Origin of a Legend, Part 3

Posted by Saluki in Blood Donors (guest blogs) | 3 comments

And now, for our final installment of Mr. Saluki’s Origin of a Legend, which examines the history of the modern vampire.

The Modern Vampire

On July 21, 1718, a peace accord was reached between the Ottoman Empire and Austria called the Treaty of Passarowitz.  Because of this treaty, parts of Serbia and Walachia were turned over to Austria. Occupation troops reported a disturbing occurrence among the peasants of these areas.  The troops observed the peasants exhuming bodies and “killing” them. Literate outsiders rushed to attend these exhumations. Here, then, is the account of one Peter Plogojowitz (literal Serbian spelling: Petar Blagojevic), probably the first modern case of a suspected vampire. This summary was recorded by Austrian Imperial Provisor Wilhelm Frombald –

After the subject Peter Plogojowitz had died, ten weeks past- he had lived in the village of Kisilova, in the Rahm district- and had been buried according to the Raetzian custom, it had been revealed in the same village of Kisilova, within a week, nine people, both old and young, died also, after suffering a twenty-four hour illness. And they said publicly, while they were yet alive, but still on their death-bed, that the above mentioned Plogojowitz, who had died ten weeks earlier, had come to them in their sleep, laid himself on them, and throttled them, so that they would have to give up the ghost. The other subjects were very distressed and strengthened more in such [beliefs] by the fact that the dead Peter Plogojowitz’s wife, after saying that he had come to her and demanded his opanki, or shoes,  had left the village of Kisilova and gone to another. And since with such people that (which they call vampires) various sign are to be seen – that is, the body undecomposed, the skin, hair, beard and nails growing – the subjects resolved unanimously to open the grave of Peter Plogojowitz and to see if the above-mentioned signs were really to be found on him. To this end they came here to me, telling of these events, and asking me and the local pope, or parish priest, to be present at the viewing. And although I at first disapproved, telling them that the praiseworthy administration should first be dutifully and humbly informed, and it’s exalted opinion about this should be heard, they did not want to accommodate themselves to this at all, but gave this short answer: I could do what I wanted, but if I did not accord them the viewing and legal recognition to deal with the body according to their custom, they would have to leave house and home, because by the time a gracious resolution was received from Belgrade, perhaps the entire village-and this was already supposed to have happened in Turkish times – could be destroyed by such an evil spirit, and they did not want to wait for this. Since I could not hold such people from the resolution they had made, either with good words or with threats, I went to the village of Kisilova, taking along the Gradisk pope, and viewed the body of Peter Plogojowitz, just exhumed, finding, in accordance with thorough truthfulness, that first of all I did not detect that is otherwise characteristic of the dead, and the body, except for the nose, which was somewhat fallen away, was completely fresh. The hair and beard – even the nails, of which the old ones have fallen away – had grown on him; the old skin, which had peeled away, and a new fresh one had emerged under it. The face, hands, and feet, and the whole body were so constituted, that they could not have been more complete in his lifetime. Not without astonishment, I saw some fresh blood in his mouth, which, according to common observation, he had sucked from the people killed by him. In short, all the indications were present that such people (as remarked above) are said to have.

This report, filed on October 14^th, 1725, makes several assertions that can be explained by modern medicine that were not available at the time. Another man, a soldier by the name of Arnold Paole, was also believed to be a vampire around this time. Under almost identical circumstances, the soldier Paole was accused of being seen after his death and when exhumed, his corpse showed similar signs. Throughout the 18^th century this sort of hysteria reigned over Eastern Europe to the point that even the famous French philosopher and author Voltaire wrote in his Philosophical Dictionary this –

These vampires were corpses, who went out of their graves at night to suck the blood of the living, either at their throats or stomachs, after which they returned to their cemeteries. The persons so sucked waned, grew pale, and fell into consumption; while the sucking corpses grew fat, got rosy, and enjoyed an excellent appetite. It was in Poland, Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, Austria and Lorraine, that the dead made this good cheer.

The “18^th- Century Vampire Controversy,” as it was later called, extended these types of stories throughout Eastern Europe and into Western Europe. The controversy only ceased when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician, Gerhard Van Swieten, to investigate these claims of vampires in the countryside. He concluded his investigation stating that vampires did not exist and the Empress proclaimed new laws prohibiting the opening of graves and the desecration of corpses, sounding the end of the vampire hysteria. Despite her condemnation (or perhaps because of it), vampire stories lived on through superstition and artwork, slowly making their way west.

From Polidori to Stoker

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first appearance of the word vampire in English to 1734, most likely from the Serbian word Vampir or the French Vampyr. While vampire tales had been extremely popular in German literature, it was the travelogue Travels of Three English Gentlemen that marked the first appearance of the vampire in English literature. Travels was published as part of The Harleian Miscellany, or as it is formally named, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as well in Manuscript as in Print, Found in the Late Earl of Oxford’s Library, Interspersed with Historical, Political, and Critical Notes. The English at the time had a flair for detail, it seems. Published in 1753, The Harleian Miscellany was a collection of material from the library of the late Lord of Oxford, collated and edited by one Samuel Johnson between 1744 and 1753.

Up until this time, vampires were regarded as being bloated, shrouded figures that had complexions that were ruddy or dark. All folklore about vampires stated that they were people who, in life, had died insane or had rebelled against the church while alive. Vampires slept in the cemeteries that they were buried in and had little to no contact with people other than attacking them.

Those descriptions ended in 1819, with the help of John William Polidori. His short story, “The Vampyre,” appeared in the April 1 edition of New Monthly Magazine. Polidori’s tale was about an aristocrat thinly based on English poet Lord George Gordon Byron named “Lord Ruthven”. Ruthven is the first charismatic and sophisticated vampire character to appear in literature.

Polidori was personal physician to Lord Byron and stayed with Byron at the famous Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva during the summer of 1816. It was during this time that they were visited by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, along with Claire Clairemont. It was during this summer stay at Villa Diodati, kept indoors by the inclement weather of “the year without summer,” and fueled by ghost stories told between the five, that Mary Shelley would create what would become Frankenstein. It is assumed that here is where Polidori came up with “The Vampyre”.

In Polidori’s Vampyre, a young Englishman by the name of Aubrey meets The Earl of Marsden Lord Ruthven, a mysterious aristocrat just introduced to London society. Aubrey agrees to travel to Rome with Ruthven, only to leave him there after Ruthven seduces the daughter of a mutual acquaintance. After leaving Ruthven, Aubrey travels to Greece, where he meets and falls in love with an innkeeper’s daughter named Ianthe. Aubrey learns from Ianthe the legend of the vampire while staying with her. Lord Ruthven appears in Greece and soon thereafter Ianthe is killed by a vampire. Aubrey does not suspect Ruthven of being a vampire and is soon convinced to resume his traveling with Ruthven.

While leaving Greece, Aubrey and Ruthven are attacked by bandits and Ruthven is mortally wounded. Ruthven asks Aubrey to swear an oath that he will not talk of Ruthven for a year and a day, and Aubrey agrees. Ruthven dies soon after. It is only later, on his way back to London that Aubrey realizes that everyone who comes across Ruthven ends up suffering. Aubrey is amazed upon returning to London that Ruthven is there, alive and healthy. Lord Ruthven begins to seduce Aubrey’s sister and reminds Aubrey of his oath when Aubrey confronts him. Helpless to protect his sister from Lord Ruthven, Aubrey slowly has a nervous breakdown. He learns that his sister and Ruthven are engaged to be married on the day that his oath expires and struggles to write a letter to his sister revealing Ruthven’s vampiric nature. The letter does not arrive in time, Ruthven kills Aubrey’s sister on their wedding night, and Ruthven then escapes.

“The Vampyre” was an immediate success in England and was re-published in paperback form the next year. As stated before, Ruthven is the first charismatic vampire in literature. He is also described as a tall, gaunt, pale skinned aristocrat. Ruthven becomes such a popular literary character that his exploits are continued in a series of plays. Vampires begin to appear more frequently in published stories, including Varney the Vampire (1847), which fascinates a young Irish reader by the name of Bram Stoker.

There is no need to recount here Stoker’s greatest work, Dracula, published in 1897. While based on a historical figure, Prince Vlad III Dracul Tepes, the character Dracula has little in common with the man known as “Impaler”. The original name of Stoker’s count was to be Count Wampyr; he only became interested in the name Dracula after reading William Wilkensen’s book Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia with Political Observations Relative to Them. This book, published in London in 1820, was found by Stoker in the early 1890’s in Whitby Library and tells the history of the descendants of Vlad II of Wallachia. Vlad II took the name “Dracul” after being invested in the Order of the Dragon in 1431. His son, Vlad III, was known in life for his independent stance toward the Ottoman Empire as well as his exceeding cruelty. During his reign, he punished members of Wallachia’s boyar nobility. Beginning in 1452, Vlad III rounded up his (perceived) enemies, and had them marched to the ruins of Poienari Castle above the Arges River.

By the time of his death in 1476, over 80,000 people had been murdered by his orders and sometimes by his own hand. He would have his enemies stripped naked and impaled on a wooden stake. The stakes would then be planted in the ground upright, leaving the prisoner to slowly die. Vlad was also accused of more impalements and torture against the Ottoman Empire’s soldiers. Vlad was finally killed in a battle against the Ottoman’s outside of Bucharest in 1476. He was decapitated by Ottoman troops, and his head sent to the Sultan in Constantinople. The Sultan placed Vlad’s head on a stake to show that Vlad III Dracul was finally dead.

The popularity of Stoker’s work spawned millions of copies, millions of imitations, and millions of fans. You can trace the line of fictional vampire characters from the Count of 1897 to the 1922 film Nosferatu, to Interview with the Vampire’s Lestat, to the Edward Cullen of today’s Twilight fame. While enjoying the creations of today, however, we must remember that none of this would be possible without the insanity of the ruler of a small country, the superstition of peasants in Eastern Europe, or the Mesopotamian demon-gods of 6,000 years ago.