In the Beginning

                Vampire BD (Before Dracula)

One of the first things that come to most minds when you hear the word vampire is Dracula but while most people think he was the first to hit the scene, the truth is actually there was no Dracula in the beginning, it was a deadly theory called superstition. Why deadly you may ask? Due to the delusional ideas of some of our ancestors, based on legends which happened to be passed by word of mouth (sort of like rumours), the idea of vampirism arose. This superstition fluctuated between different cultures and the established name ‘vampire’ was given various names such as ‘vrykolakas’ to the Greeks and ‘strigoi’ to the Romanians. 
But around the early 18^th century, superstition regarding vampires reached its peak, leading to mass hysteria and persecutions of people who carried the signs of vampirism. The ones to feel sorry for here are the ones who had a respiratory illness and were mistakenly persecuted for being a vampire. Fortunately if you’re an asthmatic nowadays you’ll be diagnosed properly and given an inhaler in comparison to garlic and a death sentence. 
Again still many of us are facing misconception in believing that Dracula was the first ever recorded novel to depict a vampire. In fact, ironically the first novel which was written by John Poladori in 1819 was simply called ‘The Vampyre,’ considerably one of the most influential novels of the newly categorised vampire genre, inspiring Bram Stoker’s Dracula which followed successively in 1897.


How to Spot a Vampire...      


<>  <> 

Vervane plant burns the skin

Before recordings of vampires became popular as fictional narratives, they were most commonly defined as bloated with a blood lust, almost like a parasite, but with a pale to purplish skin tone, signs of death due to existence as a living corpse such as breathing difficulty, and can be warded off by garlic, killed by a stake to the heart or burnt by fire. 

Vampire AD (After Dracula)

Staked Vampire

Modern characteristics have been given to vampires since they became featured in novels such as sparkling in the sunlight but The Vampire Diaries TV series has stayed somewhat true to ancient beliefs. Apart from the modern take on since Dracula where vampires appear with fangs, as the vampire Stefan puts it, crosses are useless, holy water won’t get rid of them and silverware only works on werewolves, in terms of theories taken from other modern developments in the genre. In the Vampire Diaries, both fire which includes being a victim to sunlight, and a stake to the heart can kill a vampire which is given a twist by the use of bewitched rings so as not to burn in the daylight and the creation of a variety of slaying weapons including a range of guns loaded with wooden tipped bullets and crossbows loaded with a stake. A new variation to garlic in The Vampire Diaries is a plant called vervane which is also used in the creation of vervane grenades as a weapon. Staying true to the attributes of ancient vampires, on being starved of blood, the vampires become corpse-like with decaying and pale purple tainted skin. The idea of the vampire deriving from witchcraft is also in conjunction with history but it appears as though a new generation of vampires has subsequently emerged from the legacy over the years. New adaptions halve evolved to adjust to a modern audience such as vampires that are given superhero qualities like running with superhuman speed and fitting with the times, it is only logical for vampires to now seek out their means of lunch at the blood bank of a hospital with ease.

Vampire after transition

Vampire burning in the sunlight

I expect as times change, so will history’s view on vampires but the strange thing is how a simple life-threatening superstition could change over time into a mass hysteria because people want talk of more rather than less vampires. My question is, if vampires with a history derived from mere superstition could be subjected to the media and transformed from something horrifying into something entertaining, then what new genres from the past might resurrect to entertain us next?