Vampires: A Brief History

Illustration of a vampire from Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté (1934)

 Throughout the whole vast shadowy world of ghosts and demons there is no figure so terrible, no figure so dreaded and abhorred, yet dight with such fearful fascination, as the vampire, who is himself neither ghost nor demon, but yet who partakes the dark natures and possesses the mysterious and terrible qualities of both.

                                                 - Montague Summers, The Vampire His Kith and Kin, p. 1 

Welcome to the last week of 2019's Month of Horror, and today we're looking at the vampire: perhaps the most infamous of all monsters to come from human history. Some form of the vampire myth has existed worldwide, ranging from the jiangshi in China or the wazimamtoto from colonial Kenya. Today we'll only be looking at the vampires of Europe, but get ready when we look at vampires of Africa in the future. From Bram Stoker's Dracula to Anne Rice's Lestat vampires have remained a enduring and sinister figure in folklore and popular culture of Europe.

Origins of a Myth

Lamia and a Soldier

Stories of vampires have been found across the world for millennia. The ancient Greeks had the stories of the striges, creatures who would eat the flesh of mortals at night, and in ancient Jewish beliefs shape-shifting women called estries were blood-drinking demons who came out at night. It was later in history that the vampires which we are more familiar with began emerging, with there being a spike from the 1500s to the late-1700s. This time period also coincided with spikes of reports of other demonically associated beings - namely werewolves and witches. It is no coincidence that vampires are often associated with these beings - the strigoi of Romania, for example, was seen as a living vampire and also happened to be a witch with two hearts. The planet was going through a climate crisis known as the Little Ice Age where intense weather conditions - snow during the spring, hail storms, and heavy rains - were blamed in Europe as either punishment from God or due to supernatural forces. Some of the most intense witch hunts occurred during this period for this reason. A string of wars and plagues further added to an air of hysteria over the supernatural. Many hundreds were tried and murdered for witchcraft, and bodies were mutilated through fear that they may rise as a vampire.

Archaeologists and historians have put forward several theories about why the tales of vampires emerged during this period. A case study shows one theory really well, Matteo Borrini unearthed a mass grave in Venice dating from sometime from the late-1500s and early-1600s where the skeleton of an elderly woman showed signs of an anti-vampire exhumation had taken place - the remains of her clothing indicated that she may have also been accused of witchcraft. Prior to the development about how corpses decay the natural process of decomposition was blamed on vampirism. As the corpse decays the skin shrinks making the teeth and nails appear longer, and the decomposition of organs creates a 'dark fluid' which leaks out from orifices - the ones most notable being the mouth and nose. As these mass graves were unearthed to make room for more plague victims grave diggers seeing these signs of decomposition linked this to their knowledge of vampires - fluids from decomposition was seen as being fresh blood from victims. Saul Epstein and Sara Libby Robinson also explain the escape of gas from decomposing bodies as sounding like 'groans' and 'moans' which could be mistaken as the rustling of the undead. Furthermore, poor living quarters meant that tuberculosis, often referred to as 'consumption', was interpreted as being due to vampires. Tuberculosis causes the victim to grow pale and waste away - something seen as being due to a vampire slowly draining the blood from a victim.

What causes Vampirism?

The Werewolf or the Cannibal

 by Lucas Cranach the Elder

There are many different ways about how an individual could become a vampire. Most of these are related to interactions with a vampire itself. In Romania, it was believed that if a vampire stared at a pregnant woman would cause the newborn to become a vampire. In Germany, the Nachzehrer never left the ground but used the occult to harm surviving family members. Of course we all know the best known aspect of the vampire myth. If you are bitten by a vampire, or die because of a vampire drinking your blood, you become a vampire. A common trait among vampires, especially in Romania which went on to inspire wider vampire stories thanks to Bram Stoker's Dracula, was that when a child was born with something out of the ordinary this would case vampirism. Being born with a caul, being the seventh child, a third nipple, polydactylism, or extra hair were seen as portraying signs that the child would become a vampire. Another common theme was an individual committing sin - the period coincided with the Reformation and the Wars of Religion meant that salvation and faith became increasingly tense. This is also seen by how vampirism was largely documented in only Christian communities - in 1554 Rabbi Radbaz's tale of a woman resurrected as a vampire remains one of the few instances of vampirism reported in Jewish literature. Quite interesting, the Catholic Church tried to discourage the belief in witches and vampires - in 1749 Pope Benedict XIV officially declared the belief in vampires to be due to 'imagination, terror and fear.'

Faith and sacrilege were key parts of what could cause vampirism. Witches were often seen as being resurrected as vampires - the strigoi of Romania were witches seen as 'living vampires' until their death when they became moroi, literally meaning death. Witches and werewolves were seen as becoming vampires when they died, and it was widely believed that they could turn people still living into vampires. In Romania, not only could a pregnant woman's infant become a vampire when one looked at her, but also a witch staring at her could also do. Around the time of the Salem Witch Trials New England saw a vampire panic for several years - witchcraft and vampirism were intrinsically linked. Sin, excommunication, and dying before being baptised were seen as also causing vampirism - those unable to enter the Kingdom of Heaven were cursed to rise from the dead as a vampire. An unfortunate aspect of life is that the most marginalised were often accused of being witches, werewolves, and vampires. Isolated individuals from communities, religious minorities, and ethnic minorities were seen as being prone to the supernatural - it is no coincidence that Jews were regularly blamed for the supernatural as they were cast out from hegemonic society. Elderly, widowed women who no longer produced commodities for wider society were regularly accused of witchcraft - the 'vampire woman' discovered in Venice was believed to be around the age of 61. In Russia, it was believed that Romani became vampires when they died - the Romani have regularly been cast out and persecuted in European history. Just as hysteria today often affects the vulnerable the most, the hysteria over witchcraft and vampires is no exception.

Stopping Vampires

The 'Vampire of Venice'

There were several ways to slay a vampire, or prevent one from attacking. Of course there are the universally known ones, garlic, religious imagery, having to invite them inside, a stake through the heart, and decapitation. However, there are many often overlooked methods. Vampires were often seen as unable to cross moving water, and apparently could not resist counting - spreading seed on the floor or throwing down a net could halt a vampire in its tracks. It would spend its time counting the seed or the holes in the net. Archaeologists have also unearthed quite gruesome ways how locals tried to prevent vampires from rising from the grave. In Gliciwe, Poland a suspected vampire grave site was found where the occupants of the graves were decapitated and the heads placed on their legs to prevent them from rising. Placing a stake through the body was a common way as it physically prevented vampires from rising - in the 1990s a male skeleton was found dating from the 1800s on the Greek island of Lesbos with stakes placed through the pelvis, neck, and ankles, and in some areas of present-day Romania still stake bodies to the ground. Across Europe, those who had died through suicide, if they had seen as being a witch or werewolf, or died with some great sin or after being excommunicated were often buried with a stake through them to prevent a vampire from rising. With the Venetian woman she was exhumed and a heavy brick was placed in her mouth - this was seen as preventing vampires from being able to feed. German Protestants also filled the mouths of corpses with dirt as this was seen as another way to prevent them from feeding. As late as 1892 when 19-year-old Mary Brown died of tuberculosis in Rhode Island, and when her brother fell sick, it was believed that she became a vampire. Her body was exhumed, burned, and her ashes mixed into a potion for her brother to drink; this was a Hessian belief how to stop a vampire, her brother died anyway. As late as 1968 a supposed vampire was sighted in London's Highgate Cemetery, the infamous 'Highgate Vampire', which had self-proclaimed vampire hunters being arrested for staking, beheading, and burning corpses on the suspicion that they were vampires.

The Modern Vampire

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Vampires as we now know them emerged with Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1871) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), although both built on earlier works. In their works, vampires moved away from Christian fears, although both works still heavily rely on Christian theology, and more towards seductive icons portraying fears of sex. Carmilla depicts the fears over female sexuality with the titular vampire being a woman seducing another woman - in a time where homosexuality was illegal lesbian vampires were seen as breaking the natural order. Meanwhile, in Dracula Stoker built upon centuries of folklore, history, and Carmilla as well. Count Dracula combined older myths with those of his own creation - he had long nails and climbed on walls, could manipulate dogs and bats, went against God, and had to rest in the soil in which he was buried, but he also had Vlad Tepes becoming a vampire, turning into bats, dogs and mist, and was sexualised. Reflecting contemporary Victorian fears Dracula shows many aspects of fears concerning sex, and especially sexually transmitted diseases. Largely absent from adaptations Dracula's palms are hairy - a reference to the Victorian belief that masturbation caused you to have hairy palms - combining modern and earlier Christian taboos over sex. Furthermore, Dracula spreading his vampirism, largely to middle-class women, represents the contemporary fears over syphilis and the corruption of the English middle-class. Dracula becomes the transgression of Victorian sensibilities, as the vampires of the past represented transgressions of Christian sensibilities. One of the first adaptations, the German silent film Nosferatu (1922), further built upon the vampire mythos. Vampires had always been weak to sunlight being creatures of darkness, but they were not killed by sunlight. Nosferatu was the first time that vampires specifically died thanks to sunlight. Thanks to Stoker's departure the modern vampire was born, and has evolved continuously. Now we have a wide range of vampires in popular media - from the teenage heartthrobs of the Twilight series, to the tragic and homoerotic vampires of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, to the classic depiction of Dracula by Bela Lugosi in Universal's Dracula.

Vampires have evolved over the centuries reflecting changes and hysterias in society. Which is why they are the perfect way to end 2019's Month of Horror. The sources I have used are as follows:

-Nick Groom, The Vampire: A New History, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018)

-Jan Perkowski, The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism, (Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1989)

-Montague Summers, The Vampire: His Kith and Kin, (New York: University Books, 1969)

-Saul Epstein and Sara Libby Robinson, 'The Soul, Evil Spirits, and the Undead: Vampires, Death, and Burial in Jewish Folklore and Law', Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, 1:2, (2012), 232-251

-Paul Sledzik and Nicholas Bellantoni, 'Bioarcheological and biocultural evidence for the New England vampire folk belief', American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 94:2, (1994), 269-274

-Christine Dell'amore, '"Vampire of Venice" Unmasked: Plague Victim and Witch?', National Geographic News, (26/02/2010), [Accessed 25/10/2019]

-Heather Pringle, 'Archaeologists Suspect Vampire Burial; An Undead Primer', National Geographic, (15/07/2013), [Accessed 25/10/2019]

-Becky Little, 'The Bloody Truth about Vampires', National Geographic, (26/10/2016), [Accessed 25/10/2019]

Thank you for reading. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

What is Cthulhu?

Cthulhu

Today as apart of 2017's 'Month of Horror' we're looking at a being comprised solely of evil. In February 1928 in the pulp magazine Weird Tales a short story by a little known author called H.P. Lovecraft. In The Call of Cthulhu the world was introduced to a cosmic entity described as resembling a hybrid of an octopus, dragon, and human. Sleeping for centuries the anxiety which humans have is due to a general collective fear of when he wakes again; Lovecraft himself suffered from anxiety so this may be a way for him to cope with it. Out of all the entities to come from Lovecraft's mind Cthulhu has become the most famous inspiring or appearing in a whole range of media. Today we'll look at the being who to look upon causes insanity.

The Call of Cthulhu

We first shall look at the story which brought Cthulhu into the world. The Call of Cthulhu is told through a series of manuscripts of the recently deceased Francis Wayland Thurston, recounting the notes of his grand-uncle Professor George Gammell Angell. Angell had been killed in the winter of 1926-7 after being assaulted by a mysterious man. While looking through the notes of his grand-uncle Thurston discovers a clay, bas-relief of a crouching humanoid with an octopus head and wings of a dragon. Thurston discovers that a student at the Rode Island School of Design named Henry Anthony Wilcox, a student who had been experiencing horrific nightmares and deliriums. In these deliriums two words constantly crop up: Cthulhu and R'lyeh. Pouring through Angell's notes Thurston discovers that Wilcox's deliriums coincided with worldwide deliriums. People as far apart as London, Haiti, India, South America; a mob of 'hysterical Levantines' attacked the police and a mysterious Theosophist cult in California adopt white robs awaiting a 'glorious fulfillment.' 

A figurine

Looking through his grand-uncle's notes Thurston discovers that Angell had found the word Cthulhu almost twenty years prior. At a meeting of the American Archaeological Society in 1908 a police officer from New Orleans, John Raymond Legrasse, had wanted a bas-relief identified. A year prior he had raided a 'supposed voodoo meeting' in search of several women and children who had vanished from a squatter community. The cultists had been chanting 'Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'yleh wgah'nagl fhtagn.' Interrogating the cultists he found out about the cult:

They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died [...] hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him.

The phrase when translated meant: In his house at R'yleh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. The leader of the cultists, Castro, leads the inspector to a passage in the insidious book the Necronomicon which reads: That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die. One of the archaeologists, William Channing Webb, declared that in 1860 he too had seen the cult, but in Greenland. After reading this Thurston decides to investigate the Cthulhu cult himself.

By chance he discovered an article in the Sydney Bulletin from April 18 1925. It detailed the story of Norwegian sailor Gustaf Johansen, the second-mate on the schooner Emma, which had been attacked by a yacht named the Alert. After killing the crew of the Alert they discover an uncharted island in the area of 47° 9' S, 126° 43' W. However, the entire crew bar Johansen is slaughtered. Thurston travels to Australia with a hunch which is confirmed when he sees what was recovered from the Alert: a Cthulhu statuette. Travelling to Oslo to speak with Johansen he finds out that the sailor had been murdered by two mysterious sailors, however, his widow hands him a manuscript written by Johansen. Reading the manuscript he learns of what the crew discovered on the island. The island itself was 'abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours.' Exploring a cavern they discover something horrific: Cthulhu has woken. Johansen is left virtually insane upon seeing the being and says that 'The Thing cannot be described.' He does attempt to do so saying it is 'the green sticky spawn of the stars' with 'flabby claws' and an 'awful squid-head with writhing feelers,' with it being the size of 'a mountain.' Only Johansen and one other shipmate manages to not immediately sent insane as Cthulhu sets off after them. On the yacht Johansen crashed the Alert into Cthulhu's head which starts reforming. 

Thurston ends his manuscript commenting that humanity has been briefly spared by Johansen. The beast will slumber some more as its head reforms giving humanity some time to breathe. However, he knows his time as come. Cthulhu in its 'Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men.' waiting to return and 'I know too much, and the cult still lives.' Like so many others the cult will be coming after him, and eventually Cthulhu will reawaken.

A sketch of Cthulhu by Lovecraft

Cthulhu History

The being known as Cthulhu was born eons ago. Before humans, before civilization, perhaps even before the Earth itself. Chtulhu was born on the distant planet Vhoorl descending from Yog-Sothoth, one of the cosmic entities known as the Outer Gods. Instead of being an Outer God Cthulhu is really a Great Old One (or perhaps a cousin of them), one of the malignant beings who once ruled over the Earth and were worshiped long before humans evolved. Cthulhu arrived on the Earth centuries ago, long before humans appeared, building a great city called R'yleh on the now lost continent of Mu. Here he was worshiped by various ancient races, quite possibly by the Mi-go from the planet Yuggoth. A great war erupted between the ancient beings and entities over the Earth which resulted in the Earth being divided between them. Eventually Mu was sunken and R'yleh vanished. Cthulhu went to sleep waiting to return but in the meantime his legacy would create a cult readying the world for his eventual return. Meanwhile, humanity would subconsciously fear his return. Our depressions, our anxieties, our unexplained anger are all because of Cthulhu. Humanity collectively fears Cthulhu waking up again.

A depiction of Yog-Sothoth

The Necronomicon

A fan version of the Necronomicon

There is a book named the Necronomicon, or as it was originally called the Kitab al Azif. Written in the eighth-century by Abdul Alhazred, 'The Mad Arab,' (Lovecraft was very racist) it details the horrors of time immemorial. Although the book doesn't actually exist you can get fan versions and some collections of Lovecraft's stories are collected under the title 'The Necronomicon.' Among the information contained in the Necronomicon includes how to summon Yog-Sothoth, information on the ancient beings who once inhabited Antarctica, and even a passage how to resurrect the dead. The chant of the Cthulhu Cult is written in the Necronomicon: That is not dead which can eternal lie.'

And with strange aeons even death may die. 

Thank you for reading. For future blog posts please see our Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. Also, those interested in history, classics and archaeology will be interested in the Retrospect Journal. This is the journal for the University of Edinburgh's History, Classics and Archaeology department which I am very privileged to be one of the editors for it. If you're interested in History, Classics and Archaeology, (or even writing for it), feel free to check it out. Thanks and next week will be the last week of 2017's Month of Horror.

Comics Explained: Hellboy

Hellboy

Hellboy is perhaps one of the most underrated comic book characters of all time. A big part of this is because he is not from the two big comic books companies, (DC and Marvel), but instead from Dark Horse. From the mind of Mark Mignola Hellboy is a well-meaning, half-demon brought to Earth to destroy reality but is instead the world's greatest paranormal detective. Blending Lovecraftian ideas, pulp fiction, horror and folklore Hellboy is a thrilling read. He has made several appearances outside of print, most famously in Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy and Hellboy 2. Recently he has been announced as a downloadable character for the DC fighting game Injustice 2 and in 2019 there will be a reboot which just this week, (as of writing), the new actor playing Hellboy was revealed in costume.

The new Hellboy

There have been many Hellboy stories so we're mainly going over the main ones. First, let's look at his real world origins.

Real World Origins

The first appearance

Hellboy first appeared in a convention program book in 1991 as a huge hulking monster which Mike Mignola added the name 'Hellboy' last minute. The name made him laugh and became the name of the character. Two years later a version of Hellboy resembling the form which we know now appeared on the cover of Italian comic Dime Press #4. Later Mignola wanted to make Hellboy into a comic and he started to resemble his present incarnation more. He originally wanted Hellboy to be in a team and the concept art shows several members of this team resembling future Hellboy characters. Their team logo was the same as the logo for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) which Hellboy is a key agent for. This team idea was abandoned when Mignola couldn't think of a good name to fit them. Then in August 1993 Hellboy got his own comic story in San Diego Comics Con Comics #2. 

Hellboy's First Story

Mignola was less interested in the plot and it is wild, paranormal, and sets up the future of the Hellboy comics. Hellboy goes to a town where all the inhabitants have suddenly vanished. The only thing that is there is a 'mangy little mutt' which turns out to be the Egyptian god Anubis. In a few panels Hellboy defeats the dog/god by slamming a gas station sign into Anubis' shoulder who then falls onto a gas pump which then explodes. 

Birth of the Demon

Hellboy's father

Hellboy's early origins were explained in The Chained Coffin. We have to go all the way back to 1617. Hellboy's mother was a witch in East Bromwich, England called Sarah Hughes. Sarah was married to a Hell lord named Azzael, (pictured above), but on her deathbed wished to repent. To repent this required her children to chain her to a coffin in the church of East Bromwich and keep her protected from Azzael for three nights. Naturally Azzael being a Hell lord he easily slaughtered Sarah's children on the first night, dragged her to Hell and told her that she was carrying 'a son, my favorite son'. Sarah was burnt in the fires of Hell and thanks to this Hellboy was born. He was given the name Anung Un Rama and his father cut off his right hand to replace it with the Right Hand of Doom. The Right Hand of Doom was a relic of the Ogdru Jahad, (which we'll discuss soon). As Azzael had done this the other Hell lords punished him by stripping him of his powers and then freezing him in ice. Those who have read Dante's Divine Comedy will recognize that Lucifer had the same thing done to him.

Ogdru Jahad

The Ogdru Jahad

The Ogdru Jahad perfectly shows the creativity of the Hellboy universe with it blending Christian myths with Lovecraftian themes. At the start of creation God created several great spirits and one named Anum stole some of God's power to create the Ogdru Jahad. Darkness had helped waken the Ogdru Jahad so they set out to destroy reality by creating the 369 Ogdru Hem. A war broke out between the Ogdru Hem and the spirits with the spirits winning. The Ogdru Jahad were sealed away and the spirits destroyed Anum, except for his right hand. Anum's right hand, renamed the 'Right Hand of Doom', is the only thing that can now reawaken the Ogdru Jahad. In punishment for allowing the Ogdru Jahad to be created God cast the spirits to either the pit or Earth. Those on Earth were granted physical forms and became the first people to inhabit the planet, called Hyperboreans. The Ogdru Hem barely survived through the eons and cults emerged serving the Ogdru Jahad which caused the decline of the Hyperboreans. When the Hyperboreans collapsed during the Ice Age their legacy continued through humanity, and with it the cults of the Ogdru Jahad.

Hellboy on Earth

Hellboy first arriving on Earth

Hellboy's arrival on Earth was first shown in Seed of Destruction. When Russian mystic and monk Grigori Rasputin was assassinated in 1916 he was revived by the Ogdru Jahad to act as their agent on Earth. When Hitler came to power he was contacted by the Nazis and started working for them. It is common knowledge that Hitler was fascinated by the paranormal so he wanted Rasputin to use supernatural forces to defeat the Allies. Rasputin agreed but his intention was never to fight the Allies. Instead his goal was to use the resources of the Nazis to trigger the Apocalypse by summoning the Ogdru Jahad. On December 23, 1944 Rasputin and a group of Nazi commandos arrived on a Scottish island to summon Amun's Right Hand in Project Ragna Rok. However, Britain's leading psychic Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones detected Rasputin's actions someday's prior. With a group of American commandos, Professor Malcolm Frost, paranormal expert Trevor Bruttenholm, and the Hellboy universe's version of Captain America Torch of Liberty went instead to the church of East Bromwich. Rasputin summoning went wrong and instead of being summoned to Scotland Anung Un Rama was summoned to East Bromwich. The soldiers nicknamed the summoned demon 'Hellboy' and the name stuck. Trevor Bruttenholm adopted Hellboy and raised him. 

Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense

The BPRD logo

After adopting Hellboy Trevor Bruttenholm had the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) formed. Unlike the movies in the world of Hellboy people are fully aware of the paranormal. The BPRD as a result is funded by several countries, mainly the USA and UK, and keeps good contacts with most governments and institutions, (China and the CIA being exceptions). Thanks to his membership of the BPRD in 1952 the United Nations granted him the status of 'honorary human'. Hellboy isn't the only 'enhanced' being to be a member of the BPRD. Other members have included a firestarter called Liz Sherman (changed to Hellboy's love interest for the movies), Ben Daimio a 'werejaguar', Roger the Homunculus, and an ectoplasmic spirit called Johann Kraus. My personal favorite is Abe Sapien. The best way to describe Abe is that he is a Gill-Man from Creature from the Black Lagoon. Abe was discovered sealed in a tube of water in Washington D.C. in 1978 and, was named 'Abe' as the paper attached to the tube was the same date as Lincoln's assassination and 'Sapien' as the tube read 'Ichtyo sapien'. 

I would highly recommend reading the Hellboy comics. I've avoided talking about the storylines as they are best read first hand with no spoilers. I hope you have enjoyed this post. For future posts please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.