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Authors: Charlotte Montague
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believed that a vampire could not enter a house unless it was invited in by the householder. However, once the vampire was let in, it might come and go as it pleased. For this reason, it was thought dangerous to let strangers into the house.
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The plague bringer
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A widely held belief about vampires was that they brought plagues to cattle, sheep, and other livestock. When a communicable disease broke out in a community, it was often attributed to vampires. The fact that these mythical creatures came to life at night, and that people were often too frightened to go out and find out what they were doing, contributed to all sorts of fearful fantasies about what they got up to on their nightly wanderings. Thus the vampire myth gained credibility, and as late as the nineteenth century, communities in New England still believed vampires to be responsible for outbreaks of tuberculosis. In 1892 in Rhode Island, a 19-year-old girl called Mercy Brown, died and was buried. Two months later, suspected of being a vampire, she was dug up by her father, and the family doctor cut out her heart, and burned her to ashes.
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Fear of sunlight
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Although the vampire was said to rise from the grave at night and return there in the morning, in early folklore there was no suggestion that it might be vulnerable to sunlight. Even in nineteenth century vampire literature, there was little mention of the notion that sunlight could kill a vampire. On the contrary, vampires were thought to move around like ordinary people during the daytime, their supernatural powers only coming upon them at night.
The idea that sunlight was harmful to vampires was an addition to the mythology that took place in the twentieth century, and went on to appear in comics, books, films, and on television. In these later stories, vampires might collapse or explode when hit by sunlight, the âscientificâ explanation for this being that their neural pathways would fire randomly in their brains, causing them to experience extreme epileptic reactions, blinding them, and possibly setting them on fire. Obviously, this idea was appealing to film-makers and comic strip artists, but it had no real basis in the traditional mythology of vampirism.
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Fear of water and fire
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Vampires were also said to be terrified of water. In some cultures, they were thought to be unable to cross over any stretch of water, such as walking over the river on a bridge, and for this reason, churchyards were often sited by ponds and rivers. Throwing water over a vampire, especially holy water that had been blessed by a priest, was believed, among Slavic communities, to have the power to destroy it, and this aspect of vampire mythology has continued through the centuries to the present day.
The vampireâs fear of water has an interesting connection to hydrophobia, a sympton of rabies, in which sufferers experience intense terror of water as part of their madness. The explanation behind this connection may be that, in the past, people suffering from rabies as a result of being bitten by a bat or wolf exhibited insane behaviour, including fear of water, in the last stages of the disease, and for this reason they may have been deemed to have turned into a vampire â hence the idea that vampires hate water and may be destroyed by it.
In traditional folklore, fire and sunlight are other sources of fear for vampires. This is seemingly due to their pallid skin tone and love for darkness. Even a flame from a candle was believed to send them into a state of psychotic fear. Therefore it is not surprising that people believed that one of the most effective methods for killing a vampire was to burn their body to ashes. In most cases, the head and heart would be removed before the cremation took place. Traditional folklore stipulated that the body must be burned thoroughly, as vampires had a supernatural ability to heal themselves, and could come to life again if the job was
Â
The plague bringer
Â
A widely held belief about vampires was that they brought plagues to cattle, sheep, and other livestock. When a communicable disease broke out in a community, it was often attributed to vampires. The fact that these mythical creatures came to life at night, and that people were often too frightened to go out and find out what they were doing, contributed to all sorts of fearful fantasies about what they got up to on their nightly wanderings. Thus the vampire myth gained credibility, and as late as the nineteenth century, communities in New England still believed vampires to be responsible for outbreaks of tuberculosis. In 1892 in Rhode Island, a 19-year-old girl called Mercy Brown, died and was buried. Two months later, suspected of being a vampire, she was dug up by her father, and the family doctor cut out her heart, and burned her to ashes.
Â
Fear of sunlight
Â
Although the vampire was said to rise from the grave at night and return there in the morning, in early folklore there was no suggestion that it might be vulnerable to sunlight. Even in nineteenth century vampire literature, there was little mention of the notion that sunlight could kill a vampire. On the contrary, vampires were thought to move around like ordinary people during the daytime, their supernatural powers only coming upon them at night.
The idea that sunlight was harmful to vampires was an addition to the mythology that took place in the twentieth century, and went on to appear in comics, books, films, and on television. In these later stories, vampires might collapse or explode when hit by sunlight, the âscientificâ explanation for this being that their neural pathways would fire randomly in their brains, causing them to experience extreme epileptic reactions, blinding them, and possibly setting them on fire. Obviously, this idea was appealing to film-makers and comic strip artists, but it had no real basis in the traditional mythology of vampirism.
Â
Fear of water and fire
Â
Vampires were also said to be terrified of water. In some cultures, they were thought to be unable to cross over any stretch of water, such as walking over the river on a bridge, and for this reason, churchyards were often sited by ponds and rivers. Throwing water over a vampire, especially holy water that had been blessed by a priest, was believed, among Slavic communities, to have the power to destroy it, and this aspect of vampire mythology has continued through the centuries to the present day.
The vampireâs fear of water has an interesting connection to hydrophobia, a sympton of rabies, in which sufferers experience intense terror of water as part of their madness. The explanation behind this connection may be that, in the past, people suffering from rabies as a result of being bitten by a bat or wolf exhibited insane behaviour, including fear of water, in the last stages of the disease, and for this reason they may have been deemed to have turned into a vampire â hence the idea that vampires hate water and may be destroyed by it.
In traditional folklore, fire and sunlight are other sources of fear for vampires. This is seemingly due to their pallid skin tone and love for darkness. Even a flame from a candle was believed to send them into a state of psychotic fear. Therefore it is not surprising that people believed that one of the most effective methods for killing a vampire was to burn their body to ashes. In most cases, the head and heart would be removed before the cremation took place. Traditional folklore stipulated that the body must be burned thoroughly, as vampires had a supernatural ability to heal themselves, and could come to life again if the job was
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