Cl@ssmate - News.com.au

Series 9
37
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.
Dracula
The Giaour, Lord Byron, 1813
Fright of the
living dead
One 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.
New kids on the blood
Many 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.
What is a vampire?
When disease
is the cause
In 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.
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.
Did you know?
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 ...
Check
your belfry
There 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. Anticoagulants in
their saliva
make the
blood flow
more freely.
The hairylegged and
white-winged
bats live in the
forests feeding
on the blood of birds
and small animals.
Visit our website at www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/classmate
VAMPIRE stories have always been in
vogue but over the past few decades they
have taken some interesting twists.
n 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.
Early tales
from the crypt
One 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.
n 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.
A
n 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.
n 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.
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.
Dracula on stage
and film
In 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.
C
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
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.
Find out more
Sources 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
Bella in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight
Contact Classmate at [email protected] or phone 9288 2542
B
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.
Editor: Troy Lennon
Graphics: Will Pearce and Paul Leigh
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