The Vampirologist

Q & A with Peter Mario Kreuter, part 2

2012-02-24T20:02:00.001+11:00

You've read the 'teaser', now we're back with Peter Mario Kreuter. He staked his claim on the vampire scene with the publication of his 2001 thesis, Der Vampirglaube in Südosteuropa. Studien zur Genese, Bedeutung und Funktion. Rumänien und der Balkanraum (2001). Here's the rest of his answers¹ to my questions.

General-Anzeiger Online

Going on the regional scope of your thesis, what are your thoughts on the universal vampire theory, i.e. that the vampire is a supernatural being present in cultures all over the world?

Well... I have my doubts on this. In my opinion, each culture on the world that buries the corpses and does not destroy them fears the dead body in a certain way (with just few exceptions in Africa). So the idea of the revenant is very common in those cultures. But does this necessarily mean that each belief in revenants indicates already a close connection to the vampire? I say – no. The vampire is just one of the many variations of the revenant.

Your research interests include 'Paracelsus and the influence of folk-magic and belief in witches on his work', 'Southeastern European folk belief in demons, particularly vampires' and 'Witches and persecution of witches, particularly in the Danube area'. Is there a correlation between these subjects?

There are several correlations. One of those correlations are the roots, which all of those fields of interest have in popular culture. For vampires and witches, this is clearly visible. But even in the case of Paracelsus, one has to dig deep in popular believes and culture of the 16th century. Another correlation is the fact that Paracelsus builds up his medical theories about diseases on the idea that a disease is caused by the infection of a human being with a bad or evil spirit. Even a witch is in his opinion the victim of a kind of disease… infected by an evil “ascendent”, she is forced to do evil things without wanting it. And there are some more…

Your essay rebutting Heinrich Kuntsmann's theory on the ancient Greek etymological orgins of the word, vampire², provides many insights into your own theories on vampire's etymological origins. Have you refined your theories since then? Where did 'vampire' originate?

In that case, I have nothing to add. Heinrich Kunstmann never wrote that detailed theory he announced in 1992. Therefore I saw no need to sharpen my own ideas about the etymology.

The same essay also mentions, 'And finally, by the way, I have shown in my own doctoral thesis that the folkloric vampire of the Balkans sucks no blood at all.'³ That's a startling claim in context with historical vampire cases like Plogojowitz and Paole. For those unable to read your thesis (including me!), could you elaborate on that?

OK, here we go – in none of the “classical” reports on vampires from the 18th century, the villagers mention sharp teeth or bloodsucking. Both Arnont Pavle and Peter Plogojowitz killed their neighbours by visiting them and doing something like “killing them” or “pressing them to death”. Other vampires of the traditional folk belief neither do anything we can identify as bloodsucking. Blood plays a role, but only when a vampire is detected… “blood” comes out of nose and mouth. We find indeed the word “bloodsucker” in those reports from the 18th century, but one should not forget that none of those military doctors spoke Serbian. We simply don’t now what the Serbs finally said in those reports, how they described those unrotten corpses. We have only the interpretation of the doctors. And that interpretation entered our common image of the vampire.

Which works and/or authors have inspired your own writings on the undead?

I have to admit that I am generally influenced by the English way of “doing history”. It is not only the way of presenting the results of the research part in a clear, modest and nevertheless lively way, but also that open-minded access to history as such. Even if your theory might sound weird, you get some friendly backing. The German tradition is drier, especially when it comes to the moment of writing down your ideas, thoughts and results. No anecdotes, please, we’re German! So the English way of historiography has attracted me in general, not a special author or volume.

You taught a 'proseminar' called 'Heilige, Hexen, Vampire. Religion, Volkskultur und ihre Synkretismen in Mittel- und Südosteuropa (Schwerpunkt: 17./18. Jahrhundert)' over Winter 2009-10. That seems to be your latest teaching gig. Do you intend on teaching any more vampire-related courses?

Yes, my intention is to focus more on popular believes [sic], and that will include of course the vampire. In this winter, I teached [sic] about conspiracy theories in history, and hopefully next winter, I can offer a course about misinterpreted persons in history – and Vlad the Impaler will get his nice and warm place in that course. But also witches and vampires from the folk belief will return on my agenda. They are perfect to demonstrate the methods of cultural and oral history, and they give me the opportunity to focus not only on German history, but to start there a journey throughout the European historiography.

Last year, you mentioned you were 'writing a new book about the popular vampire belief. It will be in English, and the publishing house shall be Palgrave Macmillan.' How's the book coming along?

This volume here <http://www.amazon.de/Geschichte-Südosteuropas-frühen-Mittelalter-Gegenwart/dp/3791723685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329855747&sr=8-1> took a lot of my time in the last three years. So now it’s time for other books!

Weighing in at 893 pages, he's not kidding! Geschichte Südosteuropas: Vom frühen Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, 'History of Southeast Europe: from the early Middle Ages to the present', was published November 2011. I'd like to thank Dr. Kreuter for agreeing to this interview spanning 'oceans of time'. For a list of his other publications, click here.

Previous 'Q & A' instalments:

Niels K. Petersen (part 1; part 2)
Martin V. Riccardo (part 1; part 2)
Bruce A. McClelland (part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4)
Thomas J. Garza
Edward Meyer

^{1. PM Kreuter, 'Finally!!!‏', Wednesday, 22 February 2012 9:02:11 AM.↩}

^{2. PM Kreuter, 'The name of the vampire: some reflections on current linguistic theories on the etymology of the word vampire', in P Day (ed.), Vampires: myths and metaphors of enduring evil, At the interface/probing the boundaries 28, Rodopi, Amsterdam, pp. 57-63.↩}

^{3. ibid., p. 60.↩}

Upcoming books 2 & update

2012-02-24T01:27:00.000+11:00

For the previous instalment, click here. I periodically trawl through Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk—the latter has a greater span—for new works on vampires.

Previously, occult-based and cinematic coverage were the dominant themes. This time, it looks like vampire hunters are making a resurgence.

Going on its title, Valerie Estelle Frankel's Buffy and the Heroine's Journey: vampire slayer as feminine Chosen One is a feminist slant on the Hero's Journey—or monomyth—espoused by Joseph Campbell. This is basically confirmed by its publisher's listing: 'Television’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer represents a different kind of epic--the heroine’s journey, not the hero’s. This provocative study explores how Buffy blends 1990s girl power and the path of the warrior woman with the oldest of mythic traditions.' According Amazon.co.uk, it'll be available on April 1st.

April 26th will see the release of The vampire hunter's guide by Otto De'Ath (groan). This one's for junior Van Helsings. It's also part of Franklin Watts' 'EDGE - Monster Tracker' series. Here's other titles.

Roger Ma's The vampire combat manual: a guide to fighting the bloodthirsty undead will be released on October 2nd. His previous work—The zombie combat manual: a guide to fighting the living dead (2010)—will likely serve as a good barometer to this one. In the meantime, here's an interview with the author discussing that work.

From vampire hunters to their close cousin, the vampire expert—September 18th will see the release of István Pivárcsi's Just a bite: a Transylvania vampire expert's short history of the undead. First time I've heard of him. The Amazon.co.uk description reads: 'Mustering his extensive experience on the scene of the world's richest source of vampire lore, Transylvania, historian and author István Pivárcsi seeks to peel away the effects of popular culture and set the record straight, addressing essential questions in dozens of bite-size chapters'. I must admit, the 'bite-size chapters' bit makes me a lil suss.

Tundra Books

Don't worry, though, there's still some sympathy for the Devil with Victoria Nelson's Gothicka: vampire heroes, human gods, and the new supernatural on April 13th: 'The Gothic, Romanticism's gritty older sibling, has flourished in myriad permutations since the eighteenth century. In "Gothicka", Victoria Nelson identifies the revolutionary turn it has taken in the twenty-first century. Today's Gothic has fashioned its monsters into heroes and its devils into angels.' Indeed. In fact, now they're practically pin-up, as attested by works like Dark angels revealed by Angela Grace (2011).

Lastly, another work for the kiddies—a compendium, from the looks of it—Denise Despeyroux's The big book of vampires. Stay tuned August 14th for that one.

And now, the update. On February 14th, I received the other belated Christmas present from Jo, ordered through Amazon.co.uk—Anja Lauper's Die ›phantastische Seuche‹: Episoden des Vampirismus im 18. Jahrhundert (2011). To find out what the other was, click here.

What does Cage say?

2012-02-18T19:27:00.001+11:00

Remember the Nicolas Cage 'vampire' photo? A lot of you do. Much to my astonishment, the most popular entry on this blog discusses the source of the picture. And it's way, way ahead of the others (click to embiggen):

The fifth most popular entry—'Can't keep a good vamp down'—is another post discussing the picture. I've also covered it here and here. Guys, I just don't get it. What's the appeal? Yes, I know, I've covered it several times myself—but from the perspective of someone truly bewildered by the whole thing.

So what does Cage have to say about it? On February 10th, he was confronted with the pic on the Late show with David Letterman. Here's what he had to say:

The interview was discussed on The clicker, which noted his denials of vampirehood, but added: 'It's hard to argue with that, unless, of course, he's still around in another 140 years.'

Does Jack Mord, originator of the 'Nicolas Cage is a vampire' phenomena know about this? Quite likely.

Cushing's contribution

2012-02-17T23:43:00.001+11:00

Alex Bledsoe

The final scene of Dracula (1958)—better-known by its American title, Horror of Dracula—is, according to Jordan Buckner, 'truly incredible and has become legendary in itself. It's often regarded as one of the movie's best features. And here it is.

But did you know it wasn't the movie's original ending? It turns out the film's Van Helsing—Peter Cushing—greatly influenced the film's climax:

In the original script Van Helsing was sort of like a salesman for crucifixes. He was pulling them out of every pocket. He was giving them to children to protect themselves, and putting them in coffins and so on. At the end of the film, he pulled out another one, so I asked if we couldn't do something exciting instead. I remembered seeing a film years ago called Berkeley Square [1933] in which Leslie Howard was thought of as being the Devil by this frightened little man who suddenly grabbed two big candlesticks and made a sign of the cross with them. I remembered that this had impressed me enormously. I suggested the run along the refectory table to jump onto the curtains and hit Dracula square in the face with the sunlight. He would, of course, be trapped. Then I could come along like a hero, grab the two candlesticks and make the cross with them in his face. They agreed. Originally the candleabrae they had were the type with four candles on each base. You could tell what I was doing, but it didn't look like a cross, but they changed to the ones you see in the film. At least it wasn't another crucifix coming out of my pockets.¹

You can watch Berkeley Square, in its entirety, here—the scene which inspired Cushing begins at the 1:12:56 mark. Cushing's claim about the film's original ending correlates with Jimmy Sangster's 18 October 1957 final shooting script, in which Van Helsing locks Dracula in a room, and 'runs towards DRACULA taking a crucifix from his pocket.'²

Indeed, there's no mention of Van Helsing's 'run along the refectory table', no curtains are torn and Van Helsing merely forces Dracula further into the sunlight—which is streaming from a stained glass window—with his crucifix, after literally standing on his exit route.

It's likely Cushing's input inspired the 'improved cross' trope featured in other Hammer Dracula and vampire movies; from Van Helsing's manipulation of the burning windmill's blades in The brides of Dracula (1960), the blood-smeared cross on Gerald Harcourt's chest in The kiss of the vampire (1963) and Carl Ebhardt's cruciform dagger in The vampire lovers (1970), to note a few examples.

The trope found its way into many other books and movies, but perhaps nothing so overt as the 1996 film, From dusk till dawn. The following exchange takes place between Seth Gecko, Jacob and Scott Fuller, and Sex Machine while they're holed up in the Titty Twister:

Seth: Do you have a cross?
Jacob: In the Winnebago.
Seth: In other words, no.
Scott Fuller: What are you talking about? We got crosses all over the place. All you gotta do is put two sticks together and you got a cross.
Sex Machine: He's right. Peter Cushing does that all the time.
Seth: Okay, I'll buy that.

Later, Jacob Fuller forms a cross out of a pump action shotgun and baseball bat in cruciform shape as an effective ward against the undead. The film's script goes into more detail on the effectiveness of impro-crosses:

SEX-MACHINE
He's right. Peter Cushing does that all the time.

SETH
I don't know about that. In order for it to have any power, I think it's gotta be an official crucifix.

JACOB
What's an official cross? Some piece of tin made in Taiwan? What makes that official? If a cross works against vampires, it's not the cross itself, it's what the cross represents. The cross is a symbol of holiness.

SETH
Okay, I'll buy that. So we got crosses covered, moving right along, what else?³

The script also differs in the film in that Jacob does, indeed, wield 'a cross made out of two sticks', while 'reciting appropriate verses from the Bible',⁴ rather than the shotgun/baseball bat combo. The improved cross—a major addition to vampire lore—also highlighted why the cross is effective against the undead, rejigging it as a channel of the wielder's faith, rather than a 'magical' item in its own right.

^{1. 'Peter Cushing', Dracula, A house that Hammer built special, May 1998, p. 7. The quote is derived from 'Little Shoppe Of Horrors #8, p. 61; interview by James Kravaal.'↩}

^{2. 'Jimmy Sangster', Dracula, A house that Hammer built special, May 1998, p. 20.↩}

^{3. Q Tarantino, From dusk till dawn, Faber and Faber, London, 1996, p. 67.↩}

^{4. ibid., p. 106↩}

Vampire studies

2012-02-17T04:15:00.000+11:00

You've probably seen novelty doctorates from dubious institutions like the 'University of Transylvania' (left)—not to be confused with actual Transylvanian universities like the Transylvania University of Brașov and Sapientia University.

But did you know there really is a course you can take on vampirology and—brace yourselves—it'll be held in Transylvania? I'm talking about the Transylvanian Vampirology Summer School.

'Every story has its charm, every story has it’s beginning and end, and nothing changes,' reads its main page. 'Over and over again. Each story comes with its own fragrance and its own time.' Quite. In breathless, second-language-English, it adds:

Transylvanian Vampirology Summer School brings you the story behind the most fascinating story ever told on the face of the earth. Vampire’s story. There is something that you can’t say about many other stories, as loved as much as this one, the fascinating world of vampires comes from a story that took place in idyllic places, that drank the same amount of blood, a story born in a world not in a utopian world at all.

Unfortunately, details are scarce at this point. It does discuss what'll be taught in the courses—'History', 'Symbolism', 'Films', 'Books' and 'Mythology'—but, as of this writing, its speakers are 'Under construction', there are no prices and the course's starting date is 'yet to be announced.'

It does have a Facebook page, though. Its earliest post dates January 27th, so I guess they're still getting everything sorted.

Catch-up time

2012-02-10T18:49:00.001+11:00

My entries on here can be fairly sporadic, as I don't feel compelled to write just for the hell of it but only when I've got something to say or find something particularly compelling. That said, I don't like to let this thing go dormant, either. So, occasionally, I'll do a little 'catch-up' time with my readers to see what I've been up to and whatnot.

Firstly, you may've noticed that I've reinstated LinkWithin after banishing it several months ago. Wow. October. Time flies! I brought it on the same day I wrote the previous post. What inspired me to do that? You might be surprised.

The article's full of useful tips for getting your stuff 'out there', but here's another: quantity may be more important than quality, according to a study by The British Psychological Society. The theory's not without criticism, however.

I've noticed Hammer's interested in making another Dracula flick. They've already had a recent stab at the vampire genre with Beyond the rave (2008). Prior to that, Hammer tried 'keeping up' with the young'uns by adding more sadism, more boobs and more groovy theatrics in the flicks that (not coincidentally) served as the last gasps of their reign over British horror films.

Yes, I'm talking about Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), The Satanic rites of Dracula (1974) and, let's not forget, the kung-fu 'spectacular' that was The legend of the 7 golden vampires (1974). Christopher Lee patently refused to star in that one and was replaced by John Forbes-Robertson.

I'm a fan of the Hammer Dracula flicks. Taste the blood of Dracula (1970) is one of my favourite vampire movies and I also enjoy their non-Dracula effort, Vampire circus (1972). What I'm saying is, these guys knew how to do it 'right'. Mostly.

So I can't help wondering whether they're gonna 'update' Dracula like they did in the latter stages, only to compete with other hyper-modernisations of the vampire myth like the Blade and Underworld series. Hopefully, Beyond the rave's not a warning sign. Point is, that angle's been done.

The thing that worked best in the Hammer Dracula/vampire flicks, in my opinion, was their 'gothicness'. That angle's lost when you update the vampire too much. They just become run-of-the-mill leather-jacketed action antiheroes—with fangs. Boooooring. I'm so over it. And enough with the bloody ramping, already (see point 3)! This isn't the bloody Matrix. And get offa my lawn!

Anyhoo, if there's anything that demonstrates what an updating of Hammers' gothic Dracula would look like, it's this. That said, they were also smart enough to back Let the right one in, so I probably shouldn't be cutting 'em down just yet.

Robin Hood—and Highgate vampire—fans, for that matter, will get a kick out of Kai Roberts' recently-published, Grave concerns: the follies and folklore of Robin Hood's final resting place (2011). The 'resting place' is located on the Kirklees Hall Estate, Yorkshire. It was also the scene of Sean Manchester's second-most famous vampire case.

Roberts presents an objective overview of the case and—before I continue, I've gotta disclose that he's a mate of mine. But he's a mate as a result of the correspondence that place during the draft stages of the book.

You see, its sixth chapter, 'Vampire blues', deals with the Highgate vampire case, which I was asked to view before it was 'locked in' for publication. Kai was familiar with my other blog, Did a wampyr walk in Highgate? and thought I might be qualified to do so. I made forty-eight notes to it, but not many made the cut. Mind you, they weren't major alterations, more like expanding on points—with a few corrections—Kai made throughout the draft. There wasn't really much more I could add, as Kai did such a brilliant job of summarising the case.

Now, because I mentioned on Facebook that I helped 'edit' his chapter (before I'd seen the final copy, no less), Della Farrant, and her husband David, took it upon themselves to jump down my throat—with hilarious consequences! What I also find funny, is that Kai's criticism is much more brutal than mine, yet they compliment him. Bit of a Freudian slip there! That, or they don't want to muddy the waters with someone who's given 'em public exposure and knows how to cut down their 'work' a peg or two with utmost precision.

As if it wasn't sad enough, Dave's wife's now started writing weaksauce apologia and bitter diatribes on her husband's behalf. A real shame, because she's a very smart woman and a talented writer (cursive font to the contrary). Just goes to show how 'blind' love can be.

Apart from that, I've also dealt with the usual pitiful, passive-aggressive mind games the President of the Highgate Vampire Society likes to play.

Anyhoo, grab a copy of Kai's book. I've started reading the rest of it—keeping in mind I only saw one chapter, pre-publication—and it's proving to be a gripping read.

Speaking of reads, Bertena Varney sent me a copy of her book, Vampire news: tasty bits to sink your fangs into (2012), which I'll get round to reading properly when I have some time.

You might recall her as the author of Lure of the vampire: a pop culture reference book of lists, websites and "very telling personal essays" (2011). The same book also reveals the head of the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency, which many people think is a legit government organisation.

If Vampire news is non-fictional—as my brief flick-through suggests it is—you may even see a review on this blog. Stay tuned! But let this also be a head's up to other authors/publishers: please don't send me movies or fictional works. I appreciate the effort, but I won't review them. If you've got vampire documentaries (like this one) or non-fiction vampire books, on the other hand...

In the meantime, I actually kinda dig the cover and you can download a copy of it free—yes, free—from its co-author, Stavros', website: Bite me really hard. Click on the cover to take you there.

Even though this isn't a movie review blog, I'll occasionally refer to vampire flicks I've seen, keeping in tune with the online 'diary' nature of blogs. So, in that spirit, I'll mention that I caught Lesbian vampire killers (for vampire content, honest!) on DVD.

Despite the rash of negative reviews—and its co-star calling it 'a pile of shit'—I kinda liked it. It reminded me of a far-less gorier version of Død snø (2009), another enjoyably mindless horror-comedy released the same year. It's not Shaun of the dead, sure, but dumb fun, nonetheless. For another 'take', see what Andrew M. Boylan had to say about it.

Well, that's enough rambling and links to wade through, for today. We'll catch-up again soon. Oh, but before I forget, John Edgar Browning gave me a head's up on the release of his book, Bram Stoker's Dracula: the critical feast, an annotated reference of early reviews & reactions, 1897-1913 (2012). It's now available in paperback form on Amazon; there's a copy for the Kindle-inclined. Another addition to my wish list—and yours, too, I hope.

A weblog approach

2012-02-03T17:12:00.003+11:00

LIT Verlag

I finally received a copy of Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie on Monday. It was air mailed to me after the previous copy LIT Verlang sent went AWOL in the post.

As you might suspect from the title, the book's written in German, but there is one English contribution: Niels K. Petersen's 'A weblog approach to the history of Central and Eastern European vampire cases of the 18th century'.

It's much more in-depth than you'd think—for an essay about starting a blog. Not only does he discuss his research, quest to find a copy of the supposedly 'lost' Magia posthuma, but also relates the impact his blog's had. 'It has also been an inspiration for other bloggers, including the so-called Amateur Vampirologist from Australia who mentioned "Niels K. Petersen's brilliant Magia Posthuma" as one of the sources of inspiration in his initial post to the blog Diary of an Amateur Vampirologist.'¹ True story.

His essay also highlights our different 'takes' on vampires. My approach is somewhat 'genealogical'; when did that first appear? Who said that first? Who was the first vampire? To that extent, I keep a file of sources in chronological order. They're good for spotting deviations in the 'script'. Like this. Niels, on the other hand, is interested in sociological angles: 'Understanding the vampire as part of history is, as all history, an attempt at understanding the development of human concepts and ideas.'²

It goes without saying—but I'll say it anyway—that context is just as an important angle in vampire research as establishing the development of the vampire mythos through various sources, so I certainly respect Niels' approach. Other vampirologists share his approach, too. Theresa Bane writes, 'Knowing the "who, what and where" is one thing, but knowing and and more importantly understanding the "why" is another'³, which is indirectly echoed by Joe Nickell: 'There is a serious field of study—embracing folklore, psychology, cultural anthropology, literature, history, and so on—that attempts to research and make sense of the various aspects of the vampire myth. To that study the term vampirology may well be applied.'⁴

So why is my approach so different? Well, apart from not being well-versed in these fields, I also believe that delving into sociological context too much, can stray the author off into their own impositions and tangents (not to say that the folk I've covered already do that). Susan Lynne Beckwith alludes to this in a book review: 'However, it is worth wading through this section to get to his final, and perhaps most rewarding, premise—that our scholarship on vampirism reveals more about our own anxieties than it provides evidence of Victorian sexual repression.'⁵

We do that all the time, of course, i.e. inflicting our biases, interests and whatnot, on the subjects we study. Christopher Rondina, for instance, admitted to adding a word to a newspaper article he reproduced because he was 'disappointed to see the absence of bats in the original folklore'.

I generally take a 'safer' route, as a result. It's the one I know. 'Just the facts, ma'am.' I'm interested in direct correlations, which is one reason why I don't subscribe to the Global Vampire theory. The vampire—as G. David Keyworth establishes⁶—is a (spoiler alert!) comparatively 'unique' entity. That, of course, steers us into the murky territory of defining what a vampire 'is'. That's where things start unravelling. Is sharing certain characteristics enough to earn the label? Should we only use the term in accordance with local usage? And so on. In terms of scholarly approaches, too 'wide' and too 'narrow' have their drawbacks. It's our job to steer the course between.

^{1. NK Petersen, 'A weblog approach to the history of Central and Eastern European vampire cases of the 18th century', in C Augustynowicz & U Reber P Day (eds), Vampirglaube und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie, Austria: Forschung und Wissenschaft, Geschichte vol. 6, LIT, Vienna, 2011, pp. 264–5.↩}

^{2. ibid., p. 259. ↩}

^{3. T Bane, Encyclopedia of vampire mythology, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, N.C., 2010, p. 1.↩}

^{4. J Nickell, Tracking the man-beasts: sasquatch, vampires, zombies, and more, Prometheus Books, Amherst, N.Y., 2011, p. 125.↩}

^{5. SL, Beckwith, review of A geography of Victorian gothic fiction: mapping history’s nightmares by Robert Mighall, Criticism, vol. 43, no. 3, 2001, p. 364.↩}

^{6. GD Keyworth, ‘Was the vampire of the eighteenth century a unique type of undead-corpse?’, Folklore, vol. 117, no. 3, 2006, pp. 241–60.↩}

Dracula fan's Facebook page swiped

2012-01-28T09:30:00.002+11:00

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the internets, seems like the ghost of SOPA's still lingering about. Bertena Varney published a highly disturbing article today: 'Universal Studios claim Dracula fan's Facebook page'. What. The. Hell?!

The owner of the page is—full disclosure—a friend of mine, Charles E. Butler. He wrote The romance of Dracula: a personal journey of the Count on celluloid (2011). The article reveals that on January 20th, Facebook sent him the following message:

Hello,

You may have noticed that you're no longer an admin of one of the Facebook Pages you used to manage. The Page was claimed by someone who proved that they're authorized to represent it.

The Facebook Team

Wikipedia

Short, sweet and sucky. Varney adds, 'He then went to visit the website and it was under another admin that he found later was Univerisal Studios, the owner of the orginal Dracula movies.' Now, I don't know what 'proof' they offered—and neither does Butler, because five emails to 'The Facebook Team' have gone unanswered.

Proof is the key here, because even though Universal made the first (official)¹ Dracula movies after negotiations with Bram Stoker's widow, Florence Balcombe Stoker, they do not own Stoker's work or derivatives from it—unless, of course, it exploits their Dracula franchise, namely Dracula (1931), Dracula's daughter (1936), Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein (1948), etc.

As respected Dracula scholar, David J. Skal notes, 'due to a loophole in copyright law, Dracula was – and always had been – in the public domain in the United States. Although Stoker had been issued a copyright certificate in 1897, and his widow a renewed certificate in the 1920s, Stoker had never complied with the requirement that two copies of the work be deposited with the American copyright office.'² Therefore, Universal simply has no right to claim 'Dracula' from someone else.

Add your signature to a petition asking Universal to give Butler's page back. I've signed it; hope you do, too. Stand up for the 'little guy'!

^{1. F.W. Murnau's well-known Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) was an unauthorised rip-off.↩}

^{2. DJ Skal, Hollywood gothic: the tangled web of Dracula from novel to stage to screen, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1990, p. 180.↩}

On the feast front

2012-01-23T14:28:00.000+11:00

I recently mentioned an upcoming book called Bram Stoker’s Dracula: the critical feast, an annotated reference of reviews and reactions, 1897-1920, which is compiled and edited by John Edgar Browning. John saw my post and shared further information, 'hot off the press', on the 18th via Facebook:

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA: THE CRITICAL FEAST
An Annotated Reference of Early Reviews and Reactions, 1897-1913

Compiled and Annotated, with an Introduction, by
John Edgar Browning

Bibliographical Afterword by
J. Gordon Melton

PRAISE
“Both scholars and devoted fans will rejoice in Bram Stoker’s Dracula: The Critical Feast. This exhaustive compilation fulfills a long-standing need in the realm of Dracula studies and provides a valuable fresh perspective on the early popular and critical reception of Stoker’s masterpiece.”
—Dr. Margaret L. Carter, The Vampire in Literature: A Critical Bibliography and Different Blood: The Vampire as Alien

“This meticulously researched book puts to rest misconceptions long held by many Dracula scholars (myself included) about the reception of Stoker's novel. A superb achievement and a scholar’s delight!”
—Dr. Elizabeth Miller, Bram Stoker’s Dracula: A Documentary Journey into Vampire Country and the Dracula Phenomenon and Bram Stoker’s Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition

“Dryden said of The Canterbury Tales that “here is God’s plenty,” and one might say the same thing about Bram Stoker’s Dracula: The Critical Feast. Browning has assembled an exhaustive collection of contemporary reviews of Dracula, reviews that put Stoker’s novel into context and demonstrate its almost instantaneous popularity. In addition, The Critical Feast includes copies of early covers and photographs of Stoker. This is a book that every student of Dracula will be proud to own…and pore over, a feast for the eyes and for the mind.”
—Dr. Carol A. Senf, Bram Stoker (Gothic Authors: Critical Revisions) and The Critical Response to Bram Stoker

SYNOPSIS
There is a common misconception that the early critical reception of Bram Stoker’s famed vampire novel, Dracula (1897), was “mixed.” This reference book sets out to dispel this myth en force by offering the most exhaustive collection of early critical responses to Stoker’s novel ever assembled, including some 91 reviews and reactions as well as 36 different press notices, many of which have not been seen in print since they appeared over 100 years ago. What these early critical responses reveal about Dracula’s writing is that it was predominantly seen by early reviewers and responders to parallel, even supersede the Gothic horror works of such canonical writers as Mary Shelley, Ann Radcliffe, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Accompanying the critical responses are annotations and an introduction by the editor, a bibliographical afterword by J. Gordon Melton, 32 illustrations, and a bibliography.

Sounds good! Personally speaking, I find it interesting to read contemporary views on the novel, long before it morphed into the Gothic legend it's become. Back when it was more 'grounded'. Anyhoo, John also kindly sent me the book's cover, today. Here tis:

Nifty, ain't it? He also let me know that 'with any luck, I'll be contracting my 9th and 10th book in the next 30 days'! Considering the first book he edited appeared in 2009—Draculas, vampires, and other undead forms: essays on gender, race, and culture—that's a hell of an achievement. Let's not forget his 'critical edition' to Montague Summers' The vampire in Europe (1929) is also due sometime this year.

In this capacity, John reminds me of Peter Haining (1940–2007), another prolific guy with a knack for turning up obscure goodies.

New Van Helsing flick?

2012-01-21T18:30:00.003+11:00

It seems Sony Pictures is gearing up to make a flick tentatively titled Van Helsing and Dracula or Dracula and Van Helsing. Not the most inspiring titles.

Thankfully, it's not connected to the dreadful Van Helsing (2004) written and directed by Stephen Sommers, the poor man's Stephen Spielberg. 'Gabriel Van Helsing', indeed. Pfft.

You know what Van Helsing flick they should make? The proposed sequel to Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) they talked about years ago: 'A sequel, Van Helsing's Chronicles, will continue the story of the vampire hunter starring Anthony Hopkins.'¹ Now that would be awesome. I wouldn't even care if they didn't bring back Count Oldman; to see scenery-chewing Hopkins and his band of merry men (yes, even Keanu) go up against more vamps would be fantastic. The 'love story' sucked, anyway.

DVD beaver

Sony Pictures Entertainment even owns it: 'Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment'. Maybe that's the flick they're proposing. I hope so.

So, bring back Coppola, Hopkins, hell, even James V. Hart. Dispense with the sub-par Blade/Underworld action theatrics of their imitators and let's have ourselves an operatic clusterfudge of a Van Helsing flick. Bring it on. Beat Dario Argento at his own game.

In the meantime, here's a great little DVD overview of the 1992 flick.Oh, and props to Vampire news for featuring the story.

^{1. JG Melton, The vampire book: the encyclopedia of the undead, Visible Ink Press, Detroit, 1994, p. 124.↩}

Another dustjacket intact!

2012-01-19T14:56:00.001+11:00

I previously discussed the rarity of finding Montague Summers' The vampire, his kith and kin (1928), dust jacket intact. This scarcity also applies to its companion tome, The vampire in Europe (1929).

Last night, I stumbled across one Weiser Antiquarian Books' website. They're selling it for a cool US$350.00 (left).

It has a prestigious link, too: it's 'From the collection of English bibliophile and Aleister Crowley scholar Nicholas Bishop-Culpeper (1942-2011)'. A little more about him here.

As it happens, Summers knew Aleister Crowley (1875–1947). But the extent of their relationship varies depending who you ask. For instance, Rosemary Ellen Guiley states:

Their exact relationship remains unknown, for neither said much publicly about the other. Their friendship was well known, however. Summers privately confided his interest in Crowley, and collected a huge dossier of magazine and newspaper clippings about him. He told Lance Sieveking, a Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) hero and important figure with the BBC who knew Crowley, that everything about Crowley should be preserved because he was "one of the few original and really interesting men of our age."¹

Meanwhile, in the same book, Gerard P. O'Sullivan notes 'they were not friends, but acquaintances, and dined together only twice'², adding '[Charles Richard] Cammell, one of Aleister Crowley's several biographers, was the man who brought Summers and Crowley together to dine at his flat in 1938'.³

^{1. M Summers, The vampire, his kith and kin: a critical edition, ed. JE Browning, The Apocryphile Press, Berkeley, Calif., 2011, p. xxii. Introduction by Rosemary Ellen Guiley.↩}

^{2. ibid., p. xliv. Prologue by Gerard P. O'Sullivan.↩}

^{3. ibid., p. lii.↩}

End of an era

2012-01-19T01:50:00.000+11:00

Feeling fictional

After an impressive 737 blog entries, Patricia's vampire notes is no more: '2011 had been a very intense year for me. Some positive happenings, some not so much, but altogether it has meant that I have had very little time for the PVN blog site.'

Its author, Patricia Altner, is best-known for her 1998 book, Vampire readings: an annotated bibliography. It expanded into Vampire readings: the online vampire bibliography, which, in turn, was followed by her blog.

She's to be commended for even attempting the nightmare task of cataloguing and keeping track of vast arrays of vampire fiction—especially with the boom in the past decade, alone. Her efforts will leave a big hole in the vampire blogging world. I hope readers wish her well on future endeavours. Hint, hint.

In the meantime, here's an insight into her work, via an interview conducted with Vampire wire. It was held in conjunction with a competition they ran to give away a signed copy of Vampire readings.

While I was Googling about for the image to add to this blog entry, little did I realise the stand-out turned out to be a picture in a blog entry—written by the same person who won Vampire wire's competition! Freaky.

Dracunews

2012-01-09T04:17:00.001+11:00

Wikipedia

As Niels points out, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Bram Stoker's passing. His death was largely overlooked at the time, due to the aftermath of a certain event. Bad timing, Bram!

Niels' post also reveals that Constable & Robinson—the modern incarnation of Dracula's original publisher, Archibald Constable and Company—will be releasing a facsimile edition of the 1897 novel. The pre-release prices for the hardback edition are, how should I put this—exorbitant. However, paperback copies will be far cheaper.

I'm sure the book will be invaluable to Dracula scholars, as an original text, rather than various abridged versions published over the years. But did you know Stoker's work was republished with edits made by the author, himself? That's the 1901 edition. Transylvania Press reprinted it in 1994. Unfortunately, it was a limited to a press run of 500 copies—all sold out.

Barring the original works, themselves—which sell for thousands—the upcoming facsimile and the 1901 abridged edition reprint would be perfect companions to Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula: a facsimile edition (2008).

Speaking of companions, John Edgar Browning has complied and annotated Bram Stoker’s Dracula: the critical feast, an annotated reference of reviews and reactions, 1897-1920 which will be published by The Apocryphile Press. So, stay tuned for that.

He's previously co-edited Draculas, vampires, and other undead forms: essays on gender, race, and culture (2009), edited The vampire, his kith and kin: a critical edition (2011) and co-wrote Dracula in visual media: film, television, comic book and electronic game appearances, 1921-2010 (2010). He even made contributions to S.T. Joshi's Encyclopedia of the vampire: the living dead in myth, legend, and popular culture (2010).

The guy's a machine. He's been involved in consistently good works, too, so if you see his name attached to something, chances are, it'll be a recommended purchase.

All up, 2012 looks like it'll be a great year for Dracula scholars. Let's not forget upcoming conferences like the University of Hull's Bram Stoker and Gothic Transformations on 12-14 April and Bram Stoker: life and writing, which will be held on 5-6 July at Stoker's old stomping ground, Trinity College, Dublin. You can read about other commemorative events via Stoker's estate website.

See you next year!

2011-12-31T17:19:00.002+11:00

Wikipedia

Rather than a customary reminisce of the year gone by, I thought I'd do something different for New Years' Eve—and give you a treat, instead.

You'll recall one of my recent discoveries involved a pre-White Wolf reference to vampires descending from the Biblical Cain, the first murderer. What I didn't tell you, is that there's more to the story.

The remainder of J. Theodore Bent's article discusses the behaviours and attributes of these 'Cains' in Greek lore:

They come down the chimney at night; so a careful housewife is bound, during this time, to keep embers smouldering on the hearth. When crickets come to a house, they say that it is a sure sign that "Cains" will come and play all sorts of horrible antics with the food and household utensils. Cain was a huge man, they told me, taller than the tallest chimney, with the feet of goats, and wooden shoes; in short, the satyr of ancient days. In like manner they imagine Lazarus to have risen from the grave an abnormally tall, thin man, with a round, flat head; for this reason they call the pole with an oval board at the end of it, which they use for putting their bread into the ovens, a Lazarus.¹

Bent also wrote The Cyclades: or Life among the insular Greeks (1885). That book also discusses Greek 'vampires'. Thanks to the magic of the internoodle, you can download it from here. You're welcome!

In the meantime, I wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year! Oh, and don't forget to check out Niels' latest post. It's a run-through of essential vampire books published during the year. More stuff for the Amazon wishlist. Better start saving the pennies. Peace out.

^{1. JT Bent, ‘Personification of the mysterious amongst the modern Greeks’, The National Review, April, 1887, p. 233, 26 December 2011, retrieved from British Periodicals.↩}

Three discoveries

2011-12-30T14:41:00.002+11:00

In the last few days, I've stumbled on a few items which challenge my views on vampire 'history'. For instance, I thought the 1991 role-playing game—Vampire: the Masquerade—was the first attempt at linking Cain with vampires.

Cain—son of Adam and Eve—murdered his brother, Abel, and was subsequently cursed by God: 'And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth' (Genesis 4: 11–12).

After Cain protests his punishment as something more than he can bare; fearing he could be killed in turn, he is 'protected' thusly: 'And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him' (v. 15).

Cain's curse and vagabond status morphed into vampirism within Vampire: the Masquerade's mythos. Indeed, according to the game's backstory, he's the world's first vampire.

As it turns out, the link between vampires and Cain was made much earlier. More than a hundred years before, J. Theodore Bent's assessment of the Greek Βρονκόλακες mentioned: 'In Karpathos they call these beings "Cains," affirming that Cain, who slaughtered Abel on his death, became the first wandering vampire.'¹

Not only that, but there's also a link between them and the vampire 'species' featured in the previous post: 'They here mix them up with another species of hobgoblin, evil spirits formed like men, with asses' or goats' feet, which appear on the earth for ten days only, from Christmas to Epiphany, during which time they subsist, like the Amazons of old, on snakes and lizards.'²

Our modern conception of vampires stems largely from Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). One notable aspect includes vampires turning into bats. Everyone knows that trope, but they probably don't know it originated with Stoker's novel—or did it?

Earlier this year, I found a pre-Dracula reference to vampires turning into bats in an 1892 newspaper article. That is, an article reproduced in a book by Christopher Rondina. But, I had my suspicions and double-checked the original source. It turned out to be a hoax, as its author confirmed: 'As an avid vampire fan, I was also disappointed to see the absence of bats in the original folklore, and I inserted the reference into the 1892 article as a vanity "enhancement" for my own satisfaction.'

No need for disappointment. I found a vampires-into-bats reference pre-dating his own 'enhancement'—by nearly 20 years: 'The belief that human beings were sometimes changed into the bats called vampyres is found in India, and was also Magian.'³ This isn't quite the same thing, though. The passage refers to people changing into vampire bats, not that they were vampires, per se. However, I suspect that, too, is a misnomer: vampire bats are not native to India.

The article's anonymous author may have conflated vampire bats and their supposed morphic capabilities with a popular retelling of Baital Pachisi—Richard F. Burton's Vikram and the Vampire; or, Tales of Hindu devilry (1870). The so-called 'vampire'—baital or vetala—is actually an 'evil spirit which animates dead bodies'.⁴ No mention of blood-drinking.

The bat connection's found in its appearance: 'Its body was thin and ribbed like a skeleton or a bamboo framework, and as it held on to a bough, like a flying fox,'⁵ on which Burton elaborates, 'A large kind of bat ; a popular and silly Anglo-Indian name.'⁶

Far from vampiric, the flying fox's diet is given away by its other name—fruit bats. 'They live in the tropics and subtropics of Asia (including the Indian subcontinent)', whereas vampire bats are notably smaller and found in 'the Americas, ranging from Mexico to Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.'

What's the connection between flying foxes and vampires? The Indian Flying-fox is a member of the Pteropus vampyrus species.

A popular theory explaining the origin of the vampire belief concerns plagues. One proponent, Olga Hoyt, wrote, 'A more cogent reason for the spread of vampirism throughout Europe, beginning in the Middle Ages, however, was the was the terrible plague [Black Death] that began in the thirteenth century and lasted until the eighteenth.'⁷

Vampirism acted as a sort of supernatural epidemic, spreading from village to village, as seen in the Plogojowitz and Paole cases. It's not hard to see parallels, but few have established direct connections between vampire belief and the plague.

Well, I found one. A missing link. The Daily Gazetteer (6 September 1738)⁸ covered the movement of Turkish troops 'posted near Inharlick' towards Raskow, to head off a Russian contingent marching towards a strategically important river. Here's what happened next:

Podolia, no longer a Polish territory, 'is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast.'

^{1. JT Bent, ‘Personification of the mysterious amongst the modern Greeks’, The National Review, April, 1887, p. 233, 26 December 2011, retrieved from British Periodicals.↩}

^{2. ibid.↩}

^{3. ‘Demonology’, Fraser’s Magazine, December, 1872, p. 701, viewed 27 December 2011, retrieved from British Periodicals.↩}

^{4. RF Burton (adapt.), Vikram and the Vampire; or, Tales of Hindu devilry, Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 1870, p. xiii, viewed 20 August 2010, retrieved from Internet Archive.↩}

^{5. ibid., p. 46.↩}

^{6. ibid., fn. 3.↩}

^{7. O Hoyt, Lust for blood: the consuming story of vampires, Stein and Day, New York, 1984, p. 56.↩}

^{8. 'Yesterday arrived mail due from Holland', The Daily Gazetteer, 6 September 1738, p. [2592], viewed 27 December 2011, retrieved from British Periodicals. The section is titled 'Warsaw, Aug. 19. O. S.'↩}

Season's greetings

2011-12-26T17:42:00.001+11:00

BuzzFeed

I trust everyone had a merry Christmas? Hope so. I've been digging up some vampy stuff to mark the occasion.

The connection between vampires and the season is established through Greek folklore. 'Any child who had the misfortune of being born between Christmas Day (December 25) and the Feast of the Twelfth Night (January 5),' writes Theresa Bane, 'will rise from its grave as a callicantzaro when it eventually dies.'¹

What does this unfortunate creature look like? 'Half human and half animal, it has a black face, red eyes, very long ears, clawed hands, and sharp teeth.'² What makes it vampiric? 'The first time that it returns it will seek out its surviving family members, ripping them apart, limb from limb, with its clawed hands.'³ Yikes. But what about the bloodsucking component usually associated with vampires? 'Although blood drinking is not a requirement for its survival, that is something the callicantzaro most certainly revels in.'⁴

From further readings—and barring regional variants—it seems the account's been filtered down to us from a much older source. 'It would seem, however, from the account of them given by Allatius,' says Thomas Wright, 'that these were but different names for the same thing, callicantzara being the more modern.'⁵ 'Allatius' is a reference to Leo Allatius (1586–1669): 'In 1645 he included the first methodical discussion of vampires, in De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus'.⁶

Wright also notes that the power of these beings 'was greatest during the eight days of Christmas; and it was believed that any one who chanced to be born during that period was so affected, that "he seemed to be born only to be the plague of himself and of every one else."'⁷ What happened next?

As soon as the eight days came, he would rush from his own house, in a state of madness, and wander about during the night . . . He never rested, but with his hair rough and dishevelled, and his face wild, he fell on every one he met, and tore their faces with his long sharp nails; then, jumping heavily upon their shoulders, and grasping them by the throat, when he had nearly choked then, he asked, . . . "Tow or lead?" If the sufferer answered "Tow," his tormentor instantly left him, and hastened in search of somebody else whom he might torment; if the answer was "Lead," then he fell upon him with all his might, tore him miserably with his nails, and left him half dead.⁸

Interestingly, Wright doesn't describe the calllicantzaro as a vampire type, as many modern authors do, but links it with another folkloric being: 'These callicantzari seem to have resembled, in some respects, the changelings of our [English] popular creed; except that, while with us they generally pine away, amongst the Greeks their diabolical natures were only exhibited after they were grown up.'⁹

It's clear he saw a distinction between them, as he goes on to note: 'The Greek burculaca, bulcolacca, or buthrolaca, for the name is differently spelt, was the Teutonic vampyre.'¹⁰ In this case, he clearly outlines the being's undead state, but rather than suck the blood of innocent victims, it 'walked about the streets, and knocked at people's doors, and always called by name some person in the house. If the persona who was named answered, he was sure to die on the following day.'¹¹

^{1. T Bane, Encyclopedia of vampire mythology, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, N.C., 2010, p. 41.↩}

^{2. ibid.↩}

^{3. ibid.↩}

^{4. ibid., pp. 41–2.↩}

^{5. T Wright, 'On the popular superstitions of modern Greece', Essays on subjects connected with the literature, popular superstitions, and history of England in the Middle Ages, vol. 1, John Russell Smith, London, 1846, p. 296.↩}

^{6. I disagree with that claim. See: 'The Church vs. the undead, pt. 2'.↩}

^{7. Wright, pp. 296–7.↩}

^{8. ibid., pp. 297.↩}

^{9. ibid., pp. 298.↩}

^{10. ibid., pp. 299.↩}

^{11. ibid.↩}

London conference

2011-12-20T07:39:00.002+11:00

Playing god with monsters

Speaking of Bell's blogs, he mentioned his recent attendance at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London, as part of an international conference called 'Vampires: myths of the past and the future' (2–4 November 2011).

His presentation—'American vampires and the ongoing ambiguity of death'—took place on the 2nd. As is usual with English language vampire conferences, the papers primarily focus on novels and film. That said, good to see a fellow Melbournite—Ken Gelder (Reading the vampire, 1994)—among the crowd.

Here's hoping they're published, a la the 2009 Vienna conference. I've already contacted the IGRS to find out. Let's see what they say.

My reading list 3

2011-12-20T06:18:00.001+11:00

Been a while since I updated the thing. First, some familiar 'faces'. Michele Hauf's VampChix, Elizabeth Miller's livejournal, Curt Purcell's The groovy age of horror, Brian Solomon's The vault of horror, and bshistorian's The bs historian have been reinstituted. Blog's felt naked without 'em.

Speaking of naked, I should point out that Purcell's blog occasionally contains explicit content, if you catch my drift. Not one for the kiddies or workplace.

Wesleyan University Press

Time for the newcomers; although, this one should've been on the other blog all along. Can't believe I hadn't included Michael E. Bell's online writings in my old blog's 'Reading list'. Readers may recognise him as the author of Food for the dead: on the trail of New England's vampires (2001; 2011)—a book which should be in every vampire scholar's library.

This time round, I've added not one, but—count 'em—two of his blogs here: Food for the dead and Vampires grasp. If the latter's title doesn't sound familiar, strap yourself in: it's a 'teaser' for his next book. His user profile reveals it'll 'be published in 2012 by Wesleyan University Press'. Keep your eyes peeled for that one.

While it doesn't exclusively deal with vampires—indeed, they're barely mentioned—I've added Paul Bibeau's Goblinbooks to the list, as it makes entertaining reading. It does have a vampire connection, though: its author wrote Sundays with Vlad: from Pennsylvania to Transylvania, one man's quest to live in the world of the undead (2007).

Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaah!

2011-12-17T04:47:00.000+11:00

Cracked

Vampire bats, that is. Still, great cover. Stories and flicks centred around mass vampire bat attacks aren't unique. There's Martin Cruz Smith's novel, Nightwing (1977), it's cinematic adaptation (1979) and, of course, Vampire bats (2005).

But their path of destruction's paled—and preceded—by the apocalyptic vampire bats in Alan Hyder's novel, Vampires overhead (1935). Oh, and they're also from outer space.

Dust settles; sequel talk

2011-12-17T03:45:00.003+11:00

The Fright night remake's doing the rounds on DVD—already—but Dread central wanted to know whether there'd be any sequels. So, they asked director, Craig Gillespie and writer Marti Noxon.

Here's what they said: "It was a great time working on Fright Night, and I know I'd love to come back for a sequel," said Noxon. "So far no one has mentioned any plans for a sequel yet- I think it's contingent on what happens with the DVD and Blu-ray sales, but I do think there's more stories to tell here and I hope I get to come back."

They better hope it scores big on DVD and Blu-ray sales, because it didn't exactly set the box office alight: it barely recouped its budget. Take that, remake!

That hasn't deterred its director, though: "In regards to a sequel, I think it's a wait and see situation for DreamWorks right now, but I know I'd be happy to direct a Fright Night sequel- there are a lot of possibilities in this world. Honestly, I'd love to do something like Charley backpacking through Europe and getting mixed up with some vampires there. That could be a lot of fun. Would the sequel be in 3D? Hard to tell, but either way I'd love to come back."

Horror movies forum

Thing is, there's already a Fright night sequel: Fright night, part 2, bitches! You can blame that flick for my interest in the undead.

I still remember watching it on Channel 9 the night before starting Grade 6. Later, I'd go on to borrow it from Majestic Video, a local video library—and was suitably impressed with its coffin-shaped VHS cover.

It'd be a while before I saw part one. Oddly enough, I even read its John Skipp/Craig Spektor novelisation before seeing it. The book was in my high school's library, of all places; it wasn't part of the curriculum. Eventually, I scored a copy of Fright night at Majestic. Unfortunately, it wasn't boxed in a coffin-shaped cover.

To this day, I still rank both flicks amongst the best vampire movies ever. Dated 80s threads to the contrary. They're clever, inventive—yet stick to the Draculean 'rules'. Pretty much. That's how I like it.

I've yet to see the remake. I deliberately avoided doing so at the cinema—as tempted as I admittedly was. But I'll catch it on DVD. Maybe it'll be awesome. Who knows. I've also avoided reading reviews cos, deep-down, I'm interested to see what they'll do with their 'source'.

That said, I hope the flick's meagre box office has helped convince producers to go easy on the remakes. It's turned into a sick joke. There's just so many of them. Seriously, stop. I can understand the whole 'safe bet' thing—what with pirating to compete with and the millions at stake—but rest assured, people are gonna get sick of it. Real soon. How long can an industry that cannibalises itself, survive?

Underneath the radar

2011-12-16T21:32:00.002+11:00

Hemlock Books

I 'discovered' this one while on one of my semi-regular Amazon trawls. Can't believe I missed it. Presenting: Bruce G Hallenbeck's British cult cinema: the Hammer vampire (left). It was published 5 May 2010.

Hammer was an English production company, best-known for its horror output during the late 1950s–early 1970s. At one point, the company was so popular, it earned a 'Queen's Award to Industry in recognition of their contribution to the British economy.'

Many horror fans—including me—have a soft spot for their films. Cheesy by today's standards, there's still a sense of class about 'em, despite their low budgets, due to the quality of their actors and (usually) Victorian settings. Christopher 'Count Dooku' Lee got his big break through them. Also, if you're into gory stuff, they basically mainstreamed it. Quite ahead of its time.

Hammer made fifteen vampire flicks. Sixteen if you include Countess Dracula (1971). Most were encased in 'series': Dracula (1958)—its eight sequels—and the Karnstein Trilogy. The remainder were stand-alones: Kiss of the vampire (1962), Vampire circus (1972) and Captain Kronos – vampire hunter (1974).

They also wanted to adapt Richard Matheson's seminal vampire novel, I am legend (1954), but censors nixed that idea.

As you can see, there's ample ground to give Hammer's vampires a whole lotta coverage, which I'm sure will warm the hearts of many fans. It's been getting some good reviews on Amazon.co.uk, too. Plus points.

Off the top of my head, there's only been two other books specifically devoted to Hammer's vampire output, namely, Robert Marrero's Vampires: Hammer style (1982) and John Jewel's Lips of blood: an illustrated guide to Hammer's Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee (2002). Going on page length, alone (I've read none of these books), looks like Hallenbeck's in the lead for most extensive coverage of the subject.

Buyers beware!

2011-12-16T20:27:00.000+11:00

Here's Meredith Woerner, author of Vampire taxonomy: identifying and interacting with the modern-day bloodsucker (2009), examining a vampire killing kit in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Times Square, New York:

Woerner's not an antiquarian—she's an entertainment writer, which is why her 'examination' involves naming the box's contents and mucking about with them. However, Ripley's Times Square/Ripley's London's president—Michael Hirsch—also seen in the clip, states: 'This is the real thing. This was, uh, uh, produced in the 1850s, and it was used for travellers if they were heading into Eastern Europe. Uh, a fear of vampires if they were heading there. So, this is, this is the real, actual kit.'

Does he have a professional antiquarian background? No, but he does specialise in 'P&L Analysis/Management, Staff Motivation, Customized Best Practice Sales Techniques, Accelerated Expense Reduction, Internal Labor Analysis, Brand Leveraging/Building, Traditional and Digital Marketing Practices.'

So, how have these kits been authenticated? I asked the '"main" purchaser' of Ripley's vampire killing kits, Edward Meyer, how he determined their 19th century origins. He said: 'One of the key elements in a vampire killing kit is a pistol. Pistols can easily be dated by style, and maker. Some of the guns actually have dates an initials on them..From a study of several kits it is obvious some are older than others, but the guns typically come from the 1840s-50s'.

Fair enough, except an old gun in a box doesn't necessarily confirm the reality of the kit—at least, for its alleged purpose—as The Mercer Museum, Doylestown, Pa., will attest.

How about contemporary evidence? If the kits, were, indeed, sold during the 19th century, there'd likely be some record of their sale. An advertisement, something. Indeed, a Ripley's press release states, 'Most were created in the Boston area and were available by mail order.' I asked Meyer whether or not he'd seen these mail orders. 'No'.

How about a contemporary reference to their use or sale? 'No, we have nothing any earlier than 1990 mentioning their existence.' Skipping ahead, I asked whether it was possible the kits were 'late 20th/early 21st century forgeries'. He said: 'Anything is possible. I know of no hard evidence to confirm where or when any of these items were made. As I stated before the date of the guns is the only thing you can confirm with confidence…..We have found these kits in a number of different states, and three different European countries. Modern guns certainly suggest “forgeries” (your word not mine). The kits exist, they are “real”, and for the most part they are all different, so the debate isn’t really over their existence, but simply how old are they.'

But I say the debate is over their age. After all, they do exist—in the sense that such kits incorporate 19th century parts and are alleged to offer protection against vampires—but their 'existence', as antique vampire killing kits, hinges on the claim they were manufactured and sold during the 19th century. Otherwise, they're modern forgeries; 'forgeries' which are auctioned off for several thousand dollars.

A few days after my interview with Meyers, one of Ripley's bloggers—Big O—posted an entry repeating the 19th century origin of vampire killing kits under 'Weird True Facts', adding they contained 'items considered necessary fir [sic] the protection of persons who traveled [sic] into the countries of Eastern Europe, where the populace was reportedly plagued with a peculiar manifestation of evil known as Vampires.' To that blog entry, I've added my own two cents:

I wouldn't've done it if a commenter's 'This was proven to be a hoax' statement wasn't refuted by the entry's author: 'Not at all … as a matter of fact we are still finding out more information about these kits. Next week we have a “vampire” gentleman from the UK who is a gun expert. He is gong to examine the different guns in a bunch of the kits to ascertain the date when they were made.'

Why'd they get the chop?

2011-12-16T15:23:00.001+11:00

Nerds in Babeland

I noted several papers 'missing' from Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie (2011) and wondered what happened to 'em.

I contacted one of the book's editors, Christoph Augustynowicz, asking, 'What are the reasons their contributions weren't incorporated into the anthology'?¹

He responded in a promptly: 'thank you for your interest, the paper of Berhard Unterholzner is included, the others didn’t deliver their papers – simple as that.'²

I double-checked Niels' listing for the Unterholzner contribution—he was right. It's there. Whoops! However, in the same e-mail, I also asked if he could put me in touch with Sigrid Janisch, 'as I'm very interested in reading her paper'. True story. But no reply to that query. Ah well. She's not an easy woman to find. If you're reading this, Sigrid, drop me a line!

On the plus side, I had successfully tracked down Thede Kahl, who told me, 'I have never send a paper for that conference. I presented some aspects, but did not find the time to fromulate [sic] my ideas in a written form.'³

So, no conspiracies. No under-par papers. They're 'missing' simply because they weren't submitted. Mystery solved.

A real shame, though. I've found a document presenting summaries of the papers. Karin Barton's 'Der Habsburger Floh: Zur Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte eines vampirischen Insekts' (The Habsburg flea: notes on the cultural and literary history of an insect vampire) provided 'a brief survey of flea-literature in the Holy Roman Empire, starting with the late medieval and pseudo-Ovidian Carmen de pulice which combines the motifs of sex and death with vampiric overtones, to the prominent Renaissance trope of the war between fleas and their allegedly preferred hosts, women.'

Thede Kahl's discussion, 'Bewahrung und Verdrängung von Vampirgeschichten in Nordgriechenland und Südalbanien' (Perpetuation and suppression of narratives of vampires in northern Greece and southern Albania) cited 'examples of the three regional languages (Aromunian, Albanian, Greek) for the loss of an oral tradition on different levels', promising to 'show, what the processes of forgetting have in common, as well as how the attitudes (conservation, suppression) of the narrators and the audience differ.'

Lastly, Sigrid Janisch's 'Was ist ein Vampir im Habsburger Reich des 18./19. Jahrhunderts? Ein Vergleich anhand von Enzyklopädien' (What is a vampire in the 18th and 19th Habsburg Monarchy? A comparison on the basis of encyclopedias), noted 'The contemporary vampire image considerably differs from the one of the 18th and 19th centuries. The paper focusses on the changes of some aspects of this image and its development as a whole.' I'm sure it would've provided a fascinating insight into the vampire 'evolution' in popular Western consciousness.

As an added bonus, here's the conference's programme guide, so you'll know who spoke when! If you needed to know such a thing, that is.

^{1. A Hogg, 'Vampirism and magia posthuma papers‏', Thursday, 15 December 2011 12:29:35 AM, <thevampirologist@hotmail.com>.↩}

^{2. C Augustynowicz, 'AW: Vampirism and magia posthuma papers', Thursday, 15 December 2011 10:44:43 PM, <christoph.augustynowicz@univie.ac.at>. ↩}

^{3. T Kahl, 'AW: Vampirismus und magia posthuma paper‏', Wednesday, 14 December 2011 7:50:20 PM, <Thede.Kahl@oeaw.ac.at>.↩}

Minor adjustments

2011-12-16T12:33:00.002+11:00

I've just been toying with the design on this blog. Haven't changed much. Just some font types and link colours. They're brighter now. Bigger blog title, too.

So now the main text's a 12pt Georgia, rather than Arial. Looks better in my view. Hopefully, it's just as readable. I've also pulled the random posts function, as it was screwing with the rest of the layout.

I was thinking of formatting subsequent pics with Instagram-style filters, until I read this hysterical rant decrying the habit. It made some good points. We'll see.

Speaking of adjustments, I should point out that the 'trailor' featured in the previous entry is not a trailer, misspelling to the contrary. It's actually a teaser. Some pre-production footage, giving viewers an idea of what the film'll look like when it's done. That'd explain why that swooping owl looks so poxy.

Dario Argento's Dracula

2011-12-16T02:28:00.002+11:00

Horror maven, Dario Argento, has cast his hat into the lot of a long line of directors who've tackled Bram Stoker's Dracula. However, this is probably the first attempt rendered in 'stereoscopic 3D'.

A word of warning before viewing this 'Trailor': it's got a lotta gore, bad CGI and brief nudity at the 1:38 mark. It might also make you wonder, 'This guy directed Suspiria?'

Twilight, it ain't. As a change of pace, Rutger Hauer plays Van Helsing. His previous contributions to vampire flicks include Lothos (Buffy the vampire slayer, 1992) and Kurt Barlow (Salem's Lot, 2004). He also inspired Anne Rice, and was even considered for the role of Lestat de Lioncourt in an adaptation of Interview with the vampire. It went to Tom Cruise.

Watching the 'trailor' for this OTT adaptation reminds me of a Dracula project—by another horror auteur—unfortunately never realised.

The late Ken Russell (1927–2011), best-known in vampire circles for adapting Stoker's Lair of the white worm (1988), Russell wanted a crack at Drac, too. It 'was cancelled when it was felt that too many Dracula films were crowding the market. Among the proposed scenes was Jonathan Harker wrapping a rosary about his fist to "de-fang" a vampire bride!'

Conference papers published

2011-12-14T16:27:00.000+11:00

Magia posthuma

While I'm eagerly awaiting my copy of Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie to arrive, Niels received his on Monday (left).

His paper, 'Magia posthuma. a weblog approach to the history of central and Eastern European vampire cases of the 18th century', was published in the book. It mentions my previous blog. What an honour!

He's also helpfully printed the book's contents. For an idea on what the papers discuss, consult his invaluable notes on the conference.

Karin Barton's paper, 'The Habsburg flea: notes on the cultural and literary history of an insect vampire', didn't make the cut; a real shame, considering it 'presented a source from 1866 that mentions the word 'nosferatu', a term otherwise usually perceived as constructed by Emily Gerard in her Transsylvanian [sic] Superstitions from 1885!' But that's ok. I found an earlier source.

That said, if it wasn't for Niels' coverage of Barton's paper, I wouldn't've sought it out in the first place. So, kudos to 'em both.

Sigrid Janisch's paper on 'various definitions of vampires from 18th and 19th century encyclopedias' got the chop, as did Bernhard Unterholzner's discussion on 'vampire debates from 1732 and onwards.'

There's no sign of Thede Kahl's 'field work in Albania and Northern Greece, where he got about 200 tales about vampires, revenants and other entities.' However, Niels does mention his findings 'will be published later this year [2009]', so his work may simply have appeared in another source, like a journal. Might have to chase that up.

And the others, too, for that matter.

Heart in a box

2011-12-14T15:24:00.002+11:00

I've dealt with the duplicity of 'antique' vampire killing kits and the ridiculousness of 'Vampire Cage' and its imitators, now let's take a look at another unusual collectible.

Life is really beautiful

A box containing the suspiciously well-preserved heart of Auguste Delagrange—and the stake which impaled it—sold on eBay late last year for US $320.10 after 20 bids. Unlike many other vampire 'antiques', the seller courteously labelled the item a 'Prop/Gaff'.

I've traced the heart's origins to Propnomicon, which 'focuses on horror and fantasy props of interest to fans of H. P. Lovecraft and players of the "Call of Cthulhu" role playing game.' Its creator states, 'All this week [May 2010] I've been working on producing a realistic mummified vampire heart as part of a larger project. After a few failed attempts I finally have something I'm happy with.'

Clearly impressed with his work, he lovingly describes 'The large hole in the left auricle is where the ashen stake that de-animated this particular vampire entered the heart. Along the top you can see the stubs of the major vessels (pulmonary artery, aorta, superior and inferior vena cava) from when the heart was cut from the creature's chest.' Tasty.

The heart's saga is continued here and here.

Q & A with Peter Mario Kreuter, part 1

2011-12-08T02:16:00.002+11:00

Ingrid Goldbach

While I was in contact with Peter Mario Kreuter, I proposed an interview for Diary of an amateur vampirologist. Unfortunately, it never transpired due to various distractions on my part, and I simply never got 'round to asking him any questions.

But it was always in the back of my mind, so I messaged him about a month and a half ago, apologising and calling myself a 'right bastard' for not getting round to them. I tried my luck and asked whether he was still willing to participate.¹ Thankfully, he was! What a sport.

The following is Kreuter's first crack at answering my questions², effectively serving as a 'teaser' to the rest of the interview, which remains incomplete as of this writing. He's a busy guy, after all. Nonetheless, it represents a fascinating insight into one of the 21st century's most respected vampire scholars.

You're best known for your thesis, Der Vampirglaube in Südosteuropa. Studien zur Genese, Bedeutung und Funktion. Rumänien und der Balkanraum (2001). What inspired you to write about the specific area of vampirism?

To tell the truth... nothing inspired me. I never intended to write my doctoral thesis about popular folk beliefs or the vampire – my intention has been to take a deeper look onto the history of Danish constitutionalism. Therefore I learned Danish at the University of Bonn, and still today, Danish history fascinates me…

But first things first! I started my studies in October 1989 in Bonn, and my main interest has always been (and still is) cultural history. So I made “Medieval and Premodern History” to my main field of study. In that time, each student of humanities was obliged to choose two main or one main and two secondary fields, so I made my choice for the latter version and took “Romance Philology” and “Slavic Philology” as secondary fields. It is never bad for a historian to read the sources personally.

When starting the studies of Romance philology, I learned that I had to take two Romance languages, and my first choice has been French. But the second one? Maybe Italian, but the idea to end up with 120 other students in one room hasn’t been that intriguing for me. Spanish? Portuguese? Too far away from the countries with Slavic languages. And then I saw that Bonn was one of those few German universities, which offered the opportunity to study Romanian. And so I decided to make Romanian to my second Romance language. It was, finally, a simple choice. My music teacher at the Gymnasium was a Saxon from Transylvania, and he often told me nice stories about Romania and the Romanians and the language and how beautiful this language is and so on. Well, that was my way to Romanian. In addition to that, I had to make a choice for the Slavic languages, too. Russian was obligatory, Old Church Slavonic was obligatory, but the third one was in my own free will. Then I saw that Bonn was one of those few German universities, which offered the opportunity to study Bulgarian. And so I came into a closer contact to Southeastern Europe.

Things became since those choices a bit strange. My Bulgarian teacher told me that learning Albanian would lead me to a deeper understanding for the central area of the so-called “Balkansprachbund” (Balkan linguistic area). The Albanian teacher said that without an understanding for the Ottoman Empire, the cultural area called “Balkans” will forever be closed for me. Guess what I did? But the Turkish teacher pointed out that a lot of the Ottoman state was based on Greek traditions… At the end, Denmark was quite far away, and one nice day I had to think about my M.A. thesis. Something about the Balkans, for sure. But what exactly?

Firstly, I thought about something to combine France with Romania. The reception of French enlightenment in Transylvania – that’s it! At least I thought it. The professor of Premodern history, who already knew me and offered me to hold a presentation of my project in his Oberseminar (special course for exam projects). So I did. It was quite successful, but at the end, the professor said something disturbing to me- Interesting stuff, yes, but there was one revealing moment for him when I spoke about the struggle of the Romanian intellectuals against the popular folk beliefs. By the way, never ever a historian took a look onto the vampire belief with the methods of a historian. Try it, stout yeoman!

And I did. First for the M.A., then for my doctoral thesis. That’s the story.

^{1. A Hogg, 'Interview', Friday, 28 October 2011 2:22:24 PM.↩}

^{2. PM Kreuter, 'The first answer', Wednesday, 2 November 2011 5:26:16 AM.↩}

Upcoming books

2011-12-01T03:40:00.004+11:00

It's been a while since I've taken a look at 'Upcoming books on vampires', so let's see what we're dealing with in the coming months. If you're a vampire fiction aficionado, note that my coverage of 'Upcoming books' concerns non-fiction works. Publication dates are also subject to change.

If I was to summarise the general themes of non-fiction vampire works coming in the new year, I'd say occult and film.

We start with Leo Ruickbie's A brief guide to the supernatural: ghosts, vampires and the paranormal (16 February 2012). Ruickbie 'is an historian and sociologist of magic, witchcraft and Wicca.'

Red Wheel/Weiser

For something explicitly magical, we have Father Sebastiaan's Vampire magick: the grimoire of the Living Vampire (1 March 2012), a 'companion volume' to Vampyre Sanguinomicon: the lexicon of the Living Vampire (2010).

For those not-in-the-know, a grimoire 'is a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons.'

The pseudo-archaic tone is enhanced with 'magick', 'an Early Modern English spelling for magic'—but was also used by infamous occultist, Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), to 'differentiate the occult from stage magic'—and vampyre, for that matter, which is (spoiler alert!) merely an archaic rendering of vampire.

As to film, Columbia University Press will be publishing Jeffrey Weinstock's The vampire film: undead cinema in April 2012; while I.B. Tauris will release Screening the undead: vampires and zombies in film and television by Leon Hunt, Sharon Lockyer and Milly Williamson on 1 December 2012.

Williamson may be familiar to some readers through her 2005 book, The lure of the vampire: gender, fiction and fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy.

Another vampire picture mystery

2011-11-01T23:18:00.000+11:00

GothzNewz

Some time ago, I discussed well-known 'picture of a vampire with a stake embedded in its heart' (left), and thought I'd discovered its illustrator—William Mortensen (1897–1965). But I'm not a hundred percent sure he did it.

Mortensen 'was one of the most well known and respected photographers in America in the thirties' and his 'obscurity today is mainly due to his championing of Pictorialism, a force within photography that promoted retouching, hand-worked negatives, chemical washes, and an artistic, painterly approach that soon faded with the advance of modernism.'

The version you've seen in books, is taken from the Bettmann/CORBIS photo archives. It's called 'Engraving of the Death of a Vampire', but gives no further details than that. Not even a date. The picture hosted by them—at least, on their website—is also black and white.

Flickr

However, Mortensen's vampire (left) was rendered in a sort of sepia tone. So where does this colour version come from? Was Mortensen actually its original illustrator, after all? Was it merely 'colourized' by someone else at a later time? If so, who? Why?

Was the picture an example of Pictorialist technique? If so, what was the original image? Could the colour version actually be a painting which Mortenson, uh, Pictorialised? If so, why would Bettmann/CORBIS list it as an 'engraving'. Hmm.

I'd love to get to the bottom of its origins, as it's one of my favourite vampire images. It's a graphic late-nineteenth century style engraving—I have my doubts that it was actually created during that period—and, apart from the fangs, gets close to what a staked vampire corpse of folklore would've looked like.

Happy Hallowe'en!

2011-10-31T16:33:00.001+11:00

Nightmare Factory

Before uncorking the cab sav, thought I'd commemorate the Spookiest Night of the Year by sharing an obscure folkoric belief mingling vampires and everyone's favourite gourd-like squash. Over to you, T. P. Vukanović:

The belief in vampires of plant origin occurs among Gs. [Gypsies] who belong to the Mosl. [Moslem] faith in KM [Kosovo-Metohija]. According to them there are only two plants which are regarded as likely to turn into vampires: pumpkins of every kind and water-melons. And the change takes place when they are 'fighting one another.' In Podrima and Prizrenski Podgor they consider this transformation occurs if these vegetables have been kept for more than ten days: then the gathered pumpkins stir all by themselves and make a sound like 'brrrl, brrrl, brrrl!' and begin to shake themselves. It is also believed that sometimes a trace of blood can be seen on the pumpkin, and the Gs. then say it has become a vampire. These pumpkins and melons go round the houses, stables, and rooms at night, all by themselves, and do harm to people. But it is thought that they cannot do great damage to folk, so people are not very afraid of this kind of vampire.¹

As an added bonus, trick or treat yourself to a guest blog I wrote for Reading with bite, discussing the links between vamps and All Hallows' Eve. In the meantime, have a safe and happy Hallowe'en! Brrrl, brrrl, brrrl!

^{1. TP Vukanović, 'The vampire (in the belief and customs of the Gypsies in the province of Kosovo-Metohija, Stari Ras and Novopazarski Sandžak, Yugoslavia)', Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 3rd ser, vol. 37, no. 1–2, 1958, p. 27.↩}

The first true vampire: another candidate?

2011-10-29T02:16:00.002+11:00

British Library

I'm glad I bought Fastitocalon's first and second issues. Eugenio M. Olivares Merino's two-part discussion on revenants and vampires in Medieval English literature did not disappoint.

I previously outlined the case for Peter Plogojowitz being the first true vampire on account of the necessary 'ingredients' present: undead corpse, bloodsucking, exhumation, destruction of corpse.

These traits were used in conjunction with the earliest use of the term 'vampire' in association with an undead being—rendered 'so sie Vampyri nennen' in a report on Plogojowitz's exhumation.

However, Olivares Merino makes a strong case for these traits also being present in a British case from the 12th century—best known as the Vampire of Anantis Castle:

The English translation that I have been using ("that it might be have been taken for a leech filled with the blood of many persons") does not seem to reproduce the meaning of the Latin text, which literally means: 'so that they understood that he had been a leech of many'. For lack of a better word, William of Newburgh might have used the Latin term 'sanguisuga, ae', to convey precisely that the revenant had done exactly what leeches do: suck blood from others.¹

In terms of its relevance to Medieval vampirism, he also notes, 'This is a relevant novelty that has not appeared in any of the cases referred to so far, a landmark in the genesis of the vampire myth in Europe.'² In other words, far from proving that vampires—in the sense we've discussed so far—were common during this period, such traits are an aberration; perhaps hinting at the 'missing link' in the evolution of revenants to vampires.

After all, the vampire didn't spring just pop out of nowhere. Even the Plogojowitz case hints at prior manifestations of the phenomena. The author of the report noted: 'if I did not accord them the viewing and the legal recognition to deal with the body according to their custom, theu [the villagers] would have to leave house and home, because by the time a gracious resolution was received from Belgrade, perhaps the entire village—and this was already supposed to have happened in Turkish times [i.e. Ottoman occupation]—could be destroyed by such an evil spirit'.³ There are also clear antecedents in the Russuab stryges and Polish upior featured in late 17th century issues of the Mercure galant.

By the time the Plogojowitz and Paole cases rolled around, it was clear the vampire—by that name—was an established 'being' or tradition, its undead state and bloodsucking tendencies recurring throughout the region. The question is, what is the connection between the folklore of Northern Europe with Eastern Europe? Did they intersect at some point? If so, when? How did the vampire develop in Eastern Europe? Did it form spontaneously? Was it influenced? Who knows. That's the on-going riddle for me.

In the meantime, if you can get a handle on Olivares Merino's articles, I highly recommend you do so. His overview of the English 'vampire' cases is one of the most thorough I've had the pleasure of reading.

^{1. EM Olivares Merino, 'Reporting the stubborn undead: revenants and vampires in twelfth century English literature (II)', Fastitocalon, vol. 1, no. 2, 2010, p. 166.↩}

^{2. ibid.↩}

^{3. Cited in P Barber, Vampires, burial, and death: folklore and reality, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1988, p. 6.↩}

Für deutsche Leser

2011-10-28T14:58:00.001+11:00

LIT Verlag

As Niels revealed, the Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie will be out soon. The book features proceedings from the 2009 Vienna conference.

For a taste of what this book'll contain, read his notes on the conference. I'm particularly interested in Christian Reiter's assertion that 'the epidemic in Medvedja in 1731-32 was caused by anthrax. Furthermore [concluding] that Flückinger and co. had falsified their report concerning the corpses not in a "vampire state" with the intent of obtaining remuneration for their examination of the corpses.' I'd love to see how he proves that.

The 'epidemic in Medvedja' refers to the Arnold Paole case. The importance of that case in vampire history can not be underestimated: it gave us the word, 'vampire'. It's because of that case that we know vampires are undead, bloodsucking corpses which you gotta stake through the heart.

It's because of that case, that the symbolism inherent in the vampire's 'existence' found broader application, giving way to vampire literature—indeed, John Polidori's 'The vampyre; a tale' (1819) was partially inspired by the first English press coverage of the case: 'In the London Journal, of March, 1732, is a curious, and, of course credible account of a particular case of vampyrism, which is stated to have occurred at Madreyga, in Hungary.'

Therefore, imagine if the popularity of the vampire in Western culture started with a guy—who faked a report. Brilliant.

Following that line of darkness

2011-10-28T12:45:00.001+11:00

EnCompass Editions

Yesterday, in referring to Robert A. Douglas' That line of darkness, I said 'it seems this work is only the first volume of Douglas' exploration. I couldn't find any info on the next one. I'll look into that.' And I did.

I contacted the book's publisher, EnCompass Editions, and asked: 'There are a few references to it being the 'first volume', so could you please tell me when the second will be available?'¹

EnCompass Editions' head honcho, Robert Buckland, responded, 'Thank you for your inquiry. Bob Douglas is still reviewing his manuscript for the second volume so we're not able to name a publication date.'² He also offered to put my name on a list so I'd know when it's available. Sweet.

This has gotta be a first. A two-volume work that 'traces the intricate web of Zeitgeist that surfaced in one of the nineteenth century's strangest literary creations and flowered on the battlefields of the First World War', Dracula. That's a lotta print to cover such a niche subject. I'm impressed.

^{1. A Hogg, 'That line of darkness‏', Thursday, 27 October 2011 12:35:58 PM, <thevampirologist@hotmail.com>.↩}

^{2. R Buckland, 'Re: That line of darkness‏', Friday, 28 October 2011 12:32:28 AM, <words@encompasseditions.com>.↩}

Dracula, vampires, World War 1

2011-10-27T12:25:00.004+11:00

Encompass Editions

The Borgo Post's latest issue arrived in the mail, today. I was having a read through it and came across Elizabeth Miller's review of Robert A. Douglas' That line of darkness.

Miller says the author 'takes as his starting cue Gothic novels, most notably Bram Stoker's Dracula, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jeykll and Mr Hyde, and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey peering through the lens of these extraordinary works to explore the class, race and gender tensions in late nineteenth-century Britain.'¹ According to Amazon, the paperback edition was published 10 May 2011; the hardback a month later. News to me.

Admittedly, it doesn't cater to my preferred area of vampire interest (folklore), but I've added it to my Amazon Wishlist, anyway. The publisher's website contains more info on the book, even reprinting its bibliography. Interestingly, it seems this work is only the first volume of Douglas' exploration. I couldn't find any info on the next one. I'll look into that.

Funnily enough, it's not even the first scholarly book to put heavy emphasis on the connection between vampires and societal tensions leading to the First World War. That honour probably goes to Sara Libby Robinson's Blood will tell: vampires as political metaphors before World War 1 (2011).

Before that, Terry Phillips related 'The discourse of the vampire in First World War writing', published in 2006.² Meanwhile, Kim Newman's 1995 novel, The bloody Red Baron—the second book in his 'Anno Dracula' series—is set during the War.

^{1. E Miller, review of That line of darkness: the spirit of Dracula and the Great War by Robert A. Douglas, The Borgo Post, Fall 2011, p. 3. The book's actual subtitle is The shadow of Dracula and the Great War. Perhaps a misprint on Miller's behalf.↩}

^{2. T Phillips, 'The discourse of the vampire in First World War writing', in P Day (ed.), Vampires: myths and metaphors of enduring evil, At the interface/probing the boundaries 28, Rodopi, Amsterdam, pp. 65–80.↩}

I caved

2011-10-26T12:46:00.001+11:00

I wrote, 'Despite the exorbitant price, I'll probably bite the bullet and buy 'em anyway.' And I did. On October 12th. Shipping cost €7,50. The issues arrived in the post, today.

Academia.edu

I'm looking forward to reading Eugenio M. Olivares Merino's two-parter, 'The (Medi)evil dead: revenants and vampires in twelfth century English literature', in particular.

He has a thing for this era, as he also wrote 'The Old English poem "A vampyre of the Fens": a bibliographical ghost' (pdf) for Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, vol. 32 (2005).

'A vampyre of the Fens' is a poem supposedly written 'a the beginning of the eleventh century', which not only makes it the world's oldest vampire poem, but features the first reference to 'vampyres', anywhere. However, as Olivares Merino's essay attests, someone done goofed along the way.

Olivares Merino is a Professor of English at the Universidad de Jaén.

Kiang shi mystery

2011-10-23T07:59:00.000+11:00

I previously said, 'If there's anything that throws a spanner into my belief that vampires were not universal entities, it's those bloody stryges and kiang shi.' Let's focus on the latter.

The kiang shi are better known as Chinese vampires, on account of their supposed bloodsucking proclivities. Bloodsucking is a key trait of the folkloric vampire, as demonstrated by the Plogojowitz and Paole cases. In various vampire 'field guides', this trait is sometimes omitted, but broadened to include beings that steal 'life force' or some derivative. Even flesh eaters. The broad application of the term is a bugbear I see popping up time and time again.

But the vampire as we know it, has its origins in the Serbian cases mentioned, which give us a vampire 'paradigm': bloodsucking corpses. At the time, this wasn't a term of convenience, but the local word used to describe such beings, ergo, other 'vampires' must conform to this paradigm, from a folkloric perspective. So when you get things like the kiang shi popping up, seemingly 'developed' independently, a spanner's thrown into the works. To my knowledge, there was no real cultural interaction between the Chinese and Slavs at the time, so, how did the vampire 'get there'?

That's where we ask ourselves: was the kiang shi actually a vampire? I'm starting to have my doubts. I came across an article that gives brief coverage to the kiang shi, written by one J. L. Nevius¹:

Google books

Is it possible the kiang shi has actually been 'vampirised' through Western influence? No mention of bloodsucking there, but a very interesting reference to death-by-sunlight. However, I should point out that the vampire's destruction by sunlight is not a folkloric motif, but a comparatively modern one.

I'm gonna go over the evidence for the kiang shi's 'vampire' tag at a later time, but I'll say that 'if they eat any material food' bit reminds me of a certain other folkloric creature...

^{1. JL Nevius, 'Religions and superstitions of China', The Missionary Magazine, August 1858, p. 304.↩}

La guzla

2011-10-23T07:14:00.002+11:00

Internet archive

Prosper Mérimée was the author of La Guzla, ou Choix de poesies illyriques, recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Bosnie, La Croatie et l'Hertzegowine (1827), which sometimes pops up in relation to vampire literature.

According to Wikipedia, 'It was presented as a collection of translations of folk ballads narrated by a guzlar (gusle player) Hyacinthe Maglanović'. Or, so it seemed.

The ballads were actually made up—by Mérimée, himself. Dragutin Subotić noted, 'A detailed account of Prosper Mèrimèe's literary fraud is to be found in the excellent work of V. M. Jovanović'¹, namely, Voyslav M. Yovanovitch's « La guzla » de Prosper Mérimée, étude d'histoire romantique (1911). Thanks to the wondrous Internet archive, you can read it, yourself. If you read French, of course.

Oh, and you can get Mérimée's 1827 work through the Internet archive, too, via Google books. Gotta love the 'net!

^{1. D Subotić, 'Serbian popular poetry in English literature', The Slavonic Review, vol. 6, no. 16, 1927, p. 153.↩}

Random post

2011-10-23T06:32:00.000+11:00

On your right, you'll see the new 'Random posts' widget. I'm sure you can guess what it does. I got it from here. My old blog, Diary of an amateur vampirologist, used a random posts function called LinkWithin, which shared 'related posts'.

LinkWithin

I would've used it here, too, but as my posts are generally shorter, they'd be a bit of an eyesore on the page. However, if they had a 'list' function rather than 'thumbnail' display, I woulda used that instead.

The parasite

2011-10-23T06:07:00.004+11:00

Not content with ripping off my old blog's name, the blogger behind Diary of a vampirologist aka Journal of a vampirologist—variously calling himself Vampirologist, Demonologist, Gothic, The Overseer and Dennis Crawford—has renamed his blog to something very, very familiar:

The vampirologist

As you can see, he's even copied the font I use in my blog title—UnifrakturMagunita. Sigh. I'm not the only one who's had the misfortune of dealing with this fella, either. Niels exposed him as a plagiarist back in 2009; as did I (here and here). He's still at it, too: his latest post is regurgitated from elsewhere, sans attribution.¹

This guy's been on my back like a leech for years. Not only did he copy my design, and ape the title of Diary of an amateur vampirologist, but he's also ripped off my other blog's title, too. You see, I write a blog (two, actually) on the Highgate vampire case. They're called Did a wampyr walk in Highgate? Guess what his is called? You got it. Both rip-off jobs are clearly intended to leech hits off my blogs. Or something more sinister—

'What's the big deal?' some of you might be asking. 'So he copies a few of your blog titles? So what?' The problem is, this character hasn't just stopped at hijacking my blog titles, but my online identity, too. Y'know, like stealing my user name and claiming they'd started their blogs or forums before I did. Trying to 'erase' me, as it were and paint me as a liar, etc.

Did I also mention that the organisation he's affiliated with the Vampire Research Society—who publicly revealed my real name because I'm critical of their 'cause'? A similar organisation—who he's also affiliated with—posted 'my' home address online. There's a lotta fruitcakes out there, people. That's why I wrote this PSA. Be careful with your personal details and keep an eye out for these hacks.

^{1. Should these pages mysterious 'disappear' or be 'revised', etc., I've saved the originals as proof.↩}

Nosferatu!

2011-10-21T07:37:00.002+11:00

Man, I love the Internet archive. Yesterday, I found The Nineteenth Century's 18th volume, which contains the July 1885 issue. What's the big deal about that? It features Emily de Laszowska Gerard's 'Transylvanian superstitions' (pp. 130–50); a known source for Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).¹

Internet archive

'More decidedly evil, however, is the vampire, or nosferatu, in whom every Roumenian [Romanian] peasant believes as firmly as he does in heaven or hell.'² Until recently, it was generally assumed Gerard 'invented' nosferatu, as attempts to antedate the word went nowhere. However, I uncovered a source preceding her usage—by twenty years. Thanks to Google books.

Gerard's nosferatu appears several times in Stoker's novel. 'Friend Arthur,' says Van Helsing, 'if you had met that kiss which you know of before poor Lucy die, or again, last night when you open your arms to her, you would in time, when you had died, have become nosferatu, as they call it in Eastern europe, and would for all time make more of those Un-Deads that so have filled us with horror.'

His blunt comments on what he intends to do once the vampirised Lucy Westenra is located—"I shall cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic, and I shall drive a stake through her body"—clearly echo Gerard's prescription for 'very obstinate cases' of nosferatu visitations.

John Seward and Van Helsing even follow through with the gruesome deed: 'The Professor and I sawed the top off the stake, leaving the point of it in the body. Then we cut off the head and filled the mouth with garlic. We soldered up the leaden coffin, screwed on the coffin lid, and gathering up our belongings, came away.'

Later, he speaks of the vampire's pestilential nature—as does Gerard—and the great fight ahead: 'The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil.'

The word has resonated with us ever since. It is commonly recognised as a synonym for vampire. When F. W. Murnau wanted to distance his 1922 film from its obvious source—futilely, as it turned out—he used the word as its title.

^{1. B Stoker, Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula: a facsimile edition, annotated & transcribed by R Eighteen-Bisang & E Miller, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jeffereson, N.C., 2008, p. 304. Appendix IV. The article's pagination is listed as '128–144'. A different edition of the magazine may've been used, or a standalone issue. Internet archive hosts a bound volume.↩}

^{2. E de Laszowska Gerard, 'Transylvanian superstitions', The Nineteenth Century, July 1885, p. 142.↩}

Brother, can you spare a mint?

2011-10-20T04:09:00.000+11:00

Night of the running dead

After you've dined on garlic infused spag, how about a mint? An anti-vampire garlic mint. The site warns that 'consistent use . . . may have a negative impact on your social life.' Still, at $1.99 for a tin of 'about one hundred', that's a helluva bargain.

Wine and spookghetti

2011-10-20T03:30:00.001+11:00

123RF

Vampire Vineyards recommends serving my wine with 'rich red pasta dishes'. So, keeping with the wine's vampire theme, I thought I'd find a recipe for an appropriate pasta dish to go with it.

The 'net being—well, the 'net—I found one. It's called 'Anti-vampire spaghetti.' Why 'anti-vampire'? You're supposed to add a staggering '10 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped'.

I was once asked why vampires fear garlic. According to Paul Barber, 'strong-smelling substances are typical apotropaics in the lore of the vampire: garlic, incense, perfume, green nutshells, cow dung, human feces, and juniper. The idea here seems to be to "fight fire with fire"'¹, i.e. to counteract the vampire's stench with another one. But he also notes 'Garlic . . . is often stuffed into the mouth of the putative vampire at burials, and it is difficult to see how this can be anything but a charm intended to thwart his evil purpose.'²

He also suggests it might be put in a vampire's mouth 'to give the revenant something to chew on or to prevent chewing or blood-sucking entirely.'³ I'd say it's little from column A and a little from column B.

Anyway, the recipe says 'There will be no fear of vampires bothering you after this dinner!' I doubt anyone else will, either.

^{1. P Barber, Vampires, burial, and death: folklore and reality, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1988, p. 131.↩}

^{2. ibid., p. 132.↩}

^{3. ibid., p. 157.↩}

Critiquing the critical

2011-10-20T02:31:00.004+11:00

Amazon

I thought Niels' review of Montague Summers' The vampire: his kith and kin—a critical edition (2011) was 'brutal'. It prompted me to share my thoughts on criticism, which, in its own way, was probably to dull the impact of his blunt—and clearly frustrated—approach. But, at the time, I hadn't read the book.

Perhaps I was grateful to see an edition of Summers' work accompanied by 'rare contextual and source materials, correspondence, illustrations, as well as Greek and Latin translations.'

I was also 'starstruck' by its contributors, John Edgar Browning (editor), J. Gordon Melton (foreword), Rosemary Ellen Guiley (introduction) and Carol A. Senf (afterword). All are prominent authors of—and contributors to—vampire studies. But I confess I wasn't familiar with Gerard P. O'Sullivan (prologue) or Grace de Majewski (translations). Nonetheless, all that extra material and at a bargain price, too. My copy arrived on September 14th.

When I finally got round to reading through the book's additional material, I realised—Niels was right. After all, what is criticism but 'the judgement of the merits and faults of the work or actions of an individual or group by another'. Now, you would think that 'a critical edition' of a book would examine its text in-depth. This book doesn't. What we have instead, is a book amended with largely supplementary material about Summers, contributors' exposure to his work, biographical material and a few extracts from his sources.

Case-in-point. Browning, noted Summers' 'occasional documentation errors and omissions'¹ and Guiley said 'This work is not perfect, to be certain, and scholars have pointed out its flaws and errors of commission and omission'.² That may be, but where are the corrections? Which scholars noted them? A 'critical edition' is the perfect chance to amend these errors—but neither of them did.

Two notable examples have been discussed by Niels. W. S. G. E.'s Curieuse und sehr wunderbare Relation, von denen sich neuer Dingen in Servien erzeigenden Blut-Saugern oder Vampyrs (1732) is featured in Summers' bibliography, despite there being no proof 'that he actually read it.' It also cited Johann Heinrich Zopf's Dissertatio de Vampyris Serviensibus (1733), even though the passage Summers quoted is taken from a later work.

Material relating to the book's publication and contemporary coverage is comparatively thin. For example, only two reviews of the book were reproduced³ and one of them 'primarily' concerns Summers' companion tome, The vampire in Europe (1929). Two tiny ads for the book are also featured.⁴ Surely there's more than that out there. In fact, I know there is: Timothy d'Arch Smith cited a letter Summers wrote to Time and Tide's 18 January 1929 issue, 'Correcting the reviewer of his book.'⁵ That correspondence would've been much more relevant than correspondences and criticisms reproduced in the critical edition's appendix.⁶

At this point, I may well be guilty of being too 'brutal' on the book, myself. It might seem that readers have been 'ripped off', but that's far from the case. This book—without question—is an invaluable companion to Summers' work. While it doesn't delve too deeply into Kith, it certainly provides fascinating insights into Summers, himself. O'Sullivan's prologue⁷ is a brilliant overview of the darker aspects of Summers' shadowy life—molestation allegations, black mass participation, homosexual leanings, acquaintances, questionable ordination—leading to the recovery of various manuscripts that went missing after death. However, I am wary of Guiley's assertion that Summers would 'most likely be a secret player in the underground of the living vampire subculture' if he was still around⁸ due to his traditionalist Catholicism.

What we have here, is the bare bones of a Summers biography; an update on previous attempts like Joseph Jerome's (Brocard Sewell) Montague Summers: a memoir (1965), Frederick S. Frank's anthology, Montague Summers: a bibliographical portrait (1988) or even Summers' posthumously-published autobiography, The Galanty show (1980). Indeed, O'Sullivan mentioned that 'The full text of Redwood-Anderson's memoir [Recollections of Montage Summers: the early years] will be reproduced as part of prefatory materials to be included with a forthcoming edition of Summers's uncompleted novel, The Brides of Christ.'⁹

To that extent, the book could've been more vampire-centric. I would've loved to have known more about Summers' holograph manuscript, 'The vampires of the Carpathians'¹⁰ and surely they could've mentioned Peter Underwood's account of the anti-vampire medallion Summers (allegedly) gave him.¹¹ It would've also been pertinent to focus on the major sources of inspiration for Summers' book: John Cuthbert Lawson's Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion: a study in survivals (1910)¹² and Bernhard Schmidt's Das Volksleben der Neugriechen und das hellenische Alterthum (1871).¹³

For all the book's flaws, it's definitely a worthy addition to your collection—and I can't get over how cheap it is. Forget the other reprints; this is the one you want. In the meantime, it'll be very interesting to see what Browning does with the forthcoming critical edition of Summers' The vampire in Europe (1929). If I was him, I'd recruit Niels to provide something. As far as I'm concerned, his brilliant blog entry, 'A delayed demonologist', is a taste of what could be.

^{1. M Summers, The vampire: his kith and kin—a critical edition, ed. JE Browning, The Apocryphile Press, Berkeley, Calif., 2011, p. xiv. Preface by John Edgar Browning.↩}

^{2. ibid., p. xxv. Introduction by Rosemary Ellen Guiley.↩}

^{3. ibid., pp. 373–7. Appendix B.↩}

^{4. ibid., pp. 379–80. Appendix C.↩}

^{5. T d'Arch Smith, Montague Summers: a bibliography, 2nd rev. edn, The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, U.K., 1983, p. 113.↩}

^{6. Summers, pp. 382–94, 397–8. Appendix C.↩}

^{7. ibid., pp. xxviii–lxxii. Prologue by Gerard P. O'Sullivan.↩}

^{8. ibid., p. xix. Introduction by Rosemary Ellen Guiley.↩}

^{9. ibid., p. lxvii, n. 9. Prologue by Gerard P. O'Sullivan.↩}

^{10. ibid., pp. 406, 425.↩}

^{11. P Underwood (ed.), The vampire's bedside companion: the amazing world of vampires in fact and fiction, Leslie Frewin, London, 1975, pp. 69–74.↩}

^{12. A few pages from the book were reproduced in the appendix. Summers, ibid., pp. 412–15. Appendix E.↩}

^{13. Strangely, Summers did not cite the book in his bibliography, instead citing Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, Sagen und Volkslieder (1877).↩}

More Groot

2011-10-19T07:58:00.003+11:00

UMass Amherst

I briefly mentioned J. J. M. de Groot's The religious system of China (1892–1910) in a previous post, as a 'useful' source on Chinese vampirism. What I didn't mention, is that the several volumes of the book are available on the Internet Archive.

Vampires (kiang shi) are dealt with in volume one (1892, pp. 44, 106–7) and volume five (1907, pp. 744–61). Interestingly, the latter notes: 'Tales about blood-sucking kiang shi have not been found by us in Chinese literature anterior to the eighteenth century, the Tszĕ puh yü being for the present the only work we know that has them'.¹

Usually, I'm very adverse to referring to folkloric beings outside of Slavic culture as vampires, but a 'material' corpse that sucked blood? That's hard to overlook. Even de Groot noted, 'Is this coincident with the vampire-panic (the first known in Europe?) which infested Poland and Polish Russia in the last years of the seventeenth century, spreading rapidly over Bulgaria and Servia, and occupying the minds of scholars and theologians of Europe in the first quarter of the next?'²

His 'Poland and Polish Russia in the last years of the seventeenth century' reference concerns the stryges of Mercure Galant fame. Those, too, were bloodsucking corpses. If there's anything that throws a spanner into my belief that vampires were not universal entities, it's those bloody stryges and kiang shi.

^{1. JJM de Groot 1907, The religious system of China: its ancient forms, evolution, history and present aspect, manners, customs and social institutions connected therewith, vol. 5, On the soul and ancestral worship, E. J. Brill, Leide [Leiden], 1907, p. 745.↩}

^{2. ibid., fn. 2.↩}

I sometimes drink...wine

2011-10-19T07:00:00.005+11:00

On Saturday, my mate Paul popped over with surprise souvenir from his recent California–Las Vegas sojourn: a bottle of Vampire North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (left).

I recognised the logo straight away: Vampire.com. I thought it was only available from their website, which is why I was surprised he told me he'd scored it for 'about 10 bucks' at Cost Plus World Market, California Plaza, Los Angeles. I guess that shows my naivety on vampire-themed wine distribution.

Vampire.com has their own own wine line—Vampire Vineyards. This particular brew 'is sourced from several small-berry clones of this traditional Bordeaux varietal, grown in the North Coast.' Apparently, it also goes well with 'grilled steaks and chops, or with rich red pasta dishes'. Nice.

I think I'll save it for Halloween.

Edit 21/10/11: It was from Cost Plus World Market, Santa Ana, not L.A.Whoops! Cheers, Paul.

Chinese vampires

2011-10-18T07:29:00.001+11:00

Llanerch

While trawling through Amazon today, I came across Leon Wieger and Derek Bryce's Chinese tales of vampires, beasts, genies and men, which was published earlier this year.

You wouldn't know it from the Amazon listing, but the book's publisher—Llanerch—gives the game away: 'These tales were collected in China in the late nineteenth century by Leon Wieger, who translated a large number of them, published as Folklore Chinois Moderne (Modern Chinese Folklore).'

With some light googling, I found some brief biographical info on Léon Wieger (1856–1933) and the original book—Folk-lore chinois moderne (1909)—on the Internet Archive. It appears to be unviewable on Google Books and the 'Read online' function doesn't yield any pages. At least, on my computer. So your best bet for leafing through it's using the (greatly flawed) 'Full text' function.

Unlike certain catchpenny titles, vampire references are sprinkled liberally through the text, so it might be added to the ranks of J. J. M. de Groot's The religious system of China (1892–1910) and G. Willoughby-Meade's Chinese ghouls and goblins (1926) as useful sources on Chinese vampirism.

Fastitocalon

2011-10-11T04:31:00.003+11:00

Fastitocalon

I've uncovered an intriguing publication called Fastitocalon, which 'aims at promoting a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of fantasticism across the ages.' Its first volume—divided into issues 1 and 2—'is dedicated to the exploration of the literary, poetical, cultural and historical aspects of the immortals and the undead.'

Of particular note, for vampiric content, is Dirk Vanderbeke's 'The vampire strikes back: on the history of a nightwalker' and Eugenio Olivares Merino's two-parter, 'The (Medi)evil dead: revenants and vampires in twelfth century English literature.' The site feature's Mythlore's review of the volume (pdf).¹

Whether you think these articles justify the €15,00 price tag per volume (I don't), is up to you. Nonetheless, you can buy issues one and two through the journal's publisher, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier. Despite the exorbitant price, I'll probably bite the bullet and buy 'em anyway.

^{1. JB Croft, review of Fastitocalon: studies in fantasticism ancient to modern: immortals and the undead (eds.) Thomas Honneger & Fanfan Chen, Mytholore, vol. 29, no. 12, 2010, pp. 188–92.↩}

What the f—?

2011-10-11T03:26:00.002+11:00

JackCentral

At first, I thought it was a misprint, but no, Amazon is actually selling a reprint of Bram Stoker's Dracula—with a bad case of Tourette's: 'The publishers, with the help of self styled authors have added the "F" word throughout the text, for a more enjoyable and modern read. Although altered, this book is suitable for book reports and other research.'

Something tells me that Stoker, who also wrote in favour of 'The censorship of fiction' (1908), wouldn't be too pleased with Matt R. Allen's revision of his work.

Nonetheless, the book's reviewers feel the repeated F-bombs help make the novel less 'dense', with one noting, 'I had to read this for my lit class. I didn't want to, but it was for school, and I needed to. When I found this, it gave me a chuckle, but actually really helped me get through this book.'

Evidence for antique vampire killing kits

2011-10-10T03:11:00.002+11:00

Recently, I've been examining the evidence for the authenticity of 19th century vampire killing kits. These were apparently manufactured for and sold to Western travellers to Eastern Europe. One of the prominent names attached to these kits, is Professor Ernst Blomberg. Spooky land's excellent article, 'Regarding Ernst Blomberg', attempted to unearth proof for the man's existence.

One of the article's attempts to validate the claims made about the kits is their presence in certain museums: 'Certainly, old vampire killing kits were reportedly produced in the 19th century - examples exist at numerous Ripley museums (Wisconsin Dells, etc.) and other public collections of oddities.' It says. 'Institutions like these have either held these kits for some time, or are willing to attest to their rough age through their documented provenance (although the Mercer Museum has recently declared their kit to be a modern assembly of mostly vintage parts).' The latter claim is something I personally verified.

But, as we've seen, their presence in such museums isn't—bizarre as it might sound—proof of antiquity. The Mercer Museum, Doylsetown, Pa., informed me that their kit 'is believed to be one of the compilations of both historical items and "made up" artifacts that found its way into the antiques market sometime in the 1970s or 1980s.' They also 'had some portions of it analyzed in the labs of the Winterthur Museum and learned that the "silver" bullets are actually pewter (not a surprise given their lack of tarnish) and that the paper is of 20th century vintage that has been artificially "aged."'

If that's the case, why display the kit at all? The Museum told me they 'use it currently to contrast traditional and contemporary vampire "lore," help interpret the origins of some vampire beliefs, and to demonstrate the use of scientific methodologies in authenticating artifacts.' To that extent, the kit is also accompanied by the following placard:

Diggers realm

So what are we to make of the kits' appearance in Ripley's museums? The Spooky land article notes, 'In a press release dated December 4, 2008 [2009], Ripleys maintains that their collection of kits now numbers 30 (26 on display). Most of the kits were acquired by Edward Meyer, their Vice President of Exhibits and Archives.' I contacted Edward Meyer, who agreed to an interview.

In light of the Mercer Museum's revelations, I asked him whether it was possible the kits he'd collected were hoaxes, too. He said: 'Anything is possible. I know of no hard evidence to confirm where or when any of these items were made. As I stated before the date of the guns is the only thing you can confirm with confidence…..'

The press release said 'Most were created in the Boston area and were available by mail order.The kits were acquired by people in preparation of possibly meeting a vampire during their international travels to Eastern Europe and their usage dates back to the mid-1800s. Most were created in the Boston area and were available by mail order.'

I asked Meyer whether he'd seen any of these mail orders. 'No,' he said. Had he verified their connection to Blomberg? 'Personally? I haven't.' Then how did authenticate the kits? 'One of the key elements in a vampire killing kit is a pistol. Pistols can easily be dated by style, and maker. Some of the guns actually have dates an initials on them..From a study of several kits it is obvious some are older than others, but the guns typically come from the 1840s-50s'. In other words, the best evidence that the kits were produced in the 19th century for travellers to Eastern Europe? They come with old guns and unverified back-stories.

No museum—or—sellers have examined or provided contemporary 19th century references to their manufacture and sale. If they were, indeed, being made during the 19th century, then a record would've turned up. Somewhere. Something to link the kits with their alleged manufacturing date. Even the 'mail orders' cited in Ripley's press release. Regarding the kits Meyer's collected, he said 'we have nothing any earlier than 1990 mentioning their existence.'

However, the Spooky land article pushed the Ripley's link back further than Meyer's role in their collection: 'The Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum chain claims to have the world's largest collection of vintage vampire hunting kits, some reportedly collected by Robert Ripley prior to World War II.' Robert Ripley (1890–1949) originated the Ripley's franchise, which spun off from his Ripley's believe it or not! newspaper panel. If he did collect such kits, we'd have a pre-'1970s or 1980s' source. That would push the existence of 19th century vampire killing kits into the realm of plausibility, given the timeframe.

Unfortunately, the article doesn't provide a source for the claim. So, I asked Meyer, 'did Ripley's have any vampire killing kits before you started collecting them for the company? For instance, did Robert Ripley collect any?'¹ He wrote back, 'No pre-edward vampire kits—I have been involved in the purchase of everyone we have…'² The press release confirms 'Each kit in the Ripley's collection was acquired by Edward Meyer, VP of Exhibits and Archives for the company.'

^{1. 'RE: vampire killing kits', Saturday, 8 October 2011 1:10:11 AM.‏↩}

^{2. 'RE: vampire killing kits', Saturday, 8 October 2011 2:42:50 AM.↩}

Vampire Cage creator on imitators

2011-10-08T03:42:00.002+11:00

Looks like I'm not the only one who's noticed attempts to cash-in on the Nicholas Cage vampire picture business. The guy who started it all, Jack Mord aka diabolus, has seem 'em too, adding 'Ha, that's funny. Most of those dudes don't even look like their celeb counterparts!'

The superficial

To him, the original's still the best ('But my Vampire Cage kicks butt!'). One of the better-known examples following in the footsteps of Mord's 'Vampire Cage', is another eBay seller's attempt to palm off a 19th century photograph for an exorbitant price, citing it as evidence of a famous American actor's supposed supernatural origins. In this case, John Travolta (left).

But it turns out that seller of that pic, might not be so random. According to Mord, 'I know the person who owns the Travolta one, they've been an online friend of mine for a few years.'

The 'success' of the Vampire Cage picture has greatly amused Jack: 'The amount of publicity it's gotten is hilarious. My photo was on several TV shows here - Good Morning America, The View, The Today Show, CNN (though I was unable to confirm that one personally), and a lot of celeb magazines.' And it's true. The amount of available news coverage on Vampire Cage is astounding. But without anything new to add, interest's starting to die off.

With all the publicity it's attracted, one wonders if Mord managed to sell Vampire Cage at his million dollar asking price. The attended news coverage should've landed him something, surely. Forum member, blythe, asked him: 'So are you making any money off of this?' Mord replied, 'Some, from the magazines and TV shows, but eBay went out of their way to make sure I couldn't make a penny from it on their site!'

That wasn't eBay's official reason for removing it, and it's not the reason Mord's given to news media: 'Mord says eBay initially asked him to take it down because he was "using a brand name" by mentioning Nicholas Cage.' Initially, because he reposted it 'without featuring the star's name, but eBay removed the photo again saying there were "reports" that the photo was not authentic.' Go figure.

A major British newspaper's gotten in on the act, and begun 'spotting' undead/time-travelling-reincarnated celebrities from the past. Must've been another slow news day.

Vampire journal purchases

2011-10-08T02:49:00.001+11:00

While researching my my post on vampire journals, I sought out pricing for some available on the 'net. I found a couple of 'em on eBay and snapped 'em both up for US$9 each on September 28, after getting the seller to knock 'em down from 12 bucks a pop. They arrived in the post, yesterday.

They were both issues of Vampire Information Exchange's Vampire Information Exchange Newsletter; issues 75 (July 1996) and 77 (February 1997), respectively. I'm not sure if the newsletter's still published, but I do know it started in 1979.

That duration's an impressive feat, in itself, for a vampire periodical. In contrast, Martin V. Riccardo's Journal of Vampirism—official publication of his Vampire Studies Society—folded after two years (1977–79).

The issue numbers, however, are pretty daunting from a collecting perspective. Not only is the newsletter comparatively rare, but I only have a few others. The idea of collecting all of them, is a bit of a nightmare.

Issue 75 (above) focuses on 'Female vampires in literature'. The primary articles in this category are Louise Ann Stephens' 'Madeline Montalia matures' (pp. 16–17), Karen Porter's 'Ancient sources for the literary female vampire' (pp. 17–18) and Feleccia Rea's 'The nature of the beast: the female vampire' (pp. 18–24).

Issue 77 (left) tackled psychic vampirism, and to that extent, there was a brief 'Glossary of terms' (p. 13), a discussion of 'The Old Hag theory' (pp. 14–15), presumably by Eric Held, and two familiar 'faces' returned. Karen S. Porter wrote about 'Psychic aspects in traditional vampirism' (pp. 16–17), while Louise Ann Stephens took 'A not-so-brief look at psychic vampirism' (pp. 17–22).

I'm not aware of any vampire books written by Porter and Stephens, so I hopped on Google to track 'em down. I couldn't find anything solid on Stephens, but I did find out that Porter's a poet. At the time (1997), she was 'engaged in the unromantic job of helping to run her family's liquor store.'

Q & A with Edward Meyer

2011-10-07T04:24:00.003+11:00

My previous entry on allegedly antique vampire killing kits mentions, 'The best evidence we need to determine the authenticity of these kits, is a paper trail. Contemporary references.' Fortunately, Spooky land's 'Regarding Ernst Blomberg' gives us a few leads: 'Certainly, old vampire killing kits were reportedly produced in the 19th century - examples exist at numerous Ripley museums (Wisconsin Dells, etc.) and other public collections of oddities.'

The author of the article seems convinced of the authenticity of the kits, partially based on their appearance in Ripley's Believe It or Not! museums. 'In a press release dated December 4, 2008, Ripleys maintains that their collection of kits now numbers 30 (26 on display). Most of the kits were acquired by Edward Meyer, their Vice President of Exhibits and Archives.' The author quotes from the press release, which contains several 'leads' like the kits' original availablity through mail order, and that they were apparently manufactured in the Boston area. Unfortunately, the author doesn't provide a link to the press release.

Smashing Interviews Magazine

But with some light googling, I found it. It actually dates 4 December 2009.

I read through the rest of the press release and knew I had to contact Edward Meyer, Ripley's Vice President of Exhibits and Archives (left) and primary collector of Ripley's kits. How did he authenticate the kits? Could he provide the 'missing' contemporary evidence? What did he think about the hoax claims?

After some brief correspondence, he agreed to an interview for this blog. I e-mailed him a bunch of questions¹, to which he swiftly responded.² Believe it—or not—what transpires is the very first instalment of 'Q & A' for this blog.

How did you become an antiques collector?

I am not an “antique collector”. I am a purchaser of museums artifacts, both old and new, everything from dinosaur bones to art made from toothpicks, to two-headed cows.

What lead you to becoming the VP of Ripley's Exhibits and Archives?

I went to school to become a librarian. I was first hired by Ripley’s to catalogue the famous Believe It or Not! newspaper cartoon feature—the cornerstone of our company.

You are the sole purchaser of Ripley's vampire killing kits.

Not really true. I am the only person who does it full time, but anyone in the company can acquire new exhibits under the right circumstances. Better to say, I am the “main” purchaser…. ³

What interests you about these kits and why do you believe they're important to Ripley's collections?

I think they are fantastic, a real Believe It or Not! I am amazed that some people really believe in vampires and I am amazed that other people have created an elaborate artifact to combat them. In addition they are very rare, so they are a perfect museum artifact for Ripley’s. In fact they are amongst my favorite objects…

According to a press release for the kits, they were 'were acquired by people in preparation of possibly meeting a vampire during their international travels to Eastern Europe and their usage dates back to the mid-1800s'. By what means have you authenticated their age?

One of the key elements in a vampire killing kit is a pistol. Pistols can easily be dated by style, and maker. Some of the guns actually have dates an initials on them..From a study of several kits it is obvious some are older than others, but the guns typically come from the 1840s-50s

The press release also states, 'Most were created in the Boston area and were available by mail order.' Have you viewed any of these mail orders?

Do you have—or are you aware—of any 19th century documentation mentioning their use or sale?

No, we have nothing any earlier than 1990 mentioning their existence.

The 'kits were purchased by wealthy Americans headed to Eastern Europe – Transylvania then, Romania now. Travelers brought back terrifying tales of vampires with them from the region'. Could you tell us who these wealthy Americans were?

No one specifically—people doing “the Grand Tour”

Can you relate any of their tales?

I personally have not done any deep research on this subject; my information is based on popular internet articles, news stories and verbal communication with people who were writing MA thesis on vampires.

A 'Professor Blomberg' is commonly associated with the kits. Indeed, several kits in Ripley's collection bear his name; but no one seems to know much about him. What do you know about Professor Blomberg?

Only what I have read in popular reports..there is a fair bit of info available by googling his name…

How have you verified his connection to the kits?

Personally? I haven’t.

The antiquity of the kits has attracted some criticism. The Mercer Museum, Doylsetown, Pa., for instance, believes their kit to be one of the 'compilations of both historical items and "made up" artifacts that found its way into the antiques market sometime in the 1970s or 1980s' and the labelling associated with the kit 'is of 20th century vintage that has been artificially "aged."' Is it possible that the kits in Ripley's collection are also late 20th/early 21st century forgeries?

Anything is possible. I know of no hard evidence to confirm where or when any of these items were made. As I stated before the date of the guns is the only thing you can confirm with confidence…..We have found these kits in a number of different states, and three different European countries. Modern guns certainly suggest “forgeries” (your word not mine). The kits exist, they are “real”, and for the most part they are all different, so the debate isn’t really over their existence, but simply how old are they.

Do you still seek out kits for Ripley's collection, or have you focused your attention on other items?

I have never sought out vampire kits, they tend to find me. I have recently bought one found in Atlanta. Our patrons are fascinated by them, and by vampires in general, so I will continue to buy certain ones as they are offered to me. In perspective, I buy about 1,000 artifacts a year. I have never seen more than three vampire kits in any one year.

Speaking of which, what other items do you purchase for the collections?

Have a look at our new book, Strikingly True, it contains photos of several key pieces we purchased last year and page 9 actually has two lists of objects: my favorites for the year, and the strangest things we bought at public auctions. The book can be found at amazon.com , or wherever fine books are sold

What is your proudest find?

Probably our 16 ten-foot sections of the Berlin Wall. My favorites are usually pieces from history: Lee Harvey Oswald’s car, John Wilkes Booth’s derringer, a Lincoln hair lock, the gallows from Cook’s County Prison in Chicago…..I have acquired more than 20,000 pieces in my career..you name it I have seen it—and probably bought it—assuming it was “unbelievable”.

Strikingly true (2011) is available through Amazon US, Canada and UK. I'd like to thank Meyer for his participation, co-operation and insightful answers to my questions. Thank you.

For previous 'Q & A' instalments, see my interviews with Niels K. Peterson (part 1; part 2), Martin V. Riccardo (part 1; part 2), Bruce A. McClelland (part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4) and Thomas J. Garza.

^{1. 'RE: vampire killing kits‏', Thursday, 6 October 2011 12:39:49 AM. They were originally numbered 1 through 8, with multiple questions embedded in each. ↩}

^{2. 'RE: vampire killing kits', Friday, 7 October 2011 1:01:11 AM. As Meyer deigned to answer the questions within the questions, I have broken up his responses—and my questions—accordingly.↩}

^{3. In my defence, the 2009 press release did say, 'Each kit in the Ripley’s collection was acquired by Edward Meyer, VP of Exhibits and Archives for the company.'↩}

Vampire book, unearthed

2011-10-06T16:39:00.002+11:00

While trawling through Amazon.co.uk, I found a book I'd never heard of before: Camillo Di Cicco's Female vampire during the Middle-Ages. Its page doesn't give a publication date, but the book search lists 'Kindle Edition - 29 Sep 2011'.

I recognised the accompanying image as the famous Lazzaretto Nuovo 'vampire'. While I disagree with Di Cicco's findings—'During the Middle Ages, the lack of scientific knowledge of plague determined the frantic search by the populace of "carriers" of the disease', 'Therefore, those of them who died uttering a stream of blood from the mouth (hemoptysis), a feature also of the pneumonic form of plague, were considered "vampire."'¹—I acknowledge the book's coverage of magia postuma, a niche subject invaluable to vampire studies.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a paperback version of the book on Amazon (I don't own a Kindle), so I decided to do a little more searching. I turned up Di Cicco's profile, which shows his venereology and dermatology expertise. Nothing on folklore, though.

Lulu

I did, however, turn up the book's Lulu page. Unfortunately, that, too, was in an ebook format ('PDF for Adobe Digital Editions'), but it at least gave pagination, which was not included in the book's Amazon listing did not: 50. It's also been around longer ('May 16, 2011') than the Kindle edition, but most interestingly, it's actually a second edition. How'd the first escape my attention? I've e-mailed the book's author to see whether there'll be a print version of the book available.

You see, as much as I recommend online resources like the Internet Archive and Google Books, nothing beats print format. I think publishing books only in ebook form is a big mistake. I've noticed they tend to 'disappear' after a while (where's the first edition of Di Cicco's book?), depriving future generations—and the present one—of material

Sure, I recommend online books, but those books have print copies as 'back-up'. What 'back-up' do ebooks have? Which library houses them? What common accessibility points do they have besides purchasing a copy for personal use or finding a pirated version? Once they're gone, they're gone.

My concern is that authors are becoming too reliant on distributing their works in ebook format. While these might be more convenient and comparatively cheaper, it also means that their work will be deprived of the greatest attribute print media has: longevity. Sure, books don't last forever, they're certainly more durable than online media. My recommendation is that authors at least offer a POD option to help ensure their work isn't lost to the mists of time and 'broken' links.

^{1. I disagree, because vampirism, in the sense being described here, did not occur during the Middle Ages.↩}

Something upbeat

2011-10-06T05:22:00.002+11:00

Another track from 1999, this time it's the smooth psychobilly stylings of Demented Are Go with 'Stake in the heart', the second track from Hellucifernation.

Just like the previous tune, this one's not a music video clip, just the song with a background image. Side note: it was one of the tracks on my Halloween 2009 mixtape.

You're a vampire, I'm a vampire, too

2011-10-06T05:04:00.000+11:00

For your listening pleasure, the sixth track from the Pet Shop Boys' 1999 album, Nightlife. 'Vampires'.

Not for the squeamish

2011-10-06T04:23:00.008+11:00

Along with Vlad the Impaler, Gilles de Rais and Elizabeth Báthory, Peter Kürten's (1883-1931) one of those guys who often turns up in vampire books, despite not being undead.

Wikipedia

But just like them, he was known for bloodthirsty pursuits. Indeed, he was known as the 'The Vampire of Düsseldorf', although this seems to have been a reference to his ghoulishness, not actual consumption of blood. But that ghoulishness was pretty nasty in its own right:

On July 2nd 1932, the ‘Düsseldorf Vampire’ went to his death at a guillotine erected in the yard of the Klingelputz Prison. Kürten expressed his last earthly desire on the way to the yard: "Tell me", he asked the prison psychiatrist, "after my head has been chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck?" He savoured this thought for a while, then added, "that would be the pleasure to end all pleasures."

The murders he committed weren't altogether pleasant, either. But speaking of his lopped-off head, it was an offhand item I stumbled upon while looking up stuff on Ripley's (why will be revealed soon), that caught my attention. The thing that triggered this blog entry. According to Kürten's Wikipedia page, 'In 1931 scientists attempted to examine irregularities in Kürten's brain in an attempt to explain his personality and behavior. His head was dissected and mummified and is currently on display at the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum in Wisconsin Dells.' What the hell?, I thought.

Morbid curiousity got the better of me and I Googled Peter's detached scone. So, ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to see a pickled 'vampire' head, then behold the final resting place of Kürten's twisted mind:

Flickr

Well, not quite: after execution, his head was flown into 'the German-Russian brain institute at Buch near Berlin', where the brain was 'sliced into millions of diaphanous segments by the brain scientist'. The head itself resides in 'a small refrigerator with a glass front. It revolves continuously on a metal hook.'

Welcome to civilisation, folks.

Casting Dracula

2011-10-06T03:38:00.000+11:00

I was watching Pineapple express on the telly last night and the scene where Seth Rogan rocks up to his girlfriend's place comes on. She's sitting at the dinner table with her parents. They're waiting for him. I see her dad's side profile and wonder: 'Wouldn't Ed Begley, Jr. make a good Van Helsing?'

YouTube

I sometimes fantasise what a proper film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) would look like. The 1992 version came close in that it retained the main characters, but the central love story sent it way off course. Anthony Hopkins did a commendable job as Van Helsing, though, highlighted some of the character's 'madness'.

As far as I'm concerned, no adaptation I've seen has stayed 'true' to the novel, that is, retained the main plot points, scenes, dialogue and characters. I don't think it'd be that hard to do. That's why I wonder who'd be cast the movie and so on.

Classic movie monsters

The guy even kinda looks like Edward Van Sloan (1882-1964), the first actor to play Van Helsing on the bigscreen (left). More importantly, they both resemble the description Mina Harker gives in the book:

I rose and bowed, and he came towards me, a man of medium weight, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes me at once as indicative of thought and power. The head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart, such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moods.

Hopefully, Begley can rock a Dutch accent. He's also 62, which is still (barely) within the boundaries of the professor's middle-aged status. However, if I wasn't gonna do a 'straight' version of this flick, like an 'update' or something, I'd choose Samuel L. Mother****in' Jackson. He'd walk through a door, into a room full of vampires, looking like Shaft—again—wielding pump action shotgun, chk-chk BLAM! Awesome.

Anyway, with Van Helsing cast, it naturally got me thinking who Dracula should be. I've already made my case for the actor who would've been perfect for the role, but he's out of the race on account of being dead and all.

How about Christopher Lee? He's said he'd play the part again, if the script stuck to Stoker's novel (one of the reasons he stopped participating in the Hammer sequels), but, let's face it—he's getting on a bit. He turned 89 this year, and even though you could make him look younger with prosthetics and whatnot, would he really be up to the challenge? He'd need to shave that beard off, too.

But Pineapple express saved the day, again. Dracula was right under my nose. What about the film's bad guy, Gary Cole? He's played evil supernatural characters before—think Sheriff Lucas Buck in American gothic (1995-6). He looks like a bit of a cold bastard—why not? Let's do another comparison with the novel. Here's how Jonathan Harker describes Dracula:

His face was a strong, a very strong, aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils, with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.

IMDb

Sure that bushy hair business doesn't match Cole's appearance, hough I do think he's got a 'fixed and rather cruel-looking' mouth. Compare Harker's description with the pic of Cole, left. Hell, he's even trying to grow a moustache there. He'd have to tone down his drawl, though. No Reece Bobby for the Count.

As to the rest, I've only thought vaguely of them. Someone lordly looking for Arthur Holmwood. Paul Bettany? For Mina or Lucy, I was thinking Ellie Kemper from The office. She's got a sweet, 'innocent' vibe to her, just like Madeline Smith in The vampire lovers (1970).

Who's left? Jonathan Harker, John Seward and Quincey Harker. Oh, and Renfield. Those ones I'm stuck on, but I did think of Felix Williamson for Seward, mainly because of his 'look' in Underbelly: razor. But I also realise that's because it reminds me, vaguely, of Richard E. Grant in the '92 flick. Cast-wise, that one's a hard act to follow.

Dismantling vampire kits

2011-10-03T19:23:00.006+11:00

Spooky land contains a series of fascinating articles on—what I regard to be—fake antique vampire killing kits. For my previous writings on vampire killing kits, see: 'The scoop on vampire killing kits', 'The Blomberg effect' and 'Vampire killing kit update!'.

There are many versions of these kits. They're generally supposed to have been made and sold in the 19th century. Some are auctioned off thousands of dollars. Two names commonly associated with them are Ernst Blomberg, a supposed vampire expert, and Nicholas Plomdeur, a Belgian gunsmith. The problem is, there's no credible evidence that kits were manufactured by these gentlemen.

Spooky land's 'Regarding Ernst Blomberg', says it is 'becoming increasingly unclear is whether these kits, often commanding tens of thousands of dollars at auction, are instances of actual antiques, or modern assemblies of old parts and fill-ins, intended to deceive the buyer.' I argue that the latter's the case. But first, let's examine the evidence of Blomberg's role in their creation.

Firstly, the article establishes the reality of a man named Ernst Blomberg. However, there's some difficulty in establishing which Ernst Blomberg he was. Three candidates are listed, Ernst Diedrich Wilhelm Blomberg, Ernst Ludwig Werner Blomberg, but the author settles on Ernst Freiherr von Blomberg, a 'Professor of Zoology'.

The author was contacted by someone named Meredith, who provided further information on Freiherr von Blomberg, telling him that in the Universität zu Lübeck's library, there 'several courses from one Professor Ernest Freiherr von Blomberg, who was a Professor of Zoology from 1856 until 1903, the year he died'.

I checked the catalogue of the University of Lübeck's library—the Zentrale Hochschulbibliothek Lübeck—and found found three records for works under an author search for 'Blomberg'¹: none of them were written by an 'Ernst Blomberg'.

Meredith went on to say that 'The man seems to have had an obsession with shapeshifters and other creatures alike, for he wrote a rather unreadable book on it, "Die Verwandlung im Prinzipus: Tiere une Maenschen und Ihre Gottlose Vereinen", ed. 1869'. However, a search for the title on global library catalogue, WorldCat, yielded zero results.

Her case isn't helped by defending the authenticity of a vampire kit found in the Surnateum: 'In conclusion, and as far as this claim goes, the Vampire Killing Kit at the Surnateum is not a forgery; is not a contrefact [sic] from 1972; does not contain fake ustensils [sic]; does not contain names and personae who are not traceable.' The 1972 reference concerns Michael de Winter, a firearms collector who claimed to have manufactured vampire killing kits during that period. She alluded to him again: 'It seems that some people would like to get credit (and a lot of attention) for something they didn't achieve. And that's the truth.'

The link to the Surnateum is telling, as Meredith—a poster on SurvivalArts—is the source of this extra info on Blomberg. The author briefly covers their kit, adding, 'The Surnateum has a lovely website, but the contents should be viewed with a grain (or two) of salt.' Why's that? Let's take a quick detour to the museum.

The Surnateum, or Museum of Supernatural History, is 'the virtual front-end for one of the most astonishing collections of authentic magical artefacts and strange stories gathered from around the world by the Collectors and Curators for more than a century.' It also features a page for the kit, claiming it was 'sold by Professor Ernst Blomberg in the second half of the 19th century' and has been in their collection 'since the late 19th century'. Oh, and Blomberg was supposed to have used the kit's 'pistol in 1888 against a creature dubbed Jack the Ripper by the British press of the day.'

But the pistol has a greater claim to fame. It was apparently used against one of the worst mass murderers of the 20th century: 'After looking at several options, the Collector opted for a young major, an SS Sturmbannführer in the Waffen SS by the name of Otto G., with whom a meeting was organised.' And on to say, 'The right moment presented itself during the afternoon of Monday, 30 April 1945. Shortly after marrying Eva Braun, a depressed Hitler announced that he was going to commit suicide; the excuse was perfect.' You get the drift.

The magic cafe

Clearly, we're dealing with an elaborate hoax, especially as the author showed that a scan of Blomberg's Die Verwandlung im Prinzipus: Tiere une Maenschen und Ihre Gottlose Vereinen (1869) title page, was actually derived from Rudolf Leubusher's Ueber die Wehrwolfe under Thierverwandlungen im Mittelalter: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Psychologie (1850), as well as some of its content. The Museum's 'Curator', Christian Chelman, has shown no qualms circulating the hoax elsewhere (above). Of course, that's probably not too surprising, due to his, uh, condition: 'After being possessed by a formidable voodoo entity (the Trickster Eshu/Loki) during a shamanic ritual, his personality is now forever split in two - Chelman/Youki - and is very hard to control.'

As the author notes, Leubusher is sometimes promoted as 'a colleague of Blomberg', which can be seen in his Wikipedia entry. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this 'info' is not found in the German version. It's obvious that Leubusher's connection to Blomberg is an in-joke, a way of 'referencing' the source of the manufactured Blomberg book.

The only known publication of Ernst Freiherr von Blomberg, is an article for Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie.² Wikipedia's 'Freiherr von Blomberg' entry, which incorporates Ernst Freiherr von Blomberg's former standalone page, notes that the article has nothing to do with vampires, but is actually 'a terse, observation-driven medical account of a child (known as C.K.) with hydrocephaly, commenting on the patient's general condition and observations made during autopsy.'

Vampire dark news

Yes, 'standalone', because someone went out of their way to create a page dedicated to the man, as well as providing a picture of him (left) before the Wikipedia editors stepped in. His incorporation into 'Freiherr von Blomberg', itself, is considered 'dubious'.

Blomberg also has other dodgy titles supposedly penned by him. One of them is an 1891 paper, 'Beiträge zur Studien der Thierverwandlungen' (Contributions to the study of animal transformations), which is not only out of step with Blomberg's known research, but its existence, too, is unverified, as the author notes: 'Efforts to substantiate the existence of this paper are ongoing. Unfortunately, this title sounds suspiciously like the original title of the Leubusher book . . . borrowing several of the words from the original title (Beiträge and Thierverwandlungen - a grammar check would be helpful).'

Another title, covered in the author's same article, is a pamphlet titled 'The vampire', supposedly published by John E. Taylor, London, n.d. Unlike the other fabricated works, this title has been included in certain vampire killing kits. However, the author notes the pamphlet's 'similarity' to H. S. Olcott's 'The vampire', which was published in The Theosophist, vol. 12, 1891: 'It appears that the title page has been changed, and the rest of the content plagarized.'

It seems Blomberg's a popular name to link to vampire killing kits. A brand, if you will. You can buy a copy of Charles Blomberg's The creature vampyre (1999) on Amazon for $334.93. As ludicrous as that price is for a 47 page book, its product description at least admits its fakery: 'The Creature Vampyre should be considered fictional and is not meant to portray a friend, neighbor, or family member. Any similarity to anyone living or dead (?) is merely co-incidental.'

Regarding Nicholas Plomdeur, he, too, was a real person. A gunmaker. But that's as far as the 'evidence' goes. There is nothing to substantiate his role in providing firearms for these kits. All we know is, some kits incorporate his pistols. That's it. If one of these kits came with a pair of Peacemakers, that wouldn't automatically prove Samuel Colt was involved in the vampire killing kit trade.

The best evidence we need to determine the authenticity of these kits, is a paper trail. Contemporary references. Something that directly connects them to Blomberg or Plomdeur. Even authenticating their 'age' isn't good enough: the kits are composed of actual antiques, with some artificially aged. The kit housed by Mercer Museum, Doylestown, Pa., is one such example (see 'Vampire killing kit update!'). Considering the price these kits attract, much more effort should go into determining their authenticity.

^{1. Hans Blomberg and Raimo Ylinen's Algebraic theory for multivariable linear systems (1983), Astrid-Christine Blomberg's Einsatzmöglichkeiten automatisierter Screeningtechniken auf dem Gebiet der Krebsfrüherkennung bei Frauen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1979) and Axel v. Blomberg's Ergebnisse der Röntgen- und Telekobalt-Bestrahlung sowie der kombinierten chirurgisch-radiologischen Behandlung von Carcinomen des Larynx und Hypopharynx (1964).↩}

^{2. F v Blomberg, 'Ein seltener fall von Hydrocephalus' (A rare case of hydrocephalus), Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, vol. 24, no. 1, 1914, pp. 200–16.↩}

Teaching vampires

2011-10-03T13:46:00.002+11:00

The University of Arizona

Kyle Van Helsing of The demon hunter's compendium, sent me a link¹ to an online course run by The University of Arizona's Department of Russian & Slavic Studies called 'Werewolves & vampires: Slavic folklore in our culture'. It's instructor is Andrew Gunn.

According to its Fall 2011 syllabus, vampires and werewolves will be explored through 'folklore (historical accounts, recorded testimony, and stories), novels, music, and films' and students will examine 'the representation of these figures as they develop and migrate from culture to culture in several historical periods.' The way these beings adapt, through various representations, is also highlighted: 'In each society they function differently, taking on different looks, characteristics, and roles that reflect their new settings in complex ways.'

It's also '100% online': 'attendance will be measured by your login activity and participation in the class forums, blogs and your postings/response to postings on D2L.'

^{1. 'FW: Vampires and Werewolves Class', Saturday, 1 October 2011 3:09:20 AM.‏↩}

Cage's coven

2011-10-02T04:10:00.001+11:00

It's not too surprising that the Nicolas Cage, vampire meme has spawned a few cash-ins—oops, I mean imitators.

Another eBay seller's selling a pic, claiming John Travolta's either a time traveller or reincarnation. Admittedly, the pic's more 'convincing', this time around. If you're gullible and have a lotta money lying around, this one'll set you back $50,000. Or, you could PayPal it to me.

eBay

Then you've got sellers who're really scraping the bottom of the barrel. One seller's listed an 'Original 1860s Tintype Kurt Russell Reincarnation Not a Vampire' for US$1,000 (left). Looks more like Jeff Bridges to me.

I've also noticed that the more these cash-ins follow, the less the bother with 'evidence'. The descriptions become more vague. 'Now that the world has discovered that there is a group (coven?) of celebrity time travelers, or vampires, or something similar, (not) consisting of at least Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, a young Kurt Russell can be added to the list,' wrote akersfam1. 'This tintype dates from the 1860s or 1870s and is approximately 2.5" by 3.5", which probably makes it a sixth plate. This photo is original and has not been altered in any way.'

Diminishing price is another characteristic. I don't know if the Nicolas Cage pic sold for its US$1,000,000—I really hope it didn't—but it seems these guys know they'll never top the success of Cage's 'vampire' pic. So why bother?

eBay

That's why you get sad entries like 'Vintage Photo Unusual Baby Light Eyes Vampire Twilight' (left). You can score this one—although, why would you want to?—for US$14.99. Its seller, theperfectgift, dispenses with 'evidence' all together: it has no accompanying description apart from photo size and payment details. Apparently, the baby's 'glowing' eyes are 'proof' enough.

Is this really what the tintype trade's come to? Are they that desperate to unladen old photos, that they're investing them with 'strange' or 'supernatural' backstories?

Sure, you could say that it's all fun and games, but let's not forget: these photographs depict real people. Real people who had lives, who had history. What happens to their memory if it's 'erased' by childish stories, by meme cash-ins? Don't they deserve respect? A fair (and real) representation of who they were? Their history is already being 'overwritten' by these opportunists. Should it continue? How many more cash-ins will this one-trick joke inspire?

In the meantime, the guys from The Thanatos archive—which you'll recall as the 'source' of the 'Nic Cage vampire' pic—are still yucking it up, with one remarking that 'The news about John and Nicolas images were featured in one of the most important tv news in my country, Chile'. Wow.

Other vampirologists

2011-10-02T01:53:00.004+10:00

It's good to see other vampirologists come out of the woodwork. One I've just stumbled upon is Rainer M. Köppl, the author of Der Vampir sind wir: Der unsterbliche Mythos von Dracula biss Twilight (2010). He was also 'the vampire expert for the award-winning television documentary “Die Vampirprinzessin” (the Vampire Princess).' Probably not something he should boast about.

On the flipside, you sometimes see clowns like these poking fun at vampirologists. Simply put, vampirology is the study of vampires. Therefore, those who practice it are vampirologists. You wouldn't see that kind of ridicule in association with folklorists. At least, I hope not.

The clowns in question were discussing Joe Nickell's 'Searching for vampire graves', which was published in Skeptical Inquirer's March/April 2009 issue.¹ One remarks, 'In the article, he spoke to a "vampirologist." Man, you can add "-ologist" on to anything these days, can't you? Laughing' with other forum members following suit.

You know what else is funny? Joe Nickell, 'a prominent skeptical investigator of the paranormal', has written on the subject, himself. He certainly doesn't treat it with their disdain:

However, if we are to seriously add the root —ology to vampire, the presumably scholarly field thus described must represent more than credulity and fantasy. There is a serious field of study—embracing folklore, psychology, cultural anthropology, literature, history, and so on—that attempts to research and make sense of the various aspects of the vampire myth. To that study the term vampirology may well be applied.²

Hmm, I wonder why he takes it so seriously? Let's take a look at him:

joenickell.com

While the seriousness isn't evident in that pic, it's a hint. You see, one of the many, many roles Nickell employs as part of his paranormal research is—wait for it—vampirologist. That's right clowns, while you were taking the mick out of the vampirologist Nickell spoke to, you obviously didn't realise he's one too. And proud of it.

Sucked in, newbs!

^{1. Their link to the article's dead. Here's a live one.↩}

^{2. J Nickell, Tracking the man-beasts: sasquatch, vampires, zombies, and more, Prometheus Books, Amherst, N.Y., 2011, p. 125.↩}

Vampires, faith and crosses

2011-10-02T00:17:00.001+10:00

While discussing the Fright night remake, I dealt with the way the vampire's fear of the cross has been inverted, subverted, averted and cast away. I said, 'If this is supposed to be an edgy rejection of the "rules", well, it's a cliche in itself.'

Wikipedia

Very true. In fact, TVtropes' 'Clap your hands if you believe' page has a whole section on vampires regarding this aspect of modern vampire lore. However, the part which says, 'Similarly, a cross does not work on a vampire in Stephen King's Salem's Lot because its owner has lost his faith' isn't quite true. At least, not from the get-go. It's not so much that the wielder didn't have faith, it's that he didn't trust it enough to square off against the vampire.

Here's what the 'owner' [Father Donald Callahan] says when asked to participate in a vampire investigation:

"I'm not going to say no, not at this point," Callahan said. "And I ought to tell you that if you'd gotten a younger priest, he probably would have said yes almost at once, with few if any qualms at all." He smiled bitterly. "They view the trappings of the church as symbolic rather than practical—like a shaman's headdress and medicine stick. This young priest might decide you were crazy, but if shaking a little holy water around would ease your craziness, fine and dandy. I can't do that. If I should proceed to make your investigations in a neat Harris tweed with nothing under my arm but a copy of Sybil Leek's The Sensuous Exorcist or whatever, that would be between you and me. But if I go with the Host . . . then I go as an agent of the Holy Catholic Church, prepared to execute what I would consider the most spiritual rites of my office. Then I go as Christ's representative on earth." He was now looking at Matt seriously, solemnly. "I may be a poor excuse for a priest—at times I've thought so—a bit jaded, a bit cynical, and just lately suffering a crisis of . . . what? faith? identity? . . . but I still believe in the awesome, mystical, and apotheotic power of the church which stands behind me to tremble a bit at the thought of accepting your request lightly. The church is more than a bundle of ideals, as these younger fellows seem to believe. It's more than a spiritual By Scout troop. The church is a Force . . . and one does not set a Force in motion lightly." He frowned severely at Matt. "Do you understand that? Your understanding is vitally important."¹

Later, while wielding a cross against the vampire, Callahan is faced with a decision: is he willing to cast aside the item protecting him, to save the lift of a boy? Is he willing to meet the vampire on purely spiritual terms?

Softly, almost purring, Barlow said, "The will you throw away your cross and face me on even terms—black against white? Your faith against my own?"

"Yes, Callahan said, but a trifle less firmly.

"Then do it!" Those full lips became pursed, anticipatory. The high forehead gleaned in the weird fairy light that filled the room [from the cross].

"And trust you to let him go? I would be wiser to put a rattlesnake in my shirt and trust it not to bite me."

"But I trust you . . . look!"

He let Mark go and stood back, both hands in the air, empty.

Mark stood still, unbelieving for a moment, and then ran to his parents without a backward look at Barlow.²

The boy escapes and Callahan is left standing off against the vampire, the cross still keeping it at bay.

"Then fulfill your part of the bargain, shaman."

"I'm a priest!" Callahan flung at him.

Barlow made a small, mocking bow. "Priest," he said, and the word sounded like a dead haddock in his mouth.

Callahan stood indecisive. Why throw it down? Drive him off, settle for a draw tonight, and tomorrow—

But a deeper part of his mind warned. To deny the vampire's challenge was to risk possibilities far graver than any he had considered. If he dared not throw the cross aside, it would be as much as admitting . . . admitting what? If only things weren't going so fast, if one only had time to think, to reason it out—

The cross's glow was dying.³

As Callahan's temerity weakens, as does the cross's light until it fades out. Callahan perceives it as 'a piece of plaster that his mother had bought in a Dublin souvenir shop'. When the glow is gone, the vampire takes the cross out of Callahan's hand and snaps it in two.

Interestingly, and what few people have noticed about the use of religious items in the novel, is that the Christian element, itself, is subverted. The 'Force' Callahan spoke about, may be foreshadowing what occurs later on. Mark Petrie and Ben Mears find the vampire's root cellar hiding place, which Mears breaks into with a holy water infused axe:

The back of his shirt had split between the straining wings of his shoulder blades, and the muscles writhed beneath the skin like ropes. He was a man taken over, possessed, and Mark saw without knowing (or having to know) that the possession was not in the least Christian; the good was more elemental, less refined. It was ore, like something coughed up out of the ground in naked chunks. There was nothing finished about it. It was Force; it was Power; it was whatever moved the greatest wheels of the universe.⁴

The 1979 mini-series, however, dispenses with this exploration of faith. So when the priest confronts Barlow with a cross, the vampire simply yanks it out of his hand. No explanation. Strange, since crosses work on other vampires. The 2004 mini-series, however, restores the 'shaman' baiting.

^{1. S King, 'Salem's Lot, New English Library, London, 1985, p. 315. The novel was first published by Doubleday, New York, in 1975. This is my reprint.↩}

^{2. ibid., p. 364.↩}

^{3. ibid., p. 365.↩}

^{4. ibid., p. 418.↩}

Trackbacks

2011-10-01T22:35:00.001+10:00

Time for a peek at where my blog's been turning up on the internoodle. If you know of any more, let me know.

This blog began operation on September 20 and I've already chalked up 38 posts (including this one) and counting. I'll tell ya, the new format and outlook have done wonders for my productivity.

I'm sure many readers and followers of my former blog, Diary of an amateur vampirologist, are unaware of this blog's existence, as I haven't gone out of my way to promote it. I wanted it to be a surprise, a treat, an Easter egg, for people who read the entirety of DOAAV's last post and followed the last link in the entry. For those who did, I hope your effort's been amply rewarded!

Incidentally, the snake-eating-its-own-tail picture I chose for the last entry of DOAAV was obviously not a random image: it's Ouroboros, which symbolises 'self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end'. I thought a phoenix would be too obvious.

Vampire costumes

Therefore, it's especially pleasing to see comments on this blog, as well as receiving 'shout-outs' elsewhere. Sure, some of 'em are from Google (thank you, Feedjit), but I appreciate it all the same.

So, trackbacks. The first 'shout-out' came from bshistorian, who linked to my articles on the Nicolas Cage vampire thing. Those entries have generated a decent amount of traffic, I'll add. But honestly, I didn't expect them to. It's just like my coverage of the 'antique' vampire killing kits: you never know what'll catch on.

Speaking of which, the blog scored a thread on the Athiest forums, thanks to that Nic Cage stuff. I can't help but be amused by that, due to my own religious beliefs.

It was great to see The vampirologist featured on Everlost's Vampire news, so soon after starting it. That's publicity you can't buy! Kidding. Thanks, E.

Lastly, Chad Savage celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of one of his pictures, by giving a shout to this blog. But, I can't take all the credit: Jane discovered the source. If it wasn't for her TinEye, I would've still been clueless.

Speaking of Jane, she actually created a Google doc, just to provide reliable translations for one of my entries. I am truly humbled by and thankful for her efforts.

The comments here have been great, too. There've been some teething problems, but the commenting function should be fixed now.

More on the Duke

2011-10-01T19:58:00.003+10:00

My posts on the alleged Duc de Richelieu investigation into vampires, have provoked wonderful responses from Niels and Jane.

The biggest stumbling block with this thing is that I've had to rely on Google Translate, due to my inability to read French. I know it's not the most reliable tool, but helps give the gist of what's being said. It's either that, or staring at the screen and going 'Derrrr?' It's not like I've got translators hanging off my arm. Also, 'Learn French!', while a worthy solution, is not very timely for writing blog entries.

Anyhoo, the wonky translations spurred Jane into giving proper ones, which she's published here. They're in conjunction with quotes featured in my first post on the Duke's investigation. Thanks Jane. You're awesome!

Scientific curiosities

Speaking of that post, it mentioned a 1759 English translation of Augustin Calmet's work which I couldn't find online. Well, it turns out, I had a 'copy' of that book all along: extracts from it feature in Jan L. Perkowski's Vampires of the Slavs (1976).

Perkowski lists the source as 'Calmet, Dom Augustin. Vampires of Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. trans. M. Cooper. London, 1759.'¹ However, this is clearly not the book's proper title (left). Also, the book was 'Printed for' M. Cooper; doesn't say he translated it. At least, going by the title page. I could be wrong, of course.

Anyway, here's the relevant portion from Perkowski's book:

Accordingly, I have been assured by a person of the most improved understanding, and of unquestionable veracity, that Lewis [sic] XV, being desirous to know the truth of these reports, gave orders to the duke of Richelieu, his ambassador at the court of Vienna, to examine carefully into the affair, and to send him an account of what he could collect from the original records of these vampire-transactions. The duke executed his commission with the most utmost exactness, and informed the king that nothing appeared to him more indisputable than these accounts. The unbelieving party, however, was not satisfied with this, but desired the king that the ambassador might be ordered to make further enquiries upon the spot. The duke obeyed the order, and his second report was, that he found more of prejudice and whim than of truth in this whole business of redivivi, or vampires. In consequence of this, there are now two parties at the court of Vienna, one of which holds the truth of these apparitions, and the other rejects the whole as mere whim and fancy.²

If this series of events is accurate, it's interesting to see the King lean on the Duke till he got an answer he wanted. Was the Duke pressured into debunking vampires?

But Niels has a different take. He doesn't believe the investigation happened in the first place, and has provided evidence to that effect. After all, the earliest reference to the investigation appeared in the second volume of Calmet's Dissertations sur les apparitions des anges, des démons & des esprits et sur les revenans et vampires de Hongrie, de Boheme, de Moravie & de Silesie (1746). His source, it seems, was Louis Antoine Charles, Marquis de Beauvau (1715–1744). Calmet did not provide a written reference, however, but shared something he was told.

Niels cited Aribert Shroeder and Lenglet Dufresnoy, who both disputed the reality of the investigation. He also provided another reference, which I'll have to translate via the usual:

M. le Duc de Richelieu, cited in D. Dissertation of Vampires Calmet, and in our extract wished that warns the public that the Court never gave orders to inform the Vampires, and that he never wrote anything to the Court on this, that n has done no research in this regard in a word, he gave no occasion to what makes him think, say or write on this topic.

Niels added, 'There's a number of contemporary reviews and critical comments on Calmet's works, as well as various correspondence, so I'm sure de Richelieus own statement can be found there.' The only other reference in Niels' source, appears on page 1979 and simply relates Calmet's mention of the investigation.

The one thing that'd indelibly salvage Calmet's—and the Marquis de Beauvau—claim, would be word from the Duke, himself. As it stands, we don't even have a date for when this investigation occurred. We don't have the original reports. Therefore, we're in the realm of speculation. However, the evidence does weigh in favour of the naysayers: it's pretty telling that Calmet removed references to the investigation in subsequent editions of his book.

^{1. JL Perkowski, Vampires of the Slavs, Slavica Publishers, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., 1976, p. 292.↩}

^{2. ibid., pp. 129–30.↩}