The first vampire stories that we know of came from ancient Babylonia. Demons called Lilu were believed to wander the earth at night, sucking the blood of pregnant women and babies. The word “lilu” was adopted into ancient Hebrew writings as Lilith, the first wife of Adam. Not being a nice person, she was booted out of the Garden of Eden, and became the mother of all vampires. Vampire stories spread through the cultures of the Middle East and were present in Persia, where a vase was found showing a man fighting off a vampire.
From the Middle East vampire stories entered Europe, probably during the Crusades. In the eleventh century vampire tales became prevalent in Europe, and any corpse that didn’t decompose as expected became a cause for concern. By the twelfth century, writers such as Walter Map and William of Newburgh were producing accounts of vampires in England. These accounts have some common threads. Vampires were people who died in a state of sin, they liked to bother people they had known in life, and they could only be stopped by the complete destruction of their corpse.
The belief that vampires caused the plague became common at this time, too. And it’s actually reasonable to think that vampires lurking around and spreading corruption would produce a plague. It’s possible that some plague victims were quickly buried alive in shallow graves, and dug their way out. This would back up both the belief in vampires and the theory that they caused the plague.
We think of vampires as being a part of Eastern European culture, and that region does have a rich heritage of vampire lore. But vampire stories were cnmmon in all parts of Europe, in Russia, and in the British Isles. And, as we know, they didn’t die out after the Middle Ages. Strangely, the eighteenth century, which we call the Age of Reason, saw a surge in vampire tales.
Two incidents in the 1720’s sparked this surge. A man named Plogojowitz died in East Prussia and was said to have come back as a vampire. Then, in Serbia, an ex-soldier named Paole also died and apparently returned as a vampire. It was reported that Paole had been bitten by a vampire years before. The two cases caused a great controversy. The officials who documented the evidence said it was all true, and most scholars said it was not, and that there were no such things as vampires. Before the uproar died down a few years later, people were staking down corpses all over central Europe.
All this led to vampire-themed poems by several German poets. One, by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, is about a young man who is rejected by a very religious girl. He threatens o suck her blood, showing that his evil is stronger than her piety. This is actually not compatible with the Age of Reason, which could be anti-Christian. Even the great Goethe joined in the vampire craze, writing The Bride of Corinth. It was also critical of Christianity; the bride dies and becomes a vampire after the cruel fate of being sent to a convent.
But the eighteenth century was just a prelude to the vampire literature produced by the nineteenth century. It began in 1816 with a contest. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary, and their friend Dr. John Polidori were vacationing in Switzerland. The weather was too bad to go out for several days, and to pass the time the friends decided to see who could write the best horror story. (Mary Shelley is, of course, posterity’s hands-down winner with Frankenstein). Dr. Polidori completed a story called “The Vampyr” that was published in 1819 and was very popular. Byron started a vampire story, also, but it was never finished.
All kinds of vampires then appeared in literary works and popular fiction. Elizabeth Caroline Grey is believed to be the first woman to write a vampire novel. Vampire-themed penny dreadful were very much in demand. On the European continent, Paul Feval produced three vampire novels and Milvan Glisic wrote about a Serbian vampire. Sheridan le Fanu wrote Carmilla, about a female vampire, in 1872.
It’s worth noting that vampires were not just considered fiction in the nineteenth century; belief in them persisted. In Germany people could purchase a vampire-killing kit.
The defining vampire tale of the nineteenth century, and all time, has to be Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Stoker was born in Ireland in 1847. He was a writer and theater critic, and manager of the Lyceum Theater in London. He never went to Eastern Europe, but was intrigued by the idea of the vampire and had a writer’s imaginative gifts. He had originally planned to give his vampire a different name, but while researching for the novel he learned that “Dracula” meant “devil” in Romanian, and so decided on that name. Dracula is written as a series of letters and diary entries, a good technique for adding realism to an improbable story. Stoker’s Dracula is the charming, elegant gentleman portrayed later by Bela Lugosi in film. But the character Jonathan Harker describes his handshake as “cold as ice--more like the hand of a dead than a living man.”
Dracula was published in 1897. It was only a few years later, in 1922, that the first film version of it was produced. The film was called Nosferatu, a strange name with obscure origins. It was probably first introduced into English by travel writer Emily Gerard in 1885. She wrote that Romanians had told her about a vampire-like creature called the nosferatu, but the word has no meaning in Romanian. It’s most likely that she wrote it incorrectly, since she didn’t know Romanian.
Nosferatu was directed by F.W. Murnau. He was one of the most accomplished filmmakers of 1920’s Germany, a very prolific and creative period. The haunting, cadaverous creepiness of its star, Max Schreck, and its brooding use of light and shadow make it a classic. The scene in which the nosferatu is struck by sunlight and killed is riveting. But the movie was not without controversy. Florence Stoker, Bram’s widow, sued the producers of Nosferatu for copyright infringement, and as a result all the names of the characters in the movie were changed; Dracula became Count Orlok. Florence, who had no means of support other than the proceeds from Dracula, continued her suit and asked that all copies of the movie be destroyed. In 1925 a judge agreed to this. A few copies were held back, though, and today Nosferatu is readily available on DVD.
In 1931 Universal Studios produced the film Dracula after studio head Carl Laemmle bought the rights to the story. The plan was for Tod Browning, an experienced director, to direct film star Lon Chaney in the role of Dracula. But by the time filming was ready to begin, Chaney had passed away. No one really wanted Bela Lugosi for the role, but Lugosi was so anxious to have it that he agreed to a very small salary, and so he was finally cast as Dracula. Now it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the film. Lugosi, a native of Hungary and a veteran stage actor, brought a hypnotic and elegant menace to the part. He could suggest more with his eyes than many actors with their entire facial expressions. His thick accent added to the character, and in the film the ladies in England find him exotic and fascinating. With other fine performances, especially Dwight Frye as Renfield, Dracula is*readily available on DVD and well worth seeing.
Vampires continued to be a staple of movies; Christopher Lee played them in the 1960’s and 1970’s with a charming British accent and an evil grace.
In the 1970’s Barnabas Collins became a very popular vampire on the TV soap opera Dark Shadows. Played by Jonathan Frid, Barnabas was a reluctant vampire, having been turned into one by a woman scorned. In the 1700’s Barnabas loves Josette, but Angelique the witch loves Barnabas. When Angelique finally realizes she can’t have him, she sends a bat to bite him and he becomes one of the undead. Barnabas’s wealthy and embarrassed family then seals him up in a coffin; two hundred years later he’s accidentally released, and the story revolves around him looking for ways to cure his vampirism. The production value of Dark Shadows was low and the actors often stumbled over their lines. But the show had absorbing plots and engaging characters, and was a great deal of fun, anyway.
Today the Twilight series and movies are the rage among teenage girls, who have always had a soft spot for vampires. You can read some very interesting background by Stephenie Meyer, the author, at www.stepheniemeyer.com/.
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