ALL RSSS 315

Understand how physiological phenomena such as the characteristics of decomposition, plays into vampire lore.

-Discoloration, abdomen distention, and bloating (including genitalia) due to gases from microorganisms= vampire hypersexuality and paleness. -Blood stained fluid escapes from mouth and nostrils= bloodlust. -Rupturing of body in grave= groans -decomposition= evil smell -skin shrinking back= appearance of hair and nails growing, still alive -wolves and dogs dig up corpses= natural enemy to vampire

Peter Plogojowitz died and other deaths followed. What kind of assumption is this? Ex?

Post Hoc, ergo propter hoc. EX. The rooster crowed, then the sun came up. Therefore, the rooster made the sun come up.

Vukodlak, what is the prehistoric, mythological, and daemonic meaning?

Prehistoric meaning: Ritual wearing of wolf pelt. Before 9 century AD Mythological meaning: Chaser of clouds, devourer of sun, moon. 13th-16th c. AD Daemonic meaning: Vampire. 16th century AD- present.

Jan Perkowski: Vampire Definition

"A being which derives sustenance from a victim, who is weakened by the experience. The sustenance may be physical or emotional in nature."

Dazhbog

"God who gives", wealth, plenty

John Landis

An American Werewolf in London

Romanians thought sometimes dead vampires and Varcolaci eat the moon, how was this thought up?

Animals howling at the moon look like they intend to eat it. Eating the light of the night. Wolfs were seen as a threat to life-giving light.

Hypertrichosis

"werewolf syndrome"

Rusalka

- A dark creature who is physically beautiful - Beguiling, seductive, sensuous, the rusalka brings death to those who embrace her - The soul of a stillborn baby or a child who had died in early infancy

Werewolf

- A person transformed into a wolf or capable of assuming a wolf's form - Werewolf = wer + wulf = man-wolf

Fairy tale

- A story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (as fairies, wizards, and goblins)—called also fairy story - A story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending

Legend

- A story coming down from the past; especially: one popularly regarded as historical though not verifiable - A person or thing that inspires legends

Myth

- A usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon - A popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone, especially: one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society

Slavic werewolf

- Certain persons can assume the form of wolves during their lifetime - A child born feet first with teeth showing - Stare at others without harming them - Stays a wolf until the person who enchanted him lifts the curse - Ate part of the sun or moon, causing an eclipse to occur - Can transform into hens, horses, cows, dogs, and cats - Frightens, beats, and strangles humans - Feeds an animals - Frequently identified with the vampire

Destined from birth to be vampires

- Child by werewolf and devil/witch - Caul on head - Teeth showing - Born on Christmas day

Slavic vampire

- Deceased people who, in their lifetime, had been sorcerers, bad characters, or murderers, and whose bodies are now occupied by an unclean spirit - Do not decay in the grave, keep the color of life - May suck or gnaw on his own body - Feeds on the people closest to him (friends, family) - Shapeshift, suck blood - Power ends at cock-crow - Staking with ash wood, burning body - Targets the vulnerable

Natalie Kononenko on folklore

- Folklore: "alive and ever changing" - Theme and variations - Tells us key things about a people: what matters to them, what makes them different, what they think it means to be human - Defining selves against other groups - For Slavs, folklore special, almost "sacred"

East European vampires in history, list.

-Bathory -Lastovo -Plogojowitz -Paole -Vlad the Impaler

Bad types

- Sorcerers - Witches - Werewolves - Excommunicants - Those who died unnatural deaths (suicides, drunks)

Vampire

- The reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave at night and suck the blood of persons asleep - One who lives by preying on others

Kikimora

- The soul of a girl who had died before being baptized - Wanders the world bringing Hell's anguish to those who still live - Thought to issue from a witch's lips in the guise of a butterfly - Settle on a sleeping person's face and disturb his breathing at night - Could take other forms, such as that of a horse or a strand of hair

Among Slavs, some are thought to become vampires after death. This may happen if...?

A human or unclean animal steps over body or a bird flies over the body.

Sviatovid

A sacred visage with four faces, all seeing.

Koshchey the Deathless

- Thin - Shrieks as he calls forth spirits to help him - Shapeshifting properties: whirlwind, storm wind - Uses the destructive powers of nature - Fond of stealing beautiful women - The horror of the monster that "loves" - In one folk tale, Koshchey tries to possess the beautiful, virtuous Maryushka, whom he turns into the Firebird (If I can't have you, no one can) - Travels under mist and fog, or flies through the air - It is hard to kill Koshchey because his soul is hidden elsewhere, not with his body. Soul buried in a duck's egg, in a hare, in a chest under an oak tree, on an island, in the ocean - Wild hair, "unblinking, reptilian eyes," beak of a nose, crooked teeth, fingernails and toenails long, clawlike - Powerful sorcerer - Sings when drunk on kvas

Baba Yaga

- Thin as a skeleton - Large nose - Equipage: mortar and pestle - Wild wind when she appears - Sweeps away traces of herself - Lives deep in the forest in a hut on chicken legs - Bone and skull fence - She appears to have no power over the pure of heart—those "protected by the power of love, virtue, or a mother's blessing - Rules over the elements - Her servants: White Horseman, Red Horseman, Black Horseman - "Menacing pairs of hands" also serve - Baba Yaga not always bad—can be helping and wise (all-knowing, all-seeing, all-revealing to those who ask) - Goddess of Wisdom and Death

Folklore

- Traditional customs, tales, sayings, dances or art forms preserved among a people (examples?) - A branch of knowledge that deals with folklore - An often unsupported notion, story, or saying that is widely circulated

Roman Jakobson: "Slavic gods and demons"

- Unity of belief within the cult of the primitive Slavs - Similarities with Indo-Iranian beliefs - Probable migration: Iranian to Slavic - Word "god"—"bog": meaning "wealth" and its giver - Clear-cut dualism: Slavs "were wont to worship divinities of good and those of evil, 'being convinced that happiness comes from the god of good while misfortune is dispensed by the deity of evil.'"

Apotropaic against vampires

-Garlic- fight stench w/ stench -Stake of black thorn -Eating earth from a vampire's grave -Smearing oneself with own blood -Crosses

Variations

-How dark creatures are killed -How they are presented -Who they target -How they come about

Example of how we monster-ize

-Hypertrichosis victims seen as werewolves and Porphyria victims seen as vampires. -In general, ugly is seen as different, unusual, sometimes supernatural.

Slav burial custom?

-Include a scythe in the grave so that if he tries to exit, a vampire will cut his own throat. -keep body in grave with weight (gravestones)

Themes

-We often monster-ize those who have unusual physical characteristics. -Bad man in life= dark creatures in afterlife -He who dies first is blamed for subsequent illness, death. -The role of mass hysteria in vampire epidemics -Horror of the monster with eyes open. This unnerves us because the eyes are the windows to the soul, and these beings are cold and soulless. -Aristocrat versus peasant -Hungarian versus Slovak -Violence of the times -Clash between religion -Aging, and how we fight it -The beautiful female who brings danger or death. -The weary male traveler who falls in love with the local child of nature, pure-hearted woman -Animals know what humans will not admit.

Jakobson on Slavic Gods and demons

-unity of belief within cult of primitive Slavs -similarity with Indo-Iranian belief -Probable migration: Iranian to Slavic -The word "God,""Bog"- meaning wealth and it's giver -A clear cut dualism, Slavs convinced happiness comes from the God of good while misfortune is dispensed by the deity of evil. Worship is huge.

Perkowski definition of a vampire?

A being which derives sustenance from a victim, who is weakened by the experience. The sustenance may be physical or emotional in nature.

Who was Elizabeth Bathory?

A countess who lived from 1560 to 1614. She was a bloodthirsty woman concerned with her looks as she aged. She believed drinking blood from young women would keep her young.

What kills Stoker's Dracula?

A cut to the neck with a kukri (curved knife) and a stab to the heart with a bowie knife.

Rusalka

A dark creature who is physically beautiful. Beguiling, seductive, and sensors, the Rusalka brings death to those who embrace her. She was the soul of a stillborn baby or a child who had died in early infancy.

Apotropaic today?

Bible

Bava

Black Sabbath

Chernobog

Black, night, evil

Vladimir Propp

Came up with the 31 elements of folktales

Le Fanu

Carmilla

Among Slavs, some are thought to be destined from birth to be vampires. The newborns thought to become vampires have qualities such as...?

Child by werewolf and devil/witch Caul on head Teeth showing Born on Christmas day

Vampire were thought to be active in winter because...?

Cold retards decomposition

Kumel

Daughters of Darkness

Varcolaci

Dogs, dragons, the souls of unbaptized children and illegitimate children.

Dracula's effect on an era

Dracula "dramatized a certain predatory menace in Queen Victoria's jubilee year, and evoked an authentic sense of Christian dread, embodying in one elusive figure everything that shiny modernity was at risk of forgetting about its blood-soaked history."

Zmey Gorynich

Dragon with three heads and seven claws of copper

Zmey Gorynich

Dragon with three heads and seven claws of copper. Slain by Dobraynya (dobr= good)

What animals are commonly used to portray the power of evil or pagan influences?

Dragons and snakes

Death at the wedding

During his lifetime, the vampire was a bad man, a sorcerer.He gathers the blood from a young, newly wed couple. Slits their heels. The vampire tells the soldier accompanying him that putting their blood back in through their heels is the only way to save the couple.

Who are the Slavs?

East Slavs: Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians West Slavs: Polish, Czech, and Slovak South Slavs: Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian Slavs grouped by language

Alexi Tolstoy

Family of the Vurdoulak

Folklore and the Slavs?

Folklore in Slavic culture is sacred. It primarily deals with basic human issues, such as family, conflict, fears, and battles. The idea of fate is still very powerful in Russia. Dualism is common.

Kononeko on folklore

Folklore is alive and ever changing. Stressed theme and variation because they us tell things about a people, like what matters to them, what makes them different, and what they think being human means. It defines against other groups of people.

Sviatovid

Four faces, all-seeing (sacred visage)

Chernobog

God of black, night, and evil.

Rod

God of kin and kinship. related to protection of the home, family, and the goddess of fate, Rozhanitsy. Bloodless sacrifices of grain to Rod and Rozhanitsy.

Svarog

God of sky, light, fire, and blacksmiths

Perun

God of thunder and lightening

Perun

God of thunder and lightning

Belobog

God of white, day, and good.

Stribog

God of wind, music, devils, the cruel and destructive.

Stribog

God of wind, music, devils; cruel, destructive

Dazhbog

God who gives. The God of wealth and plenty

Mokosh

Goddess of fertility, moisture, women, childbirth, and weaving. Mother Earth association.

Mokosh

Goddess of fertility, moisture, women, childbirth, weaving

Baba Yaga

Goddess of wisdom and death. A Nature spirit brining wisdom, death, and rebirth. Ol' Boney Legs, she is thin as a skeleton with ugly features (not normal) like a large nose. She lives deep within the forest in a hut with the legs of a chicken and surrounded by a perimeter fence of skulls and bones. This monster is all about death. She appears with a wild wind (stribog- God with evil connotation) and in secrecy (weeping away traces of herself). She appears to have no power over the pure of heart, protected by the power of love, virtue, or a mother's blessing. She rules over the elements, her servants include a pair of hands, and a White, Red, and Black horseman. Not always bad, can be helping and wise, as she is all-knowing and all-revealing.

Vampires in 19th century slavic literature include...?

Gogol= viy Tolstoy= fam of a vourdalak Glisic=leptirica Stoker= Dracula Nosferatu

Dualism

Good vs. evil

Simargl

Guardian of Tree of Life

Simargl

Guardian of tree of life

Dracula

Hybrid vampire: contains elements of the historic Vlad Dracula (Vlad Tepes) and elements of the Slavic folk vampire

Koschey upholds what common theme of Slavic folklore?

If I can't have you, I will punish you. The horror of the monster that "loves."

Jordan

Interview with the Vampire

Apotropaic

Item used to ward off evil or deflect misfortune

The killings in Dracula might have reminded late nineteenth century readers in England of activities of

Jack The Ripper

Lastovo 1737-1738

Lastovo locals thought that an epidemic of death was being caused by vampires. The mission per local was to find vampires bringing death (through diarrhea), accompanied by a local priest. When the hunters found bare bones, they deduced no vampire, then asked forgiveness of God and the departed. In regards to dispatching, the devil cannot exist in a chopped up corpse, so alleged vampires were chopped.

A vukodlak is seen in what Yugoslavian film?

Leptirica

Kadijevich

Leptirica

Oinas's description of a vampire?

Living corpse or soulless body that emerges from its grave and drinks the blood of the living.

Droevere is...? An example?

Pagan and Christian convergence. EX. Easter

Visum et Repertum: Arnod Paole?

Military surgeons investigating vampiricism in Serbia in 1732 published a report of a guy named Arnod Paole from a village in Medvegia. He died five days ago from a fall and had tried to ward off vampire influence by eating earth from a vampire's grave and smearing himself with his own blood. After 20-30 days, others are bothered by Paole, four were allegedly killed by him. Paolo was dug up after 40 days. Hunters found him complete and undecayed, blood was flowing from eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Old nails and skin had fallen off, new ones grown. A stake was drove through his heart to which he groaned and bled copiously. Body burned and ashes thrown into grave.

Bigelow

Near Dark

Ferroni

Night of the Devils

A type of modern dvoeverie

Science, reason, and logic conquer superstition and myth

Dvoeverie

Simultaneous pagan and Christian beliefs

Svarog

Sky, light, fire, blacksmiths

Among Slavs, vampires are bad types consisting of...?

Sorcerers, witches, werewolves, excommunicates, those who died unnatural deaths.

Scott

The Hunger

Lon Chaney

The Wolfman (1941)

What did the Catholic church think about Vampire lore?

The church thought it was an outrage and an abominable superstition that offends the purity of the Christian faith and Holy Church.

"Death/love" spectrum

The dreaded vampire, once hunted and hated, becomes desired lover

Kikimora

The soul of a girl who had died before being baptized. She wanders the world bringing Hell's anguish to those who are still living. In parts of central and eastern Europe, she is thought to issue from a witch's lips in the guise of a butterfly. Would settle on a sleeping person's face at night and disturb his breathing. Kikimora can take forms, such as a horse or a strand of hair.

The Peasant and the corpse

The vampire in this story kills two people then threatens to kill the peasant, tearing him to pieces. When the cock crows and the vampire is disabled, the Peasant is able to save the two young fellows. He is offered half of the families possessions before he's tied up under suspicion of harming the two fellows initially. The vampire didn't have time to completely cover himself before the cock crowed. Grave dug up by town and vampire was speared by an aspen stake to the heart.

Bucket of blood

The vampire insists all the gates to all the houses are locked, but the real reason he cannot enter is because of the crosses hanging from each gate, the apotropaics. He stabs a boy and an old man, draining their blood from their backs. He drinks it. As the cock crows, he disappears to his grave. The vampire's grave is dug up, he is lying in a pool of blood. He's impaled by an aspen stake.

Koschey the Deathless

Thin like the Baba Yaga and is know to shriek as he calls forth spirits to help him. He possesses shapeshifting properties in the form of whirlwinds and storm winds- paralleling stribog's evil connotation of wind- travels under mist/fog or flies through the air. Uses the destructive powers of nature and fond of stealing beautiful women. Powerful sorcerer. It's hard to kill Koshchey because his soul is hidden elsewhere, outside of his body. His soul is usually buried in a duck's egg, in a chest under an oak tree, on an island, or in the ocean. He has wild hair, is unblinking, has reptilian eyes, a beak of a nose, and crooked teeth. His fingernails and toenails are long and clawlike. He is ugly, different.

Which early Slav officially adopts christianity?

Vladimir of Kiev

Vlad the Impaler

While Vlad Tepes is regarded as a prominent warrior in Romanian history, his actions are often disregarded, as they reflect the thoughts of a man sullied by a sadistic and terror-some mind. Individual to Tepes, is an extensive record of human impalement, thus earning him the nickname, Vlad The Impaler. His claim to fame had presented itself in the death of his father, Vlad Dracul. Tepes seems natural as a vampire because of his reputation for being a ruthless killer and possessing an unquenchable bloodthirst.

Belobog

White, day, good