VAMPS

The first vampire that ever existed, or at least documented is from the Hebrew mythology. This vampire existed in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Her name was known as Lilith. The mythology stated that Lilith was a winged figure that drank blood from new borns. From here began the vampire, the vampire that we all know, and some have come to love. From the Garden of Eden, to the sands of the Egyptians, the vampire evolved to be what it is today. The vampire of today is what I will cover. But to understand the vampire of today, we must go through history and study where the vampire began.

We have already began with Lilith, and we have stated that the Egyptians also believed in this mystical creature, but where did we get the vampire that we have today?

It is believed, that with the Roman Catholics concquering the western Europe region, the belief in the vampire eroded. But the Eastern European region still believed. With the "Black Death" plague, came the vampire in its greatest fear. People began blaming the vampire on the Black Death, and became fearful of the vampire. Something that I will focus on is that modern day science always does away with superstition, and never says what if. With the evolution of science, we discovered that the vampire was not blame for the Black Death, but it was a natural plague that was created for everyones own reason. But, when the Black Death attacked, some victims would lie in a como, and become a ghostly pale white. Believing that these victims were dead, the living burried their dead. But not being dead, there are tales that these victims would awake from their coma, and claw their way out of their grave.

With the Vampire scare in full scale, the community began to believe more. If one was believed to be a vampire when they died, then their body would be exumed. Once uncovering the dead body, the people would find that the body would not have decayed. Instead, the body would become pale, and there would be blood around the mouth. This would be proof that they had found their vampire. What they failed to realize is that this was the natural manner of decomposing. Sometimes, the body would not decompose because of a dry cold enviorement.

But when the Black Death died, the vampire died. But did it? Of course not. In the 15th century, the Order of Dracul was upholding Christianity. Dracul though meant both dragon and devil. Eventuly, Dracul was slaughtered by his own people, but his son, Vlad Teeps took over his fathers legion. But Vlad began his own legion as a ruler. Vlad was known as Dracula, the son of the devil, and Vlad upheld this title. Vlad has also been called Vlad the Impaler. Vlad revenged his own fathers death by inviting all of his fathers killers over for a feast. Once all of them were in the hall, Vlad had the doors locked, and burnt the hall down. Now Vlad still had to counteract the attacks that came from this action. Vlad would take his attackers, and drive stakes through their bodies, and then hang them to dangle while still gasping for life. Vlad became obsessed with this, and would have a dinner table placed by the impaled ones, and dine with their company as they gasped for their final breath. A picture of the impaled?

It has been said that Vlad was the most blood thirsty individual untill Adolph Hitler. A story that may convince us of that is the following.

At one point of time, Vlad noticed a peasant that had a torn shirt. Vlad demanded to see the peasants wife. Once he saw the wife, he had her impaled. While the wife hung on the stake, Vlad ordered for a new wife for the peasant. With the old wife still alive, Vlad made her as an example for the peasants new wife. I guess this new one took pretty good care of this guys cloths from there on.

With all of this blood thirst that Vlad had, he has been titled as a vampire, and the most notorious of them all. In 1447 though, Vlad died. To ensure the death, Vlad was beheaded, and his head was placed on a stake. I guess what comes around, goes around.

Vlad Teeps may be the most notorious, but in my mind, he wasnt the most erotic.

The Countess Elizabeth Bathry(not sure of the correct spelling) was an East European who came from a family with history of madness. This will be evident.

At the age of fifteen, Elizabeth married, but her husband went off to battle, and Elizabeth was left alone in a huge castle. Boredom sat in, and Elizabeth began taking her servants out to kidnap local young girls. She would take them back to the castle where she would torture the young girls, and eventualy kill them. In one incident, Elizabeth got blood of a young girl splattered on her face. This lead way to Elizabeths obsession. Elizabeth began to believe that the blood of young girls would help keep her youth. Elizabeth began bathing in the blood, and eventualy began drinking the blood of these girls. Elizabeth would pierce the body of the young girl, and then hang her up. As the blood would run down the body of the young girl, Elizabeth would take it into her mouth, and devour the young girls blood.

Elizabeths' hudband returned from battle, and actually allowed her behavior to take place. But her husband died mysteriously.

With a body count of 650, Elizabeth ran out of room for all of the bodies, and began having them dumped in the nearby woods. The towns folk began to notice. And with the bodies having been drained of blood, the word got out, a vampire was present.

Elizabeth was finally put to death by one of her own relatives who came to find out about her thirst for young girls blood.

In 1706, the first legal document was released on how to hunt vampires. This document stated that one should pierce the heart, and then behead the believed vampire. Garlic suggested as protection from vampires because garlic was a cure all plant. Amongst garlic, silver, and the crucifix were also suggested for warfare against the vampire. The only reasoning for silver was because it was so rare, and nobody had silver.

As science began to eliminate the vampire more and more, the writer Bram Stoker took the vampire into the fiction era. At the time of Stoker, it was illegal to write about sex. Some believe that Stokers Dracula was a way of writing about sex without actually stating it. The biting of the neck became a sexual act, and to this day, it is an erotic method of the vampire. It is also believed that the vampire was a way to portray rape. As a vampire would put their victim into a trance, they would take advantage of their victims state, and take their bodies into their own.

Away from the historical vampire as we know it, a man in 1924 brought to life the tale of the vampire. A man by the name of Fritz Harmond, a German, owned a butcher shop in Germany. Do you know where I am going with this one? I think you do. Fritz had a fixation with young boys. Fritz would bite them on their neck to kill them, and to drink their blood. But not only would Fritz take his victims himself, but he decided to butcher them, and sell them as sausage in his shop. Maybe Leatherface read this one in the newspaper.

In 1949, George Hye(not sure of the spelling again) was executed for the killing of 9 people. Hye would drink his victims blood, and then disolve the remains in acid. He was noted as being the Acid Bath Vampire. Maybe Jeffrey Dahmer took notes from this guy. And yes, I am getting to that one.

In 1992, a man named Jeffrey Dahmer was convicted for the killing of 17 boys and young men. Dahmer fed on his victims in all manners, and then would dispose of them in acid. Most considered Dahmer to be a derranged monster, and Dahmer admitted to being a sick individual. Ironicly enough, even though not really being called a vampire, Dahmer was killed in prison by his peers with a broom stick.

Even though Dahmer claimed himself to be a sick individual, maybe the question should be asked about who is more sick. Dahmer, or the public who fed on his trial. The people who rented or bought the movie that was about him and his murders. I can admit that I rented it, then I regreted ever doing so after I thought about what I did. Do we feed these modern day vampires? How about the famous teen age vampire cult that started off with a role playing game. Did our society teach them how to do it all. Did they learn everything from watching the gore and violence that is on TV? Not the fictional, but the real life stuff that is there every night. Such as COPS. Are we vampires like these in the past? The way we sit and watch every episode waiting to see someone die, or panting, waiting to see some BLOOD! These are just some things that I think about as I write all of this. I am not here to critisize or to judge. I am not trying to figure out the meaning of death or murder, I am not into Sociology. But these are just thoughts coming from my own little Exit. My escape from reality.

So there we have it, from the myth to the fact. And maybe the myth isnt a myth, and it is the fact. Does that mean that the fact is the fact, or does that mean that science will prove it all wrong again. I'll let you be the slayer on that one, but dont forget your stake.

VDUCHLD

I would like to thank The Learning Channel for airing this special where I contained most of this data. Some spelling may not be correct, that is because I do not claim to be a scholar. Plus I do this for the fun of it, and at three o'clock in the morning after work, with a lot of beer and Jack, what do you expect.

Any questions, comments, or critiques, please e-mail, let me know something that I dont know. I love knowledge.

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© 1997 vduchld@iname.com

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