The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/thehistocrat03221 You can also find this episode on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Stitcher! You can find it at the links below: Spotify - open.spotify.com/episode/5G2TCKuOXgDPIiw7HAS2al iTunes - podcasts.apple.com/kz/podcast/mythillogical-podcast/id1514656609 Stitcher - www.stitcher.com/show/mythillogical-podcast/episode/vampires-before-dracula-90477364 Google podcasts - podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9teXRoaWxsb2dpY2FsLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz/episode/Y2NlMmEyYjMtZmRiZS00ZTA3LWJlMGEtMDFmYmQ2OGQxY2Q2?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjo2pW26eD2AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQMw

Can't stress enough how much I appreciate sources being included. History youtube needs more of it

Ancient Scottish Highlanders believed in a vampire like fairy called the Baobhan Sith (sith pronounced as she, it means fairy). They shared similarities with the Succubus, and appeared as young beautiful women with Dark hair and wearing a robes which revealed hooved feet at the bottom. One story, there were four men who went hunting and took shelter for the night in a hut. One of the men sang while the others began dancing. The men expressed a desire for partners to dance with, and soon after that four women entered the hut. Three of them danced while the fourth sat beside the vocalist. He then noticed drops of blood falling from his companions and fled from the hut, taking refuge among the horses. His partner chased him but was unable to catch him, and when daylight came she disappeared. The man went back inside and found all three of his friends dead and drained of blood. Its suggested by folklorists that the baobhan sith was unable to catch the fourth man among the horses because of the iron with which the horses were shod, iron being a fairy weakness. The trend in these stories is that the baobhan sith appears when lone men express desires for a romantic partner and drains them of their blood or prys their chests open. This connects with the traditional Scottish belief that if someone makes a wish at night without invoking God's protection, then the wish would be granted in a terrible manner

i expect your next video to be a 2-hour "vampires /after/ dracula" that is a deep dive into the history of twilight fanfics.

Imagine walking past a graveyard at night and hearing; "I am the Count and I love to count! One grain of sand! Ah, ah aaah!"

The vampires sitting on the chest of the victim and constricting their breath is still a thing in Thai folklore. They believe that ghosts sit on people's chest when they are asleep. The situations in which people think this happened generally sound very similar to sleep paralysis.

I rarely comment on videos. But guys please don't stop this series, I think that a lot of us love it

In America, historically vampire folklore is closely associated with TB outbreaks in small rural towns. They've found the evidence when accidently stumbling on unmarked graveyards during new construction & found unusual burials. There is still a belief in energy vampires talked about by those in the New Age/Occult/Esoteric crowd currently.

The term "hajduk" (the J is pronounced as the Y in "young") doesn't refer to a soldier exactly, I'd translate it as "bandit" in most cases. They were anti-ottoman insurectionists, living in the forests and robbing the turks whenever possible. Many became soldiers during the serbian revolution, but at that point they are no longer refered to by that name. The serbian word for soldier is "vojnik", and army is "vojska". Source: being a serb

The counting aspect of vampires is interesting. The overwhelming need to count spilled sugar or seeds or something similar is a part of faerie folklore as well. Also, Crofty should get a raise for all his terrible jokes. They're brilliant and I love them.

I remember that episode of The X-Files when Mulder intentionally threw his sunflower seeds on the floor to force the vampire to pick them all up because of an obsessive compulsion.

1:49:48 For anyone interested in learning the Vampire on the Thumbnail , its south east asian specifically Filipino , the Manananggal , which is a tagalog word that means "One who seperates" , root word is "Tangal" becuz the Manananggal detaches its upper body from its lower body , though i never knew that our Vampire was similar to our neighbors and comes from the Malay Word , since "MANANANGGAL" is a Philippine Word.

I found myself wishing The Histocrat would randomly update the channel and bless us with a video… and it happened. Oh yes.

I'm Brazilian and the Yara/Iara myth is pretty popular. There are many regional variations but it is the first time I hear that a Yara drinks blood. However, I'll say that Monteiro Lobato's top-rated children's book series, where characters interact with many folklore creatures, helped homogenize them and sanitize them from the more gruesome details. Modern folklore has Yara either as a single entity or as a species equivalent to the greek siren or generic European mermaid. They are half woman, half aquatic beast. They attract people by their singing and will drown them in the river. "Yara" is from the indigenous people and their language it literally means "water maiden". Yara can be used as a given name for a woman. Most Brazilians would not hold any vampiric associations with the myth of the Yara. Given the definition at the beginning, I can think of a few creatures from Brazilian folklore that would fit the bill a lot better than the Yara.

Well done, so good job guys. Slavic tradition was very precise. Here are few other things that my Granny told me (she was from eastern past of Bosnia, born 1935): Vampir was there sometimes also named "Utvara". In one story she told me about some guy who died and got to vampire "povampirio se". He then comes after midnight out of his grave back to his house, uses the smallest hole to get inside and after getting in, he first opens everything that can be opened (doors, boxes, etc.). After that he lays down to his wife and stays until the first rooster crows. This ritual continues every night until exhumation and "glogov koljac" hawthorn stick in his hearth. In general the border between Vampir, Nachmar (in Serbian "Mora") and Ghost (in Serb. "Utvara, Prividjenje, Privida") was not that precise.

May this find you in bloody good health.

They say if you laugh at a Jang Chi (hopping vampire) --- which you would naturally do coz it's such a funny sight -- the Jang Chi will be embarrassed and hop away.

So Sesame Street has one of the most accurate portrayals of a vampire. Sweet.

A "what we do in the shadows" reference. Werewolves not swear wolves.

Crofty's voice puts me asleep in the best way. I fall asleep and then have to rewatch the video the next morning (although at this point I've listened to the podcast 20 times. )

love this, literally been trying to look into origins on vampire and werewolf myths and didnt find much because of how influential bram stoker was

"Mandurugo" does not literally translate as "blood sucker" "Man" - To (It actually is a multi-utility word, attaching it to an action would imply occupation. But in this context, this would be a closer equivalent) "Durugo" - Bleeding A more literal translation in my understanding would be: "To make bleed" or "A person who makes other people bleed". "Mandurugo" is also a term used for insane people who are basically slashers/murderers running amok.

To be fair, Dracula didn't consider moving far from his resting place until he'd already been undead for centuries and had basically "tapped out" the food supply in and around his castle in Wallachia. Thinking like a predator, he needed to migrate to seek better hunting grounds.

I thought it was generally accepted that the word "vampire" in English was just loaned and Anglicized directly from the Serbo-Croatian "vampir". Also, its likely that it was our version that inspired Dracula, as Serbian vampires, while monsterous, are still... Human? Not really, but they can talk, they remember their life and they can even procreate with humans, making a dhampir (which is what Alucard would technically be considered). Though they have mouths full of sharp teeth and they actually tear their victims throats out while they are feeding on them. They also turn into moths. And, if i remember correctly, they also sometimes feed on livestock, chupacabra style.

I was born in Bulgaria but raised in the USA but I’m so glad you bring up Bulgarian folk lore or superstitions. I love the video. And would like to hear/watch more on different topics. Maybe Witches would be a great one next

Regarding the return to the coffin, again I bring up the Austrian Vampire Panic spurred by Serbian peasant superstitions which brought the vampire to the west. The vampires reported in western newspapers were said by locals to return to their graves during the day and the village folk would return to the cemetery to stake the corpse. This was before Stoker & modern vampire literature, in fact prior to this the word vampire did not even exist in the English lexicon though these widely circulated news stories were almost certainly part of getting Stoker interested in Balkan Vampires

An episode on the Devil and devil-like figures would be awesome.

As I was listening halfway through, I wondered if they covered the aswang and mananangal because SEA folklore isnt as famous as other cultures. And when they covered it I was amazed by their research. And they even knew more than me and come from the region itself. Amazing work!

I remember something about being able to stop a vampire or distract it, something about them not being able to resist counting things such as a box of buttons or pins etc dumped on the floor. And that made me think of the Count, on Sesame Street.

Just start at 14 minutes.

I really recommend the book "Upiór. Historia naturalna" by Łukasz Kozak. It's unfortunately only (?) in polish, but it covers decently the vampirism on the grounds of central-eastern Europe, especially the vampires in Poland. It's fascinating how vampirism here was not only connected with "living dead" entiety of some sort, but also with being a witch(er), "the one who knows". They even used in some places (Greater and Lesser Poland for example) a term "wieszcz", "wieszczy", that was later appropriated (? hard to say) by the romantic movement, and from the XIX century it's used to talk about three authors-"prophets" that were talking about liberation of partitioned Poland and the ways how the polish nation should become and how ppl should fight to liberate the country. So, when they buried in Poland the most prominent wieszcz, Adam Mickiewicz, the next years were extra rainy and it disturbed the peasants. They became quickly convinced that Mickiewicz was also "wieszcz" in the folk-vampire-witcher sense, they started talking that he could control the weather when he was alive and now at night he comes out of his coffin, does the mess in the Wawel cathedral, ruffles the sheets and gnaws the candles. They thought that they should throw his coffin to Vistula river (as one's supposed to do with upiórs) to put the things to an end.

40:00 - Fun detail about the term "Vrykolacas", in Romanian "Varcolac" - a word most likely derived from that - literally means Werewolf. - And it's pretty common in the old folklore for the two to be somewhat synonymous, as I recall stories telling of vampires often stalking the night in the disguise of wolves or other beasts of the forest.

I think the draugr is an underrepresented vampire ancestor, likely because the draugr itself has also undergone media degradation. But if we look at what a draugr in the sagas is then it is nothing like a zombie at all, it is far more magical and mystical and powerful. They represent the magical side of certain modern powerful vampire depictions very well. In Grettirs saga we meet an undead creature named Glamr which is where the word "Glamour" comes from. He can do some strange magical stuff that belongs in a horror movie, like how he curses the "hero" Grettir to never again have a peaceful nights sleep because he will always see the glaring eyes of Glamr staring at him from the corner of the room, even when he closes his eyes. He also has some much more dire magic as he curses Grettir to never become stronger, turning his whole life into a downwards spiral as he will only get weaker and weaker until sickness takes him. Other sagas and stories about draugrs also prop them up as very physically powerful creatures on top of their magical abilties, just like vampires. In one saga two brothers in arms swear to spend 3 nights and days in the burial mound of whomever dies first. One of them ends up dying and starts fulfilling his promise, climbing into his friends mound from the top, roping down with some food and drink. He sits there opposite of his friends corpse for days when some strange things happen. For example, the mound is filled with goods meant for the deceased to enjoy in the afterlife, including animals. The friend witnesses the corpse of his old buddy tear a horse in two with his bare hands. The point being that every night the draugr friend eats more and more until the last night when he attempts to eat his living friend. These are examples of draugrs being both physically and magically powerful beings, just like Vampires often are depicted as. But I have one more example which makes the draugr even more vampire-like. I sadly don't remember the name of this one either but all of these accounts of draugrs in sagas are easily found here on youtube. The final one is a spiteful viking guy who gets buried a few times because he keeps coming back. But whats so vampire-like about him is that he sort of corrupts everything around his stone-mound of a grave. The grass dies, animals who walk by it die, everything goes bad. So the people nearby try to dig him up to move him which is when they see that he is not decomposed at all, he has in fact grown and become stronger, very much like a vampire. But this example even has the shapeshifting abilities of a vampire, sort of, like a proto-shapeshifting. Because after they kill the draugr he has cursed a cow, causing it to birth a black calf with a limp just like the draugr had. This calf grows into a monsterous bull with the same hate as the draugr, it is clear that his "spirit" has possessed the bull before birth, making it a draugr bull. Thats why I think the draugr is the proto-version of a vampire. But because of this connection, the concept of a vampire not being able or willing to travel far from it's coffin actually makes sense, because the draugr does not stray far from its bural mound (other than the times when they do). (Wrote this all before I got to the part where you mentioned it) They don't fit the part of a bramstoker vampire, but they certainly fit the role of powerful, often intelligent, magical undead which is a major part of the vampire identity, so considering how old the concept of the draugr is, I'd consider them a true ancestor of the vampire. The skyrim draugrs are more like zombies which I don't think is accurate at all. Norse folkore does have zombies aswell but they usually refer to them with other words like "aptrgangr" which means "after walker" which is like a zombie who annoys you by stomping on your roof.

Interesting that you mention suffocation as the way that most "vampires" kill their victims: In Alby Stone's: Hellhounds Werewolves and the Germanic Underworld, he mentions that the "Arg" part, of the word Warg (meaning wolf) denotes Strangulation or sometimes "one who is strangled", possibly referring to the manner in which perpetrators would kill or be killed (via hanging) - in addition, being declared a "Werewolf" was what is called a "Magico-Legal" term, and violent criminals (possibly one's who had asphyxiated their victims?) were officially declared Werewolves ("thou art become a wolf!") and banished outside the towns or city's walls and into the wilderness, and is most likely where we derive the term Wolfshead, as in a bandit or brigand.

as an aspiring science fiction/fantasy writer this channel that i just found now is pure gold! Thank you so much!

In Western Serbia people used to put wreaths of garlic over windows and doors, there was also belief that if you encounter vampire you should throw handful of wheat grains and it would compel vampire to count the grains and give you time to escape. For some reason water mills were vampire’s favorite hiding spots.

I greatly appreciate the back and forth between you two during these videos.

Funny how you mentioned Draugr and Skyrim. I'm actually playing Skyrim right now while listening to this video play through my Bluetooth speaker. Sometimes I'll just spend hours creating and enchanting new armor and weapons and I like listening to videos like this when I'm in a creative mood.

I love this! It's pretty challenging to piece together all this information, especially with all the poorly written articles found on the internet today. I am glad you showed the source material as well. I've been fascinated by these old folklore and myths and where they started. I have actually been trying to look into witches and werewolves and am still doing so. But I was surprised that their mythology intertwines. I am not gonna lie, I would love to see you do mythillogical on those subjects as well.

I love you guys! You add a nice wit and fun to history while being honest about your limited knowledge and how you research and find more. Such a great series.

Arguably, the most interesting contemporary example of literature going back to the old vampire tradition (being at the same time a postmodern/postdramatic piece) is Dimitris Lyacos's With the People from the Bridge, second instalment of his Poena Damni trilogy. Eerie, ritualistic and almost devoid of blood - until the final scene. Well worth checking out.

Polidori’s tale touched off this fascination. Two centuries ago he corrected the drastic deficiencies of the folklore and reimagined the vampire as a suave, mysterious, sexually dynamic elite who defies time and place, who consumes ravenously and without guilt, and who represents perverse passions that will not die.

As a mechanic I've come to the conclusion that the blood being associated with life force has the exact same origins as the idea that electronics run on smoke, as any observer will note when either substance is let out in great quantities the former home of said substance ceases to function

Had an honors course in college, Mythic Dimensions of Literature, and the final project was a report on a mythical story and how it changed throughout the ages and cultures. I chose “the Vampire” and my professor was blown away by how much information I packed into my essay. Even going back to bce. It was a very interesting research project.

This is a topic I’ve been sinking my teeth into (if you will) as of late. And I love finding a few more of the scarce historical discussions outside of the Dracula mythos. Thank you!!

Vampires are very well documented and they continue to exist. Have you see the Twilight vampire documentaries?

Picking up on one ‘symptom’ of the victims that came up in serval descriptions was the ‘vampire’ crushing the person with their body, sitting on their chest or throttling them. Sufferers of Type Narcolepsy quite often experience sleep paralysis that is accompanied by hallucinations of a specific figure, daemon or terrifying person either standing over them, sitting in there chest or laying on them. Pretty damn specific, perhaps a catalyst to local vampirism hysteria of the time

First of your videos I've listened to, and I was hooked as soon as you began to list your sources. Seriously, I wish more people sourced their stuff, mega kudos from a huge fan of proper sourcing!

One other note regarding garlic: It does have medicinal properties in warding off some parasites. I currently use it in my pet's diet, as she is highly allergic to veterinary flea treatments. My solution after doing research was to create a home diet that incorporates a few key ingredients, one of them being garlic. For the last 12 years she has never been flea or tick bitten, so regarding the folkloric 'strong smells dissuade miasma', smell is probably not the only reason garlic specifically is mentioned in keeping away disease, it probably was also noted to work for centuries with minor medicinal value. I just find it interesting that its related to blood sucking vampires, and it helps keep blood sucking little disease carrying insects off my pet.

I thought the word Striga and strigoi is a clear relative to the Latin word Strix as in ancient Greek Strix. In Italian Strega is the witch, which also in ancient times believed to suck on kid's blood, Same as the Strix in ancient Greek and Roman folklore. The scientific name of a small howl is Strix, from the ancient Greek word for it and it is derived from the sound they make, a screech. (In Italian the sound is also called stridere, the root seems to come from there). I have no idea if all this has any sources though, but it makes sense to me 😅

Funeral director here. I want to talk about what's really going on with the signs of being a vampire. Things I encounter myself. The nails growing - nails stay the same, they appear to get longer because the skin of the hands dehydrate causing the skin to shrink and harden. Much more of the nails are visible than any time in life. The looking full - the body bloats as the intestines decompose. Anyone see a hit deer on the side of the road in the heat of summer bloated to near double it's size? That brings me to the blood at the mouth - that pressure of gases of bloating pushes the now commingled body fluids from stomach and lungs out the easiest exit, the mouth. This is called purge and is a dark brownish red or dark red depending on the mix of body fluids. The skin coming of to reveal new skin - as skin decomposes the layers separate and the outer layer is very fragile. It peels off at a touch and is called skin slip. The lack of being stiff - rigor mortis isn't permanent. As the muscles begin to decompose rigor of course let's go. Did I get all of them? Let me know if I missed any

I have been binge consuming all of your content. It's so good. THERE'S REFERENCES! Thank you guys so much

I thoroughly DIG your thoroughness, amigos! You guys won my subscription to your channel and my total esteem. I have not yet finished this video, being about 40% into it. I am sure to find what I present below in the video, yet wanted to offer what is not commonly known outside of the Gaelic-speaking world -- especially unknown to the English speaking world. Bram Stoker was a man from the province of Uladh, or 'Ulster' to the English-speaking world. The term comes from Old Norse, it being given begrudgingly and in respect by the Vikings, who had successful invasions and campaigns in every other part of Ireland historically, yet never knew such in the northern province they eventually proclaimed as not their own land, but rather belonged to the people they remained unable to defeat in combat known as the Uladh: Ulad's Tir. The historic fierceness in battle of the people of Ulster is legendary, and an incredible accomplishment given the smaller stature of the people from the province. Visit Northern Ireland even today and you will note the radical difference between those people and the type of people you see in the rest of Ireland. Darker-haired, darker-eyed, and smaller, skinnier statures that represent a mix of Gaelic and Cruithne blood, with relatively little Scandanavian, as compared to the rest of Ireland. I propose a more local derivation for the word 'vampyre' : Gaelic fiam-beithir, meaning 'awful monster' which well approximates the English pronunciation of vampire'. It remains surely well known among your subscribers that Bram Stoker derived the name 'Dracula' from the Gaelic 'droch-fhula' meaning 'bad blood' and is pronounced nearly exactly the same as in English one says 'Dracula'. It remains a consequence of the English conquest a certain shame among the Irish of our own culture, language, heritage. Much more romantic and exotic and exciting to set the work of fiction in a foreign land like Romania / Hungary / Transylvania and to hide behind double entendre / homonyms the true, ethnic heritage of the story, which may well have been based on the supposed real-life vampire that was a certain, local chieftain historic within Ulster known as Abhartach or Avartagh. For the record, that the rest of the world recognize in truth the more humble and actual facts: The true roots of the vampire and its actual origin is with the ethnically distinct people of the Northern Irish province of Uladh ( Ulster in English ) who are the progeny of the historic mixture of Cruithne and Gaelic blood and cultures. Exact same people who arrived on the battlefield naked, painted blue ( from the glasrum local to Northern Ireland and Scottland ), and with tatoos. For the convenience of the English speaking world, the Cruithne are known to you as the 'Picts' from the history of these isles... Very same people who gave the world Halloween, Banshees and whose most venerated and beloved deity was, and in some growing circles is, Macha. This people is ethnically distinct from the rest of Ireland, and certainly from the English, Welsh, Cornish, and the Scottish ( whether of Gaelic or Danish roots ). Tragic remains the fact that the lands of these people remains under colonial occupation and with a foreign, active military imposition that continues what already has been a thousand years of occupation by the English. The unequivocal, continuing warzone of Ulster is the true home of the vampire. Take care, amigos! F.

Cinemasscre did a video on Nosferatu, the 1922 film, recently on his channel and claimed that vampires "burning away in sunlight" was actually invented by that film.

In Sweden, we have the “nattmara” (yes, exactly like nightmare), which is an evil spirit who takes the form of a woman who attacks mainly men in their sleep by sitting on top of them to suffocate them. Interesting how much folklore is similar in different parts of the world!

i was a Navy Pharmacy Tech and one of the interesting things where commercial medicine and pharmacy is inferior to socialized medicine was illustrated by leeches, which were kept at big navy (socialized) hospitals. People who have amputated body parts reattached tend to have blood accumulate in them, which can make the body part not reattach properly, because the larger, deeper arteries are more easily reattached than the smaller, more numerous veins. you use leeches to remove blood specifically from those body parts, and they contain a host of good drugs that help healing, anticoagulants and antibiotics, stuff made so the leeches hosts would survive to be fed on again. but there is no profit in keeping leeches, so (unless this has since changed) most hospitals have no interest, life-saving and important or not

That was quite informative and, from what I can tell, very well researched. Thank you for making this video and helping to further my education in folk lore of the world. I knew a lot of vampire attributes were creations of cinema and Bram Stoker, but I did not know the extent of the deliberate distortions of real folkl ore post Dracula.

I'm a huge history buff 💪 and this was like finding gold!!!! I am so glad I came across this.....

I've just discovered this podcast and can't wait to finish and listen to more! So far this is absolutely awesome and a pleasure to listen to. Fascinating stuff, perfect for relaxing and learning. Thanks, I have subscribed!

Just found your channel and I’m greatly enjoying your podcast deep dives! Also, loved the What we do in the Shadows reference. :) looking forward to catching up on all your videos.

Vampire in English language comes from a German word for vampire - Vampir which is directly adopted from the locals when Austro-Hungary gained control of the northern Serbia. Other versions in Slavic languages come from the word vampir. It is interesting to point out that Serbian language containes also a word štriga which derives from the word striga and means witch or malevolent spirit, but it does not mean vampir (vampire).

Man hearing all these amazing creatures unbeknownst to me made me think that these would be perfect for video games. Like showing off one of these in game can give the due full recognition they deserve

fun fact. in kindergarten this kid walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to be a vampire, of course I said uh okay.. yeah. we then put our hands together kinda like a double high five and he started mumbling jibberish. needless to say I was definitely the cool kid in school.

So glad to see someone shedding light on the subject. An author I highly recommend and respect is John Michael Greer. He is an esoteric author, Freemason, Druid, conservationist, and polymath. He has a book titled “Monsters: an investigator’s guide” that goes into the folk lore of many monsters, including the vampire.

This was a great introduction to you guys. That joke about the Rains Down in Africa, probably the best vampire joke I've ever heard definitely the first one to actually make me laugh. Edit: I had to listen to the section on the Jaing Chi twice. Why wasn't there any mention of it's weakness regarding running water? It's not supposed to be able to cross even a small stream. The story about how they came to have their image was interesting though.

A while ago I researched everything about vampires and thought a Histocrat episode would complete it. Now is the time! Knowing that different writers before Stoker painted a picture of the vampire, characteristics and so on, I realised Stoker did indeed a great work but a lot you can find in literature before. All the novels are great to read, Stokers Dracula is a mixture of that previous works. Very interesting also that he actually wanted Dracula to set in Austria but changed his mind and moved it to Transylvania. What was also very interestinf or me that in the 1700s if i recall right that vampire thing became very famous in the European land. It swapped over from the east but the western people did not buy the superstition and sent scientists to research the cases of people who died and allegedly not died.. complete. They were really aware of it and wanted to stop the panic and solve in a scientific way, what they did in the end by declaring it as nonsense. This just shows me how educated people could be even 300 years ago.

I didn't realise the podcast was released so much sooner than the video, although given the length of the videos and you not having full time professional editors on hand I really shouldn't be surprised!

You guys do a great job! I recently stumbled onto this series and am very happy to see you guys put forth this kind of soundly researched info. I always thought vampires were just a metaphor for vices. Their historical context is very interesting to learn about

I wanted to correct you because the term "Hajduk" doesn't mean soldier. Hajduks were bandits who robbed Turkish merchants and somewhat of an early form of Partisan/Guerilla fighters. You could say they were soldiers but they weren't part of any institution instead they were small groups of men lead by a "Harambaša" so in essence very clearly a bandit band.

Don't forget the most common form of vampire: landlords!

I grew up in Zimbabwe, but from Zambian parents, live back home now in lusaka Zambia. I grew up afraid of something called amaZimu, Zimus were known to live in the dark and lived of blood of the living. Why is this phenomenon all over the world, I'm talking about the time before I even watched Salem's Lot. Salem's Lot even terrified me more. Couldn't sleep for months.

In Polish mythology strzyga and wampir (wąpierz) are two different creatures. They are both krwiopijcy - blood drinkers. People born with certain face or dental deformations and mentally ill were often seen as strzygi. Also newborns with developed teeth. When strzyga was identified, it was usually banished from settlements to die in the wild. Those who survived, could shapeshift and feast on human or animal flesh and blood. They usually then haunted their families and settlements they were banished from. Those beliefs came most probably from the Balkan tribes. Wąpierz was a creature that returned from the dead in a human corpse and had to drink human blood to survive. Most probable theory is that those beliefs came from China through Turkish\Osman influences in Eastern and Central Europe. Chinese medicine included drinking fresh cattle blood for many ailments. Attempts to drink human blood for the same purposes were made. It was believed in Poland that suchh practices will later cause a dead person to return as a wąpierz.

Oooh, I'm late to this one, but how exciting! I'm sure half of us were holding our breaths for this one! Thank you both for putting so much tireless work and research into every episode of this program! We love it!

I seem to remember that South Slavs buried their dead with garlic or onions (there are no separate words for the two, they are both called Luk, and are distinguished as white and red Luk respectively) to prevent vampirism. This may date back to the time of the plague and have been warped into a vampirism thing since then of course

"Vlad the poker" Aaaaaand now my mind is picturing a bunch of dracula actors throughout the ages singing poker face.

Dude I can't thank yall enough for this vid since it helped me so much for finding sources for my essay I'm writing about vampires

I'm doing research on vampires and stumbled on this video, I truly loved all the information, especially the part focusing on non-european legends. But, as a brazilian, I want to make a correction about the Iara. Iara is a well-known myth here, but its origins are not in the catholic church, rather in the indigenous people. But she's not a type of vampire, actually, she's close to a mermaid and often associated with Iemanjá, an orixá (a type of deity) of african-influenced religions. Hope I said everything right, english is not my first language obviously. Thanks for this episode tho!

Favorite and most weird vamp fact of mine is that dhampiers are sometimes described as being boneless. What does that mean? Why would they do this? What the actual hell?

When it comes to the "counting matter". My grandmother told me all kinds of stories from the olden days(she grew up in the Slovak mountains/Carpathians) and one of those stories occured every year on St.Lucy´s day(13th december) - which is considered to be a cursed day here in Slovakia. Before the sun would set, her grandfather would take garlic and with it, make the sign of the cross on every doorframe and windowframe in the house and the barn where they kept their lifestock. Then he would take a sack full of poppyseeds and spread them around the house and said barn, creating a circle. All of this was a preventive matter to fend off vampires, who(among other things) are said to be very active on this specific day. Especially the circle made of poppyseeds. It was thought that the vampire would count the poppyseeds until the morning, and thus he could not approach the house itself. But even if he could, the crosses made of garlic would prevent him to enter the house and barn anyway. This all happened back in the 50´s and 60´s, when my grandmother was still a child. But since her grandfather lived well into his 90s, I expect that he most probably observed this "tradition/ritual" until the 1970´s or even 1980´s. Anyway, here are two interesting facts for you. 1) The last vampire hysteria in Slovakia occured in the 1930´s. 2) As if fate wanted it, my grandmother was born on the 13th of december(thus St.Lucy´s day). But since her family believed this day was cursed, they officially changed the day of her birth to be on the 12th of december. (Better safe than sorry, I guess)

Omg!! This is so well made, PLEASE continue making more content like this😭🙏❤

I saw economic news and it said blood was largest cash crop over cereal, vegetables or meat in the U.S.A over last couple of years.

As much as I know in Poland we had not only "strzyga" but also creature called "wąpierz". Also in our language names as "mara" and "upiór" can be found to describe similar creatures. PS. guys; "rz" is one sound in polish. Thease two letters should not be read separately. 😉 So if you want to say "strzyga" more correctly it would be rather: stshyga. (i don't know how to describe this sound more acurate in english (you just don't have such a hursh sound), but "sh" in that case should do the trick. 😉 Anyways, good reserch 🙂

From a Polish family that moved to America in the 1910s - within living memory in my family there was a folk superstition that anyone born "under the veil" (indeed the amniotic membrane as you suggest with the "red cowl") might develop some sort of prophetic or clairvoyant powers. My great-aunt (born c. 1920) was spoken of as having been "born under the veil" and seems to have taken to the identity wholeheartedly - she routinely read tea leaves and was treated with a bit of extra awe and reverence (and even fear) by the rest of the family for what they viewed as her uncanny perception. There was notably no connection to vampirism (or anything else viewed as "evil," per se) by the 20th century about this, it seems, but rather to mind-reading and/or clairvoyance. An interesting holdover of this ancient lore and a blending of the traditions of vampirism with Slavic witchcraft; the sign that might have once indicated a vampire instead indicating a "natural witch." It's interesting to note that this was never considered by anyone in the family as being incompatible with Catholicism; my great-aunt was also a devout lifelong Catholic and was ultimately buried in a Catholic cemetery.

Came across your chanell by accident,subscribed immediately! Thank you so much for the documentary, your work is awesom!

Bloodletting does actually have a mild antibacterial effect so it makes sense that it would work for some illnesses.

My mother had a book of British folk tales that I loved to read, and it included a story about the vampire of Croglin Grange. I TO THIS DAY have a mild fear of uncovered windows at night. Well worth reading about if you get the chance. Wikipedia says it's from the 1890s.

wow there is so much info in this! love the von count joke! i remember being so scared of Jiangshi when i was a child hahaha

As someone who has the occasional bout of sleep paralysis... Yeah, I can see that being a cause for alarm for someone who didn't know what it was. Especially if you have more than just the "can't move hard to breathe" version; I do sometimes get visual hallucinations, or the most intense, terrifying paranoia you have ever felt. Like "someone is in my room and going to kill me" level freaking out.

25 minutes into the video. Ok, vampiric revenants and revenants (generally a term used by folklorists to refer to corporeal undead) are known to be shapeshifters throughout many regions in the world (often into black dogs, owls, among other animals in Europe) and Balkan revenants (which very much seems to be where Bram Stoker's main inspiration for Dracula comes from) like pretty much any other European revenant were thought to retain the intelligence and abilities they had in life in addition to having various supernatural abilities (superhuman strength and speed as well as shapeshifting and more). Not sure if this was addressed later in the video but if not, this is a huge aspect of the "vampire" to miss out in a two hour long video about vampires. Another thing, the term wight derives from Old English wiht meaning LIVING being, not a dead one. It's only in modern fantasy literature and video games that the term wight has been associated with barrow-dwelling undead creatures.

Fascinating. I've been interested in this type of thing for a while. The scenes of Abraham Setrakian being told vampire (Strigoi) stories by his Bubbe in The Strain reminded me of childhood stories, not always conducive to sleep but sure to encourage good behaviour. The breadth of myths around the world and hematophagous/exsanguinating blood feeding humanoids is astonishing.

I’m so stoked that you used Barbers book! I read it for a research paper I did last semester on vampires and it was so great!

The original Dracula was played by Lugosi Béla, a hungarian actor. He of course had a hungarian accent which became known the vampire accent. One more point for me to be happy that hungarian is my mother language hehe

Technically speaking, considering the high amount of stem cells in blood, particularly in young children, blood could be a successful treatment for a variety of conditions, but it would be very hit and miss, do to the delivery method. I'm wondering if stomach ulcers were more common back in the day, giving quick access to the bloodstream via ingestion. Also note how the description of the bloodsuckers reflects what literary class viewed as the threat to society; the untamed wild, unexplainable illnesses, and then the depravities of the upperclasd

This may be vary late, but from other folklore that I’ve heard about the Jiangshi is it fears fire, roosters when they crow for it means the sun is rising, and if you hold your breath, they will not be able to see you, or find you. Sticky rice is another weakness, however, I do not really know how it is used, peaches was mentioned too.

im laughing so much. 🤣 your comment about finishing as the sun coming up is gold for me because the sun is rising for me too as i finish your podcast

I only recently found out about the Scottish folklore character Baobhan sith which is more of a vampyric succubus. Having grown up here I was slightly disappointed I had never heard of one before.

I'm surprised that you mentioned the succubus and incubus but not the sidhe which are described as love vampires but you guys did go over a LOT and it was very interesting!!!

I enjoyed every second of this video Thank you guys!

Your videos are amazing, please keep making them!

He was meant to say Northern Serbia instead of Northern Syria.