Vampire

Important literary figure of the nineteenth century. Although the first traces go back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the image of the modern vampire as it is known today was developed in the first vampire stories of the nineteenth century.

Origins of the vampire

In the folkloric Greek and Slavic traditions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, vampires emerged as an explanation for cultural problems that could not be solved, e.g. child death, sudden accidents or unsolvable crimes. The first vampire report was published in 1732, telling the story of Arnold Paul, a vampire who was supposed to be the cause of several inexplicable attacks. Several similar reports then led to a vampire hysteria which soon swept all over Europe. In 1746, the French abbot Calmet published a treatise on vampires, which had a major influence on later poets and writers dealing with this character. The vampire as a bloodsucking creature found its way to western Europe in the nineteenth century. Folkloric beliefs from Eastern cultures were relatively unknown, therefore the English literary vampire was newly created.

The first vampire stories

Among the vast amount of Gothic stories written and published in the nineteenth century, the vampire was only featured in a small number of short stories and novels. However, three of them considerably shaped the modern vampire. The writer John Polidori, an Italian immigrant, sat with a group of writers during the travels with his friend Lord Byron in 1816 and came up with the idea to write and present ghost stories to each other. The only story which was eventually turned into a full novel was Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Polidori's short story The Vampyre combined Lord Byron's story idea and the motif of the vampire to become the first fictional vampire text in the English language (1819). The main character, Lord Ruthven, served as a basis for later vampire fiction.

The first vampire novel in English was James Malcolm Rymer's Varney the Vampire, which was published in the so-called "penny dreadfuls" in the 1840s, i.e. weekly collections of literary texts, and consisted of about 220 chapters. A much more influential work, however, was Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu's short story Carmilla. The lead being female vampire Carmilla, this third vampire story in English played a significant role in the creation of the new vampire myth. Above all these stories, Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) had the most impact on vampire myth and literature. Although he used certain elements of Polidori and Le Fanu in the creation of his vampire, he also added character traits that stem from his own imagination. Until today, Dracula represents the archetype of the vampire and an orientation for many vampires created after him in literature and film.

Gradually, the vampire went through various stages of reinvention, from a demon creature to a resurrected semi-human being who can fit into modern society and interact with people without necessarily revealing his true nature.

Character traits

The modern English vampire is mostly of noble origin, respected in society on the surface, but dangerous and deadly in reality. Often living in total isolation and trying to fight the urge to take blood, he is portrayed as the complete opposite of the folkloric vampire. He has got fangs, very cold skin, is very pale, sleeps in coffins to avoid the sunlight, does not have a reflection, has a distaste for garlic and sacred symbols or biblical words, is very strong and has hypnotic power on his victims. They, in turn, can prevent him from entering a building until invited. His ability to lure his victims into addictive relationships makes him a powerful creature. Some vampires also have the ability to turn into animals. In fact, most of these traits were possessed by Dracula, the standard for all later vampires. Vampirism is either transmitted through bite or exchange of blood.

Vampire Timeline

1047 First appearance in written form of the word upir (an early form of the word later to become “vampire”) in a document referring to a Russian prince as “Upir Lichy”, or wicked vampire.

1734 The word “vampyre” enters the English language in translations of German accounts of the European waves of vampire hysteria.

1798-1800 Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes “Christabel”, now conceded to be the first vampire poem in English.

1801 “Thalaba” by Robert Southey is one of the first poems to mention the vampire in English.

1813 Lord Byron’s poem “The Giaour” is completed and published.

1819 John Polidori’s, The Vampyre, the first vampire story in English, is published in the April issue of New Monthly Magazine.

1872 Carmilla is written by Sheridan Le Fanu.

1897 Dracula by Bram Stoker is published in England.

Sources

Vampires find their meaning in 19th century literature by Gen Wright, 2009. [1] 18 november 2010.

The Vampire Book by J. Gordon Melton (ed.). Gale Research: Detroit, Mich. (et. al.),1994.