Series 9

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Series 9

FOR centuries people have created stories about supernatural creatures who feast on human blood. Vampires have been a popular fixture of myth, literature and entertainment, inspired partly by our fear of death and the darkness and by strange events that seem to be beyond explanation.

Find out moreSources and further study: Dracula by Bram Stoker (Penguin)How To Be A Vampire by Amy Gray (Five Mile Press)The Vampire Book by Sally Regan (DK)How To Date A Vampire by Sophie Collins (Hachette)Superstitions, Beliefs, Rituals And Magic by Xavier Waterkeyn (New Holland)Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Giaour, Lord Byron, 1813

But first on earth as vampire sent,Thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent;

Then ghastly haunt thy native place, And suck the blood of all thy race ...

DraculaONE of the most famous tales of vampires is the novel Dracula, first published in 1897 and written by Irish author and theatrical manager Abraham “Bram’’ Stoker. It tells the story, through diary entries and letters, of English solicitor Jonathan Harker who travels to Transylvania to conduct a real estate transaction with a Count Dracula, who is planning to move to England. Harker is held captive in Dracula’s crumbling castle as the Count travels to England. Seemingly mysterious deaths occur in Dracula’s wake until Dr Abraham Van Helsing realises that the Count is a vampire and sets out to destroy him. Stoker was inspired partly by east European folk tales of walking dead but named his character after a real historical figure, Vlad Tepes, who ruled the east European country of Wallachia. He may also have drawn inspiration from the crimes of Jack the Ripper, who menaced London in 1888. The horror story was a bestseller in its time and has never been out of print. It has inspired many stage and film adaptations, such as seen in this movie poster.

What is a vampire?A VAMPIRE in legend is an undead (someone who has died but returned to life) human that feeds on the blood of other humans. According to some legends, vampires were created by being infected by the bite of another vampire, although other legends say they are the cursed bodies of heretics, murderers or suicides risen from the dead. In some traditional vampire lore, vampires were mostly creatures of the night who had to return to their coffins by dawn. Over the centuries the attributes and peculiarities of vampires have changed. In some stories sunlight can turn them to dust, in others they can go out in the daytime but must avoid the full glare of the sun. In some

stories they cast no reflection in mirrors. Some other common

attributes are an aversion to garlic, crucifixes and holy

water, the ability to hypnotise people,

to change shape and to fly.

Fright of the living deadMANy of the vampire legends were born because of seemingly inexplicable things that happened to bodies after death. There have been many documented cases of people thought to be dead who suddenly sat up making moaning sounds. This was due to the drying out of muscles causing the body to contract and a build up of gases inside the body to be expelled. There are also tales of bodies being exhumed that were found to be well preserved with blood flowing from the mouth. Although there were scientific explanations for these phenomena, superstitious people assumed that the person had risen from the grave and feasted on blood. This often caused people to drive a stake through the heart of the corpse to make sure it was dead and to pin it in the coffin for good. In eastern Europe, where many vampire legends originated, people called these undead Strigoi and rumours that they were about sometimes caused panic and mass hysteria.

Early tales from the cryptONE of the earliest notable pieces of vampire fiction was an 1813 work by English poet Lord Byron called The Giaour mentioning a blood sucker risen from his tomb. His work inspired Italian-born Englishman Dr John Polidori’s The Vampyre, published in 1819. It featured an aristocratic vampire named Lord Ruthven who killed people on a journey across Europe and in London. It was adapted to the stage in 1820. Scottish pulp writer James Malcolm Rymer is thought to have written Varney The Vampire, published in 1840. Rymer’s tormented, cursed nobleman had fangs, could change shape and used hypnotic powers. The 1872 novel Carmilla, by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu, presented a shocking aristocratic female vampire who drains the blood of a young girl named Laura. Similarly in the 1896 novel Good Lady Ducayne the title character drains the blood of the character Bella to make herself young.

Feast of blood suckers

THE ancient Sumerians believed in a blood sucking demon named Lillith, who preyed on unwitting men draining their life with a kiss. In ancient Greek myth, the half-woman half-serpent Lamia sucked men’s blood and ate children. In Scottish myth, Baobhan Sith exhausted hunters on the Highlands by

dancing with them before sucking their blood. In

the Philippines the female vampire Manananggal preyed on pregnant women. She had the trick of being able to split her body in two but if a person put salt or garlic on the separated halves it killed the creature. In Aboriginal folklore the

yara-ma-yha-who is a small red-skinned creature

with suckers on its fingers. It hides in fig trees, jumping down

to suck the blood of passers-by.

VAMPIRE stories have always been in vogue but over the past few decades they have taken some interesting twists.

In 1973 the comic book character Blade made his debut, he was half-human half-vampire, fighting against his instincts to feed on blood. He fights vampires and other supernatural creatures. The comics inspired a film series.

In 1976 novellist Anne Rice published Interview With The Vampire, the first of her Vampire Chronicles novels featuring French nobleman Lestat de Lioncourt, depicting vampires as sexy, misunderstood creatures. The story was made into a film starring Tom Cruise (pictured). It set a trend of novellists and filmmakers showing vampires as tortured souls trapped by their condition.

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The 1985 film Lost Boys portrayed the vampire lifestyle as an exciting alternative to normal life, but the hero is Michael, who chooses not to be a vampire and destroys the head bloodsucker.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, the story of Bella, a teenage girl who moves from

sunny city Phoenix to a rainy, small town only to fall in love with the vampire Edward, captured the imagination of millions of readers worldwide when it was published in 2005. It was the first of a bestselling series of books and has been turned into two blockbuster films (pictured). It has

also spawned the Harvard Lampoon parody Nightlight. It has created a

thirst for vampire fiction and there have been many other vampire series,

including the young adult The Vampire

Academy.

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Dracula on stage and filmIN ORDER to assert his copyright over stage adaptations, Bram Stoker had to put his own version on stage first, so he cobbled together a long-winded version that went for several hours but it only ran for one show. Nosferatu (B) was an unauthorised 1922 film version of Stoker’s tale that featured possibly the first reference to vampires being destroyed by sunlight. In 1924 an authorised stage production was written. In 1927 a revised version starring Bela Lugosi was a huge hit and Lugosi was cast in a 1931 film version (A). The next notable version was when Christopher Lee played Dracula in 1958. A TV version starring Louis Jourdan in 1977 was the most faithful to Stoker’s novel. In 1977, a new stage adaptation of Dracula depicted the Transylvanian blood sucker as a suave, romantic who seduces

his victims. The role was made famous on Broadway by actor Frank Langella,

who later reprised the role for a film version. It set a trend for showing

Dracula as more than an animal; vampires could also be tortured souls looking for a way to exist in the world. In other adaptations, such as the 1994 Bram Stoker’s Dracula (C), starring Gary Oldman, the vampire also became a forlorn lover looking for a reincarnation of his long-dead wife.

When disease is the causeIN 1954 author Richard Matheson put a new twist on the vampire legend. In his book I Am Legend, the vampires are created by a disease. Only a handful of humans are not affected by the disease and one of them, Robert Neville, spends his evenings fending off vampire attacks on his home. But a new kind of vampire emerges that is less wild animal and more social creature, having learned to deal with the symptoms. Neville begins to wonder if he is a relic of humanity’s past. The story was adapted to the 1964 film The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price (pictured), as well as The Omega Man in 1971 starring Charlton Heston. More recently Will Smith played the lead role in the film I Am Legend. Matheson’s story has inspired many other vampire tales. In January an Australian film Daybreakers opens showing a similar scenario to Matheson’s novel, in which most of the people in the world have been turned to vampires by a plague and the blood supply to feed them is ever dwindling.

Check your belfryTHERE are many species of animals that feast on blood but only one group of them bears the name vampire. These are the common vampire bat (desmodus rotundus, pictured), the white-winged vampire bat (diaemus, or desmodus, youngi) and the hairy-legged vampire bat (diphylla ecaudata). The common vampire bat thrives close to farms where it can feast on the blood of cattle, pigs, chickens and sometimes even humans. Vampire bats crawl along the ground toward sleeping victims, quickly making an incision with sharp teeth and lick the open wound. Anti-coagulants in their saliva make the blood flow more freely. The hairy-

legged and white-winged bats live in the forests feeding

on the blood of birds and small animals.

New kids on the blood

Did you know?

n In South America and the southwestern states of the US there are legends of a blood-sucking creature that preys on animals and is known as the chupacabra which is Spanish for “goat sucker”. Chupacabra (pictured) will feature in the upcoming exhibition Mythic Creatures Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids at the Australian National Maritime Museum,

Darling Harbour, from December 19 to May 23.

n Some vampire legends are based on rulers who seemed to enjoy spilling blood. Elizabeth Bathory, a 17th-century Hungarian countess, became obsessed with the

rejuvenating power of the blood of young women and is said to have killed

at least 80 women for their blood.

n This year Dacre Stoker, great grand-nephew of Bram, wrote a sequel to the original novel of Dracula. Called Dracula: The Undead it even includes Bram Stoker as one of the characters, directing a stage version of the novel.

n In vampire legends they can be killed a number of ways. The most common one is a wooden stake through the heart, although in Stoker’s Dracula the count is killed with a knife through the heart, which was also a method sometimes used by Buffy The Vampire Slayer in the 1992 film and the later TV series (pictured). In some stories the head of the vampire also needs to be cut off and sometimes it is specified that the mouth be stuffed with garlic or the head be placed between the knees or that the body be burnt.

Vampires

About three things I was absolutely positive. First,

Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him — and I didn’t know how potent that part might be — that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was

unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him

Bella in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight

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B

C

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