Vampires in other countries 2: Europe

The Celtic World

France

There is very little record of vampire tales in France, the stories and folklore only emerged throughout the Romantic period and thanks to the popular novel by Polidori 'The Vampyre'. However folklore and stories about malicious spirits are very common in the Celtic part of France in the region of Brittany.

In Celtic lore women play a central role. They have always been the goddesses of fertility, mothers of the crops, the winds and weather. Celtic goddesses were often portrayed as war-like. Two ideas connect women in the Celtic world: death and fairies. It is well known in the lore that an image of a keening woman would be lying over the body of a fallen chieftain on the battlefield or crouched weeping in a rural environment. Fairies and women possess the power to lure unsuspecting people, because of this supernatural and vampiric dimensions took form.

In Brittany there are tales of two types of female spirits, there are the 'dames blanches' or white women and the 'lavandieres' the midnight washerwomen.

The white women were believed to guide people to hidden treasure, they were also spotted in Normandy, often seen on roads as they are believed to be victims of traffic accidents and seek to warn others of the danger.

The washerwomen were spotted late at night, sometimes during the full moon. Certain tales say they could be heard singing haunting eerie wailing songs. They are often connected with the 'dames blanches'. They may appear beautiful or look like old hags, they are either fairies or ghosts of women who came back from the dead because of a sinful life or a wrong was committed upon them.
They were seen as bad omens and approaching them was always a bad idea. It was believed that they were the spirits of women who killed their children, In many different tales, the linen or clothes they wash could be the diapers or clothes of their murdered babes, sometimes blood could be seen on the linen. The washing was also believed to be their funeral shrouds, because they were not buried properly in clean shrouds they found no peace and came back to clean it.

Though not vampiric in nature, there are tales of them being malicious and causing harm to anyone who approached them. In some cases they would beg passer- bys to help with their washing, If the person was good and helped well, he would live but if the person was sinful then he would be beaten to death by the women's sticks. In other stories, travelers who came to them  would meet other gruesome fates such as being smothered, strangled or drowned by the linen or the women.

The midnight washerwoman bears a striking resemblance to the Banshee in Irish culture, for her actions are very similar.

Scotland

In Scotland, the Western Isles and Ireland there are several tales of blood-drinking fairies. The Leanan Sidhe were dangerous and beautiful, they dwelt in old castles and attacked travelers at night by luring them with their beautiful looks and, drinking their blood.

The Glaistigs were female creatures who could appear in different forms, sometimes it looked like a half-woman half goat. Sources on whether this creature was good- natured or malevolent are confusing. They were believed to live either near water or farms and were very fond of animals such as cows. They would sometimes approach human settlements and play tricks on them. In other cases they could cause harm by attacking travelers and eating their flesh.


The Baoban Sith was also a dangerous female spirit. Sometimes she was seen as a fairy, a ghost, or both or a demon. Often portrayed as tale and pale, they would roam the Scottish hills and attack shepherds and sleeping men. They were known to sometimes lure men by dancing, singing or knocking on doors and windows. They would be invited in to houses and attack the inhabitants. They most likely had long teeth or talons for piercing the skin of their victims. The most famous description of this creature is that it was tall, skeletal, white skinned with long hair and instead of feet it had cloven goat legs.
The book 'The Supernatural Highlands' by Francis Thompson tells of a tale three travelers who sought shelter one night in a moor hut. While they made a fire and cooked meat, they played music and reminisced about their lady loves and wished that they were beside them. No sooner had they said this that the door of the hut opened and three tall beautiful women dressed in green entered. The wind had lowered the fire to a faint glow and the men could not see the women clearly. The men were polite and asked the ladies to sit with them. The third man immediately noticed to his horror that the women had cloven feet. He was unable to see his companions as the other women were upon them, he did see blood flowing on the ground and immediately ran out into the night. As he was running he heard unearthly cries and a voice that said: 'You ate your own victims but mine escaped.' The next day the man returned to the hut with help, they found the corpses of his companions drained of blood. A wise old man told him that he was lucky to have escaped from the Baoban Sith for those women the other night were none other than the fairy furies themselves.

                                                       A depiction of the Baoban Sith

Wales

Stories of horrifying hags and female spirits are very common in Wales and the stories are similar to the ones told in Scotland and Ireland. The image of the hag is persistent in Celtic mythology. Witches, fairies or ghosts, these female entities were terrifying and dangerous, often known to capture and eat small children.

The Gwrarch y Rhibyn is also known as the 'hag of the dribble' for she was portrayed as a hunched old woman with a long dribbling tongue protruding from her mouth. She often wore a hooded cloak, hiding her horrible appearance. Her long dribbling tongue was said to also be covered in blood. Sometimes she was described as having talons and sharp teeth. She would be spotted at crossroads and attack travelers, sometimes she would be seen carrying a candle or lantern. The light could refer to the Welsh notion of Canwyll Corph or corpse candle, this light or orb would be seen around graveyards. They could easily be mistaken with will o the wisps.

Besides warning or impending death, wailing or keening like in the old Celtic manner, the Gwarch Y Rhibyn was also believed to attack people when they slept. Sleeping children were often the chosen victims, she would only drink small doses and leave the child sick and weak. If a child was sick or irritable it was often blamed on attacks by the hag. More visits on the same victim would result in the child's death. She is often portrayed as having her face caked with blood. How she drank blood is unclear, some legends state that it was through her teeth or sharp tongue.

                                               A depiction of the Gwrach Y Rhibyn


Ireland

Bram Stoker, the famous Irish author was heavily influenced by Irish folklore. In fact it may have inspired him more when he wrote his novel 'Dracula' than Eastern European folklore. Having never visited Eastern Europe, he only read accounts from travel writers. Several elements in his novel reflect Irish folklore such as the small villages teeming with superstitious peasants. Ireland had gone through brooding times such as the potato famine of 1845-1852), He had heard of it and how through these trying times there were tales of desperate starving people draining blood from cattle even dogs. Stoker must also have heard of the epidemics that infected the land during the early to mid 19th century. There was Typhoid, Cholera and Tuberculosis. Stories of sufferers with white-deathly pale skin and coughing up blood were common. Whole villages were infected and bodies would fill up churchyards. After the famine and plagues stories and rumors grew of people who had drank blood from their cattle and pets had become addicted and continued to drink secretly.

Blood drinking fairies and flesh eating corpses were some of the most feared monsters of Irish folklore. It was also believed that people 'touched' by fairies would also become monsters.

There were stories of girls unwittingly marrying corpses. There were other stories of women leaving late at night the sides of their sleeping husbands to eat the flesh and drink the blood of newly buried corpses. Other stories tell of fairies attacking travelers sucking blood from arms and legs.

Most of these tales and legends were familiar to Stoker and definitely gave him some ideas in creating the vampires in his novel. There is a very old tale from the ancient Celts that may have influenced him. The tale of Abhartach, this is considered as the oldest recorded vampire story in Western Europe. The legend is set in Slaughtaverty near the town in North Derry. In the fifth and sixth centuries, this valley contained many small kingdoms each ruled by individual 'kings' who were more likely warlords. One of these warlords was Abhartach, not much is known about him. According to legend he was very small in stature and deformed but he was a powerful dark wizard. He was a merciless tyrant as well.  The legend tells of his cruel nature towards the people, they sought to get rid of this master by hiring a local king. Abhartach was murdered and buried standing up. Soon rumors and sightings began, it was believed that he had risen from the grave and was demanding blood as an offering to sustain him. Though he was killed multiple times and buried, he still returned and sucked the blood from the living. The tired king sought magic practitioners to help with this problem. They explained that the fiend was between two worlds and it was impossible to kill him, but he could be trapped in the earth. Legends say that the monster was killed by driving a wooden sword made from yew wood into its heart, it was buried upside down under a large stone and never rose again.

There is some debate whether this legend inspired Bram Stoker in writing his novel, nevertheless he most certainly heard about it.

The Dearg Dul was the most common vampire creature known in Ireland. This creature appears in an old tale about doomed love. A long time ago, a beautiful young woman and her friend a peasant boy were madly in love and planned to marry. But the young woman's father married her off against her will to an old rich man who treated her harshly. The poor bride cursed her father. It is said that the young woman was so distraught that she killed herself or died of a broken heart. After a small burial the husband quickly took a new wife and the poor dead girl's parents hardly mourned her. The young man who had loved her, mourned her for many days, crying on her grave, speaking of his desire to see her again.

Legend says that she rose from the grave, now an angry spirit driven by vengeance. She visited her father's house and while he slept, she sucked the life out of him. She next visited her husband and this time she not only sucked his life but his blood too. The taste of blood made her feel alive again and immediately she was hooked. Using her beauty, she preyed on lustful young men and sucking their blood. On only one night a year she would rise to feast and crawl back to her grave. The legend of the Dearg Dul was born. The word means 'red blood sucker'. It is said that locals pile stones on her grave to prevent her from rising.

Other European countries

Romania

This country has always been seen and labelled as the vampires' home country because that is where Transylvania is located, where the historical prince Vlad the Impaler ruled and the home of Bram Stoker's iconic character Dracula. The province is full of lush and beautifully haunting scenery; ruined castles, dark forests and wolves. Stoker was inspired to begin his novel in the mountainous region because he was inspired by the work of Emily Gerard's The Land Beyond the Forest (1888). A Scottish woman married to a Polish officer serving in the Austrian Army, they took residence in Transylvania. An avid collector of folklore, Gerard wrote about the superstitions and the landscape of the land. She of course mentioned the tales of vampires and used the word Nosferatu. 

The term is Old Slavonic term derived from nosufuratu from the Greek nosophoros, 'plague carrier' Somehow it was mistakenly used to mean 'undead' or the 'devil' in Romanian. It is no longer mentioned in the country, Stoker used the word because of Gerard's works and Murnau chose to use it as the title for his 1922 black and white film,

A little bit on the Slavs

Romania is surrounded by countries that were founded by the Slavs. The Slavic people had a very rich culture full of art, music and folklore. Their folklore was filled with stories of supernatural creatures, one being the vampire. This creature was very prevalent in their beliefs, so much that they experienced several 'vampire outbreaks' throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Many graves were desecrated and this brought the vampire to the attention of the West and led directly to the development of the contemporary vampire myth.

The Slavic people spread throughout most of Eastern Europe and other countries such as Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Czech Republic and Poland. The Slavs founded several countries like Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Macedonia. It was believed that Romania and Hungary were Slavic but in reality they are not, but they did share the language and some of its culture and lore. Gypsies lived as a minority in the Slavic lands and helped spread beliefs and stories.

A large number of vampire folktales set in the Slavic lands circulated. They were told as moral tales much like Aesop's fables.

They believed that vampires were cannibalistic, shunned daylight and attacked at night, crosses could repel them. An aspen stake driven through the heart would destroy them forever. Aspen was believed to be the tree that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from.
The undead creatures were believed to be barred from heaven and also the earth would refuse to claim them and that explained why the bodies would not decay. It was believed that since they had no living bodies, they required no food but still needed sustenance and chose to drink the blood of the living.


The Vampire in Romania

The concept of the Romanian vampire is strongly related to the folk beliefs of the Slavic vampire, the belief and folk tales being very similar.

As I've mentioned in other articles, the prince Vlad Tepes or 'Vlad the Impaler' was mostly and still considered a hero despite his unorthodox actions. Scholars have highlighted that Vlad the Impaler was never portrayed as a vampire in the vampire legends. German and some Slavic manuscripts mention his cruelty and identify him as a vampire. Therefore Stoker's Dracula was a modern literary creation.

                                       
                                         The castle of Vlad Tepes which can be visited today

In Romania vampires were put into two categories: Strigoi (strigoaica for females) and moroii (moroaica for females) or strigoii moroii. The word 'strigoi' relates to the Romanian word for witch and derived from the Latin 'strix' which meant screech owl or a winged demon like the stryges.
Strigoi were witches who were destined to become vampires after death.  The strigoii moroii were those reanimated dead witches who would suck the blood of the living. This explains why they were believed to turn into animals such as birds.

Anybody could become a moroii even if they did not practice the dark arts, anybody who had led a sinful life. Even babies born with a caul, any children born unnatural, out of wedlock, unbaptized could become vampires later in life. Babies who were stillborn or dead before baptism were also doomed. People who died before their time usually by suicide could come back as vampires. A person bitten by a vampire would of course become one.

Crosses and garlic were used as protection, even spreading seeds in front of houses would repel the vampires because it was believed that the creature would stop to count them.

Graves of suspected vampires were examined for telltale signs such as:
. A small hole near the tomb or grave where the vampire would leave through and re-enter.
. A body that did not yet decomposed, bloated, fresh blood on the face, long nails and hair.

To prevent a vampire from rising:
. Garlic was placed in the coffin or in the mouth
. The body would be placed faced down
. A brick would be placed in the mouth or under the chin.

To destroy the vampire:
. Stake through the heart, decapitation and garlic placed in the mouth.

Sometimes a body would be dismembered, the heart and liver removed and all those pieces burned. The ashes would be mixed with water or wine and given to drink to the family members of the suspected vampire.

                                                            A depiction of the Strigoi




Greece

Vampire folklore is very ancient in Greece, there are even vampire-like creatures mentioned in the rich mythology.

The Lamia

There are tales of a creature with a serpent like lower body and the upper body of a beautiful woman, she was called the Lamia and would kidnap young children to suck their blood. Legend says she once was a beautiful princess who Zeus seduced and she bore his children. But Hera the jealous wife of the king of the gods, killed her children and in her grief and madness kidnapped and killed other children, retreating to a cave and transforming into a hideous creature. Sometimes the Lamia can turn herself into a beautiful woman with legs and lure young men to devour them or drink their blood. It was believed that the Lamia resembled the early Sumerian demon-goddess Lilith who, in the Hebrew mythology is Adam's first wife. She is often depicted as the mother of demons. The people of Greece over the last years of antiquity, lost their fear and belief in the Lamia. The creature was told in stories to frighten children. It was long ago believed that when a child died with no explanation, that the Lamia had killed the baby.

                                                          A depiction of a Lamia


Other vampire creatures were called the Striges, these were either witches or bird-like demons, the word is derived from the Latin word 'Strix' which referred to the screech owl. This relates to the formation of the word strigoii as previously mentioned above in the Romanian vampires.

The Undead 

Much like in other countries of Europe, the belief in revenants was prevalent. It was believed that a dead person would  resuscitate and come back to visit his loved ones. The reasons they came back were: lack of proper funeral rites, sinful life, an injustice committed or the influence of evil forces. In antiquity they were called Empusa and were believed to be the servants of Hecate, mistress of the underworld and servant to Hades. At times the revenant would be harmless but if it tasted blood then it would become aggressive and attack the living. During the beginnings of the Greek Orthodox church, teachings and belief was common about bodies rising from the grave, the reason they came back was explained as such: the body was uncorrupted because a curse had prevented the natural decay and this prevented the soul from entering Heaven. The best way to destroy them was burning them.

The Vrykolakas

The scariest revenant in Greek mythology is the vrykolakas, the word meant 'wolf creature' or 'pelt wearer'. It became the same word for werewolf as it was believed that a werewolf who died would come back as a vampire. The folklore of the Slavs spread throughout countries near Greece and eventually into the country. The people of Greece borrowed some beliefs from the Slavs. The word Vrykolakas is derived from an old Slavic term. The traits of the vampire, how to detect it and how to destroy it were very similar to the Slavs. Some details differ for example the Greeks believed that one could become a vampire if:
. He had eaten spoiled meat
. He had sex with livestock, same reason one would become a werewolf, if he had sex with a wolf.
. He had died of the plague, vampires were considered plague spreaders.
. He had sold his body
. He was born on holy days

It was believed that revenants and vrykolakas could walk around during the day time but in a weakened state, detection was difficult but upon closer inspections one could see the tell tale signs such as: vacant stares and red eyes. When night fell then they regain their full strength and attack.

The Greeks would inspect bodies much like the Slavs, burn or decapitate them. Sometimes they would call a priest to perform an exorcism.



References

. Curran, B (2000) Vampires: A Field Guide to the Creatures of the Night, New Page Books

. Melton G. J (1999) The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, Visible Ink Press