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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 02/01/2005 : 02:16:59
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Or: one vampire = six idiots...
I almost put this in Humor 'cause I think it's funnier than a rubber crutch in the orthopedic ward. 
Of course, this is actually one of the many ways the superstitious have of dealing with 'vampires', and they go back centuries in folklore. I am not terribly suprised to see some of them still praticed today.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
 Posted - 02/01/2005 : 08:34:41 [Permalink]
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| Oh my goodness... this is precious, really precious. Now my mother thinks I'm crazy because I'm laughing like a maniac at the computer |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Storm
SFN Regular
USA
708 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2005 : 16:09:07 [Permalink]
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My interest in the story lies in why the gentlemen believed this man to be a vampire.... The Romanians name for vampire is Strigoi... Murony... The Romanians believe that there are many sighns that one gives in life to make him/her a Strigoi in death... i.e. born out of wedlock, born with a caul, lives an evil life... Suicidal...
The presence of a vampire is usually first discovered when numerous unexpected deaths in a family or livestock occur.. Wonder what the rest of the story is... People in Romania don't just going around killing vampires...
This person who died must have had more links to these gentlemen than known or at least written...
The way in which the gentlemen disposed of the Vampire is a very ancient Romanian folkloric remedy....
Maybe he returned to these men... Could not give up his ghost... or...Maybe his consciousness did not die so fast... his dissapating energy took longer to.... go... thus creating his image to the other gentlemen... thus perpetuating the myth of the living dead...  |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2005 : 17:28:16 [Permalink]
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It is actually a bit difficult to google anything about vampires due to the incredable amount of silliness and crap cluttering up the net. But, here's Cecil's take on it, from the straight Dope.
It's not very much, but it'll have to do for the nonce.
The literature is filled with cases where several people died from whatever, and the blame was placed at the feet of one of the 'undead'. This resulted in a relitivly fresh corpse being exhumed and, usually, it's heart being removed and destroyed in ways ranging from burying it elsewhere to what we have just read.
In centuries past, this was not often done willy-nilly. The community would get together and decide if indeed a vampire was responsible, and if so, which grave might contain it. The literature fails to mention if 'killing' the vampire had any effect on the health of the community, but I imagine everybody felt better about the whole thing.
Maybe tomorrow, I'll dig a little deeper. It is a fascinating subject, at least to collectors of the grimer side of folklore.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Isaiah
Skeptic Friend
USA
83 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2005 : 22:31:22 [Permalink]
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Okay, I don't really believe in vampires, but what is so unbelievable about such a thing as vampires existing? Of all the paranormal or mystical or supernatural entities to exist, vampires seem less strange and more scientifically explainable than most if the lore behind them is taken with a large dose of salt.
Isaiah |
For Real Things I Know - http://solomonj.blogspot.com
"My point is, that you cannot use lack of evidence for one possibility as proof for another." - Dude
“I would rather delude myself with comforting fantasies than face a cold reality” - Isaiah, altered from astropin |
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Tim
SFN Regular
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - 02/02/2005 : 00:53:57 [Permalink]
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quote:
Posted by Isaiah...what is so unbelievable about such a thing as vampires existing?
Uh, You're not serious are you? |
"We got an issue in America. Too many good docs are gettin' out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their -- their love with women all across this country." Dubya in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 9/6/2004
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/02/2005 : 05:49:01 [Permalink]
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Vampire myths and legends are found world wide and were ancient before the writing of the Bible.
The most famous vampire today is the fictional Dracula, a creation of Bram Stoker, and inspired by Vlad Dracula, or Tepes, a prince of Rumania with something of an appetite for spectacular execution, generally a true badass, and defiantly not someone to cross. So, let's get the namesake of Stoker's degenerate hero out of the way now.
quote:
Vlad Tepes was born in November or December 1431, in the fortress of Sighisoara, Romania. His father, Vlad Dracul, at that time appointed military governor of Transylvania by the emperor Sigismund, had been inducted into the Order of the Dragon about one year before. The order - which could be compared to the Knights of the Hospital of St. John or even to the Teutonic Order of Knights - was a semimilitary and religious society, originally created in 1387 by the Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife, Barbara Cilli. The main goals of such a secret fraternal order of knights was mainly to protect the interests of Catholicism, and to crusade against the Turks. There are different reasons why this society is so important to us. First, it provides an explanation for the name "Dracula;" "Dracul," in Romanian language, means "Dragon", and the boyars of Romania, who knew of Vlad Tepes' father induction into the Order of the Dragon, decided to call him "Dracul." "Dracula," a diminutive which means "the son of Dracul," was a surname to be used ultimately by Vlad Tepes. A second major role of this Order as a source of inspiration for Stoker's evil character is the Order's official dress - a black cape over a red garment - to be worn only on Fridays or during the commemoration of Christ's Passion.
Even at an early age, young Vlad was accomplished in the region's political process‘:
quote:
At 17 years old, Vlad Tepes Dracula, supported by a force of Turkish cavalry and a contingent of troops lent to him by pasha Mustafa Hassan, made his first major move toward seizing the Wallachian throne. But another claimant, no other than Vladislav II himself, defeated him only two months later. In order to secure his second and major reign over Wallachia, Dracula had to wait until July of 1456, when he had the satisfaction of killing his mortal enemy and his father's assassin. Vlad then began his longest reign - 6 years - during which he committed many cruelties, and hence established his controversed reputation.
His first major act of revenge was aimed at the boyars of Tirgoviste for the killing of his father and his brother Mircea. On Easter Sunday of what we believe to be 1459, he arrested all the boyar families who had participated to the princely feast. He impaled the older ones on stakes while forcing the others to march from the capital to the town of Poenari. This fifty-mile trek was quite grueling, and those who survived were not permitted to rest until they reached destination. Dracula then ordered them to build him a fortress on the ruins of an older outpost overlooking the Arges river. Many died in the process, and Dracula therefore succeeded in creating a new nobility and obtaining a fortress for future emergencies. What is left today of the building is identified as Castle Dracula.
http://members.aol.com/johnfranc/drac05.htm
Stoker's grim, little fairy tale was not the one that popularized vampires in England. That dubious honor must go to Varney the Vampyre, a wretched bit of serialized trash written by James Rhymer in the 1840s. A still earlier work Vampyre, by John Polidori in 1819 paved the |
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 02/02/2005 : 07:03:13 [Permalink]
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Actually, that's interesting. I was watching tv yesterday and came across one of my favorite shows, CSI (Crime Scene Investigation). It's about a forensics team that solve cases by examining evidences, etc.
Well, yesterday's case was about a jogger found dead in the surroundings of Las Vegas, with a series of straight, neat cuts on his stomach made to resemble the attack of a courgar. Only, they were far too regular to be an animal's work; they were definatly made by a human. The corpse was lacking a few organs, such as the liver and spleen.
Turns out it was a case of cannibalism - a woman that killed people, removed and ate the raw organs. She tried to defend herself by saying she had a disease called porphyria, the vampirism syndrome. Symptoms were light sensitivity causing rashes, abdominal pain and such. Apparently she found relief/control to her rare disease by eating human organs.
Since I never heard of it, I went to look it up. Here's what I found. Of course, nowhere it says "eat human flesh" as a treatment, but it made me think. Could it be the origin of the vampire folklore? People afflicted with porphyria and not knowing what it is/how to treat it found relief by killing and drinking/eating a human's blood/organs? People damaged by the sun? |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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| Edited by - Siberia on 02/02/2005 07:04:22 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/02/2005 : 12:58:45 [Permalink]
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Don't know, but I think it's mostly just good, old, human superstition and has been from the get-go.
Ya see, we need our monsters. And these monsters have to be as such that we can defeat them, either physically or magically. Folklore and religions are filled with just such entities. Even fish stories tell of 'the big one (which gets larger and more ferocious with each telling) that got away', but we know that given luck, we can catch it.
I do not know why this is. The creatures past and present in the real world are much more amazing than the legends, even the blood-suckers.
Boudin noir, anyone.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 02/02/2005 : 13:19:17 [Permalink]
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| Yep we killed all the real monsters and now we have to settle for imaginary ones. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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