything can happen to the ashes LOL

These are somewhat tricky questions to me. I would think that to stake a vampire all you would need is proof for motivation. I would also think that totally destroying them would probably be the best bet because, as people have said, the stake was simply meant to keep them in place. This is all in the fictional sense by the way.

If we are talking about "real" vampires, in the sense of a lifestyle, I would just leave them be until they did harm to me. Thats my standpoint with anyone though.

While the stake may have been used for different purposes (real vs. fiction), burning will dispatch anything.

I think you stake them to keep the person in place,then cut off their head filling their mouth with garlic and then set them on fire before scattering the ashes at a crossroads.

I have to wonder why a vampire needs blood at all to survive if he has no heart or if it does not beat since the blood could not transverse throughout his body without one it seems to me.

So....the stake to pin seems the likely course but I have to wonder. All in all it makes for good drama.

It's partially koldunic... the stake is suposed to be a conduit for earth energy. It binds the creature to the earth which it has denied to return to.

To say that any specific part of the body is solely for an exact specific purpose would be ignorant... especially in the undead. I think it is simply the epicenter and as such represents just that.


You pin the spirit to the body and to the earth
then you sever the link and the body goes to earth and the spirit goes where it belongs.

i don't believe that a vampire needs to be staked through the heart in order to die, i think it is one of the most cliche ways in which they are killed nowadays.

I could Imagine that a stake in the heart of a beast undead (that has the power to be immortal including the ability to regenerate) To stake the heart could be to keep the vampire from regenerating the the heart to re-pump the corpse. Like a vampire that takes Aggravated damage in the white wolf card game defined as fire, of magicial can be used to fight against the undead vampires. I could imagine other ways would be needed to slab a psy vampire..

I think there would be other ways to confirm some one was a vampire or not. long before one got to the point of deciding to stake some one.
Or silver bullet a werewolve. How many people could you imagine died during the radies over hype.. getting shot for being infected.

living around mass graves is spooky and the stories that people create by oral tradition are grave indeed.

Well when you take a vampire out for dinner it would seem appropriate.

Kidding. However if you happen to catch one 'sleeping' it would be nice to do so and get it over with.

There is a variation to the stake, if removed in some cases the vampire is able to rise, in others the stake makes the vampire go poof.

I have heard the same discussion as many others have posted.

The stake through the heart is analagous to picking up a cat by the scruff of the neck. It basically immobilizes/paralyzes the vamp and disables their abilities.

In a story I read years ago, a vamp was held in suspended animation with a stake in their heart for several centuries. They were able to reanimate when the stake was removed.

Thus, the need to clease/destroy the body through the used of decapitation, fire, and/or sunlight.

hasn't the vampire evolved past the old traditions though? vampires today aren't really the blood sucking fiends they were ages ago. not to the knowledgeable anyway.

Yes They linger among us in posed theatrics, they have been created and re-created to be a more sinister character, one that dwells among us, yet prays upon us. I have noticed that vampires have been made so hard to "eliminate" that we are nearly reliant on other "aligned" vampire types. The Vampire hunter has kept up with the evolution of the vampire as well.

Which is why there are stake throwers...
and we are not talking swedish chefs... LOL

the threat of the vampire hunter is actually very very real. my friend has a vampiric house and the members of his house have been hunted. i mean actually hunted. i don't know if they use stakes or try to drive said stake through the vampires' hearts but i did see a picture of a gash on a girl's arm that was all too real.

Such is the reason of the msquerade.

what do you mean masquerade? i don't understand what you're trying to say.

The keeping ones vampirism on the D.L.

ok, well i wasn't talking about people going out in acrylic fangs, looking overly "goth", or any of the other stereotypical look for a vampire. these are normal people who are part of a house. and they're hunted.

a .45 immobilizes them better. fiction is fun but dont stake (pun intended) your life on it.

I've mostly read or seen that the stake was used to slow down or incapicate the vampire while the head could be removed or to keep them pinned to wait for the sun to come and kill them.

I've also read different types of wood described as being necessary plus the stakes needed to be blessed by a priest or even dipped in holy water for more effect.

The symbolic use of the heart to hold the vampire in place I think had to do with a belief that by doing so you could pin their soul into their body so it could move on after final death.

I cannot remember where I read that it was a very long time ago though. But it struck me as something people would have thought valid back in the past.

Ash or oak are the preffered types of wood. And yes oly used to hold the victim down on a fixed place.

yeah it didn't have to be through the heart not sure how the killing thing occured their already dead once the heart stops beating they become the living dead but.. thats in the movies not in the real.

In the real I believe that there are vampires to a degree, not full blown but there are vampires who take on features of the hollywood vamps who don't make up these personality traits just "for the look" or what ever but really do have a condition such as, "pigmentaion of the skin being all white," the "light" messing with the eyes, haveing a skin conditon that burns the skin when they go out in to the sun, and yes even being attracted to blood

"I've had my moments" where the sight and tast gave me a bit of a drive but... thats a story for a later time...

anyways as the tale tells a stake through the heart was suppsed to kill them, however studys on this matter and a closer look into the hollywood image ofa vampire were really screwd up in there ledgeds of a vampire they were so inacurate with their attempts to frighten everyone... they didn't think about the realism of everything.

From what legend and lore started, movies and novels have changed over the years.. it's basically whatever the creator of that vampire world wishes it to be.

Originally, as was already mentioned in here, to stake a vampire was to stake it to the ground so it could not escape.. they pretty much used garlic in mouth and cut off their heads as well... but so much has changed in way of a vampire's final death due to fiction... like sunlight, using any kind of stake, not just wood or indeed, any special kind of wood.

I agree with xxblackhawkxx, he is 100 percent correct because Vampires are already dead and immortal. So don't bother to waste your time bu trying to stake one.

for all who claim to be vampires on the site, we can stake them, and i am pretty sure it would kill/destroy them : D

Well, hopefully you make sure they're a vampire, maybe see some fangs, or them feed or something...how much force would it take to stab a vampire, especially with wood? like as much as a human (only like body builders could pull that one off), or is it easier, because the body is softer, maybe having decayed a bit?...the destroy them method had probably gone, because people have learned more and don't want to seem barbaric...and as far as separating fact from fiction...i guess it would depend on weather or not you believe in vampires...the if you do, who are you to argue with he logic of wooden stakes and weather they work or not...

Ummm... wouldnt driving a stake through the heart of well anything living pretty much gurentee that its going to die, regardless if it be vampire or not? I always found this to be a rather comical subject based on this fact. Sure modern medicen may save your life but something ripping through the heart, pretty much equals death.

Well, I'd say if you find one resting or sleeping ..

STAKE IT! STAKE IT HARRRRRRRRRRRD! It'll eatchu! If you don't .;D

I say stake it and burn it to make sure... But ouch all the same..

Undervampsgaze -

Wouldn't decapitating it help too?

If you witness a person get shot and keep walking, if you witnessa person get shot for attacking another in a gory fashion, drawing a lot of blood, then after it is shot and keeps walking, stab it with a stake.. but better wait until it is destracted.

I have heard that driving a stake through the heard of a "sleeping" vampire will finish it off, but then again I have also heard that staking it only immobolizes it and that to truly finish it off you must behead it and burn the corpse. I think it would be best to stake the vampire and then behead it and burn it just to make sure it was really dead (if that word is appropriate).

I'm with ya Distortion. Stake it like it owes you money.

I would stake, behead and burn just to make sure. And then I would take the ashes and pour acid on them. I ain't taking any chances, lol.

I think the bell idea was a great idea maybe even should be used today lol

The term saved by the bell comes from that and the practice used by corners for bodies awaiting embalming..

Bodies were found to have been buried alive during the times (plague, influenza outbreaks) alot of people were dropping some from fevers that put them in coma like states.. not being able to give them a "christian" burial they built walled in areas.. and stacked the makeshift boxes.. to be uncovered later and properly buried.. some of those recovered stacks were opened to reveal evidence of what had to be a nightmare to those who saw it, a body not posed in rest but locked in a tragic pose the box sometimes splintered or sctatched from the insides, the bell was the response, to listen for the bell, became known as.." The Grave Yard Shift

people that needed the money would listen for the bells.

i dont believe a stake throught the heart would kill a Vampire .How can you kill something that is undead?

if you have been around as long as a lot of true vampires have you probably to smart to get staked of you strong enough it would phase you

A stake through the heart would kill anyone, why wouldn't it kill a vampire?

a stake through the heart may kill anyone but a stake through a heart of the undead will only keep the vampire down On that question when you asked why wouldnt a stake kill a vampire is because its already a dead corps .

using fire would be the best way, even though the shows all show you the stake in the heart method which is mostly to dramatize it i think.

How do you know when to stake a vampire?

I would say that since Vampires are only "supposed" to be able to come out after dark, that during the daytime (or when they are at rest or in a state of torpor) would be an excellent choice.

Is it a true vampire that you are to stake?

Hoping you are speaking of the undead breed of Vampire, I would think that with what we know this day about the "undead", technology and sensing equipment, and lore combined, those who have intent to stake a vampire would have done his/her homework and evidence that the target was indeed a vampire.

What happened to the "don't kill them, destroy them!" method - (also mentioned on the site) - isn't that what most people have been taught to believe over time? Where is the fact and fiction separated?

If it was determined that the "undead" breed of vampires were real, I suppose by now they would be offering Vampire 101 courses in all levels of schooling to teach humans the way of dealing with them. The fact and fiction of vampires is separated by each individual. If you beleive the undead breed of vampire exists, they are fact--if not, they are fiction.

it came from the old superstition that the heart was the seat of the soul and they would stake suicides and convicts who had been executed and buried in unconsecrated ground. I think they felt they wouldn't be at rest and would become the walking undead. This seems to have carried over into the superstitions of the times being handed down and on into the books. I'm sure they believed that this would kill a vampire if they ran into one or prevent that from happening by playing it safe.

i think cutting the head off would be more effective. how can you stake the heart if the heart does not beat

Stake them then burn them is what i would think. But it also sounds like something my husband would do to shishkabobs lol.

agreeing with an earlier post here.

The act of staking merely holds said vampire in place so that the appropriate action can be made to destroy said vampire.

Decapitation is one way. Burning is another. Tying them to the ground and waiting for the sun to rise is yet another.


Never go out by yourself and try to 'hunt' a vampire. Also, strong belief in whatever faith you follow, believe it or not, helps.

I know what i am writing is something i got from an older movie but it is a scene i never forgot.
Liked others have said the stake was driven into the vampire in this case Dracula to hold him down so he could not get away.
The people that were after him had waited till Dracula was asleep in his coffin then drove the stake into him and then moved his coffin out into the bright sunlight and leaving the lids up watched while the sunlight supposedly fried him.
All you saw left was a pile of ashes like he had been burned in a fire.

or acid would be pretty kool too.could you kill a vamp with acid