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TRACING THE BLOOD-CURDLING ORIGINS OF VAMPIRES, ZOMBIES, AND WEREWOLVES

Tales of the undead and other frights are found throughout history. But where
did these stories come from?

Bran Castle in Romania may have served as inspiration for Dracula's castle in
Bram Stoker's famous vampire novel, Dracula. 
Photograph by Kanuman/Shutterstock
ByDaniel S. Levy
Published October 25, 2022
• 8 min read
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People have lived in dread of monsters since time immemorial. Who wouldn’t be
terrified of flesh-eating beasts? Or bloodsucking night stalkers? Or zombies
reanimated from the grave? This is the stuff of nightmares, though typically
there are good explanations behind the horrors. Or are there?

This vampire-killing kit from 1840 comes with a cross, gun, silver bullets,
wooden stake, holy water, and garlic.
Photograph by Timothy Fadek/Corbis/Getty Images
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.


VAMPIRES

Belief in vampires is nothing new. Tales of these nightmarish creatures—whose
single bite of their pearly fangs turns their victims into cold, heartless
beasts of the dark—date back to at least the Bronze Age. The Assyrians in 4000
B.C., for example, dreaded the edimmu, vampire-like spirits.

(The bloody truth about vampires and their origins.)


Garlic hangs from a window, possibly to ward off vampires.
Photograph by DALIBOR DANILOVIC/AFP/Getty Images
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

Fears of vampires were handed down through the centuries in many cultures, but
perhaps the world's most famous vampires hailed from Europe. Vampire mania took
off there in 1725, when Peter Plogojowitz arrived at his home in Kisilova,
Serbia and demanded food from his son (another story says he demanded that his
wife give him a pair of shoes). No problem, except he had recently died—and his
son also turned up dead, along with nine other locals who claimed on their
deathbeds that Plogojowitz throttled them and sucked their blood.

When the townspeople dug up his body, he had not yet started to decompose and
fresh blood covered his mouth. Terrified, they plunged a stake through his
heart. Blood poured from his mouth and ears, and so they burned his remains,
just to play it safe. News of his death, undeath, and redeath raced throughout
Germany, France, and England, scaring one and all.

(Vlad the Impaler's thirst for blood was an inspiration for Count Dracula.)


VAMPIRES AROUND THE WORLD

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A brick found in this skeleton's mouth may have been placed posthumously on
suspicion of vampiric activities. This skull of a woman was found in a mass
grave in Venice dating to the 1500s.
Photograph by CB2/ZOB/WENN.com/Newscom
Transylvania is renowned as Dracula’s home, but bloodsuckers populate the world.
Many societies have their own variations, from the Italian stregoni benefici,
which attacks other vampires, to the Polish wili—a bride who died following her
wedding and returns to kill men. Here are some others.

Loogaroo (the Caribbean) 
According to local lore, a loogaroo is a woman who sold her soul to the devil.
During the day she appears as an old woman. At night she takes off her skin and
enters homes to drain people’s blood. She can be defeated by coating her
sloughed skin with salt.

Jiangshi (China) 
The Chinese jiangshi—also known as a hopping vampire—is believed to form when a
person does not receive a proper burial or if a cat jumps over the person when
he or she dies. The creature develops bulging eyes, can smell out its victims,
and leaps from graves to capture people. It can be destroyed by exposure to
light and flames.

Nachzehrer (Germany) 
In Germanic folklore the nachzehrer—the after-devourer—is someone who is buried
wearing clothes with their name printed on them. The corpse chews on its
shrouds, and its spirit then roams the area at night, shape-shifting into the
form of a pig and draining the life from family members and oth­ers. To stop a
nachzehrer, its exhumed body must have its neck broken and its shroud
confiscated.

Vetala (India) 
The vetala possesses the body of a child who has not received a proper funeral.
Its face morphs to look like a fruit bat, its nails grow and become poisonous,
and its body turns green, brown, or white. To stop the vetala from sneaking into
homes to feed on the blood of those asleep or drunk, the child’s body must
receive a proper burial.



THE WALKING DEAD

George A. Romero’s low-budget Night of the Living Dead zombie flick of 1968
proved to be as surprisingly successful as it was grim, and the movie spawned a
craze for zombie films. While Romero may have shot new life into the undead, the
idea of zombies dates back centuries, notably to 17th- and 18th-century Haiti.

During that time Africans were brutally abused and enslaved, working on the
French-controlled island’s sugar plantations. The enslaved believed that death
meant freedom and a release back to their homeland in the afterlife. Yet many
were convinced that those who took their own life in an attempt to quicken up
receiving their eternal awards would instead be trapped forever as soulless
zombies—corpses reanimated through magic.

An infestation of zombies gleans the fields of Pennsylvania for fresh flesh in
Night of the Living Dead.
Photograph by Pictorial Parade/Getty Images
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.


(How did 18th-century vampire hunters identify the undead? Blood and
fingernails.)

There’s more. According to the voodoo religion, then practiced by up to 90
percent of Haitians, sorcerers (bokors) could create and control zombies in a
variety of ways, including taking blood and hair from the victims, using voodoo
dolls, and creating a coup de poudre, a mystical powder made from human remains,
herbs, and animal parts. Once the victim had been treated, he or she appeared
dead within minutes. As soon as they were buried, the sorcerer reanimated their
bodies and use them to do their bidding.

After Haiti’s slave revolt in 1791, many of the enslaved Africans fled to New
Orleans, bringing the practice of voodoo (and zombie beliefs) with them. By the
19th century, voodoo kings and kings had become spiritual and political figures
of power, today remaining an important element of the local culture.


WEREWOLVES

It’s not certain when legends of the first werewolves appeared, but scholars
point to ancient Sumeria and The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest known Western
prose, in which Gilgamesh jilts a potential lover because she has turned her
previous mate into a wolf. Werewolves also turn up in Greek mythology with the
legend of Lycaon who was turned into a wolf when he angered the god Zeus.

(Did a "werewolf" really terrorize France in the 1700s?)

Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Left: In the 1760s, the Beast of Gévaudan terrorized France and brought about
the deaths of more than 100 people. The werewolf-type creature is portrayed in
an 1884 engraving from "Les animaux historiques" by Fournier.
Image courtesy of Fournier, 1884 Collection privee / Photo © Isadora / Bridgeman
Images
Right: Wolfsbane is poisonous. It was applied to the tips of arrows in battle
and was believed to repel both wolves and werewolves.
Photograph by DEA/M. Pizzirani/Getty Images


Fast-forward to 1764 France, when a beast mauled 14-year-old Jeanne Boulet near
the village of Saint-Étienne-de-Lugdarès. She was one of more than 100 who died
in the region in the mid-1760s, their remains discovered with their necks torn
and heads gnawed off. Rumors spread throughout the countryside that a vicious,
upright-walking monster impervious to bullets roamed the area. Thousands of
volunteers headed out with rifles and poisoned bait, but the beast was never
found, and the attacks stopped in 1765. It has been speculated that it could
have been a pack of wolves that did the killing or even a lion that escaped from
an exotic menagerie.

Nevertheless, the terror of werewolves took off, and the stories ran rampant.
People feared they could become a werewolf by drinking a potion, receiving a
bite from the creature, or even putting on a magical cloak or sash. Also, since
wolves howled at the moon, it was believed that those conceived or cursed during
a full moon could metamorphose during such a lunar event.

Full moons are said to cause those who are werewolves to involuntarily morph
into the dreaded beasts.
Photograph by Mimi Ditchie Photography/Getty Images
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.


Jeanne Boulet aside, the concept of werewolves most likely derived from people
suffering from misunderstood and feared medical conditions. Rabies for example,
brings on headaches and foaming mouth, while hypertrichosis is a genetic
condition that causes excessive hair growth.

(A German werewolf's "confessions" horrified 1500s Europe.)

Portions of this work have previously appeared in Secrets of the Supernatural by
Daniel S. Levy. Copyright © 2019 National Geographic Partners, LLC.
To learn more, check out Secrets of the Supernatural. Available wherever books
and magazines are sold.
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