Sexy vampires: the early days
Jun. 25th, 2008 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomi_jaySo, I want to know where the mythos of the sexy vampire came from. (Actually, I already know, thanks to some diligent research I did earlier, but you can’t just dive straight into these things, you need to build the tension a little first.) And in order to pin down the origins of the modern vampire, I feel we need to look at the original vampire.
Almost every culture in the world has tales of blood-drinking undead, from the Indian goddess Kali to the Celtic langsuir. However, it’s fair to say that the modern conception of the vampire is rooted pretty firmly in 18th century Southeastern European folklore.
The first recorded use of the word “vampire” in English appeared some time around 1734 in a travelogue, probably derived from the German vampir. Around 1718, officials in Serbia noted the practice of exhuming bodies in order to kill vampires. Most folklore agrees that they were ruddy-skinned beings, rather than the fashionably pale creatures that populate modern films and books. They were bloated from blood consumption and often the teeth, nails and hair would have grown. Interestingly, fangs aren’t mentioned as a common characteristic. Other attributes vary from region to region. For example, Albanian vampires wore high heels, and Mexican vampires had bare skulls instead of heads.
So far, not particularly attractive, and definitely not the kind of man you’d want sweeping you off your feet in a dark alley. Medieval peasants weren’t too interested in sexing up their monsters, which is probably understandable given how grim life was for medieval peasants on the whole. In the 18th century, a period of great hysteria regarding witches and werewolves as well as vampires, the last concern of the average European farmer was whether or not the vampire was good dating material. (I so want to go off on a massive history lesson here about Jean Grenier and Peter Plogojowitz, but it’s not really relevant to my case).
My point is, prior to the early 19th century, vampires were seen as A) very much a real threat and B) very much a gruesome, subhuman entity. What happened to change that? It’s partially down to Lord Byron, everyone’s favourite Romantic poet, as we shall soon see…
The first recorded use of the word “vampire” in English appeared some time around 1734 in a travelogue, probably derived from the German vampir. Around 1718, officials in Serbia noted the practice of exhuming bodies in order to kill vampires. Most folklore agrees that they were ruddy-skinned beings, rather than the fashionably pale creatures that populate modern films and books. They were bloated from blood consumption and often the teeth, nails and hair would have grown. Interestingly, fangs aren’t mentioned as a common characteristic. Other attributes vary from region to region. For example, Albanian vampires wore high heels, and Mexican vampires had bare skulls instead of heads.
So far, not particularly attractive, and definitely not the kind of man you’d want sweeping you off your feet in a dark alley. Medieval peasants weren’t too interested in sexing up their monsters, which is probably understandable given how grim life was for medieval peasants on the whole. In the 18th century, a period of great hysteria regarding witches and werewolves as well as vampires, the last concern of the average European farmer was whether or not the vampire was good dating material. (I so want to go off on a massive history lesson here about Jean Grenier and Peter Plogojowitz, but it’s not really relevant to my case).
My point is, prior to the early 19th century, vampires were seen as A) very much a real threat and B) very much a gruesome, subhuman entity. What happened to change that? It’s partially down to Lord Byron, everyone’s favourite Romantic poet, as we shall soon see…
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no subject
on 2008-06-25 03:08 pm (UTC)I think it was Broadway that made the change - Dracula with Bela Lugosi - then the movies and television. Books are catching up with the big and little screen.
no subject
on 2008-06-26 08:52 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-06-25 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-06-26 08:52 am (UTC)