Recently, television has been filled with series about vampires, in particular, about the most terrible of them, better known as Dracula. But the stories about these monsters appeared much earlier than the famous novel about them by Bram Stoker. What is the origin of the term "vampire"?
Modern vampire look
Recently, the American television series The Strain appeared on the screens. The first season ended on a stage where the Master - the main bloodsucker of New York and one of the oldest vampires in their entire history - is hiding from the persecution of people. And he does it during the day, in sunlight.
By definition, vampires are killed by daylight. So the audience was left at a loss: if this is possible, what mutations will they see in the next season?
A little about the "Strain"
The science fiction series The Strain, directed by acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro, is a scripted interpretation that refreshes and slightly alters Bram Stoker's Lord Dracula.
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So, the head of the vampires no longer lives in London, but has built a "nest" for himself under the New York Statue of Liberty. Instead of van Helsing, the main hunter for ghouls becomes a completely new character - Abraham Sedrakyan. In the book, the Christian Brotherhood fought against evil spirits, and in "The Strain" - a handful of New York immigrants, among whom were Ukrainians, Jews, and Hispanics.
The series is just the latest interpretation of the vampire image that first appeared in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. But she was far from the first.
Dracula is far from the only character in vampire legends. The stories featured in The Strain are rooted in more ancient legends dating back more than 150 years.
First mention
The term "vampire" was first recorded in English on the pages of one of the London magazines in March 1732. This new word was borrowed from obscure reports of strange events on the outskirts of the Habsburg Empire.
In the small Hungarian village of Medreiga, the peasants demanded that their deceased neighbor Arnold Pavel be exhumed for a month. They convinced the local authorities that his body was "restless." As if it walks at night, frightening the villagers and sending diseases to livestock. This man, stuck between life and death, they called a "vampire."
According to local sources, the exhumation revealed that Arnold's body was completely fresh and showed no signs of decomposition. In addition, the deceased was swollen from fresh blood caked in his mouth. The peasants drove a stake into the vampire's heart right in the grave, and then burned its remains for complete safety.
Several years later, the monk Augustine Calmette collected many similar stories. These stories were included in one volume entitled "About the vampires of Hungary, Czech Republic, Moravia and Silesia." After all, it was here, on the edge of the civilized European lands, that such incidents occurred most often.
Vampire as Master
Vampire stories in the 18th century began to be viewed solely as the silly superstitions of uneducated peasants. With this attitude, high metropolitan society imposed on itself the belief that there was no room left for medieval beliefs in London, Vienna or Paris.
The famous French thinker and writer Voltaire began his entry about ghouls in his Philosophical Dictionary as follows: “What? Could vampires still exist in the 18th century? He vehemently argued that this belief in terrible creatures that existed in Western Europe was now completely gone. As the philosopher stated, the fashion for silly vampire stories is over. But he was wrong.
In Eastern European folklore, a peasant was usually represented as a vampire, whose bulky and awkward body, after death, disturbed the quiet life of the village. These stories ended in the same way: the ghoul always died quite easily at the hands of people.
That is why William Polidori's short story "The Vampire" about the seductive bloodsucker who corrupted the aristocracy caused a sensation in the London press after its publication in 1819.
The main character, Lord Ruthven, is a lustful, beast-like monster that preys on young girls. This story was especially terrible due to the fact that the vampire committed atrocities against the most sophisticated segments of the population. The story combines peasant folklore, adding to it the melodramatic image of a libertine aristocrat.
The publications were spiced up by the fact that Polidori was in the service as a personal physician for one of the most famous English aristocrats of that time - Lord Byron.
As you know, the legendary poet was expelled from the country because of his scandalous sex life. During this exile, Polidori took part in the famous dinner at the Villa Diodati in 1816. That evening, Byron, along with his guests Percy and Mary Shelley, told each other scary ghost stories. It was then that the literary vampire was born, and with it the image of Baron Frankenstein. But shortly thereafter, Byron fired his doctor.
The image of Lord Ruthven is not only the individual traits of Byron. Some gossipers claimed that "Vampire", whose author was initially unknown, completely copies the lifestyle of the notorious libertine poet.
But if Polidori wanted to take revenge on his former owner for firing, then everything turned out the opposite. Byron became even more popular, and sales of his books increased dramatically.
Vampire has been reprinted several times in various European languages. He was often staged in theaters, but without mention of the author. Polidori himself soon died.
Monster seducer
The image of a vampire, corrupting society both with a bite and with the help of money and sex, has not disappeared anywhere. It was in this context that the image of the monster was presented in the popular periodical Feast of Blood, published in the 1840s.
The most famous literary version of this genre was Sheridan Le Fanu's short story "Carmilla" (1872). Another fact is noteworthy. It was Le Fanu who was the editor of the newspaper that published the first stories of the then little-known Bram Stoker.
Suspected vampire habitats
As shown in The Strain, vampires like to dwell in places where power and authority are concentrated. If a hundred years ago it was the center of the British Empire London, now it is the financial and political capital of the world - New York. Here, the bloodsucker invasion takes place with the help of Wall Street's Stoneheart Corporation, which also wants eternal life.
And this is not surprising: almost immediately after its first use in print, the term "vampire" began to be applied to English bankers and usurers.
Not without the walking dead
The story is also associated with the genre of "zombie apocalypse". The first season shows how a supernatural infection slowly spreads, turning people into bloodthirsty monsters.
New York is steadily beginning to plunge into chaos, and the undead gathered in the city's dungeons commit mass murders right on the streets.
Convenient image
Such a course of development of the plot was chosen by the scriptwriters for a reason. In a country where interracial tensions are constantly growing, where there is an increasing fear of economic inequality, it is hard not to believe in an apocalyptic outcome.
In such cases, sometimes ordinary immigrants are presented in the role of vampires that have appeared from nowhere, against whom it is beneficial to unite for everyone, regardless of faith or race.
Perhaps it is for this reason that new vampire stories are still emerging. After all, where there is darkness and fear, hope should also live.