Ancient manuscripts prove: Russia is the birthplace of vampires. At first we worshiped them, and then we just began to respect them
Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities Mikhail Odesskiy came to unexpected conclusions when he decided to get to the bottom of the very concept of "vampire". The first mentions of these semi-mythical creatures, as the scientist proves, are found precisely in the Slavic culture. Does this mean that vampires have Russian roots?
From ghoul to vampire
Perhaps the very first mention in world culture of a certain vampire-like creature is found in the monument of ancient Russian writing - "Afterword" to "Interpretation of the books of prophecy." It has survived in 15th century manuscripts, but, as follows from the text itself, the original was written in the 11th century. As Professor Mikhail Odessky, who has studied the text, notes, the very name of the scribe is curious first of all - "Az priest Oupir Likhyi". Translating into modern Russian - Ghoul Dashing. The name is clearly mysterious and far from befitting the ministers of the church, who at that time were scribes. Of course, it is difficult to assume that the monk Ghoul Dashing was a bloodsucker.
But where did such a strange name come from? “The name for a monk is quite normal, moreover, nicknames were widely used in antiquity,” explains Mikhail Odesskiy. “They usually did not come from good human qualities, but from negative or funny ones. And therefore it could well be that the monk was given the name of the Dashing Ghoul, characterizing him as a man of a dozen awkward. True, the word "dashing" in those days also denoted various forms of evil, to the extent that such an epithet was awarded to Satan himself.
And the Swedish Slavic scholar Anders Sheberg even proposed to abandon the devilry and argued that the Dashing Ghoul was actually a Swedish rune cutter named Upir Ofeg, who could well have ended up in the retinue of Ingegerd, the daughter of the Swedish king, who became the wife of Yaroslav the Wise. And then it turns out that in transliteration, the Ghoul is the name of the runer of Epirus, and Dashing is the translation of his nickname …
There is a version that the word "ghoul" bore an abusive connotation. The "Epistle to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery" by Ivan the Terrible has survived. Known for his “subtle” sense of humor and who loved to mock his subjects, the sovereign this time complained about the corruption of the boyars' manners, who took tonsure and visited the monastery: “And this one does not even know a dress, not just residence. Or a demon for the son of John Sheremetev? Or a fool for and uptir Khabarov? " The infernal context is interesting here. "Upir" appears next to the "demonic son".
In a certain context, ancient literary monuments can indeed testify to the infernal, otherworldly meaning of the word "ghoul". Hence the assumption arises that the ghouls were worshiped as deities. And then the nickname of the scribe Ghoul Dashing is only an indication of his chosenness, closeness to higher powers.
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For example, in the "Word of St. Gregory" (a list of the second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries) there are inserts about the history of Slavic paganism. In particular, the following is said: "Before Perun, their god, and before that, they put the demand for upir and bereginam." Again, these "upiri" are ghouls, to whom, judging by the ancient text, sacrifices were made during pagan services. The text does not say directly who the ghouls and bereghin are, as well as what sacrifices were made to them. It is assumed that the bereginas could be positive, good deities or creatures, because the words “shore”, “protect”, “protect” evoked only positive associations before and today. It can be assumed that, in contrast to them, the ghouls were evil creatures. And sacrifices were made to them for one simple reason - in this way people tried to appease them. However,there is another version - ghouls could be the spirits of ancestors, that is, they could not personify either evil or good.
Photo: itogi.ru
"The logic is this: a ghoul is a dead man, a dead man is an ancestor, that is, it is, in all likelihood, about worshiping dead ancestors," explains Mikhail Odesskiy. Back in the 19th century, the famous Slavic philologist Ishmael Sreznevsky considered the question of the original in paganism "the dogma of a single, supreme God, the ancestor of all other deities." The researcher talked about three periods of Russian paganism: the period of adoration of Perun was the last, the period of worship of the "family and women in labor" preceding him, and the most ancient - the period of worship of ghouls and berein. “Sreznevsky cites many cases of mentioning ghouls in the folk legends of the Slavs,” says Mikhail Odessky. - This word is found in different forms: in the masculine gender (upir, upyur, vpir, vampire), in the feminine (upirin, vampire) and almost everywhere in two meanings: either a bat, or a ghost, a werewolf,an evil spirit that sucks blood from people. " It was in this second sense that vampires became known throughout the world. And again our people had a hand in this.
Bent the stick
Around the same time when the word "ghoul" is first encountered in ancient manuscripts, that is, in the 15th century list, the now notorious Vlad III Tepes (Dracula) ruled in Romania, who later became the prototype of the most famous literary and cinematic vampire. He left behind a rich epistolary legacy. At that time there was no written Romanian language, and Dracula wrote in Latin and in Church Slavonic. But perhaps one of the most reliable, interesting and informative texts about Tsepes - "The Legend of Dracula the Voivode" - was written, as scientists suggest, by the Moscow embassy clerk Fyodor Kuritsyn, who served at the court of the Hungarian king. For a long time he stayed in the Balkans, and after returning to his homeland, he became famous as a heretic. It should be noted that very quickly in Russia the concept of a vampire became associated with a witch or a sorcerer,which in turn were associated with the concept of heresy. It was defined as a departure from dogmas considered important to the church. The belief of the Russian people entrenched the idea that a person will not find peace after death, if it occurred at the moment when he was excommunicated from the church. He could have been excommunicated for immoral behavior or heresy. Thus, a heretic could become a vampire after death.
This fact makes the legendary personality of Fyodor Kuritsyn and makes us take a special look at his "The Legend of Dracula the Voivode", written clearly under the influence of heretical views implicated in popular Slavic legends. Interestingly, he never once calls Vlad Tepes by his real name. The legend begins with the following words: "There was a voivode in the Muntian land, a Christian of the Greek faith, his name in Wallachian is Dracula, but in ours is the Devil." The nickname Dracula (the ruler himself wrote Dragkulya) is not translated exactly as the clerk Kuritsyn wrote. In Romanian, “devil” is “dracul” and “dracula” (draculea) is “son of the devil”. However, this nickname is Vlad's father, voivode Vlad II, not at all because of his connection with evil spirits. Having not yet occupied the throne, he entered the elite knightly Order of the Dragon at the court of Sigismund I of Luxembourg,founded by the Hungarian king to fight the infidels, mainly the Turks. Having become the ruler, he ordered to depict a dragon on coins. "Dracula" means primarily "dragon". But the author of the legend changed everything in a different way. In any case, it was his manuscript that initiated the perception of Dracula as a man of unprecedented cruelty, the personification of evil. This is how it is presented in modern literature.
Researchers have little doubt that it is in the Slavic roots that one of the main reasons for the modern cult of the vampire lies. “What's the worst thing about a vampire of the same Bram Stoker? - asks Mikhail Odesskiy. - He's really scary not in his castle in Transylvania, but when he invades London. The end of the 19th century, the flourishing of civilization, and suddenly something eerie and dark from Eastern Europe appears. This is horror of an unknown creature, of another culture and another society - distant and incomprehensible."
But what is the vampire ghoul phenomenon? Why, of all the mythical creatures with which Slavic legends abounded, only they have survived to this day? Why does no one particularly remember either Perun or Bereginas? Perhaps the clue lies in the fact that at some point in history, ghouls-vampires "descended from heaven to earth." And people no longer worshiped them, but tried to get along peacefully with them.