|
Cemetery Girls
DVD's |
|
|
Vampire History |
Vampires are mythological
or folkloric revenants
who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living. In folkloric tales, the undead vampires often
visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when
they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or
dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the
early Nineteenth Century. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures,
the term vampire was not popularised until the early 18th century, after an influx of
vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where
vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although local
variants were also known by different names, such as vampir in Serbia, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire
superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases
resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism.
In modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity,
although belief in similar vampiric creatures such as the chupacabra still persists in some
cultures. Early folkloric belief in vampires has been ascribed to the ignorance of the
body's process of decomposition after death and how
people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalise this, creating the figure of the
vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria was also linked with legends
of vampirism in the 20th century and received much media exposure, but this link has since
been largely discredited.
The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the
publication of The
Vampyre by John Polidori; the story was
highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th
century. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula that is remembered
as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the
basis of the modern vampire legend. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire
genre, still popular in the
21st century, with books, films, and television shows. The vampire has since become a
dominant figure in the horror genre.
The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia; cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks,
and Romans
had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires.
However, despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations,
the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively
from early 18th century Southeastern Europe,when verbal
traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most
cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or
witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing
a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that
in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public
executions of people believed to be vampires
Many theories for the origins of vampire beliefs have been offered as an explanation for
the superstition, and sometimes mass hysteria, caused by vampires.
Everything ranging from premature burial to the early
ignorance of the body's decomposition cycle after death has been cited as the
cause for the belief in vampires.
Back to The Main Menu |
Be Part of Our Site |
Do you want to be part of The Vampire Network?
We are currently looking for Stories, writers, film and story reviewers and photo's.
Contact us at:
webmaster@thevampirenetwork.com
|
The Vampire Network is Part of The Fear Network
A Division of Nightmare Entertainment |
|
Historic Vampires |
 |
The vampire lifestyle |
The vampire lifestyle is an alternative lifestyle, based on the
modern perception of in popular fiction. The vampire subculture has stemmed largely from
the Goth subculture,but also incorporates some elements of the sadomasochism subculture.
The Internet provides a prevalent forum for the subculture along with other media such as devoted to the topic.
Active vampirism within the vampire subculture includes both blood consumption, which
is commonly referred to as sanguinarian vampirism, and psychic vampirism, through which
the practitioners believe they are drawing spiritual nourishment from auric or energy. |
|
