research paper on vampires

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• Published: 24 March 2015

The real vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo: a research note towards comparative ethnography

• John Edgar Browning 1  

Palgrave Communications volume  1 , Article number:  15006 ( 2015 ) Cite this article

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• Cultural and media studies

This research note is an elaboration of my ethnographic work of the last 5 years and is here presented to raise careful discussion of the little-explored identity and phenomenon of “real vampirism”. An auxiliary purpose of these preliminary findings is to draw attention specifically to a yet unexplored dimension of the real vampire identity: geographical specificity. This line of enquiry is informed by the intensive ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in 2009–2011 in the New Orleans metropolitan area, and by supplementary ethnographic work in 2011–2013 in Buffalo, New York. Also explored is what I term “defiant culture”, through which, I posit, vampire self-identification is able to achieve a measure of empowerment by resisting “normalcy” while critiquing and challenging the power structures that re/produce it.

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Introduction.

I offer the following research note, not as a complete report, but as an elaboration of my work over the last 5 years with the aim of raising careful discussion and consideration of what has come to be known, critically, as the “real vampire community”, which boasts of members in several countries, from the United States and England to Russia and South Africa. With this general thematic in mind, an auxiliary purpose of my preliminary findings is to draw attention specifically to a yet unexplored dimension of the real vampire identity: geographical specificity. This line of enquiry is informed by the intensive ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in 2009–2011 in the New Orleans metropolitan area, and by supplementary ethnographic work in 2011–2013 in Buffalo, New York. In the end, however, I generate what are seemingly more questions than answers, answers which I hope to remediate through further analysis with the help of current and future scholars engaged in this research.

I will begin first by outlining a brief history of the real vampire community and the literature treating it. Then, after addressing my study methodology, tools and documents, I will situate real vampirism in tandem with film, fiction and other categories in which popular culture traditionally situates monstrous figures and consider afterwards the various ways in which the figure of the vampire has been appropriated by and adapted to the real vampire community. I will then attempt to elucidate what insights vampire self-identification in particular sites like New Orleans and Buffalo yield about identity construction. Finally, after examining particular constructions like “subculture”, “deviance”, and my term, “defiant culture”, I will address whether the participants at these sites can aid in making visible normative ideological structures while creating for themselves new and complex opportunities for agency in a world in which they are routinely outcast.

Community history and literature

The umbrella term “real vampire community” is used to describe “modern vampires” or “real vampires”, Footnote 1 terms that refer interchangeably to people who consume human and/or animal blood (sanguinarian), absorb psychic energy (psychic vampire or psi-vamp) or both (hybrid), and do so out of a need that, according to my study participants, begins to manifest around puberty and derives from the lack of subtle energies their bodies produce. This self-described nature is a condition for which they claim to be given neither a choice nor the freedom to change. Moreover, should they refrain from feeding on blood or energy, they attest to feeling weak and experiencing an overall diminished health. What real vampirism is not , however, is the sole adoption of Gothic dress and prosthetic fangs for aesthetic purposes, as though real vampirism were merely a practice or fad that one might adopt one day and discard the next. Such a description denotes an entirely different class of people, which the real vampire community has termed “lifestylers”. To real vampires, Gothic or dark clothing and fangs are, as I will explain in more detail later, merely supplementary identificatory markers of, or hegemonic modes of group expression for, their inherent condition (much in the same way that same-sex desire, for example, is categorically distinct from, and in no way dependent on, the myriad cultural practices of the gay community).

So when did the real vampire community emerge and where did it come from? For some, the truth will undoubtedly be stranger than fiction. The terms “vampire community”, “real vampire community” or “modern vampire community”, as Browning (2014) lays out, did not see use until the late 1990s, and at that point they referred primarily to a network of online message boards, chat rooms and e-mail groups. Even still, a vastly disjointed network of people who self-identified as vampire had already existed for at least two decades. No one knows for sure just how many there were, but in the 1970s people who openly or secretively identified as vampire began regularly attending the same themed social gatherings and, in so doing, enabled to begin the process of networking with one another and identifying blood and energy donors. These social gatherings included Dark Shadows conventions and other vampire fiction and film fan organizations; bondage and S&M events, which were frequented by blood fetishists and others whom real vampires found to be willing blood donors; Goth clubs; as well as variously affiliated pagan groups. Also appearing at this time in limited print runs were self-printed newsletters (or zines), which were especially helpful towards merging into one interconnected community the individual and small independent pockets of real vampires that peppered the United States.

The first research organizations dedicated to the study of vampires emerged in the 1960s. Jeanne Keyes Youngson, for example, founded in 1965 the Count Dracula Fan Club (now The Vampire Empire), an organization originally dedicated to Dracula and vampire fiction and film. However, after Youngson began receiving letters from real vampires, the organization’s studies were extended, leading Youngson to publish a casebook of some of her more fascinating correspondence. The most notable early researcher, however, was Stephen Kaplan, who in 1972 formed the Vampire Research Center in Suffolk County, New York. There Kaplan supervised a “vampire hotline”, which received numerous phone calls (many of them hoaxes) from real vampires. On several occasions, Kaplan made actual house calls to meet with some of his phone responders. The book in which Kaplan reported his findings remains a canonical, albeit problematic text in the field. Before long, other important figures begin to emerge, like Martin V Riccardo who in 1977 founded the Vampire Studies Society and printed quarterly newsletter entitled, Journal of Vampirism . In 1978, the Vampire Information Exchange emerged and published through to the mid-2000s the Vampire Information Exchange Newsletter . Other pertinent studies in the field were to follow in the 1980s as well as the 1990s, from scholars like Riccardo, folklorists like Norine Dresser, researchers and paranormalists like Rosemary Ellen Guiley, journalists like Carol Page and academic criminologists like Katherine Ramsland. The 1990s also brought two historically significant events in the growth and expansion of the real vampire community. The first was Anne Rice conventions, which provided closeted and unaffiliated real vampires with a bounty of opportunities for socializing and networking. Of more profound importance during this period, however, was White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade , a publication that laid the ground rules for a vampire role-playing game and provided, if inadvertently, a social space within which real vampires could congregate and network openly. Vampire: The Masquerade introduced a lexicon, conventions, protocols and identifiers that the real vampire community adopted and adapted to its own needs. Thus emerged the predominant and somewhat unifying identity that persists today.

In the last decade, however, it is the Internet to which the real vampire community owes much of its prosperity. Whereas in the past real vampires existed in pockets or as isolated individuals and, to communicate, were therefore dependent on geographically close fan conventions and low-circulation newsletters, the Internet dissolved geographic limitations, made print correspondence almost entirely obsolete, and opened up vastly more efficient e-forums, chat rooms and e-communication. The 2000s have seen not only new scholarship treating real vampirism but works by actual members of the community itself, including Michelle Belanger, Corvis Nocturnum and Atlanta community leader Merticus of the Atlanta Vampire Alliance (AVA). The most important academic work of the last decade, however, as I will elaborate momentarily, has come at the hands of Joseph Laycock, followed by the shorter works of DJ Williams, John Morehead and myself.

Short popular writings on real vampirism have been so sparse that I am able to give here a near complete history. As more general works go, beneficial is Hoyt’s (1984) Lust For Blood: The Consuming Story of Vampires , which, although focused on the history of supernatural vampires from ancient mythological accounts to twentieth-century accounts in both America and Europe, provides a sampling of modern-day accounts about American vampire “practitioners” and surveys briefly the more famous cases of blood-drinking serial killings. Melton’s (1999) The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead is an invaluable first source, defining in minute detail major as well as minor terms that treat the various aspects of the vampire phenomena. Finally, Ramsland’s (2002) The Science of Vampires offers interviews with vampire “practitioners”, forensic experts and various specialists whose works and personal accounts explore the myths and modern-day realities of vampirism.

These next works are among the earliest to examine real vampirism more directly and served as the basis for much subsequent research. A canonical work in the field, Kaplan’s (1984) Vampires Are is a compilation of Kaplan’s findings on “real vampires” before a community existed. Also, Kaplan’s Vampire Research Center was the first of its kind and would provide a model for future research centres and institutions. Dresser’s (1989) American Vampires: Fans, Victims, and Practitioners examines various aspects of the vampire culture in America, from people who experience sexual gratification through blood-letting rituals and consumption, to lifestylers (or people who adopt the visual trappings of vampires), to fans merely obsessed with vampire media. Guiley’s (1991) Vampires Among Us uses a more personal approach to present stories about people who identify themselves as vampires, while also considering the folkloric history of vampires and its influence on the modern-day real vampire scene. Page’s (1993) Bloodlust: Conversations with Real Vampires , one of the first studies of its kind and now regarded as a seminal work in the field, offers interviews with and a detailed look at people who self-identify as vampire while discussing the various aspects of their day-to-day lives. Skal’s (1993) The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror explores in one of its chapters the conflation between blood contamination and vampirism during the Regan years and even provides an interview between the author and a modern-day real vampire. In Ramsland’s (1999) Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today , she uses the story of Susan Walsh, who disappeared while investigating vampire cults in 1996, to frame her own investigation into vampiric blood-letting, sexuality and body modification. And lastly, Youngson’s (1997) Private Files of a Vampirologist: Case Histories & Letters examines 11 case studies and 14 personal letters addressed to Youngson by people who self-identify as vampire.

Among the most recent studies (many by actual vampire writers) to begin exploring the vampire community as we understand it today is Guinn’s (1997) Something in the Blood: The Underground World of Today’s Vampires , which provides an introduction to the vampire subculture using interviews not only with people who identify themselves as vampires but people who have unwillingly fallen victim to so-called predatory vampires. Konstantinos’s (2003) Vampires: The Occult Truth explores the occult truths behind vampires using first-person accounts that treat of not only the vampires of folklore but also modern-day psychic and sanguinarian vampires. Nocturnum and Filipak’s (2009) Allure of the Vampire: Our Sexual Attraction to the Undead examines in detail culture’s attraction to vampires by tracing their history in folklore, books and film, from ancient mythology to the modern-day vampire community. Russo’s (2008) Vampire Nation dispels the centuries-old myths and rumours behind vampirism, provides accounts of actual vampirism and real-life narratives, and interviews modern-day vampires who reveal their feeding rituals and behavioural practices.

Works by Belanger, who self-identifies as a psychic vampire, have become some of the most important and respected in the field. Her The Psychic Vampire Codex: A Manual of Magick and Energy Work ( 2004 ) is now considered a canonical work in the field. It examines the history and everyday reality of the real vampire community, its cultural practices and esoteric language, from mere lifestylers to the difference between “psychic” and “sanguinarian” vampires, again the community’s two main divisions. Belanger’s (2005) Sacred Hunger compiles her major essays on the topics of vampirism, Bram Stoker, Dracula, modern-day psychic and sanguinarian vampires, and the history and development of the real vampire subculture. Finally, Belanger’s (2007) Vampires in Their Own Words: An Anthology of Vampire Voices , for which she serves as editor, compiles various essays and personal narratives predominantly by and concerning people who identify themselves as vampires, as well as, to a lesser degree, wiccans and various other lifestylers who write on vampirism and various facets of the vampire subculture and lifestyle. By far the most valuable study on the modern-day vampire community, Laycock’s (2009) Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism explores representations of vampirism using extensive interviews predominantly with members of the AVA as well as a few other vampire communities throughout the United States. This work examines not only real vampires, who, as I have said, report feeling a natural attraction towards blood and energy consumption, but lifestylers as well who have adopted the Gothic aesthetic that has come to be associated with the vampires of media. Laycock’s book, which has proven to be indispensable in understanding the real vampire community, its infrastructure and its organizational history, now serves as a canonical study in the field. There is also a small body of (problematic) socio-religious writings on the real vampire identity that Laycock (2010) outlines in his more recent work. Finally, Williams (2008 , 2009 , 2013 ), and Browning (2010a ,  2010b , 2011 ), treat of the creative, therapeutic, self-liberating and antinormative nature of real vampirism.

Methodology and study documents

I have approached my New Orleans (2009–2011) and Buffalo (2011–2013) studies using multiple resources, tools and techniques. The texts outlined in the previous section are among the most valuable of these resources in providing the study with a conceptual framework with which to proceed. Two of these texts in particular provided valuable insight into current vampire research and terminology, thereby enabling me to assemble what has become perhaps this study’s most research valuable tool: the participant “Questionnaire”, which I shall examine in-depth momentarily. Other valuable tools included my satchel, clipboards, writing utensils and a digital voice recorder. Other, less crucial tools included latex gloves (in the event I was expected to examine a participant’s fangs, or witness the process of exsanguination—that is, the blood-letting ritual performed between a sanguinarian vampire and his or her donor) and a flashlight (in the event my study brings me to a dimly-lit field site). Lastly, among the techniques I utilized for these studies included field notes, as well as observations conducted at various locations throughout the French Quarter (New Orleans), including Gothic apparel shops, night clubs, sidewalks and alleyways.

“General Questionnaire A-2” provided this study’s most crucial data. Of the 15 (14 active) participants in the New Orleans study and 4 in the Buffalo study, approximately 13 have completed this questionnaire. It includes the prefatory statement, “Please briefly answer the following questions as specifically or generally as you feel comfortable with. Please do not answer any question you do not want to”, followed by 36 questions, the answers to which offer valuable insight into the lives and cultural practices of the participants. The questions were as follows:

Name, or alias?

Since high school, what jobs have you held?

Present occupation?

Do you live in New Orleans/Buffalo? If not, where then, and why are you presently living in your present location?

Sexual orientation?

Married? Children?

Are you a vampyre, or vampire, or any variation thereof?

How long have you been a vampyre?

Do you feel you were born a vampyre, or were you somehow initiated into it, or both?

Do you have fangs? Please describe them?

Do you consume human blood? Animal blood? Both?

Do you consume psychic energy?

Define psychic energy?

Describe your first blood-drinking, or psychic energy-absorbing, experience?

Does the site or taste of blood or psychic energy arouse you sexually?

When and how did you first know you were a vampyre?

Why do you consume blood or psychic energy, or both?

What does blood taste like, specifically?

How do you feel while you consume blood or psychic energy? After?

Do you prefer blood to be chilled or warm, or both? Mixed with another liquid? Other?

Do you store blood, and if so how?

Have you ever become sick after consuming blood?

How much blood or psychic energy do you consume at one time?

How often do you need to consume blood or psychic energy?

What, if anything happens if you don’t consume blood or psychic energy?

What effect do you think consuming blood or psychic energy has had on your life?

Where do you get the blood or psychic energy? If donors, describe them?

How do you extract the blood or psychic energy?

How did you learn to extract blood or psychic energy?

How do you feel if you don’t consume blood or psychic energy?

Has your health changed since you started consuming blood or psychic energy?

Has your appearance changed since you started consuming blood or psychic energy?

What type of bed do you sleep in?

What other foods do you eat? How much? How often?

What is the most convenient way for me to contact you again? Specify?

Fieldwork, field site(s) and “reel” vampirism

I should like to say a few words now on the specific habits and cultural identificatory markers predominant among real vampires. Doing so will help to dispel a few myths or misconceptions. Real vampires do not generally sleep in coffins (though certainly some have and do), and they do not claim to live forever. Indeed, real vampires diffuse beyond the realms of film and literature in which popular culture has traditionally situated them. Real vampires are living people, generally leading what may be deemed everyday lives, and who, according to what I and other scholars have been able to ascertain, appropriate the figure of the vampire and adapt it for self-identificatory purposes. This, however, they do only after —in many cases, years after—the compulsion to take blood or energy arises. Even still, this is not to say that some of the fictional vampire’s more obvious cultural and socio-historical dimensions in film and literature are not reflected in real vampires.

Aside from blood-drinking and feeding on energy, a sizeable number in the real vampire community prefers to don Gothic apparel (though certainly not all the time), and many will even don prosthetic fangs, a practice that, for the most, is purely aesthetic, though it can and does serve a cultural need, especially in New Orleans where fangs contribute to inter-communal identification. Scholars and curious observers interested in real vampire communities around the world have begun to probe this subculture with renewed vigour to ask why , partly in an attempt to gain new insight, but for some regrettably it is to disqualify, or suppress I think, this identity group. I suspect that latter does so mainly out of a host of misconceptions as the “real” and the “reel” continue to blur more and more seamlessly into one another in and outside of the vampire subculture. There has even transpired, upon closer scrutiny, a certain degree of cross-pollination between the two realms. That is to say, the more “Goth” or “Steampunk” variety of self-identifying human vampires—which, in fact, comprises only a portion of the vampire community—seems to be informing with increasing regularity the representations of vampires we see in film, television and literature (not just the other way around). The process has become recursive. Thus, to divorce completely this subculture from literary and filmic representations is to deny it its modernity.

Similar may be said for denying real vampires of their humanity. In my own dealings with the real vampire community in New Orleans and Buffalo, I found its members to be kind, accommodating and pleasant to be around. To my surprise, some were loving parents whose children accompanied them to vampire community meetings. Some could have passed for everyday “professionals” one might pass on the street, while others were only too eager to embrace the latest Gothic fashions. All of them, however, regardless of their choice of personal attire, showed what I can only describe as admirable strength and courage in the face of immense opposition to their identity. Equally important, they behave—and survive—as a community(s) .

Curiously, though perhaps not surprisingly, these communities are represented through an amalgam of identities and experiences. The real vampires I met and interviewed ranged in age from approximately 18–50; represented both sexes equally; practiced sanguinarian and/or psychic feeding; described themselves as atheistic, monotheistic or polytheistic; self-identified as heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual; some were parents; married and divorced; and were wearing or have worn fangs, or had, or have had, naturally long incisors. Unquestionably, I found the members of this community to be competent citizens, that they performed blood-letting and other similar rituals safely and did so only with willing donors, and participated regularly in medical checkups that scarcely (if ever) indicated complications as a result of their feeding practices.

The French Quarter, the central research site chosen for the New Orleans study, is particularly germane to this line of enquiry, as there are, I would imagine, few other research sites in which such a vastly diverse ethnic and cultural makeup may be observed to coexist in the open. It is also here, in the French Quarter, that I encountered all of my Louisiana participants. During the initial stages of this study, I was completely overcome with excitement and curiosity, and had very few expectations as to what, or whom, I would find. I must not omit to say, however, that I felt a certain amount of hope , which is something quite different from expectation , and it was hope that permitted a certain level of delusion to set in very early on. Early on, I think on a subconscious level I romanticized the research process. The longer it took me to locate my first participant, the more my delusion morphed and shaped how I imagined “my first time” (as I called it) would be. Finally, at Wicked New Orleans, a Gothic apparel shop, the opportunity arrived. The shop owner, with whom I was engaged in conversation, suddenly stopped me mid-sentence and advised me to go speak to a woman who had entered his shop, a woman he claimed was a “vampire”. I was completely unprepared for this; I never imagined “my first time” would be in a leather shop. Swallowing my pride, I walked over to the unsuspecting woman in her 40s–50s (whom I shall call “Jennifer”). I explained to Jennifer who I was and what I was doing in the French Quarter, to which she smiled and revealed her teeth (some of which had been filed down to a point). I made friendly conversation for a moment (and looking back, I cannot even remember what I said) then gave her my contact information, asking politely that she call or e-mail me at some point. Never, not for one second, did I think I would not see or hear from her again; but I did not. My first chance had come and gone, and I blew it.

As I began delving into some of the field’s early scholarship, particularly Kaplan’s work, I realized the difficulties I had been facing were nothing new to studies in real vampirism. Before going out into the field again, I poured over several scholarly and popular works, and eventually took a new initiative: Treat all future encounters with participants as though I would never see or hear from them again after the initial contact. To prepare, I compiled the “Questionnaire” and carried several copies with me, I brought along clipboards (for the participants to write on), latex gloves (in case of inspection involving blood or teeth), a flashlight (in case my research took me into dark places or homes) and a digital voice recorder (in case a participant refused to write his or her answers but agreed to verbalize them). Although my satchel grew heavier, my workload grew lighter, as the strategy would eventually pay off.

After Jennifer, almost another 2 months would pass before I could locate more participants for my study. A chance opportunity came one October night in 2009, however, when I frequented a club in the French Quarter called, “The Dungeon”. In the space of 2 h, I met there and documented five vampires. Among them were “Maven”, mid-30s, a “fangsmith” (designer and sculptor of made-to-order vampire fangs) of some repute I gathered and would later verify, and a local vampire elder 2 ; a vampire named “Max”, Maven’s sidekick, late-teens/early-20s, and a martial artist; a vampire named “Torch” (with whom I have now lost contact), mid-20s, quiet demeanour and elusive; a vampire I shall call “Victoria” (with whom I have now lost contact), Torch’s girlfriend, late-teens, excited by the prospect of participating in the study; and a vampire I shall call “James”, early-30s, who was initially hesitant to participate. The challenges, however, were far from over. All five participants left contact information in the “Questionnaire”, but only one phone number proved to be legitimate. This fact was rather an unfortunate one. However, after concluding my field observations at The Dungeon, something occurred to me after the fact: all the vampires who were present that night at the club arrived in separate, smaller groups: Maven and Max, Torch and Victoria, and James. Yet, all five participants knew each other by name, which suggested to me at the time at least a certain level of what one might call communiality. How, I remember thinking, would I ever be able to find this community if I could not even get one of its members to call me back or disclose an accurate e-mail address. It turned out I would only have to wait about a month.

Laycock (2009) aptly remarks that the public generally only hears about the real vampire community in the media following some “vampiric” serial murder, or during October as a means to exploit the season of death and monsters. Unfortunately, the New Orleans vampire community has not escaped Laycock’s assessment. An ABC 20/20 special on New Orleans’s real vampires broadcasted that October, one that, according to the community, sensationalized the whole ordeal by editing down their interviews and mixing and matching some of the questions and answers, incorporating into the programme the use of Gothicized music, images and other similar tropes, and in effect turning the whole account into a twisted fantasy. Another painfully negative outcome of the broadcast occurred in the Discussion/Comment Board that accompanied the video at ABC’s Website. As Browning (2010b) discusses at length, on it are statements from viewers who, to some degree, support the vampire community or one’s freedom of expression, but far more frequent were statements by unsupportive, misled or utterly irate viewers whose comments were unfounded and born out of assumptions, misconceptions and misinterpretations about the real vampire identity and community.

One of the vampires featured in the 20/20 broadcast was “Belfazaar (‘Zaar’) Ashantison”, a resident of New Orleans and a member of a community-wide council of vampire elders called the New Orleans Vampire Association (NOVA). It was through him, after meeting his expectations and gaining his trust through our initial interview, that I met over the next few weeks 10–12 additional members of the community, all of whom generously agreed to participate in my study. “Zaar” was in his early-40s, a local vampire elder, and a founding member of NOVA. I encountered the next eight participants at the initial NOVA meeting I attended: a vampire named “Corrien”, who looked to be in her late-30s; a vampire named “Reverend Boone”, in his late-30s/early-40s, who looked to be the most menacing of those in attendance to the meeting; a vampire I shall call “Meph” (short for “Mephistopheles”), a local vampire elder who suffers from a debilitating physical illness and therefore walked with a cane (a Barnabas Collins’s Dark Shadows replica); a vampire named “Jade”, a local vampire elder who looked to be in her mid-30s; a local vampire elder named “Reverend Jezabel de Luna” (or “Jez”), a larger than life female who looked to be in her mid-30s; a local vampire elder I shall call “Lorilee”, who looked to be in her mid-40s; a vampire I shall call “Tony”, who is a local tour guide, a local vampire elder and looked to be in his early-40s; and a vampire I shall call “Erin”, Tony’s girlfriend who looked to be in her late-30s. In time I would meet other vampires as well.

After I moved from New Orleans to Buffalo in Summer 2011, I was immediately interested in whether or not Buffalo had its own real vampire community and if it was similar to New Orleans’s. Perhaps “geography”, I thought, would offer another fruitful context within which to frame the fundamental relationship of the vampire identity to its cultural construction. Whether geographical specificity could yield insights into the more generalized umbrella of vampire self-identification became for me a new and fascinating avenue worth exploring. To carry out this new supplemental study, I planned to use the following research methods: contact leading members of the vampire community at large and through them obtain contact information for persons living in Buffalo who meet one of the categories given previously; frequent night clubs in the greater Buffalo area whose attendees either appropriate “Gothic”-style themes, or that are rumoured to be frequented by persons who meet one of the categories given previously, or both; post, in local newspapers and public e -forums, ads that describe my study and invite qualified persons to participate; frequent local stores that sell “Gothic”-themed goods, and there speak with the owner and workers, describe my study, ask about potentially qualified persons and leave at the store my contact information to be handed out accordingly.

Using information gathered over a period of several months from interviews and field observations, it was my intention for this supplementary study to provide behavioural and socio-cultural data geographically specific to study participants inhabiting the greater Buffalo area. Contrasting this study with the previous one would, I hope, allow me to perceive qualities of each field site that might otherwise appear to the average observer as “normal”, unrelated or universal. While conducting the study, I took along with me, just as I did in New Orleans, my trusty brown satchel containing IRB consent forms, pad and pen, flashlight, voice recorder and latex gloves. What I eventually found, through comparative analysis, was that my experiences with vampire self-identification in New Orleans yielded quite a lot about vampire identity construction in Buffalo, but it had less to do with similarities. Geography, it would seem, played a much greater part than perhaps any of us in the field had realized.

I began my study in Buffalo by first contacting through e-mail the people living there whose contact information I had received from leading members of the real vampire community. It was also my intention to frequent Gothic-styled night clubs or other places generally rumoured to be frequented by real vampires. However, neither was to be had, mainly because they simply did not exist as far as I could ascertain, though Club Diablo (now closed) was mentioned, albeit dubiously, as a potential site. Even still, my experiences in Buffalo were in some ways similar to New Orleans, though in many other ways they were quite different. For example, the term “ronin”, used by the vampire community at large to denote an individual vampire who is not affiliated with a particular house, coven and so on, was applicable to only a handful of vampires living in New Orleans. In Buffalo, however, the use of this term was universal, as the five vampires I encountered were not affiliated with any group, nor did any such group seem to exist within the city or outlying suburbs.

One of my study participants in Buffalo, whom I shall call simply “Christy” (early-30s), was a psychic vampire. Contact with Christy was confined to the Internet. We made several attempts to meet in-person, but conflicting schedules, illness and finances prevented this. There was also, with Christy, a strong issue of confidentiality. This was due in large part to an extenuating circumstance that made her situation quite different than any I encountered in New Orleans. Her partner with whom she lived at the time was not fully aware of the extent of her vampire self-identity, and what little he had been told he reacted negatively to. Additionally, Christy was engaged in the process of trying to gain custody of her daughter and felt (aptly so I think) that knowledge of her self-identity would impede that effort. The next two vampires in my study came as a pair: Serevus (male, 36) and Shyla (female, 19), who at the time were engaged to be married. Both were psychic vampires, and identified primarily as tantric feeder, which is to say they absorbed energy through sexual and erotic encounters. Shyla explained to me that this particular method is often misunderstood, that folks outside and even some within the real vampire community look at it as merely a craving for sex: “[S]ince I realized that I was a sexual vampire, I was really into the attraction—just the feelings. It’s not even just sex in itself, but the actual people flirting and things like that. It’s something I feel. And, you know alot of people don’t understand it”. I met with Serevus and Shyla together at a local Buffalo eatery on three occasions, and later I conducted interviews with each separately at a local prominent coffee shop. In both instances I found them to be very friendly and quite attuned not only to their self-identities but to the cultural practices of the vampire community at large. Although neither was affiliated with a vampire house, both were up-to-date on national and community-wide activities and practices; this contrasted greatly with my New Orleans participants, all of whom were members or leaders of a local vampire house but gave noticeably less attention to general, community-wide matters unless they were pertinent to New Orleans. Serevus and Shyla seemed adamant about starting their own household in Buffalo (a dream made all the more possible, they claimed, as a result of my study).

Contrasting these geographical studies through the use of interviews and field observations gathered from each field site has helped to accentuate place-specific behavioural and socio-cultural factors. On that note, it is worth mentioning as well that Halloween meant far less to the Buffalo identity than it did in New Orleans. For many in the vampire community, October in general, and Halloween in particular, can be a profitable time of year. Vampire organizations like the one I shadowed in New Orleans, fangsmiths (who construct prosthetic fangs for vampires), vampire event performers, and individual members and houses of the vampire community, all converge on large cities like New York, New Orleans and Atlanta, and in cities across the world, to participate in ceremonies and take part in celebration and fellowship. This is especially true for New Orleans, which plays host to some of the largest vampire events in the country. However, although the fruit of such gatherings is profit for the organizations and private parties who, in turn, feed that money back into their respective vampire communities and organizations, these profits are also vital to fuelling local charity events, such as those organized by Zaar and NOVA like feeding the homeless (at times, as many as 80–100 mouths) at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving or aiding those in general need, and to perpetuating the organizations who pride themselves on giving back to their local communities. This speaks voluminously of the vampire identity, which, to the outside world, is often associated purely with excess, psychopathology and a general sense of disconnection from community involvement. The reality, as I have tried to show, is actually far different. Modern vampires, through reconciling these and other, similar antitheticals, effectively critique ideological systems that dictate how normalcy should be constructed. Indeed, their metaphysical understandings of themselves and what they regard as their innate condition serve to “challenge”, as one external reader of this article found, “the authority of contemporary power structures and normalizing discourses of both western religion and modern medicine and psychiatry”. Footnote 2 In short, normativity is of minimal practical use to real vampires and serves little more than to recall for them hurtful memories of a repressive and oppressive system that shuns more than it embraces.

Closing remarks

Often we think of culture and otherness as mutually exclusive entities, the former always preceding, and generally dictating, the latter. But must they always exist along such a narrow continuum, or can the two accommodate between themselves a level of reciprocity? Indeed, I have found that they can, but more pertinently, how is this achieved? How can otherness achieve a mutual and recursive dialogue with culture? One answer may lie within deviant subcultural formation or, to put another way, what I term defiant culture . In what ways are marginalized groups key to understanding some larger dynamic? And how can otherness become, indeed, part of a broader cultural analysis? This remains a large, interesting yet unresolved problem.

My use of the term “subculture” as an analytical tool to describe the real vampire community is informed predominantly by the work of Australian Literary and Cultural Studies professor Ken Gelder. According to Gelder (2007) , subcultures share a “common narrative” as nonconformist and, thereby, non-normative. At least six “prevailing cultural logics”, by Gelder’s account, exist for identifying subcultures (3–4):

Routinely, members of a subculture are judged or conceived by the outside in negative terms in relation to labour. They may be considered idle or lazy, even too leisurely, or they may partake of work related to their own subculture that is looked upon by the outside as parasitical, counter to “legitimate” work or even illegal.

A subculture’s relation to class is only vaguely understood. Some subcultures are even seen as digressing completely from their class, discarding any class affiliation or “ ‘transcending’ class as a result of the particular cultural adjustments they have made”.

Property ownership is seen as somehow antithetical to subcultural identity. For, subcultures tend to territorialize, rather than own, a geographical location or area, in this way creating new modes of expression and belonging that is based in part on place.

Typically, subcultures congregate outside the domestic sphere. For youth in particular, it is this “initial deviation from home and the subsequent adjustment into subcultural forms of homeliness and belonging” outside the domestic family unit that earmarks subcultural identity.

Public or “cultural logic”, as Gelder puts it, has a tendency to see subcultures as excessive or exaggerated. In this case, the “deviance” of subcultures is attributable, at least in part, to an excess of characteristic traits spanning behaviour, dress, sounds and so on, as well as, I would add, esoteric knowledge, all of which are contrasted with “normal” society’s conceptions of moderation and restraint.

Finally, the remaining cultural logic concerns a subculture’s inherent “opposition to the banalities of mass cultural forms”. By this is meant that subcultural identity embraces a nonconformist stance towards societal massification, that is, self-alienation.

Each of Gelder’s cultural logics is indicative both of the real vampire subculture and external perceptions of it. At a glance, the use of my term “defiant culture” would seem, then, to be synonymous with sub culture. Therefore, further explanation is needed. My term is an appropriation of the work of Christina Santos and Adriana Spahr on “defiant deviance”. Santos and Spahr (2006) examine the ways in which the supernatural persists as a recurring element in mass media and culture, despite its general obsoletion at the hands of the Enlightenment. The persistence of the supernatural—in art, literature, film and so on—is for Santos and Spahr a “defiant form of deviance”: “a state of opposition and a disposition to resist that deviates from the accepted norm” (1). Put another way, society’s free embrace of supernatural figures and the paranormal, in spite of prevailing technological and scientific knowledge, is intentionally defiant , that is, a deviation intended by design to defy. Although Santos and Spahr do apply their term to a single case study of alleged vampirism (“by association only”, the authors note) in the person of Countess Erzsébet Báthory (1560–1614) of Hungary, their work fails to account for actual self-identification with vampirism, of which, perhaps unbeknownst to them, there is an entire inter-connected, subcultural community populated with members who do just that. As for Gelder, his cultural logics, although productively inclusive, seem also hardly adequate to surmise a subculture considered by the outside to be so deviant and so aberrant that the very nature of its identity is by many altogether discounted. The real vampire community is, to be sure, a subculture like no other. It is what I term a “defiant culture”; this is to say, it manifests its own deviance through the act of defiance for its own sake, in this case, the conscious use of a negative identifier like “vampire”. Laycock (2010) is apt to note that “The idea that the real vampire community is formed by an inherent quality”, that is, biology, “rather than subcultural participation is reflected in the structure of the community, which is dialogical and acephalous” (8). Yet I contend that the appropriation of the word “vampire” and the vampire milieu is at least as important, producing as a result a community that is both “defiant” and iconoclastic.

Beyond mere physiology, however, what particularly strikes me are the ways in which the very being and nature of this community are subversive to how societies construct “normalcy”. It becomes important to ask, then, whether the history of real vampires can help to address the broader relation between culture and otherness. Real vampires comprise, as I have said, a subculture the outside considers so deviant and so aberrant that its very nature is altogether discounted. Yet, simultaneously, this distinction is crucial to the real vampire community’s status as a “defiant culture”: through manifesting its own deviance by means of defiance for its own sake, it achieves as it were a degree of self-empowerment. Heiner’s (2008) sentiment that “One of the more resounding principles in the sociology of deviance is that the defining quality of deviance resides in the audience and not in the person or behavior” (xi) is something I have tried to emphasize in my work on real vampires, in addition to whether identity construction among “alternative” subcultures in the United States in general and in New Orleans and Buffalo in particular can aid in redefining the dominative and corrective moral and behavioural imperatives societies use to construct “normalcy”. Ironically it is these same imperatives, borrowing loosely from the work of Eve Sedgwick, that make the modern vampire identity a strategic site for confronting, and challenging, ideological assumptions culturally and historically imbedded in the methods by which we as a society hierarchize the world around us ( Browning, 2012 ). Modern vampires are capable of making accessible the infinite potentials for exposing and, with any luck, unfixing the repressive and oppressive categories that precipitate marginalization. In short, modern vampirism offers a valuable lens through which to understand and, perhaps, dispel some of the ideological “baggage” each of us carries; through them, we see the dark side of ourselves. Yet the subject of modern vampires would not be nearly as interesting, or as “radical”, were it not perceived as being so “deviant”. Thus, the study of modern vampirism is, in a broader sense, the study of “deviance”. However, it is also the study of “defiance” and self-empowerment.

Additional Information

How to cite this article : John Edgar Browning (2015) The real vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo: a research note towards comparative ethnography. Palgrave Communications 1:15006 doi: 10.1057/palcomms.2015.6. Footnote 3

Geographical areas, individual houses and even individual members of the real vampire community will independently render the word “vampire” as “vampyre” as a means of distinguishing the community from the supernatural archetype of fiction and film. The rendering “vampi(y)re” is also sometimes used as a compromise to satisfy proponents of each spelling.

I am grateful to an external reader of this article for this succinct observation and phrasing.

Sanguinarius defines “elder” thusly: “A prominent member of the vampiric community who is honored and respected for his or her experience, knowledge, willingness to help others, accomplishments and devotion. Elders are often those individuals who have helped establish a community, organize groups, or help network the community” (13). See Sanguinarius (2010) and also Merticus (2014) .

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Acknowledgements

Much thanks is owed to SUNY-Buffalo professors Michael Frisch, Bruce Jackson and Sarah Elder, who provided helpful feedback on my research. Ethnographic materials and research underpinning this study such as field notes, digital audio recordings, transcripts, ephemera collected onsite and internal NOVA documents are deposited with the author under secure lock and key for the purpose of protecting the personal identities of the study participants. Copies of individual consent forms wherein full identification is not disclosed can be requested by outside parties. A more extensive elaboration of this research, including or in addition to the ethnographic materials listed above, is forthcoming in a book-length project currently in progress.

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Do Vampires Really Exist?

And how would we know? Let’s ask the Enlightenment.

Strange tales of vampirism in eastern Europe started reaching western Europe in the late seventeenth century. People who were dead and buried were said to return to their villages, even their own families, to suck blood. Such stories sparked a debate among natural philosophers about the nature of knowledge. Could such outlandish things be true—especially when backed up by seemingly reliable eyewitness testimonials?

The early modernist scholar Kathryn Morris explores the debates that greeted these reports of vampires , putting them in the context of the rise of empirical, evidence-based approaches to the facts of the world. It could be dicey to automatically reject the potentially vampirical; new findings from the world beyond Europe were “challenging established ideas about the world’s inventory.”

And vampire evidence came from the testimony of military men, doctors, and clergymen sent by their superiors to investigate the rumors. “The overly credulous risked accepting fabricated or fraudulent facts, while the overly incredulous risked rejecting new facts too quickly because they did not fit expectations,” Morris writes.

Morris quotes Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who wrote, “If there is a well-attested history in the world, it is that of Vampires. Nothing is missing from it: interrogations, certifications of Notables, Surgeons, Parish Priests, Magistrates. The judicial proof is most complete.” But as to whether this paperwork proved the existence of vampires, Rousseau was ambiguous, though he noted that the witnesses to the unbelievable were credible themselves.

One person who took the sources seriously was the abbot Dom Augustine Calmet. His best-selling book of 1746, Dissertations sur les apparitions des anges, des demons et des esprits et sur les vampires de Hongrie, de Boheme, de Moravie et de Silesie , examined the reports about vampires in detail. He ultimately came to the conclusion that vampires did not exist and that, as Morris paraphrases him, “the vampire epidemic could be explained in terms of a combination of fearful delusions and the misinterpretation of the natural processes of death and decomposition.”

But Calmet ran afoul of Voltaire, who had no truck with vampirism—“What! Is it in our eighteenth century that vampires exist?”—no matter whose testimony was cited. In fact, he charged that Dom Calmet really did believe in vampires and, as the vampires’ “historian,” was actually doing a disservice to the Enlightenment by paying attention to the testimony in the first place.

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Voltaire’s purposeful misreading of Calmet was ideological, according to Morris. His “own views on superstition demanded that even widespread, consistent testimony be rejected as the reliable basis for knowledge-claims.” For Voltaire, all superstition was fake news: false, dangerous, and easily spread. “After slander,” he wrote, “nothing is communicated more promptly than superstition, fanaticism, sorcery, and tales of those raised from the dead.”

John Pollidori’s 1819 story “The Vampyre,” from an idea of Lord Byron’s, resurrected the figure of the undead in western Europe. Pollidori set the template of the aristocratic blood-sucker, giving birth to plays, operas, and more fictions by Alexander Dumas, Nikolai Gogol, Aleksey Tolstoy, Sheridan Le Fanu, and finally, in 1897, Bram Stoker, whose novel Dracula embedded its fangs deep into the throat of popular culture.

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A History of Vampires and Their Transformation From Solely Monsters to Monstrous, Tragic, and Romantic Figures

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Throughout the history of vampire stories—from folklore to literary fiction—the portrayal of these inhuman creatures has metamorphosed from Carl Jung’s myth, born of the Shadow archetype, into three distinct vampiric archetypes, none of which have completely left their mythic origins behind. These archetypes present themselves as the monster vampire, the tragic vampire, and the romantic vampire. By examining the etymology of the word vampire, ancient vampire folklore, early to modern vampire literature, and early to contemporary vampire cinema, this paper will show that the vampire is no longer relegated to the role of antagonist to the story’s protagonist. The vampire could be the tragic anti-hero or the protagonist of a story. Many early folklores about vampires are represented by stories humankind told to explain evil and misfortune visited upon their family. However, when the vampire entered early literary fiction, authors began to exercise their power to manipulate the vampire narrative, creating new vampire constructs. This shift in vampire characterizations is an allegorical commentary on man’s fight to overcome his sinful nature by seeking salvation through redemption.

While some researchers note the existence of a vampire archetype, Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, believed that monsters, such as the vampire, are not archetypes themselves, but rather myths, born of archetypes. While Carl Jung’s beliefs would classify a vampire as a myth, I intend to show that early to modern stories of vampires show a gradual shift from the monster myth to three separate vampire portrayals/archetypes. One portrayal of vampires remaining that of the terrifying creature of origin, as is characterized by Carl Jung’s Shadow archetype; another portrayal being the tragic and tortured Byronic hero—or antihero; and the last progresses through the first two stages into the modern, beguiling, often-romanticized, literary figures of fantasy, the heroic vampire. I intend to show that these three distinct portrayals, though never fully leaving their mythic origins behind, have become their own archetypes, and the development of these archetypes mirrors humankind’s path to finding redemption from their own sinful natures, or dark desires, whether based in Judeo-Christian beliefs, other religious beliefs, or a secular moralistic belief system.

Carl Jung believes there are four main archetypes: The Self, the Persona, the Shadow, and the Anima/Animus. These archetypes are primordial images—archaic remnants imprinted on the unconscious mind, the part of the mind where automatic processing occurs. These primordial images are passed down from our ancestors. Jung states:

The term “archetype” is often misunderstood as meaning a certain definite mythological image or motif. But this would be no more than a conscious representation…The archetype is, on the contrary, an inherited tendency of the human mind to form representations of mythological motifs—representations that vary a great deal without losing their basic pattern. (Jung , 1968 , p. 120)

Jung claims that every personality has a dark side that is the gateway to the unconscious mind and dreams. Through this gateway, the archetypal Shadow figure enters our dreams. Myths are not themselves archetypes. They are created by archetypes. The Shadow archetype is the hidden part of the human psyche—the part we fear for its obscurity. This fear causes our mind to create myths to represent this hidden part of our psyche (Jung , 1968 , p. 38) . Following Jung’s logic, a vampire cannot be an archetype in itself; instead, it is a myth born of the Shadow archetype.

So, what makes the vampire, or any other creature of myth, the embodiment of Carl Jung’s Shadow archetype? Tales of evil creatures abound in the time before Christianity. They are the representation of early humankind’s darker side; the images Jung claims are passed down to their descendants through their DNA, just as according to Lamentations 5:7 in the Bible, the child bears the iniquities of their father ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , Lamentations 5:7). These iniquities are our sin, and Jung’s Shadow archetype might very well be itself a representation of this sin and the vampire myth its manifestation.

In his book The Power of Myth , a manuscript of a conversation between Joseph Campbell, best known for his theory of the archetypal hero’s journey, and journalist Bill Moyers, Campbell claims:

These bits of information from ancient times, which have to do with the themes that have supported human life, built civilizations, and informed religions over the millennia, have to do with deep inner problems, inner mysteries, inner thresholds of passage, and if you don’t know what the guide signs are along the way, you have to work it out for yourself. (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 4)

To this, Moyer interprets Campbell’s meaning to be, “[W]e tell stories to try to come to terms with the world, to harmonize our lives with reality” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 4) . It is in humankind’s nature to ask, “Why is this happening?” In that desire to reconcile the cognitive dissonance felt when we cannot unite what we see to what we understand, our mind searches for new comprehension through the creation of myths.

Early Vampire Folklore

Many countries and cultures have some form of vampire folklore in their history. These stories, as Campbell and Moyers suggest, have origins in the fears of those who are just trying to make sense of the world around them. Here are just a few examples.

Abhartach (Celtic)

Abhartach, a jealous dwarfish, cruel chieftain, and sorcerer, from the Irish town of Slaghtaverty in Londonberry, ruled during the 5 th and 6 th -centuries. Some stories say he fell to his death when he climbed a ledge outside his wife’s bedroom window to catch her cheating on him. Other versions of his tale say that a neighboring chieftain slew him. Abhartach was buried in an upright, rather than the typical prone position, as were many rulers of that time. The next day, the sorcerer returned from the grave and demanded that his subjects slit their wrists and fill a bowl with their blood for his consumption. The blood was necessary to sustain his life. Abhartach was then, once again, slain by either another chieftain or an assassin and buried upright. He rose from the dead, once more, the next night, to continue his reign of terror. The chieftain or assassin killed Abhartach one last time. This time, at the suggestion of a druid, they buried him upside down, trapping him in his grave (Bane , 2020 , p. 13; Gallagher , 2017 , p. 26) . As is the case with most modern vampire stories, Abhartach began as a human, returns from the dead, and drinks blood.

Baital (Indian)

An eleventh-century Sanskrit story, Baital Pachisi , or Vetala Panchevimshati , translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton in the mid-nineteenth century and renamed to Vikram and the Vampire, is the account of a baital and a king named Vikram. The baital is an evil spirit that can possess the dead, is half-man half-bat with a short stumpy tail. It drinks human blood and devours sacrifices of human flesh. Its gruesome countenance causes those who look upon it to grow weak and faint with fear. When at rest, baitals spend their time hanging from trees near cemeteries (Bane , 2020 , p. 28-29) . This ancient creature’s penchant for hanging from trees and its part-bat form was likely inspiration for literary vampires with the ability to turn into bats.

Berwick (English/Scottish)

In England’s northernmost area, abutting the river Tweed, there was a village named Berwick, or Berwick-Upon-Tweed. Though the town was in England, it came under Scottish rule during the twelfth century. In 1196, there was a prosperous but morally bankrupt merchant who died of the plague. After his burial, written accounts say that he would roam the streets at night, spreading disease as he went and announcing that there would be no peace for the villagers unless his body was set aflame and burned to ashes. The Berwick vampire only left his grave in the evening and returned to it every day before dawn. By the time the villagers exhumed his body and burned it, roughly half of the villagers had perished from the plague (Bane , 2020 , p. 33; Summers , 1996 , p. 82-83) . The Berwick vampire is an early example of the undead rising from the grave only at night to terrorize the living, much like many literary fiction vampires.

Upyr (Slavic)

The upyr is an ancient Slavic vampire thought to be created in one of two ways. When a heretic, someone whose beliefs lie outside a religion’s dictates, dies, that person might become an upyr. Alternatively, the spawn of a witch and a werewolf would be born an upyr. The methods of killing one bears a striking resemblance to the practices of extinguishing many vampires found in modern literature. The grave of an upyr must be soaked in holy water and a stake driven through its chest. The upyr could also meet its end by decapitation or incineration (Bane , 2020 , p. 137-138; Melton , 1994 , p. 525) .

Vrykolakas (Greek)

The Greek stories of vrykolakas vary throughout their early history. Initially, they were more spirit in nature than actual physical beings, eventually transforming into the more traditional depictions of the reanimated dead. Vrykolakas were thought to rise from the grave and seek out family members, attacking them and sucking their blood. Burning a vrykolakas is the only foolproof way of destroying it (Bane , 2020 , p. 149-150) .

Our takeaway from these early stories of vampiric creatures is that no matter what you call them, they have yet to move from humankind’s subconscious to conscious mind—from the realm of myth to archetype. They are representative of Jung’s monster myth, and as Campbell claims, born to explain away the unexplainable.

Looking at the vampire myths of early folklore, the question is: What purpose did the creation of the vampire myth serve? Campbell says, “When the story is in your mind, then you see its relevance to something happening in your own life. It gives you perspective on what’s happening to you” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 4) . Many folklore tales start with death and humankind’s desire to explain what they did not have the scientific understanding to explain. Suppose a plague or other virus wiped out an entire family or most of a village, with limited knowledge of science and God’s wrath having previously taken the form of plagues. In that case, humans might consider it to be God’s wrath reigning down on them, that they have done something to earn his displeasure, and they might assume that their place in heaven is in jeopardy. In Jung’s book The Undiscovered Self , he states,

It would be an insufferable thought that we had to take personal responsibility for so much guiltiness. We therefore prefer to localize the evil with individual criminals…while washing our hands in innocence…the evil, as experience shows, lies in man—unless, in accordance with the Christian view, one is willing to postulate a metaphysical principle of evil. The great advantage of this view is that it exonerates man’s conscience of too heavy a responsibility and fobs it off on the devil, in correct psychological appreciation of the fact that man is much more the victim of his psychic constitution that its inventor. (Jung , 2006 , p. 96-97)

In other words, if humans create a monster—a myth—which is the perpetrator of their misfortune, they are no longer responsible. This monster is doing the evil bidding of its master, presumably Satan himself. Then humans are not the ones out of favor with God. In fact, by actively setting out to destroy the monster (e.g. through beheading, staking, burning, etc.), they are doing God’s bidding and possibly gaining his favor.

From Myth to Archetype

So how did the vampire move from the realms of myth to archetypes? The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of the word archetype, derived from some of the earliest known uses of the word, “The original pattern or model from which copies are made; a prototype” (“Archetype , n. , ” 2020) , shows that early folklore and literary fiction examples of vampires can give birth to what modern readers would consider a vampire archetype, an original pattern or model. This happens by moving the vampire from the unconscious mind to the conscious mind.

If primitive humans create the monster-vampire myth, from the Shadow archetype, to understand that in which they cannot explain, then what happens to this myth when human intellect evolves? Jung states, “The archetype is essentially an unconscious content that is altered by becoming conscious and by being perceived, and it takes its colour from the individual consciousness in which it happens to appear” (Jung , 1968 , p. 20) . While the vampire-myth started as an unconscious representation of the Shadow archetype, the numerous accounts in both literary folklore and literary fiction have moved the vampire from our subconscious to our conscious, forming a pattern or a model that forms the basis of three basic vampire archetypes—the vampire monster, the tragic vampire, and the romantic/heroic vampire.

While there are many examples of each of these archetypes in literary and cinematic vampires, for the purpose of this paper, I will give a few examples of each, but I will give most of my focus to one from each archetype.

Defining the Vampire

To understand the paradigm shift in vampire portrayals, it is necessary to first understand what constitutes a vampire. The origins of the word “vampire” differ from the origins of the lore. The origins of the word are debatable, and accounts of vampirism predate the word itself. In her article “The History of the Word’ Vampire,'” Katharina M. Wilson indicates there are four popular theories as to the word’s origins; however, she suggests that the more widely accepted roots are Slavic (Wilson , 1985 , p. 577) .

The first of these four popular theories come from the late nineteenth-century Austrian linguist Franz Miklosich. In his book Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Slavischen Sprachen , Miklosich suggests, “[T]he word"vampire” and its Slavic synonyms “upior,” “uper,” and “upyr” are all derivatives of the Turkish “uber,”—witch" (Wilson , 1985 , p. 577) .

The second theory favors the idea that a potential source for the word “vampire” is from the root word “pi” or “πίνω,” from the Greek verb to drink, combined with the prefix va or av. In his book The Vampire – His Kith and Kin Montague Summers suggests that while this is a possible source for the word, it is an improbable source and that the Greek superstition of the vrykolakas is steeped in Slavic origin ( Summers , 1928, 1929, p. 18). Depending on the source, some believe that the Slavic myth of the vyrdolak has Greek origins, while others insist that the Greek vrykolakas has Slavic origins.

The third belief is that the origin of the word is the Hungarian word vampir. This is a popular theory among the English and Americans; however, it is unlikely, given that the first use of the Hungarian word post-dates the use of the term in many Western languages (Wilson , 1985 , p. 578) .

The most universally accepted source is Slavic in origin. The well-known Grimm Brothers are among the many who favor this theory (Wilson , 1985 , p. 577) . Though most researchers agree that the word vampire is Slavic in origin, according to Brian Cooper, in his article “The Word Vampire: Its Slavonic Form and Origin,” the spellings of the various forms of vampires that begin with “vam” came from the Slavs appropriating the adulterated word back from the Greeks (Cooper , 2005 , p. 262) .

The Oxford English Dictionary has the earliest English usage of the word vampire from the 1741 text by Charles Forman, called Some queries and observations upon the Revolution in 1688. Their entry on vampires also included the printing of “The Travels of Three English Gentlemen” in The Harleian Miscellany (“Vampire , n. , ” 2020) . While this story was printed in 1745, it relates the travels of three English gentlemen in 1734. From this text:

The Vampyres, which come out of the Graves at Night time, rush upon People sleeping in their Beds, suck out all their Blood, and destroy them…Those who are destroyed by them, after their Death, become Vampyres; so that, to prevent so spreading an Evil, it is found requisite to drive a Stake through the dead Body, from whence, on this Occasion, the Blood flows as if the Person was alive. (Johnson & Oldys , 1745 , p. 358)

While the Oxford English Dictionary gives 1741 as the date of the first use of the word vampire, as its name suggests, this is the first English use of the word, making it entirely possible that one of the four possible origins Wilson notes is the actual origin of the word.

What is important to note is that whatever origin of the word “vampire” that the various linguists believe, none of the origins, as they relate to vampires, predate the late eighteenth century. Yet, stories of vampire lore, stories of those with vampiric traits, do. For this reason, the evolution of the vampire, as is discussed in this paper, is referring not only to the creature that is so named but also the creature that is depicted.

The characterization of a vampire is subjective and by no means homogenous. If one were to base their understanding of a vampire on nineteenth-century literature (e.g. Dracula ) and select current pop culture (e.g. John Carpenter’s Vampires ), they might consider a vampire a soulless undead creature who cannot see its own reflection, has two long fangs on the top of its mouth, which it uses to puncture the artery of its victims, and who can mesmerize its human prey. Its weaknesses are garlic, sunlight, staking, beheading, fire, and holy water. However, a look at ancient vampire folklore nets a broader definition of a vampire. Plagues that leave blisters; rabies that causes foaming at the mouth; coma patients thought to be dead but wake up; and possibly sufferers of porphyria, which causes the skin to rash and blister in the sunlight, were all considered evidence of some form of demonic or vampiric possession. This evidence provoked scared villagers to unearth the deceased, stake, and decapitate them–adding more credence to accounts of vampirism. Some of these early reports include exhumed corpses with fingernails and hair that continued to grow what appeared to be new healthy skin, and some stories report evidence of a devoured shroud in the coffin of the perceived vampire. If several family members died in a short time, the townspeople believed that the first to die had awoken from the dead as a vampire and cursed the other members of their families. Causing many people to believe plague victims were vampires (Barber , 1988 , p. 34-35) . While these early accounts predate the word “vampire,” there is a discernable resemblance to nineteenth century and later literary vampire renderings.

Though those early, mostly European, reports of the dead rising from the grave have made their way into many written accounts of vampire sightings, not all vampire researchers believe early vampire folklore are tales of “true” vampires. In his book The Vampire A New History , Nick Groom asserts:

Vampires are not demons, ghosts, wraiths, revenants or witches – although their stories are sometimes entwined. Vampires occupy their own distinctive category among bloodsuckers, and likewise they should not be too closely tied to a bundle of generalized fears about the dead, the undead, contagion or death. (Groom , 2018 , p. 12)

While stories of vampires predating the vampire’s ingress into literature encompass expansive characteristics, Groom’s suggestions assert that the character traits one might assign to a “true” vampire could be narrower than early folklore suggests. He is not alone in this belief.

Montague Summers, in his book The Vampire in Europe, compares what he considers the “true” vampire to early folklore:

I would emphasize that the vampiric idea was present among well-nigh all ancient peoples, the one great difference, important enough but not wholly essential, being that whereas the true vampire is a dead body, the vampires of the older superstitions were generally ghosts or spectres, but ghosts were sometimes tangible and spectres who could do very material harm to living people by exhausting their vitality and draining their blood. (Summers , 1996 , p. 64)

Though both Groom and Summers denounce vampiric folklore as stories of true vampires, both men include many such stories in their written works on vampires. Therefore, it appears they instinctually understand that taking the irrational fears of primitive humans, born of ignorance of the effects of illness on the human body into account, one could consider a vampire to be any person or creature–more often than not, undead–who steals the life force, in the form of energy, blood, or spiritual essence of a human. At the very least, both men recognize that many modern vampire traits have roots in these archaic vampire renderings. Thus, discounting the idea that these older superstitions are also vampires, as Summers and Groom would have us do, would be a mistake.

One example of an archaic vampire-like story illustrates the epitome of what many would consider vampiric traits. An ancient demon in an Assyrian cuneiform incantation about seven spirits, translated by R. Campbell Thompson in his book Semitic Magic: Its Origins and Development , reads:

Knowing no mercy, they rage against mankind, They spill their blood like rain, Devouring their flesh…sucking their veins. (Thompson , 1908 , p. 48-49)

Thompson’s book includes translations of other texts also describing demons with similar characteristics to vampires. One such verse reads, “Whether thou art an evil Spirit or Evil Demon…Or Phantom of the night, or Wraith of the night…” (Thompson , 1908 , p. 98) . While these spirits might not fit Groom’s or Summer’s definition of a true vampire, their influence on the modern vampire construct is evident. Therefore, these early stories of vampire-like creatures should not be overlooked as vampires when trying to understand the nature of vampires.

The Birth of Vampire Literary Fiction and Cinema

When stories of vampires began to show up in literary fiction, they followed the same pattern of early folklore vampires, in that they were monstrous creatures, lacking a moral compass. However, these vampires often had the ability to mimic humanity; their monstrous side could be hidden. This human-like vampire is the beginning of the evolution of vampires that ultimately ends in them reaching romantic or heroic status. This is where they start to pull away from the Shadow archetype and the mythical representation of vampires that Jung and Campbell speak of. They move from the subconscious to the conscious, becoming their own archetypes.

Vampire literature came into vogue in Europe during the nineteenth century. From folklore and fairytales to Gothic literature, stories of vampires were all the rage. In Fairy Tales of the Russians and Other Slavs , Ace and Olga Pilkington devote an entire section to early nineteenth-century tales of the Undead, translated from their original Slavic languages. These stories mostly lend authority to the idea that vampires are evil creatures – some bearing a remarkable resemblance to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Some of these fairytales could very well have laid the foundation for popular mid to late-nineteenth-century vampire stories such as “Giaour,” The Vampyre, Varney the Vampire, and Dracula . These stories were the start of a new paradigm in vampire representation, where these evil creatures were no longer historical stories of purportedly real creatures one should fear, but fictional stories meant to entertain, thrill, and scare the reader.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the quintessential literary vampire solidified in the form of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, the progeny of Giaour, Lord Ruthven, Varney, and the like. While some cinematic versions, to some extent, portray him as a romantic seducer, he is still undeniably evil. Yet his tragic story has entranced readers for centuries.

Vlad the Impaler, touted as Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula, bears little resemblance to him, other than sharing a name. In Stoker’s personal notes for Dracula, there is only a short mention of the name Dracula in reference to Vlad the Impaler. However, in the novel itself, Van Helsing mentions that a scholar friend of his believes “He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land” (Stoker , 2003 , p. 285) . Yet, other than a thirst for blood—Dracula’s being literal and Vlad’s being figurative—Dracula shares no characteristics with Vlad the Impaler. In fact, Stoker was initially considering the name Count Wampyr. Stoker notes that the name Dracula means “devil” in the Wallachian language, which is likely the reason for the name change (Eighteen-Bisang , 2008 , p. 244-245) . His name lends credence to the idea that the fight against vampires is the fight against evil in its purest form. What better name to portray the evil of Count Dracula than a name that claims him to be the devil himself?

Assistant Professor Ani Kokobobo, from the University of Kansas, believes that rather than Vlad the Impaler being the inspiration for Dracula, it is more likely that Elizabeth Bathory, known as the Blood Countess, was his true inspiration (“The Bleeding Truth about Vampires,” 2020). While Dracula does have more in common with the blood-draining Countess than Vlad the Impaler, he bears a much closer resemblance to the earlier literary folklore and fiction vampires.

Dracula was the fulcrum of generations of vampires to come. Stoker’s genius was in his ability to combine the most interesting vampiric traits derived from his nineteenth-century contemporaries, as well as earlier folklore, to create a frightening yet fantastical creature whose darkness appeals to humankind’s deep-seated dark nature. From his name to his physical and supernatural characteristics, Stoker meant to affect the very picture of a monster when one heard or read the name Dracula. Van Helsing speaks of Dracula’s cunning, just as the Bible speaks of the serpent in the Garden of Eden as “more crafty than any other beast of the field…” ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , Genesis 3:1).

Other characteristics of Dracula meant to strike fear in the hearts of mortals are his powers over storms and the dead. He is able to disappear from one location and reappear in another, become mist or dust, traveling on rays of moonlight, and enter a room through the tiniest of crevasses—making escape from him nearly impossible. He can hypnotize humans to do his bidding, as well as command rats, owls, bats, moths, foxes, and wolves, and even transform himself into a wolf or a bat. Perhaps, even scarier for its implications for humans is his ability to become younger when he is well-fed—blood being the only sustenance he needs (Stoker , 2003 , p. 281-284) .

For all his powers, Dracula is not without his limitations. Though he has the ability to enter a room through tiny cracks, he is unable to enter a place he has not been invited into, but need only be invited once. Then he may continue to enter any time he wishes. Yet another of his limitations is his ability to change form only at noon, sunset, or sunrise. This leaves him more vulnerable if caught in an animal state. He also needs to be near his home soil, which he keeps in coffins in various locations, in order to remain at full strength. Van Helsing informs his fellow hunters of other weaknesses of Dracula. He states:

Then there are things which so afflict him that he has no power, as the garlic that we know of; and as for things sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix… The branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him that he move not from it; a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill him so that he be true dead; and as for the stake through him, we know already of its peace; or the cut-off head that giveth rest. We have seen it with our eyes. (Stoker , 2003 , p. 284)

From the earliest to present-day vampire stories, these monsters are never completely invincible. If they were, there would be no hope for the human race. If vampires started as a myth that our subconscious mind created as the embodiment of our dark nature, then having the ability to overcome the vampire means that we also have the means to overcome our dark nature.

When vampires moved into film, like the early literary vampire stories, the early cinema starts off with completely monstrous vampires, and slowly, endearing qualities are introduced, showing the evolution of vampires from monstrous to romantic continues on in cinema. The silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror , produced by Prana Films, and directed by F.W. Murnau , was the first cinematic depiction of Dracula. Though the vampire character, played by Max Schreck, was named Count Orlok, the similarities between the film and the book were close enough that Stoker’s widow, Florence Stoker, successfully sued Prana Film for copyright infringement. Like Count Dracula, Count Orlok had no redeeming qualities.

One of the most famous twentieth-century cinematic versions of Dracula , and the first to include sound, was the 1931 version staring Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi. Not caring to repeat Prana Film’s blunder, Universal Pictures secured the rights to produce their adaption of Stoker’s story. Dracula may be a monster in deeds in this adaption, but unlike Count Orlok, Lugosi’s character is no monster in appearance. This cinematic version is one of the first to incorporate a sexual element into Dracula’s visage. Lugosi’s character was a handsome man, aristocratic in appearance. His posture remained straight, and his speech clear and concise. His clothes were never rumpled, and he moved with grace and dignity. His focused stare and slow movements towards Mina’s neck gave the appearance of a suitor moving in for a kiss, thus cultivating the idea that a vampire’s nature might be multifaceted. This perversion of the original Dracula story—that removes some of the sinister traits of Dracula and replaces them with characteristics that viewers can relate to paves the way for the tragic vampire, the tortured antihero.

The Tragedy of Mid to Late Twentieth-Century Vampires

Early folklore, nineteenth-century, and early twentieth-century stories and cinema introduced the world to the monstrous vampire. However, in the mid-twentieth century, a new kind of vampire began to emerge, the tragic vampire. Though they were on the precipice of good and evil, they were worthy of our pity. These creatures were only doing what it is in their nature to do. Most of them never asked for their monstrous fate. They cannot help what they are, and like the Byronic hero, they scorn their very nature and lament their fate. In her article “Rehabilitating Revenants, or Sympathetic Vampires in Recent Fiction,” Joan Gordon refers to these vampires as the sympathetic vampires (Gordon , 2011 , p. 227-233) . Referring to these creatures as sympathetic is a misnomer, though. It insinuates that they feel sympathy for others; however, they are generally self-centered creatures. They bemoan the fact that they are “monsters,” that they lack in love, that they have killed to survive. Melancholy would be a better word to describe these tragic creatures who cannot see past their own pain. Literature and cinematic stories such as Dark Shadows , Interview with the Vampire , and Dracula Untold are the bridge between the monstrous and the romantic vampire. For a change from monstrous to romantic to occur, the vampire must first learn to hate its very nature, just as in the bible humankind are told to “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , Romans 12:9b). One television show, in particular, illustrates vampire self-hatred— Forever Knight .

Forever Knight

The 1992-1996 television show Forever Knight follows the story of Nick Knight, a vampire cop living and working in Toronto, Canada. Eight-hundred-year-old Knight was the embodiment of the tragic vampire. His distaste for his state and the atrocities he perpetrated on humans throughout hundreds of years was so overwhelming that he was in a constant battle to fight his nature. Knight did his best to avoid drinking human blood by consuming the blood of animals. He no longer killed indiscriminately, choosing to use his vampiric powers only when necessary—generally in the line of duty. Natalie Lambert, Knight’s friend, who is secretly in love with him, is the only human who knows that Knight is a vampire. At the end of the last season, she begs Knight to make her a vampire. He gives in and starts the transformation, but before he completes it, he realizes he cannot subject Lambert to the same fate he has been fighting for so long and allows her to die rather than turning her into what he perceives as his monstrous state. Then in a fit of remorse, he begs another vampire to help him end his life. This Romeo and Juliet -like ending cements the story’s place among cinematic tragedies.

What makes vampires like Nick Knight so tragic is that though they despise their very nature, they cannot overcome it no matter how hard they try, just as the apostle Paul says in Romans 7:15, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , Romans 7:15). As this scripture illustrates, humans are no strangers to the fight against their own nature.

Campbell says, “Myths inspire the realization of the possibility of your perfection, the fullness of your strength, and the bringing of solar light into the world. Slaying monsters is slaying the dark things” (148). To which, Moyers asks Campbell, “How do I slay that dragon in me” (148)? In response, Campbell says, “My general formula…is ‘Follow your bliss. Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it’” (p. 148). Nick’s inability to achieve happiness was rooted in his inability to realize the possibility of his perfection.

From Tragedy Comes Romanticism

While the monstrous vampire archetype dominates early folklore literature and nineteenth-century literature, and the lost and lonely tragic vampire archetype emerges in twentieth-century literature, twenty-first-century literature and cinema gives its audience what the evil turned tragic vampire wants, redemption in the form of the romantic vampire archetype. These vampires were the heroes who overcame their tarnished pasts, which makes this new era of vampires so seductive. Much like man, the modern vampire seeks salvation. In the book The Power of Myth , Bill Moyer calls heaven “[T]hat desired goal of most people” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 39) . For the vampire to attain this goal, it must become something more than an evil or tragic creature. It must become the hero.

When the romantic hero-like vampire reached its prominence in the literary world during the twenty-first century, writers capitalized on the new craze in vampire stories. This new model of vampires sometimes dedicated themselves to the destruction of evil vampires. Campbell states, “Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 127) . The focus of the twenty-first-century consciousness was on the need for a hero. Writers exploited this need and seduced the readers into believing that vampires are not evil. These authors mesmerize readers with tales of good versus evil, where good triumphs over evil in the end.

Not only are modern authors creating vampires that are no longer as frightening as their nineteenth-century predecessors, but they are also making completely new rules for what defines a vampire and sometimes how they come into being. Vampires having an aversion to garlic is not guaranteed. Many are not soulless. To name just a few modern romantic vampire series, there are Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga, and Lynsay Sand’s Argeneau series—a tale of vampires with unusual origins that perfectly fits with the post-demonic, romantic representation of the heroic vampire.

Argeneau Series

Lynsay Sands has a unique take on her vampires. The first vampires were Atlanteans, an advanced race of humans whose doctors created tiny nanobots to enter the bloodstream of those with serious illnesses to attack and destroy those illnesses. These nanobots were meant to die off when they finished healing the patient. For all their advanced intelligence, the Atlantean doctors failed to predict that because the human body was always under attack from illness and disease, the nanobots would never die. These nanobots even considered aging to be a disease that needs curing. Any human could become a vampire by the introduction of nanobots into their bloodstream. Once they became a vampire, the nanobots would change the makeup of their genes until they became their perfect age, and their body was in its perfect condition. If an overweight senior citizen became a vampire, they would suddenly find themselves looking and feeling like a healthy 25-year-old. They became the perfect versions of themselves. These vampire traits appeal to human ideals of physical perfection.

When Atlantis fell, only the Atlanteans with the nanobots inside them survived. However, because the rest of the world was not nearly as advanced as the Atlanteans and didn’t have blood banks, the nanobots evolved their hosts to be able to extract blood through their straw-like teeth to get what they needed from other humans. They also evolved their host to be able to read the thoughts of humans, and even other Atlanteans, for the purpose of calming and controlling those they were feeding on.

Just like humans, among her stories, there are virtuous vampires and unscrupulous vampires. Some of these noble and moral vampires take it upon themselves to protect humanity from the wicked ones’ intent on committing evil deeds, setting the good vampires up as heroic or romantic figures. While these vampires have super strength, exceptional hearing, enhanced vision, and must drink blood to survive, they by no means resemble the monsters of earlier tales. They are no more evil than any other human being. Once civilization advanced to the point of having blood banks, the immortals even created laws against drinking blood directly from humans, rather than bagged blood, except in an emergency, as well as other laws meant to keep them in check and protect humans.

Enhancing the romantic impact of her vampires, Sands gave them each one true love, called a lifemate, for whom they are always on the search. When a vampire met their possible lifemate, they would know them by certain traits. They could not read their lifemate’s mind or control them. In Sands’s book Vampire Interrupted , the vampire Julius says to his lifemate, “Marguerite, we are lifemates. I can’t read or control you” (Sands , 2009 , p. 230) . This was not the only trait Marguerite and Julius shared that labeled them as lifemates. Lifemates would have shared dreams if they were in close proximity and sleeping at the same time. Unmated vampires, after about a hundred or two years of existence, would lose interest in things like eating and sex. However, if both, or just one of a pair of lifemates, were vampires when they met, they would suddenly find themselves having a renewed interest in both food and copulation. Lifemates were soulmates, and this perfect love was sought-after by most vampires.

These romantic vampires have reached a state that the tragic vampire covets—a state where they are more than just monsters. In becoming worthy of love, the vampire transcends from the monster vampire to the tragic vampire to the romantic vampire. Though the vampire’s journey from the monster myth to the romantic archetype parallels humankind’s journey from sinner to redeemed, neither vampires nor humans have completely rid themselves of their dark nature. They have suppressed it and allowed the good within themselves to outshine the bad. The New Testament, 1 John 1:8 describes how all people have this darker side, or sin, as it reads, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , 1 John 1:8). Though it has a suppressed dark side, the modern romantic vampire has overcome the stigma of the monstrous vampire and despair of the tragic vampire and has metamorphosed from the villain to the hero. When Moyers asks Campbell, “So the hero evolves over time like most other concepts?”

Campbell replies, “He evolves as culture evolves” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 135) . Like the age-old hero archetype, the vampire has evolved to meet the needs of today’s society. It has evolved into the hero.

Conclusion: Out of the Shadow

Jung’s Shadow archetype is the dark side of the human psyche. This dark side gives birth to the subconscious monster myth, with the vampire myth being one manifestation of that monster myth. By moving from humankind’s subconscious to conscious mind—going from stories born of generalized fears to fictional literature meant to entertain—vampires moved from myth to archetype. In the same way, humans’ dark nature moved from unknown to known, or subconscious to conscious, or as Jung says, from the unconscious to the conscious.

The earliest vampire archetype is undeniably a monster. It drains the lifeforce or its victims, sucking their blood and devouring their flesh. It knows no other path than the road to damnation. This monster represents humankind’s dark nature, but unlike the vampire myth, this vampire, like some of its human contemporaries, knows its nature and has no desire to be anything other than what it is, a monster.

Like humans, some vampires, once becoming self-aware, became disgusted with who they were and longed to be more, to be made pure. These vampires are the tragic vampire archetype, the vampire who abhors its own existence. It lives a self-sacrificing life out of guilt and a need for redemption. Its repentance comes from a place of fear of damnation and a fear of the monster within.

The third vampire archetype to splinter from the vampire myth and evolve from the monster and tragic vampire is the romantic vampire. The romantic vampire is a protector, a lover, a paragon and has found its salvation in this existence. And though it still carries within a repressed dark nature, what makes the romantic vampire a hero is its ability to resist the temptation to give in to its dark nature, though like humans, it sometimes finds the temptation almost overwhelming. When the vampire evolves from the tragic vampire to the romantic vampire, it has reached its desired state. For Judeo-Christians and many other religions, this would be when they find their salvation. For those of certain other religions as well as those without religious beliefs, this could be when they have reached the pinnacle of who they wish to be.

Just as humans will always have their sinful nature or Shadow self, there will always exist within the three vampire archetypes, a kernel of the Shadow myth, a seed of that sinful nature. The vampire evolves as we evolve. And like humans, not all vampires evolve into this exalted state. Some never leave the monster archetype or the tragic archetype behind, just as literature and cinema have not left them behind.

Campbell states, "What we call monsters can be experienced as sublime… you’re climbing, until suddenly you break past a screen and an expanse of horizon opens out, and somehow, with this diminishment of your own ego, your consciousness expands to an experience of the sublime (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 222) . Whether we are talking about vampires or humans, those with the goal of salvation from their monstrous self and who work towards that goal will suddenly find they have reached their destination, and then they can truly experience their bliss.

Submitted : February 19, 2021 MDT

Accepted : April 13, 2021 MDT

Vampires of the Ancient World

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 25 July 2023
• Cite this living reference work entry

• John J. Johnston 2  

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This paper surveys the archaeological and literary evidence for the ongoing belief in vampires and vampire-like entities in the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean basin, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, from the earliest historic periods through to the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD, covering a range of more than three millennia. In considering the nature, appearance, and habits of these mythological beings, from bloodthirsty deities and voracious demons to undead sorcerers and passionate revenants, the paper will address the development of the vampire in the ancient world, while considering certain of the cultural mores, which gave them life, including attitudes toward the dead, belief in the magical properties of blood, and the recurrent, linked, themes of Eros and Thanatos. Finally, the paper will address the transmission of these tales into medieval and early modern conceptions of the vampire in Eastern Europe and, thence, into modern popular culture through the literary works of Goethe, Keats, and Stoker.

“…there are as many species of vampire as there are beasts of prey; their methods and their motive for attack can vary in a hundred different ways.” Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (UK, Brian Clemens, 1974)

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Johnston, J.J. (2023). Vampires of the Ancient World. In: Bacon, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82301-6_1-1

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Vampire History

By: History.com Editors

Updated: November 16, 2023 | Original: September 13, 2017

Vampires are evil mythological beings who roam the world at night searching for people whose blood they feed upon. They may be the best-known classic monsters of all. Most people associate vampires with Count Dracula, the legendary, blood-sucking subject of Bram Stoker’s epic novel, Dracula, which was published in 1897. But the history of vampires began long before Stoker was born.

What Is a Vampire?

There are almost as many different characteristics of vampires as there are vampire legends. But the main characteristic of vampires (or vampyres) is they drink human blood. They typically drain their victim’s blood using their sharp fangs, killing them and turning them into vampires.

In general, vampires hunt at night since sunlight weakens their powers. Some may have the ability to morph into a bat or a wolf. Vampires have super strength and often have a hypnotic, sensual effect on their victims. They can’t see their image in a mirror and cast no shadows.

Vlad the Impaler

It’s thought Bram Stoker named Count Dracula after Vlad Drăculea, also known as Vlad the Impaler . Vlad Drăculea was born in Transylvania, Romania. He ruled Walachia, Romania, off and on between 1448 and 1477.

Some historians describe him as a just—yet brutally cruel—ruler who valiantly fought off the Ottoman Empire . He earned his nickname because his favorite way to kill his enemies was to impale them on a wooden stake.

According to legend, Vlad Drăculea enjoyed dining amidst his dying victims and dipping his bread in their blood. Whether those gory tales are true is unknown. Many people believe these stories sparked Stoker’s imagination to create Count Dracula, who was also from Transylvania, sucked his victim’s blood and could be killed by driving a stake through his heart.

But, according to Dracula expert Elizabeth Miller, Stoker didn’t base Count Dracula’s life on Vlad Drăculea. Nonetheless, the similarities between the two are intriguing.

Are Vampires Real?

Vampire superstition thrived in the Middle Ages , especially as the plague decimated entire towns. The disease often left behind bleeding mouth lesions on its victims, which to the uneducated was a sure sign of vampirism.

It wasn’t uncommon for anyone with an unfamiliar physical or emotional illness to be labeled a vampire. Many researchers have pointed to porphyria, a blood disorder that can cause severe blisters on skin that’s exposed to sunlight, as a disease that may have been linked to the vampire legend.

Some symptoms of porphyria can be temporarily relieved by ingesting blood. Other diseases blamed for promoting the vampire myth include rabies or goiter.

When a suspected vampire died, their bodies were often disinterred to search for signs of vampirism. In some cases, a stake was thrust through the corpse’s heart to make sure they stayed dead. Other accounts describe the decapitation and burning of the corpses of suspected vampires well into the nineteenth century.

Mercy Brown

Mercy Brown may rival Count Dracula as the most notorious vampire. Unlike Count Dracula, however, Mercy was a real person. She lived in Exeter, Rhode Island and was the daughter of George Brown, a farmer.

After George lost many family members, including Mercy, in the late 1800s to tuberculosis, his community used Mercy as a scapegoat to explain their deaths. It was common at that time to blame several deaths in one family on the “undead.” The bodies of each dead family member were often exhumed and searched for signs of vampirism.

When Mercy’s body was exhumed and didn’t display severe decay (not surprising, since her body was placed in an above-ground vault during a New England winter), the townspeople accused her of being a vampire and making her family sick from her icy grave. They cut out her heart, burned it, then fed the ashes to her sick brother. Perhaps not surprisingly, he died shortly thereafter.

Real Vampires

Although modern science has silenced the vampire fears of the past, people who call themselves vampires do exist. They’re normal-seeming people who drink small amounts of blood in a (perhaps misguided) effort to stay healthy.

Communities of self-identified vampires can be found on the Internet and in cities and towns around the world.To avoid rekindling vampire superstitions, most modern vampires keep to themselves and typically conduct their “feeding” rituals—which include drinking the blood of willing donors—in private.

Some vampires don’t ingest human blood but claim to feed off the energy of others. Many state that if they don’t feed regularly, they become agitated or depressed.

Vampires became mainstream after Dracula was published. Since then, Count Dracula’s legendary persona has been the topic of many films, books and television shows. Given the fascination people have with all things horror, vampires—real or imagined—are likely to continue to inhabit the earth for years to come.

HISTORY Vault: Ancient Mysteries

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A Brief History of the Immortals of Non-Hindu Civilizations. Shri Bhagavatananda Guru. A Natural History of Vampires. Scientific American. Dracula’s Homepage. Elizabeth Miller. Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Beyond. Smithsonian.com . Real-Life Vampires Exist and Researchers Are Studying Them. Discover. Where Do Vampires Come From? National Geographic. The real-life diseases that spread the vampire myth. BBC Future . Born to the Purple: the Story of Porphyria. Scientific American .

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Article Contents

Introduction.

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The vampire in medical perspective: myth or malady?

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R.P.P.W.M. Maas, P.J.G.M. Voets, The vampire in medical perspective: myth or malady?, QJM: An International Journal of Medicine , Volume 107, Issue 11, November 2014, Pages 945–946, https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcu159

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The vampire is a fascinating creature that has captured man’s imagination ever since its first descriptions. Throughout the years and all over the world it has been portrayed in various—sometimes conflicting, but more often relatively similar—ways in folklore, books and movies. Some well-known examples are the Transylvanian count Dracula, the sasabonsam from West African folklore and the manananggal from the Philippines. The aversion to garlic and sunlight and a victim’s similar fate after a bite seem to be recurring elements. 1 , 2 On closer inspection the physical and behavioral features of the vampire show striking and intriguing similarities with three relatively rare medical conditions discussed in this article: porphyria, rabies and pellagra.

The association between vampirism and porphyria is probably the most famous one. Porphyria refers to a group of disorders characterized by a defect in one of the enzymes involved in the synthesis of heme. As a consequence, accumulation of porphyrins (toxic heme precursors) occurs in various organs, depending on the specific subtype. 3 Although porphyria cutanea tarda and acute intermittent porphyria are the most common forms, it is congenital erythropoietic porphyria that is in particular associated with vampirism. 1 This autosomal recessive disorder, also known as Günther’s disease, is characterized by pronounced photosensitivity and chronic hemolytic anemia. 3

The classical aversion of the vampire to garlic may be accounted for by the ability of certain compounds of this bulbous plant to induce the heme degrading enzyme heme oxygenase-1, 4 thereby further exacerbating the anemia. Furthermore, in the presence of sunlight accumulated uroporphyrin I and coproporphyrin I are able to donate electrons to oxygen, resulting in the formation of reactive oxygen species and severe skin damage. 5 In addition, secondary infections and bone resorption may induce severe scarring and deformities of sun-exposed body parts. Accumulation of toxic porphyrins not only occurs in skin, but also in bones and teeth, 3 giving rise to the characteristic erythrodontia that may have readily been attributed to the drinking of blood in former days. In this way, vampires might theoretically replenish their heme stores and thus partially correct the state of chronic anemia. Further analysis, however, reveals the fraction of heme in the circulation after oral intake to be negligible and craving to be absent among porphyria patients. 1

The association between vampirism and rabies was first described in 1733. 6 Three years after, the French theologist Augustin Calmet wrote that people who died from rabies had an increased chance of ‘returning’ (as a vampire). 7 Rabies is caused by a lyssavirus that is transmitted through animal saliva—usually after a bite of the with vampires associated bat, wolf or dog—and quickly travels along the peripheral nervous system by retrograde axonal transport. After a phase with non-specific, prodromal symptoms, such as fatigue and periwound paresthesias, an encephalitic or (less frequently) paralytic illness develops. The encephalitic or ‘furious’ form is clinically characterized by hydrophobia, muscle spasms, agitation, insomnia and bizarre—beastly or hypersexual—behavior. 8

There are several links between hydrophobia and vampires. Streaming water is one of the apotropaia or repellent substances and, according to folklore, the chance of transforming into a vampire could be decreased by sprinkling water on the coffin of the deceased. 2 Hydrophobia is characterized by severe laryngeal muscle spasms in response to drinking or even seeing water, often accompanied by coughing up blood and exposing the teeth. Even one’s own reflection could trigger laryngeal spasms, which might explain the vampire’s fear of mirrors. 2 The beastly biting behavior of the infected patient, a means to transmit the virus, could explain how vampirism was transmitted from one person to another. Both this behavior and the insomnia which could explain the vampire’s nightly escapades, are the result of dysregulation of the limbic system, an important and early site of neuronal damage and inflammation in furious rabies. 9 Finally, as opposed to the rare forms of porphyria, rabies was a relatively common condition in former times.

A deficiency of niacin and its precursor molecule, the essential amino acid tryptophan, gives rise to the so-called four D’s of pellagra: dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia and, unless proper treatment is initiated, death. Photosensitivity is a hallmark of this disorder that is dermatologically characterized by erythema, edema—and in long-established disease—hyperkeratosis and hyperpigmentation, most notably of the neck (‘Casal’s necklace’) and dorsal surfaces of the hand. 10 Furthermore, erythematous glossitis is often present and it is not hard to imagine the link between this symptom and fangs, dripping with blood. 11 Insomnia and aggression could provide an explanation for the behavior of the vampire. Lastly, due to scarce resources in former days, nutrient deficiency would seem an epidemiologically plausible explanation for the vampire myth.

In the previous sections, we have described similarities between three relatively rare medical conditions and the characteristics of vampires, as they are described in folklore and the more contemporary books and movies. Although porphyria, rabies and pellagra each provide some sort of medical justification for the vampire myth, none of these diseases seems to present a conclusive explanation for the sum of properties and phenomena. Furthermore, it seems likely that some of the vampire’s features that were observed in a corpse after opening the coffin can simply be accounted for by the normal decomposition process of the human body. For instance, fresh blood around the mouth and a distended—‘satiated’—abdomen are often noted in the deceased as a result of increased pressure due to intestinal gas accumulation. 2

Should we therefore conclude that a disease is an insufficient explanation for the vampire myth? Not necessarily. As mentioned earlier, various creatures with similar appearance, abilities and behavior have been described independently by different peoples all over the world. Although this might be sheer coincidence, these similarities in depiction may point to a common ‘source of inspiration’ which could very well be a medical condition that is seen all around the world. Most likely, other influences, such as indigenous animals or local beliefs and traditions, may have colored the portrayals of the vampire from region to region. In summary, although it would not be justified to conclude that the vampire myth definitely has medical roots, there certainly are arguments that at least partially favor this hypothesis.

Conflict of interest: None declared.

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Articles on Vampires

Displaying 1 - 20 of 28 articles.

My favourite fictional character: Wintering’s grotesque widows reveal the ‘monstrous’ woman as wise and progressive

Martine Kropkowski , The University of Queensland

Renfield: Nicolas Cage’s reimagining of Dracula pulls the vampire film into the 21st century

Catherine Spooner , Lancaster University

Three essential tales of black vampirism

Joan Passey , University of Bristol

‘Dracula Daily’ reanimates the classic vampire novel for the age of memes and snark

Stanley Stepanic , University of Virginia

Goblin mode: a gothic expert explains the trend’s mythical origins, and why we should all go ‘vampire mode’ instead

Sam George , University of Hertfordshire

Nosferatu at 100: how the seminal vampire film shaped the horror genre

Lindsay Hallam , University of East London

More ‘disease’ than ‘Dracula’ – how the vampire myth was born

Medical volunteers in rural Zambia: learning from attitudes to angels and vampires

James Wintrup , University of Oslo

America’s first vampire was Black and revolutionary – it’s time to remember him

Dracula: free movement of vampires a fitting horror story for the Brexit era

Vampire bats aren’t the monsters we thought they were

Jan Hoole , Keele University

Rabies’ horrifying symptoms inspired folktales of humans turned into werewolves, vampires and other monsters

Jessica Wang , University of British Columbia

Vampire’s rebirth: from monstrous undead creature to sexy and romantic Byronic seducer in one ghost story

Perverse passions that will not die: The modern vampire first walked among us two centuries ago

Robert Morrison , Queen's University, Ontario

Mr Darcy as vampire: a literary hero with bite

Eric Parisot , Flinders University

Fantasmagoriana: the German book of ghost stories that inspired Frankenstein

Fabio Camilletti , University of Warwick

Five vampire traits that exist in the natural world

Louise Gentle , Nottingham Trent University

Older than Dracula: in search of the English vampire

Friday essay: why YA gothic fiction is booming - and girl monsters are on the rise

Michelle Smith , Monash University

Blood on the stage: Let the Right One In is a vampire love story for our times

Vivienne Glance , The University of Western Australia

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Vampires in Modern European and American Cultures Research Paper

Introduction: the mysterious creatures of the night, the european vampires: welcome to the hotel transylvania, the american vampires: the marketing power of horror, conclusion: when there is no silver bullet, works cited, origin and mythology.

The whole concept of a pale blood-sucking creature that crawls into the night and transforms into a bat is not new; the traces of vampire stories can be tracked down to Mesopotamia (ca. 3100 B. C.). Likewise, one of the Aztecs’ deities shared a range of features with the classical definition of a vampire. A closer look at the European heritage of vampire stories will show that the character has undergone quite a transformation in the process. However, it was not until the 1720–1730s “vampire craze” that the mythological creatures had any unique features outside their craving for blood. After Bram Stoker’s revolutionary novel published in 1897, the vampire finally shook off his resemblance to the devil and became a unique mythological character.

Saying that the Dracula franchise has had a major impact on the European culture would be a huge understatement – the character, as well as the story, quickly gained a cult following not only in Europe but also all over the United States, spawning the creation of a range of similar demons in literature and movies. However, with all due respect to the breakthrough that Dracula’s story has had on the entire concept of vampirism, one must admit that the character was pretty bland. Dracula was driven solely by the desire to satisfy his animalistic carving for blood – it was scary enough as a concept, yet it did not make the character very interesting. As a result, Stoker has to focus on the experiences and emotions of the narrator, for the most part, leaving the beast aside for quite a while.

Nosferatu, on the other hand, was obviously a step in the right direction. A movie released some thirty years after the famous Dracula story, it introduced the audience to a new kind of vampires – the ones that kept their original creepy look intact, yet we’re much more sophisticated in their desires and cravings. Nosferatu’s lust for power, as well as his sheer delight of people’s fear, contrasts sharply with Dracula’s consistent and somewhat dumb need for filling his stomach with blood. The necessity for Nosferatu to savor the dread of his victims made him more human-like and, at the same time, kept the distance between him and the mere mortals, therefore, creating the Uncanny Valley effect (Roberts and Roberts 225), which was enough to be struck with fear.

The many faces of Dracula

Much like Europe, the United States has a very long and proud history of creating their vampire mythology. A closer look at the American concept of a vampire, however, will reveal that the latter has clearly undergone impressive changes. Unlike its European counterpart, the American concept of a vampire seems to have been shaped so that it could be marketed easier and that books and movies with vampires as the lead characters should sell better.

This does not presuppose, though, that the American ideal of a vampire is entirely deprived of any aesthetics – quite on the contrary, the U.S. characters, though having an impressive European heritage, developed unique features and gained impressive character arcs. A closer look at the way in which vampires were depicted in the American media, particularly in novels and TV series, will reveal that the monsters became more refined and were provided with a back story.

Dark Shadows and the Gothic aesthetics

Dark Shadows is, perhaps, one of the most well known American interpretations of the vampire-related myth. Though, belonging to the genre of a soap opera, it could not be any further from the concept of a horror movie, the specified series represented a unique image of a vampire. While still carrying the stereotypical traits of the Count Dracula, Barnabas from the Dark Shadows clearly incorporates the features that make him more three-dimensional. For example, he appears as a cruel monster, yet in the next scene, he plays the role of a refined gentleman – and, in fact, he manages to fool people into trusting him with the help of his attitude and charisma. At this point, the attempts of the American story writers and filmmakers to add the Dracula stereotype more depth become quite noticeable.

Pearl Jones and the advent of new vampires

The evolution of the image of a vampire in the United States and the differences, which the latter has undergone, can be attributed to the change in the target audience, which the movies and stories about vampires are aimed at. Indeed, a closer look at both will show that Stoker’s Dracula , for example, was written for older demographics – not for children and teenagers; the complex relationships between the characters, as well as the detailed description of the realm of the “adult” world, with references to economy and politics, was obviously not meant for children. Such cultural phenomena as the supernatural in the Harry Potter franchise, or The Lord of the Rings , in their turn, are obviously promoted to the younger generation in the United States, hence the changes in the representation of vampires.

Consequently, it will be reasonable to suggest that, to cater to the needs of the aforementioned demographics, “an escape from the mundane realities of day-to-day existence” (Maasik and Solomon 14) is provided through the alterations in the image of a vampire. However, in order to help the “escapees” project their fantasies onto the everyday reality, the references to the reality are inserted into the image of a vampire. Consequently, vampires have become more human-like, as if their creators were trying to introduce an element of thrill into the ordinary lives of the viewers. With the Pearl Jones comic book series being the introduction to the new concept of a vampire, the idea of adding a certain tint of glamour to the image of the creature was planted into the American popular culture.

The true House of Horror: the Twilight franchise

This invites the question of whether the inclusion of human traits and features devalues the concept of a vampire and defies the heritage of Dracula, Nosferatu, and other famous vampire characters in modern American culture. On the one hand, the changes, which the concept of a vampire has undergone, seem quite necessary. Instead of being evil for the sake of being evil, vampires became full-fledged and fleshed-out characters with complex arcs and interesting backstories. On the other hand, the image of a vampire seems to have become the furthest thing possible from what the original idea was about; instead of being the antagonists, the scary demons that were supposed to be defeated by the lead character, they themselves became the leads, i.e., the characters that the audience was supposed to empathize with and relate to. The famous Interview with the Vampire , which resulted in making the creatures “sympathetic and sexy” (14) seems to have been the first step towards the notorious Twilight , the movie that is as much hated by movie critics as it is loved by the target audience, i.e., overly romantic female teenagers.

Despite the fact that there is a huge difference not only between the European and the American idea of a vampire as a fictional character but also between the traditional and the modern interpretations of the image, the transformation, though unusual, seems rather legitimate. No matter how far the current concept of a vampire from the traditional idea is, it still opens a pool of opportunities for artists, writers, and moviemakers to explore. The existence of bad movies and novels with vampires as leads in them does not prove that the entire concept cannot evolve. Quite on the contrary, it needs to progress. People need new challenges in order to come up with new and unique interpretations. Pushing the envelope and challenging the traditional perception of supernatural in general and vampires, in particular, may lead to the creation of another masterpiece comparable to Bram Stoker’s Dracula .

Camazotz, the Death Bat . 2011. Web.

ESP: Ancient Vampires . 2011. Web.

Maasik, Sonia, and Jack Solomon. “Interpreting Popular Signs: The Modern Vampire.” Signs of Life in the USA .Boston, NA: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2012. 13–21. Print.

MrDoucab. “ Dark Shadows (TV Series): Barnabas Is Freed From His Coffin In 1967.” YouTube . 2012. Web.

“Pearl Jones (Character).” ComicVine . n. d. Web.

Roberts, Debbie and Roberts, Nathan J. “Clinical Simulation: Dare We Venture into the Uncanny Valley?” Nurse Education in Practice 14.3 (2014), 225 – 226. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2024, April 28). Vampires in Modern European and American Cultures. https://ivypanda.com/essays/vampires-in-modern-european-and-american-cultures/

"Vampires in Modern European and American Cultures." IvyPanda , 28 Apr. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/vampires-in-modern-european-and-american-cultures/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Vampires in Modern European and American Cultures'. 28 April.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Vampires in Modern European and American Cultures." April 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/vampires-in-modern-european-and-american-cultures/.

1. IvyPanda . "Vampires in Modern European and American Cultures." April 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/vampires-in-modern-european-and-american-cultures/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Vampires in Modern European and American Cultures." April 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/vampires-in-modern-european-and-american-cultures/.

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