Here is a very brief listing of some vampire basics.
Ways to Kill
Some of the ways to kill vampires are by a wooden stake, beheading, burning, and sunlight. Some legends say the stake has to be of a special type of wood (generally ash, hawthorn, maple or aspen), and some say that the stake must be driven through in one blow. The reason for this origin, is the belief that the heart is the seat of life and power. Beheading removes the second seat of life (often the mouth of the head is then stuffed with wolfsbane) and often this is done with a gravedigger's shovel. Burning of the body seems to be a very common and almost universal method of getting rid of a vampire. The idea came
through the Christian belief that vampires could be killed by the means of the Cross or Holy Water, because they were postulated by Leo Allatius, to be related to Satan. Sunlight works by the same connotation.
How to Become a Vampire
Being born with a caul denotes vampirism in some cultures. Sometimes it specifically has to be a red caul. In this case, it may be possible to avoid the change by burning the caul and feeding the ashes to the baby. Others have it when a person has died, and an animal (normally a cat) jumps over the body before it has been properly buried, the person can become a vampire. In Romania this could be cured, by putting a piece of iron into the corpse's hand, or by placing some
Hawthorn in the coffin. In Greek Mythology it was very common that red-haired persons, after death would turn into vampires. This goes back the belief that Judas Iscariot had red hair. There were many other ways as well.
Suicide
Being a witch or a wizard
Being the seventh son
Being bitten by a vampire
Drinking the blood of a vampire
Being the victim of an unavenged murder
A dead body that has been reflected in a mirror
By not having received a proper burial
Abilities of the Vampire
Many vampires supposedly have the ability to shape change into an animal, which normally would be a bat, rat, wolf, cat,
spider or raven, bat and wolf being the most common. Many vampires can also supposedly transform their body into a cloud of
mist. Another typical ability of the vampire, is that of super-human strength. Some give near-exact measures, such as the strength of
ten men, but it's almost always assumed that they are much stronger than mortals. Sometimes it's thought that a vampire can control certain types of animals, and sometimes even humans, with their minds. Even
in Dracula, if I remember correctly, when Harker was travelling to the castle in a carriage, he got surrounded by wolves, and
the driver, whom later turns out to be Dracula in disguise, waves the wolves off with his arm. Thus, Dracula had control over
wolves.
Weaknesses
One of the most common weaknesses of the vampire, is that they have to sleep in a coffin during the day. This has grown to be
a less and less prominent weakness of vampires, as a lot of the latest literature doesn't depict vampires having anything to do
with coffins. Originally the coffin was made so that animals couldn't dig up the body. As was said earlier, many vampires portrayed as being harmed by sunlight, and often even killed by it. In most cases the symbol isn't enough to harm a vampire, there has to be a very strong faith in the symbol and it's efficiency as a dispeller of evil. Sometimes the symbol doesn't even need to be religious. If there is faith, there is also the connation that ALL religious symbols from a Wiccan pentagram to a Christian cross would be relevant since it is merely faith that matters. There is a movie in which a yuppie dispels a vampire by holding up his wallet, here it was the faith and not the symbol that mattered. Supposedly, vampires have no reflection in mirrors. The reason is that the reflection in a mirror was thought to by the reflection of a persons soul, which is something vampires was thought not to have. This has later given rise to the belief of vampires not showing on photos or having a shadow. A few vampires can be killed by placing it directly between two mirrors, because it
then would see into eternity. The mirror theory also sprung from the idea that mirrors (once backed by silver) could not hold the image of vampires because silver (after being used by Judas against Christ) became a ward against evil. Vampires aren't supposed to be able to cross running water. The reason is linked to that of vampires having no reflection, because at the point of time, where this belief sprung up, most mirrors were not any better than a standing stream of water.
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