The 12th-century English historians and chroniclers
Walter Map and
William of Newburgh recorded accounts of
revenants, though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant. These tales are similar to the later folklore widely reported from Southeastern Europe and Transylvania in the 18th century, which were the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularised. During this time in the 18th century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Southeastern Europe and Transylvania, with frequent stakings and grave diggings taking place to identify and kill the potential revenants; even government officials were compelled into the hunting and staking of vampires. Despite being called the
Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in what could only be called a
mass hysteria throughout most of Europe. In the second case, Arnold Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while
haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area and it was widely believed that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbours. The hysteria, which is commonly referred to as the "18th-Century Vampire Controversy", raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them. Although many scholars reported during this period that vampires did not exist, and attributed reports to premature burial or
rabies, superstitious belief continued to increase.
Dom Augustine Calmet, a well-respected French
theologian and scholar, put together a comprehensive treatise in 1746, which was ambiguous concerning the existence of vampires. Calmet amassed reports of vampire incidents; numerous readers, including both a critical
Voltaire and supportive
demonologists, interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed. The controversy only ceased when Empress
Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician,
Gerhard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies, sounding the end of the vampire epidemics. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local superstition.
Armenia In
Armenian mythology, the most prominent vampire is the
dakhanavar. The (դախանավար) is a vampire in
Armenian folklore who protected the valley from intruders, first reported by Baron
August von Haxthausen in his mid-19th century account of
Armenia and
Russian Transcaucasia, the book
Transcaucasia: Sketches of the Nations and Races Between the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Dakhanavar follows travelers until they stop for a rest, stalking their every move. When they finally stop, the vampire attacks them in their sleep, typically going for their feet. The local legend would often attack travelers in the night, sucking
blood from their feet. In one legend, he was outsmarted by two men who had already heard of the vampire's habits and slept with their feet under the other's head. The vampire, thinking that they were one being with two heads and no feet, ran from the valley and was never heard from again. In line with common vampire
folklore, Jonathan Maberry has identified garlic as an
apotropaic which can protect against the
Dakhanavar.
Greece Bearing little resemblance to its Ancient Greek precursors, the modern Greek
vrykolakas (from a Slavic word meaning 'werewolf') has much in common with the European vampire. Belief in vampires commonly called , , though also referred to as , , on
Crete persisted throughout Greek history and became so widespread in the 18th and 19th centuries that many practices were enforced to both prevent and combat vampirism. The deceased were often exhumed from their graves after three years of death and the remains placed in a box by relatives; wine was poured over them while a priest would read from scriptures. In Greek folklore, vampirism could occur through various means: being excommunicated, desecrating a religious day, committing a great crime, or dying alone. Other causes included having a cat jump across one's grave, eating meat from a sheep killed by a wolf, and being cursed. were usually thought to be indistinguishable from living people, giving rise to many folk tales with this theme. Crosses and
antidoron (blessed bread) from the church were used as wards in different places. To prevent vampires from rising from the dead, their hearts were pierced with iron nails while resting in their graves, or their bodies burned and the ashes scattered. Because the Church opposed burning people who had received the myron of
chrismation in the baptism ritual, cremation was considered a last resort. This comparison of Icelandic to vampires is not entirely new as it was also made by Andrew Lang in 1897 when he called the Glámr in
Grettir's Saga a vampire.
Romania Romanian vampires were known as
moroi (from the Romanian word meaning 'dead' or the Slavic word meaning 'nightmare') and
strigoi, with the latter classified as either living or dead. Live were described as living witches with two hearts or souls, sometimes both. were said to have the ability to send out their souls at night to meet with other and consume the blood of livestock and neighbours. Similarly, dead were described as reanimated corpses that also sucked blood and attacked their living family. Live became revenants after their death, but there were also many other ways of a person becoming a vampire. A person "
born in the caul," or with congenital defects, such as an extra nipple, a tail, or extra hair was doomed to become a vampire. The same fate applied to the seventh child in any family if all of his or her previous siblings were of the same sex, as well as someone born too early or someone whose mother had encountered a black cat crossing her path. If a pregnant woman did not eat salt or was looked upon by a vampire or a witch, her child would also become a vampire. So too would a child born out of wedlock. Others who were at risk of becoming vampires were those who died an unnatural death or before
baptism. A person with red hair and blue eyes was seen as a potential . A child breastfed after its mother has weaned it risks becoming a
pricolici, a Romanian vampire with werewolf-like attributes. Romanian vampires were said to bite their victims over the heart or between the eyes, and sudden deaths could indicate the presence of a vampire. Graves were often opened five or seven years after burial and the corpse checked for vampirism, before being washed and reburied.
Ireland and Scotland The malign and
succubus-like
Baobhan sith from the Scottish Highlands and the
Lhiannan Shee of the
Isle of Man,
Scotland and
Ireland, are two
fairy spirits with decidedly vampiric tendencies. Further Irish myths, alone or in combination, may have provided inspiration for Irish authors
Sheridan Le Fanu and
Bram Stoker • The legend of
Droch-fhuil (literally 'evil-blood'), and the Castle of Droch-fhola (
Dún Droch-fhola) which guarded the
MacGillycuddy's Reeks Mountains of
County Kerry • The legend of
Abhartach – an evil tyrant who repeatedly escapes his grave to spread terror (and in some accounts to drink the blood of his subjects, to be one of the ('un-dead'), and to be killed only with a sword of
yew wood and being buried upside-down). • The legend of the
Gancanagh or Ganconer, a seductive male
fairy who is said to entrance and kill young women. Like the vampire he is said to cast no shadow, and is unable to enter a home unless invited inside, and is repelled by the sign of the cross.
Slavic Europe Some of the more common causes of vampirism in
Slavic folklore include being a magician or an immoral person; suffering an "unnatural" or untimely death such as suicide;
ex-communication; improper burial rituals; an animal jumping or a bird flying over the corpse or the empty grave (in
Serbian folk belief); and even being born with a caul, teeth, or tail. In southern Russia, people who were known to talk to themselves were believed to be at risk of becoming vampires. Slavic vampires were able to appear as butterflies, echoing an earlier belief of the butterfly symbolizing a departed soul. Some traditions spoke of "living vampires" or "people with two souls", a kind of witch capable of leaving its body and engaging in harmful and vampiric activity while sleeping. Two of the earliest historical recordings of vampire activity in Europe can be found in the
Neplach's
Chronicle (14th century, probably written in 1360). For the year 1336 he mentions a shepherd named Myslata from
Blov. He died and was buried but he didn't stay in the grave. Each evening he walked around, spoke to people as if being alive and was scaring them. Soon, he started killing the people and if he stopped by someone's home and called their name, said person died in 8 days. So the people of several villages decided to exhumate him and burn the body. During the process, he let out a loud scream. Someone stabbed him with a stick and a lot of blood came out of the wound. After he was burned, all of the evil events stopped. The second case happened 1344. Neplach writes about a woman from
Levín who after being buried came back, killed several people and danced on them. Once she was exhumated and a stake was put through her, blood started pouring out of her as if she was alive. She also ate her clothes and once removed from her mouth, the cloth was bloody as well. Even after that, she was still attacking villagers so they decided to burn her. However, the wood wouldn't catch fire until they used pieces of the church roof to start it. Both of these cases were later mentioned in the book
Magia posthuma by
Karl Ferdinand Schertz (1704) that intended to denounce the widespread folk belief in vampires. Among the beliefs of the
East Slavs, those of the northern regions (i.e. most of
Russia) are unique in that their undead, while having many of the features of the vampires of other Slavic peoples, do not drink blood and do not bear a name derived from the common Slavic root for "vampire".
Ukrainian and
Belarusian legends are more "conventional", although in Ukraine the vampires may sometimes not be described as dead at all, or may be seen as engaging in vampirism long before death. Ukrainian folklore also described vampires as having red faces and tiny tails. During
cholera epidemics in the 19th century, there were cases of people being burned alive by their neighbors on charges of being vampires. In
South Slavic folklore, a vampire was believed to pass through several distinct stages in its development. The first 40 days were considered decisive for the making of a vampire; it started out as an invisible shadow and then gradually gained strength from the lifeblood of the living, forming a (typically invisible) jelly-like, boneless mass, and eventually building up a human-like body nearly identical to the one the person had in life. This development allowed the creature to ultimately leave its grave and begin a new life as a human. The vampire, who was usually male, was also sexually active and could have children, either with his widow or a new wife. These could become vampires themselves, but could also have a special ability to see and kill vampires, allowing them to become
vampire hunters. The same talent was believed to be found in persons born on Saturday. They can be men or women who show themselves at crossroads, bridges, caves, and graveyards and frighten the locals by terrorizing their homes and drinking their blood. To be killed, a wooden stake must be thrust through them. In Bulgaria from the Middle Ages through to the beginning of the 20th century, it was a common practice to pin corpses through the heart with an iron stake to prevent their return as a vampire. In
Croatia,
Slovenia, the
Czech Republic, and
Slovakia, a type of vampire called , which literally translates to 'leech', is used to describe a vampire who has led an evil and sinful life as a human and in turn, becomes a powerfully strong, cold-blooded killer. Incest, especially between mother and son, is one of the ways in which a can be created, and then it usually comes back to victimize its former family, who can only protect their homes by placing mashed garlic and wine at their windows and thresholds to keep it from entering. It can only be killed by fire while awake and by using the Rite of
Exorcism if found in its grave during the day. To ward off the threat of vampires and disease, twin brothers would yoke twin oxen to a plow and make a furrow with it around their village. An egg would be broken and a nail driven into the floor beneath the bier of the house of a recently deceased person. Two or three elderly women would attend the cemetery the evening after the funeral and stick five hawthorn pegs or old knives into the grave: one at the position of the deceased's chest, and the other four at the positions of his arms and legs. Other texts maintain that running backwards uphill with a lit candle and a turtle would ward off a stalking vampire. Alternately, they may surround the grave with a red woolen thread, ignite the thread, and wait until it was burnt up. If a noise was heard at night and suspected to be made by a vampire sneaking around someone's house, one would shout "Come tomorrow, and I will give you some salt," or "Go, pal, get some fish, and come back." One of the earliest recordings of vampire activity came from the region of
Istria in modern Croatia, in 1672. Local reports cited the local vampire
Giure Grando of the village Kringa near
Tinjan as the cause of panic among the villagers. A former peasant, Guire died in 1656; however, local villagers claimed he returned from the dead and began drinking blood from the people and sexually harassing his widow. The village leader ordered a stake to be driven through his heart, but when the method failed to kill him, he was subsequently beheaded with better results. Among the
Romani people,
mullo (literally
one who is dead) are believed to return from the dead and cause malicious acts as well as drink human blood, most often that of a relative or the person who had caused their death. Other potential victims were those who did not properly observe the burial ceremonies or kept the deceased's possessions instead of properly destroying them. Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry but would eventually exhaust the husband with their sexual appetite. Similar to other European beliefs, male vampires could father children, known as
dhampirs, who could be hired to detect and get rid of vampires. Anyone who had a horrible appearance, was missing a finger, or had appendages similar to those of an animal was believed to be a vampire. A person who died alone and unseen would become a vampire, likewise if a corpse swelled or turned black before burial. According to the late Serbian ethnologist
Tatomir Vukanović, Roma people in
Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people, but could be seen by a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday who wore their clothes inside out. Likewise, a settlement could be protected by finding twins who could also see the vampire outdoors at night, who would have to flee immediately after they spotted it.
Spain In
Spain, there are several traditions about beings with vampiric tendencies. In
Asturias, the Guaxa is one such being, which is described as an old vampire who bites with his single tooth and sucks the blood of his victims. The
Cantabria equivalent exists by the name of
Guajona. In Catalonia exist the legend of the
Dip, an evil vampire dog and the fearsome
Count Estruch, one of the oldest vampire tale in European history. In the
Canary Islands, there was also a belief in vampiric beings, in the form of a blood-sucking witch. One such example is provided by the legend of the
Witches of Anaga in
Tenerife. ==Africa==