Post on 23-Jan-2023
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C h a p t e r 2
THE VAMPIRE: GENERAL FEATURES
We have alluded to both the diversity and the complexity of
vampire folklore in the Balkans, particularly in Bulgaro-
Macedonia. We have also mentioned the importance to our
broader purpose of maintaining a distinction between the
literary and the folkloric vampires. Rather than assume that
these statements require no further elaboration, we shall
take this opportunity to see if we can develop a convenient
method for differentiating between the folkloric and pop-
cultural vampire (the difference running parallel to the
difference between folklore and mass media in general).
Also, since the bulk of the collected folkloric material
concerning the vampire is inaccessible to the reader who has
no Bulgarian, we shall summarize here the most salient
features of the folklore encountered in archives and
published sources from the last century or so. If nothing
else, such a presentation should acquaint the reader with
the scope of the problem, while providing something of a
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contour around the concept of the vampire.
Dracula, Orientalism and the Popular Vampire
Outside the Balkans, mention of the vampire conjures up for
most people a vision that is very far removed from what a
villager in Bulgaria before (or even after) World War II
would have imagined. As we mentioned in the previous
chapter, the Slavic word vampir crossed the Serbian border,
out of the Balkans proper and into general parlance in
Europe around 1732, following an “epidemic” of vampirism in
Serbia that piqued the interest of people in the Austro-
Hungarian empire. Austro-Hungary was then struggling against
the further incursion into Europe of the Ottoman Turkish
empire.1
From the moment the vampire entered the consciousness of the
Western Europeans, it began to change its appearance,
adapting quickly to the purposes of a more literate, urban
culture:
1 The long occupation of most of the Balkans by the Ottoman Turks, we may conjecture,
is at least partly responsible for the present cultural split between Western and Eastern Europe – perhaps more significant even than the schism between Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. Thus from the very outset, the vampire was associated in Western Europe, consciously or otherwise, with the threat of invasion and occupation – the theme that pervades Dracula and much other vampire literature.
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It is no surprise, however, that the vampire should come slouching into the literature of the late eighteenth century… Much of the macabre eighteenth century literature is absolutely dreadful in both the modern and eighteenth-century sense… But in retrospect it did the English Romantics a favor, for it made folk superstitions a legitimate subject of literature; it gave them a context. …The immediate predecessors of the English literary vampire were German. In the early eighteenth century as a result of the “vampire epidemics” in the Balkans, the vampire had become a serious subject of study on the Continent. Treatise after treatise was written, not necessarily affirming the vampire’s existence (that was already generally accepted), but rather explaining the vampire as a personification of demonic energies on earth.2
The history of the vampire as a literary theme has been
treated, understandably, much more extensively by Western
authors than has the history of the folkloric vampire. It is
not to our advantage to recapitulate that history here.
Rather, we shall simply observe that a profound difference
in the characteristics that were eventually ascribed to the
vampire in Western Europe (and the Americas) can be traced
to a particular time and set of historical circumstances. As
the vampire crossed a multi-layered cultural boundary, its
new identity enabled it to take on a new life. Yet, however
2 Twitchell, The Living Dead, 32-3.
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much the European vampire tried to shed its resemblance to
the Balkan demon of the same name, it could never completely
obliterate the traces of its ancestry. Indeed, we might
speculate that the Western attitude towards Eastern Europe
enabled the vampire to survive. Consider the following
passages from the novel Dracula, entries in Jonathan
Harker’s journal:
The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most Western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.3 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move. It seems to me that the further East you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?4
In both of these passages from Stoker’s novel, now over a
hundred years old, there is an attitude that Eastern Europe
(geographically bounded, from the Continental perspective,
by the Danube) is essentially different (from Western
Europe, or more precisely, from the rational center of the
world, England). The orientalism implicit in Harker’s mental
3 Wolf, Essential Dracula, 1. 4 Ibid., 5.
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game concerning train schedules in China pervades the novel,
and in fact, much of the imagery of the vampire that was
carried over into films several decades later. Stoker had
inherited a Romantic view of the Central Asian tribes that
had invaded Europe through the Middle Ages:
In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the south, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the west, and Szekelys in the east and north. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting.5
Stoker, drawing upon both the Romantic and Gothic
traditions, as well as upon reports of folklore from the
Carpathians,6 gave shape to the less well-defined vampires
haunting European literature from the earlier part of the
century by attaching to the vampire a sense of ancient
entitlement. Count Dracula, after all, is supposedly
5 Ibid., 4. 6 Stoker consulted the work of a British traveller of the late eighteenth century, Emily
Gerard, author of a travelogue, Land Beyond the Forest. He also obtained details of Balkan and Carpathian folklore from his friend, the Hungarian adventurer Arminius Vambery.
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descended from the nobility that arose in the wake of the
Magyar invasions of Central Europe. This notion of the
vampire as not merely old, but of foreign, warmongering,
noble, castled lineage, is perhaps the most significant
break with the characterization most commonly encountered in
folklore. In contrast to the Gothic vampire, the Bulgarian
one is generally anything but noble: by class, he is just
another villager, though often associated with a marked
occupation or avocation. He is not foreign, though he
sometimes hails from a neighboring village. Unlike Count
Dracula, the folkloric vampire is neither rich nor extremely
well educated nor worldly.
We mention this significant difference because, while the
literary and the folkloric vampires are both outsiders, in
the case of the literary vampire, the status of outsider is
prior and fundamental,7 whereas with the folkloric vampire,
that status is conferred under any of several conditions,
which we shall presently discuss.
7 In the terms of the novel, Count Dracula is presumed to be a vampire in his own land
before leaving for England. Nevertheless, the terror around which the novel is centered is located in Dracula’s strangeness and inscrutability.
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The basis of the popular vampire from which later literary
and filmic versions derive is, of course, Dracula. It is
from Dracula, for example, that we learn that vampires have
sharp teeth, turn into bats, are immortal,8 and cause other
people to become vampires by biting them and drinking their
blood.9 None of these characteristics of the vampire are to
be found in the folklore. (Drinking blood is a common
vampire behavior, but the notion that the victims themselves
subsequently become vampires is a literary addition.)
There are, however, a number of features of Dracula and his
victims, and of subsequent Dracula-type vampires, that do
have parallels, not always exact, in Bulgarian folklore. The
fear of daybreak, brought out so strongly in F.W. Murnau’s
1922 silent classic, Nosferatu, is often attributed directly
to folkloric vampires.10 In even very brief discussions of
vampires, informants will state quite unequivocally that the
8 “To die…to be really dead…that must be glorious.” This famous line is spoken by Bela
Lugosi in the 1931 film version of Dracula. 9 Because of the epistolary structure of the novel, all evidence for these supernatural
attributes and behaviors is purely circumstantial. The “frame” that is put around a set of events in order to lend credence to the hypothesis that Count Dracula is a vampire is provided by another outsider, a Central European overachiever named Van Helsing. Although the novel itself does not supply any “hard evidence,” quite clearly Stoker intended for the reader to not question the quasi-folkloric attributes of the vampire that the Count possesses.
10 Georgieva, Mitologija, 155; Popov, dissertation, 39.
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vampire is nocturnal, wandering about during the ‘bad time’
[lo¹o vreme] between midnight and the first cockcrow,
sometimes appearing in dreams. Fear of crosses or ikons is
also a phobia that the literary and Bulgarian vampires
share. In terms of killing vampires, the most common method
in popular fiction and film is driving a stake through the
heart. In Bulgarian lore, it is more likely to be the
abdomen or even the head that must be pierced, and this
technique is only one of several that may be used to rid a
village of a vampire. Aversion to garlic is quite often
mentioned in the folklore, although the more common plant
for warding off the vampire is the black hawthorn – rarely
mentioned in the Dracula tradition.
An exhaustive comparison of narrative features belonging to
the literary and folkloric vampire traditions lies beyond
our scope. The number of fictional books, stories, poems and
films about vampires since the publication of Dracula, each
with its own version of the basic vampire plot, is in the
thousands. Still, there seem to be certain essential
markers, features without which a character cannot be
considered a vampire, or a given creative work cannot be
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included in the vampire genre. These features on the one
hand seem to reduce to a handful of abstractions, yet on the
other, together they form a category against which
subsequent authors (e.g. Anne Rice; see chapter one, above)
may intentionally rebel by excluding them. Folklore tends
not to have that motive: intentional deconstruction of a
traditional element of narrative for the sake of shock or
innovation belongs to the realm of authorship, not of
folklore.
The problem of defining the vampire
Before attempting to outline the most prominent features of
the Bulgarian folkloric vampire, we ought to try to see if
the collection of features of the literary vampire leads us
to any sort of definition that will enable us to either
differentiate it from, or unify it with, the folkloric
vampire. Most definitions of the vampire that have been
proposed suffer from one of two defects: they are either too
elaborate and fanciful, thereby including all kinds of
beings whose purported connection to the vampire in fact
obscures the boundary of the object of study, or else they
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are too vague or abstract,11 leading to the same result:
there is no clear contour for discrimination. Less
frequently, a definition will be too narrow, rejecting from
consideration material that perhaps fits into a workable
scheme for discussing vampire folklore.
As an example of the former, we find the following florid
entry for vampire in Bunson’s Vampire: The Encyclopedia:
One of the most unique beings in the world, surviving from the darkest times in history, existing for millennia among mortals, feeding on them and using them to create more of its own kind in order to ensure the continuation of the species, perhaps in preparation for a final struggle between the living and the undead.
A more level-headed definition, also in a popular
encyclopedia of vampiralia, Gordon Melton’s The Vampire
Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, begins thus:
A vampire was a peculiar kind of revenant, a dead person who had returned to life and continued a form of existence through drinking the blood of the living. In popular thought, the vampire was considered to be “undead,” having completed earthly life but still being tied to that life and not yet welcomed by the realm of the dead. The vampire is
11 Thus, Perkowski’s definition of the “general vampire” as “a being which derives
sustenance from a victim, who is weakened by the experience” (The Darkling, 54) would include virtually all parasites that are not symbiotic, as well as, perhaps, carnivores.
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distinguished from the ghost, a disembodied spirit, in that the vampire inhabited in [sic] an animated body.
In the case of the former “definition,” Bunson provides a
fantastic description that is essentially useless for any
intention to arrive at a clear understanding of the common
features of the vampire. Though Melton’s definition appears
to be more earnest, it raises so many questions as to be as
useless as Bunson’s: how is the vampire tied to life? What
is this “realm of the dead,” and by whom/what is it
occupied? Furthermore, it makes two general claims about the
vampire, assuming them to be universal, but which in fact
are incorrect if applied to the Bulgarian folkloric vampire:
blood drinking is not always mentioned in the folklore,
while vampires are frequently unseen.
The definitions of vampires in virtually all the popular
literature follow this pattern of romantic hyperbole or
complete ignorance of the folkloric data. The sensationalism
that seems to pervade popular discussion of the vampire is
actually completely lacking in the Balkans,12 where this
12 I perhaps exaggerate. The tabloid press exists in Bulgaria as elsewhere in Europe, and is
not above using the vampire to create sensational headlines. It is likely, however, that this
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mythological being is a more natural part of the cultural
landscape. This difference in attitude raises yet another
question concerning the place of the vampire in the cultural
systems of Eastern versus Western Europe. This problem
deserves further study, but we will suggest again that, in
general, the Western, literary vampire involves an eroticism
that is missing in Balkan folklore. The romantic desire for
immortality and the ability to transcend human law
characterizes the contemporary American fascination with the
vampire. The folkloric vampire, on the other hand, has no
redeeming or attractive features to speak of. We may thus
provisionally rely upon the presence of eroticism or
attractiveness in connection with a vampire as an index of
its ‘literariness’.
Such a functional definition of the vampire, however, is not
only difficult to justify, it also places the interpretation
of the vampire ahead of any agreement upon what a vampire
is. The entry of the vampire into the domain of mass media
and pop culture has led to a situation where the boundaries
of the category are intentionally stretched, and the essence
sensational aspect of the vampire is a cultural borrowing, miming the (feigned) alarm that vampires provoke in Western societies.
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of the vampire theme has become increasingly abstract.
Modern vampires may exist on the Internet, or come from
outer space; they may consume energy or fat rather than
blood; they may be visible to others, or merely to some.
There is, finally, no stable set of external characteristics
that could be used to define the popular vampire for someone
who was not already familiar with the very notion.
As the concept is creatively stretched by writers,
filmmakers, even storytellers, its lack of a coherent form
forces a reliance upon some intuition of its core, such that
the genre is only defined by a tacit understanding that is,
in the Western world, reflected in the consumer marketplace
(genre having been commodified). Like pornography before the
Supreme Court, the vampire is recognized when seen but
escapes a workable definition.
A definition of the modern vampire would ultimately have to
rely in part upon research into the forms that emulation and
imitation take. What, in other words, would someone who
wanted to become or imitate a vampire do? What features of
the vampire genre does a writer or filmmaker have to
include? Conversely, is there any feature or behavior that
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would mark someone or something as not belonging to the
category? The answers to these questions will have to await
further research,13 and they do not, in any case, directly
impinge upon our investigation. In general, however, the
essential features of the popular vampire14 seem to involve
(a) an erotic component, symbolized by drinking of blood as
a form of intimacy that violates taboos, (b) return from the
dead by a living being,15 (c) vulnerability masked as
immortality,16 and (d) the ability to change shape, or
possession of supernatural powers. The modern vampire is
also frequently linked to a dualistic conception of evil (if
that is not a tautology), although its power to overstep
social boundaries is a source of attraction. The individual
13 As of this writing, this subject is being investigated by Tony Thorne (London), whose
results have yet to be published. 14 This admittedly loose analysis is based upon observation of a sufficiently large corpus of
text exchanged between subscribers to an online listserv (Vampyres@the-institute.net) devoted to discussion of any and all topics related to the notion of vampires. The conclusions drawn here remain impressionistic; the data have so far not been subjected to rigorous organization and analysis.
15 Even in Dracula, there is no indication that Count Dracula has died and come back to life. Rather, it is hinted that he has lived a long time: “I have had a long talk with the Count. I asked him a few questions on Transylvania history, and he warmed up to the subject wonderfully. In his speaking of things and people, and especially of battles, he spoke as if he had been present at them all.” (Wolf, Essential Dracula, 38.) He does sleep in a coffin, but nowhere does Stoker state that the Count returned from the dead. Thus we may not even count on reanimation as a feature of the vampire, if we include Dracula.
16 Immortality is a highly attractive feature of the vampire for many neo-cultists. However, in virtually all (online) discussions of the vampire’s supposed immortality, the question eventually arises of how one kills or disposes of the vampire. The implicit contradiction, that that which can be destroyed can also be immortal, seems to go largely unnoticed by these believers.
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or collective response to the presence of the vampire, or to
its deeds, relies upon the same symbolism that is evident in
much folklore: piercing with a stake, decapitation, and
incineration are all effective means of destroying the
vampire. Exposure to sunlight is also a common method. The
use of a silver bullet, which actually shows up in some
recently collected Bulgarian folklore,17 is now old-fashioned
(in American films, this was associated more with the
Wolfman, in movies of the Forties and Fifties) yet still is
considered a viable technique.
In the final analysis, the distinction we have made here,
following Perkowski and Twitchell, is in fact somewhat
arbitrary: the two domains of the popular (a term I find
often more convenient and inclusive than literary) and the
folkloric vampire are far from completely separated. The
popular vampire borrows heavily from folklore; contemporary
vampire writers scan ethnographic material from all sorts of
cultures to develop new modalities for the vampire theme.
Meanwhile, the enormous influence of Dracula and other works
has had undoubtable effects upon the folklore. While we may
17 AEIM No. 110-III-ii (Smoljan).
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never be able to completely disentangle the skein of
folkloric and literary narrative material about the vampire,
at least while vampire folklore continues to exist, we have
tried here to highlight how the modern, popular vampire in
the West grows out of, yet is sigificantly different from,
its folkloric antecedents.
The Bulgarian folkloric data
The folklore about the vampire that has been collected,
primarily by Balkan ethnographic researchers working in the
last hundred and twenty or so years, is available either in
published field reports, which have summarized or
highlighted the raw data, or else as archival materials. The
published references to the vampire on the one hand do not
capture all the linguistic details of transcribed interviews
with informants, but they also are not as repetitious.
Archived ethnographic materials are organized by region,
since field expeditions usually are made to specific areas.
Narrative material about the vampire, it must be stressed,
although extensive, does not particularly stand out. While
certain researchers (Popov, Miceva, Georgieva among
contemporaries) have a particular interest in demonology,
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the vampire is only a single member of a larger system, and
demonologija itself is only one aspect of the village world
view that is investigated during ethnographic expeditions.
Archival materials in the form of transcriptions of
interviews between ethnographer and informant are
characterized by their often fragmentary nature, containing
lapses of memory, inconsistencies, repetitions. Names for
the vampire are quite various, and some informants have no
problem equating one type of demon with another, without
providing a reason.18
Out of this mass of data, however, emerge narrative features
that recur with enough consistency to enable us to allocate
them to certain subcategories of vampire folklore. For the
sake of convenience, we shall use a slightly compressed
version of Perkowski’s outline analysis tool for arranging
the features of vampire folklore. However, this scheme was
designed to facilitate comparative analysis, and was not
intended for collapsing features from multiple narratives
within a particular category. Consequently, the links
between the various parameters (e.g. geographic location,
18 E.g. AIF No. 217: 168, 193, 315; AEIM No. 110-III-ii.
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name, activity pattern) will be obscured or conflated. This
methodological obstacle, however, does not interfere with
our preliminary goal, which is to provide an inventory of
the fundamental features of Bulgarian vampire folklore, from
which we should be able to demonstrate its ritual basis.
Etiology: How to become a vampire
Cats jumping
By any measure, the most common reason a dead person becomes
a vampire is that a cat jumped over the corpse before it was
buried.19 In the Smoljan region of the Rhodope mountains, for
example, as recently as 1987, a drakus (the local name for
the vampire, probably borrowed from nearby Greece) was said
to be caused by something jumping over a dead body.20 Though
the vampire disappears after forty days, or in some areas
after a year, he roams at night until the cock crows. Here,
the cause of the vampire is linked with a particular method
of prevention: to prevent someone from becoming a drakus, it
19 Vakarelski, Pogrebalni,164; Georgieva, Mitologija, 153; R. Popov, dissertation, 37; Miceva,
dissertation, 138; AIF No. 216: 65, 97, 137, 206, 286, ; AIF No. 217: 97, AEIM No. 313-III (Sakar-Xarmanlijskij 1996), R. Popov, coll.; AEIM No. 271-III (Dobriè & Provadija 1991), Magdalena Kuzmanova, coll.; AEIM No. 115-III (Kârdâ¾ali 1987), Valentina Vaseva, coll.; AEIM No. 116-III (Plovdiv 1987), Tanja Boneva, coll.; Marinov, ®iva starina, 41.
20 AEIM No. 110-III, No. 110-III-A (Smoljan 1987), Tanja Boneva, coll.
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is imperative to keep cats out of the house during the
wake.21
While the cat is the most frequently cited animal involved
in causing vampirization, other animals, especially dogs,
also produce this result,22 and it is sometimes believed that
the vampire then takes the form of the animal that jumped
over the corpse.23 Chickens flying over the body, and objects
handed over it,24 likewise yield a vampire. Finally, within
this pattern of some thing or animal interrupting the space
around the corpse, we also find that shadows (of people)
falling onto the corpse also portend vampirization.25
This last detail, when viewed alongside the notion that the
vampire takes the form of the animal that jumped over it, is
revealing: the vampire, as we shall see below, is often
21 Ibid. Similarly, AEIM No. 113-III (Blagoevgrad), where even a mouse can be the culprit;
No. 114-III (Kârd¾ali); AIF No. 284: 137; AIF No. 285: 166, 313; AIF No. 216: 233; Aleksandâr Martinov, “Narodnopisni materiali ot Graova,” SbNU XLIX (1958).
22 E.g. AIF No. 216: 63. 23 AEIM No. 110-III-ii; AEIM No. 111-III (Xaskovo 1987), Tanja Boneva, coll.; AEIM
No. 112-III (Pazard¾ik 1987), Tanja Boneva, coll.; AEIM No. 113-III; Georgieva, Mitologija,155. Interesting in this regard is the belief that when Turks are killed, they become wild boars [Bulgarian vâpâr], while Bulgarians become vampires [vampir]. AEIM 794-II; Miceva, dissertation, 116.
24 S.D. Bo¾ev, “Ot Demir-Xisarsko” (field report), SbNU IV (1891), 111; Jordan Zaxariev, “Kamenica” (field report), SbNU XL (1935), 260; AEIM No. 110-III-ii; AEIM No. 251-III (Love¹ko 1992), R. Popov, coll.; AIF No. 216: 239.
25 Vakarelski, Pogrebalni, 68, 164; Georgieva, Mitologija, 153; Ireèek, “Stari pâte¹estvija, 118.
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described as a shadow.26 Nowhere is the equation made that
the vampire takes the form of a shadow only when the cause
of vampirization is a shadow falling on the corpse, but
there nevertheless is a formula relating the thing that
crosses over the body and the shape the vampire can acquire.
This formula is far from absolute: there are many additional
shapes that the vampire assumes that have nothing to do with
the set of animals and objects that cross over the corpse.
If we are to view this group of events – cats, dogs,
chickens, shadows, and transactions (handshakes, exchanges)
entering the space around the body – as a single cause of
vampirization, then we would like to discover what these
have in common, from a structural perspective.
Improper life; improper burial
Disposing of the dead body in a proper manner is of great
significance in Bulgarian spiritual culture, as we shall
witness in more detail in the following chapter. Anything
that disturbs the natural sequence of rites is associated
with, at the very least, unpredictable consequences for both
the deceased and those who survive him. In one sense, we may
26 Miceva, dissertation, 111; R. Popov, dissertation, 39; AEIM No. 116-III; AEIM No. 251-III.
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view the taboo against an animal jumping over the corpse as
a special case of this general concern, a form of heightened
attention to the possibility of an interrupted burial
process.
A cat jumping over a dead body can affect anyone. Therefore,
it is the most general cause of vampirization, which takes
place regardless of the status of the person who died. Other
disturbances in the funeral process are more directly linked
to how the deceased lived, or how he died. The most
significant lapse is the failure of the priest to read the
mass.27 This failure is usually not accidental, but rather a
result of some transgression on the part of the dead that
disallows a proper funeral (suicide, lack of baptism28). A
rite similar to singing the funeral mass is pouring
[prelivane] a wine mixture over the dead; failure to
complete this libation is also a cause for vampirization.29
Both of these Christian rites have pre-Christian
27 Georgieva, Mitologija, 153; Mad¾arov, “‘Poganoto’ (Pogani dni) vâv vjarvanijata i bita na
strand¾anskite sela,” Bâlgarski Folklor 4 (1982): 92; R. Popov, dissertation, 37; AIF No. 206: 361; AEIM No. 111-III; AEIM No. 115-III; AEIM No. 116-III.
28 R. Popov, dissertation, 35; Vakarelski, Pogrebalni, 85; Miceva, dissertation, 137; Martinov, “Ot Graova”, SbNU XLIX (1958), 201; AEIM No. 110-III-i; AEIM 111-III; AEIM 313-III.
29 Miceva, dissertation,137.
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antecedents, and Georgieva points out the link between
vampirization and the incorrect execution of a Christianized
rite:
Parallel to lamenting and with the same function are reading the funeral service [opjavane] over the dead and rebaptizing [prekrâstvane] by the priest, which are secondary phenomena. The imposition of Christian rituals involves a change in conception, a new interpretation of pagan ritual, that is, the dead person becomes a vampire if he is not buried according to Christian ritual. Those who have been anathematized and excommunicated from the Church will become vampires.30
Generally speaking, proper rites cannot be performed if a
person (a) has not been initiated into the Church
(baptized),31 (b) has led an evil life,32 or (c) has died by
violence or, especially, by his own hand. Related to these
circumstances are beliefs about dying either too early or
too late: those who die by violence or by accident (e.g.
lightning strike, drowning) somehow have failed to live out
the time alloted to them by the fates.33 Similar beliefs were
30 Georgieva, Mitologija, 154. 31 This belief is found in Serbia as well. Cf. Slobodan Zeèeviæ, Mitska bièa srpskix predanja.
(Beograd: Vuk Karad¾iæ, 1981), 123. 32 The claim that vampires were bad or evil people when alive is widespread: AIF No. 216:
67, 358; AEIM 793-II; AEIM 110-III-i, 110-III-ii; AEIM No. 112-III. 33 R. Popov, dissertation, 35, 43; Vakarelski, Pogrebalni,164.
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common among the Romans, and are thus clearly of pre-
Christian origin.34 People who were very old when they died –
that is, who lived past the time allotted to them – are
similarly dangerous after they die, thought in some regions
of Bulgaria to become vampires.35 Thus, not only the manner
of life and death can disturb the sense of the natural
order; even the age of the individual when he or she dies is
critical.
Time of birth
From the preceding, it would appear that in the most
abstract terms, a vampire is the end result of serious
disturbances in the process of death and burial. The manner
of life prior to death is a factor to the extent that it has
an effect upon the performance of funeral rites, and thus
upon the ability of the soul to depart from the body in a
proper way. Clearly, the possibility of vampirization
represents a moral sanction, but it transcends an individual
34 “In pagan antiquity a distinction was drawn between an end in conformity with nature
and one unexpectedly provoked by extraneous intervention, between an early death and Fatum. It was believed that the hour of death was determined at the time of birth.” Rush, Death and Burial, 24.
35 R. Popov, dissertation, 39; Vakarelski, Pogrebalni, 68, 163; Georgieva, Mitologija, 154. There is Russian testimony of the belief that very old people become vampires: A.I. Jacimirskij, Bibliografièeskij obzor apokrifov v ju¾noslavjanskoj i russkoj pismennosti (spiski pamjatnikov), I: Apokrify vetxozavetnye. (Petrograd: Otd. Russkogo jazyka i slovesnosti, Rossijskaja Akademija Nauk, 1921), 130.
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decision to choose evil over good. More is at stake than
simply controlling behavior: vampirization is not, in other
words, merely a punishment for an evil life. One may become
a vampire merely having one’s corpse jumped over by a
domestic animal, and vampires so created are no different in
principle from those who reflect a lifestyle outside the
law, or a style of death outside the Church.
Another general means of becoming a vampire is to be born
(or conceived) at the wrong time of year. Two calendrical
points figure heavily in vampire lore, namely the so-called
Unclean Days [Mrâsnite dni], the period between Christmas
Eve and Epiphany [bogojavlenie],36 and Saturday. We will
discuss the significance of the Unclean Days in chapter
four. People conceived or born during this twelve-day period
are destined to become vampires, or, more commonly, a type
of demon with a different name but quite similar
characteristics, the karakond¾ol.37 Since no Christian rites
may be performed during this time, when demons and evil
spirits roam, anyone who has the misfortune to die during
36 It is believed in some places that during the twelve days between Christmas and
Epiphany, Jesus had not been baptized, and therefore evil spirits are especially strong. The Unclean Days are also known as “Pagan Days.” Mad¾arov, “Poganoto,” 93.
37 R. Popov, dissertation, 39; AIF No. 216: 62, 63, 65, 68; Georgieva, Mitologija, 154.
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the Unclean Days will be buried, but without rites, until
after Epiphany. They may, but do not automatically, become
vampires.38
People who are born on Saturday, meanwhile, may become
either vampires or a special type of person with the ability
to detect vampires, a sâbotnik.39 Thus, we see that vampires
arise not simply from mode of life or death, but also birth.
The “etiologies” discussed above represent the basic
categories of vampires. It is not clear from the folklore
whether vampires arising from these various causes differ
from each other in significant ways, but it would appear
that there is no consistent relationship between cause of
vampirization and the characteristics of the vampire so
engendered. In addition to these frequently cited methods of
becoming a vampire, a number of other causes whose
distribution is not as wide are also cited by ethnographers.
These include: repeated breast-feeding; dying with a large
38 D. Marinov, ®iva starina, 41; 39 Bo¾ev, “Ot Demir-Xisarsko,” 111; N.S. Der¾avin, “Bolgarskie kolonii v Rossii
(tavrièeskaja, xersoskaja i bessarabskaja gubernii),” SbNU XXIX.(1914), 177; AIF No. 216: 65; AIF No. 216: 206; Vampires are also “reincarnated” on the Saturdays before Easter: K Telbizov and M. Vekova-Telbizova., “Tradicionen bit i kultura na banatskite bâlgari,” SbNU LI (1963). In some places, vampires are only visible on Saturday: AIF No. 216: 67.
76
bleeding wound;40 being buried with clothing made during the
Wolf Days;41 dying with open eyes; being buried without being
washed (with basil and water).42
None of these additional causes lie outside a general
pattern whereby the vampire results from some transgression.
Either a ritual has not been carried out or not carried out
properly, or taboos surrounding certain periods have been
violated, or, in the most general case, the obligation to
watch over the body has not been met. Such causes as dying
with open eyes or dying with open wounds can be viewed as
signifying disruptions in the period of one’s life, or dying
in an unnatural fashion. (Openings in general provide entry
and exit points for spiritual substance; see chap. 3, p. 135
below.) While there is certainly a moral aspect to the
notion of the vampire, it extends beyond a concern with
lawful or decent behavior, to include obedience to an entire
40 R. Popov, dissertation, 39; Vakarelski, Pogrebalni, 163. 41 The Wolf Days [vâlèite dni], in the area of Bulgaria known as Trakija (Thrace),
correspond to the Unclean Days. Other taboos connected with this period are still observed: one may not utter the name of the wolf, but instead must use euphemisms. Otherwise, the utterer will be reincarnated after death; meat may not be eaten during this time. The wolf ’s name is used in blessing sick and weak children, and magical charms are made from a dead wolf. (R. Popov, dissertation, 54). Children who are born from a mother who ate meat during pregnancey that was killed by a wolf also become vampires (Georgieva, Mitologija,154).
42 Georgieva, Mitologija, 153.
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range of taboos and conformance to natural laws as well as
social ones. As a result of transgression of these rules,
the vampire is said to be “rejected by the earth.”43
The external appearance of the vampire
Like the list of causes, the list of external features of
the vampire is also long. Vampires range in appearance from
being invisible to being virtually indistinguishable from
humans. They also occupy categorical positions in between
(assuming the human form to be at one end of a continuum44):
shadows, animals, or animated objects with some human or
animal characteristics.
Invisible vampires
In contemporary ethnographic data, the vampire is most
frequently unseen, recognizable only by sounds (knocking,
tapping, shrieking, lamenting)45. Popov divides conceptions
of the vampire into the categories (1) unseen and (2) seen
43 Vakarelski, Pogrebalni, 166; AIF No. 241 (Xaskovski 1982); AEIM No. 110-III-ii; AEIM
No. 313-III. 44 Miceva, dissertation, 111ff. Miceva sees the increasing resemblance to a human as a
phased process, corresponding somewhat to ontogenetic maturation. 45 AIF No. 216: 65, 62 (tapping and shouting “like at a wedding”), 97, 203, 206; AEIM No.
110-III-i; AEIM No. 112-III; AEIM 793-II; Georgieva, Mitologija, 157; Miceva, dissertation, 102.
78
with (a) zoomorphic or (b) anthropomorphic features.46
Shadows, which fall closer to the invisible end of the
spectrum, may be ill-formed simulacra of humans or animals,
or else their form may not be specified.47 One curious image
of the vampire as formless is that of fire.48
Animals
We have already discussed the relationship between the
animal forms of the vampire and the domesticated animal that
jumped over the corpse. However, the vampire may take on the
attributes of other animals as well. Around Smoljan, a
vampire that takes the form of a goat is known as an
opaèina.49 Popov attests metamorphosis into a duck.50 While a
horse may jump over a grave and thus initiate vampirization,
only a karakond¾ol can take the form of a horse.51 Miceva,
discussing the classes of animals that these ‘shapeshifting’
demons can take, points out that, within a demon type
(vampire, karakond¾ol, talasâm), a demon can take the form
46 R. Popov, dissertation, 40ff. 47 Bo¾ev, “Ot Demir-Xisarsko,” 112. 48 AEIM No. 115-III; G. B. Angelov, “Ot Bitolsko,” SbNU XII (1895), 126. 49 AEIM No. 110-III-ii. 50 R. Popov, dissertation, 40. 51 Marinov, ®iva starina, 40.
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either of a domestic animal (dog, cat, horse, sheep, goat,
ox, buffalo) or (less often) of a wild animal (deer, wolf,
bear, snake). Bird transformations (primarily hens and
roosters, and ducks) are of limited distribution.52
Monsters (ill-formed)
One extremely frequent image of the vampire that curiously
seems never to have been adapted for vampire literature is
that of an amorphous sack of blood, moving about the
countryside.53 The sack is usually made of some sort of skin
(leather)54, or even resembles the head of an ox or a pig. It
is red and becomes “puffed up” [nadul; podpuxnal] after
drinking blood, and has no skeleton.55 Sometimes, it has a
long pointed (“awl-like”56) snout [mucuna], capable of
puncturing, through which it sucks blood. It may, on the
other hand, have no nose, merely some cartilege in the nasal
region.57 It is said to “roll”, since it has no limbs, though
52 Miceva, dissertation, 113. 53 Mad¾arov, “Poganoto,” 64; Georgieva, Mitologija, 155; Popov, dissertation, 40; Miceva,
dissertation, 111; Bo¾ev, “ot Demir-Xisarsko,”112; AEIM No. 110-III-i, ii; AEIM No. 111-III; AIF No. 285: 547.
54 The skin is sometimes likened to the Balkan bagpipe, the gajda (Georgieva, Mitologija, 156).
55 Mad¾arov, “Poganoto”, 92; Popov, dissertation, 40. 56 AEIM No. 111-III. 57 There is a contradiction, of course, between the notion of formlessness and the idea
that the ball can have a face (without a nose). In some cases, the informant is oblivious
80
it may take on human form if not destroyed by puncture
within forty days, when it becomes especially dangerous.58
When the vampire is destroyed, regardless of its original
form, it usually turns into a mass of bloody ‘jelly’
[pixtija].59
This monstrous form is the most horrific, yet according to
Miceva, within the system of vampire narratives, it
represents an intermediate (or, rather, embryonic,
considering the imagery) stage of development of the
vampire. Indeed, the discarded jelly is reminiscent both of
placenta and of coagulated blood. In fact, in some areas it
is believed that blood itself becomes animated, comes to
life, and behaves like a vampire.60
Human-like vampires
Vampires also take human form, almost invariably resembling
the person who died to become a vampire. A vampire who has
“taken on flesh,” that is, become humanoid, is sometimes
to the contradiction, while in others, we may suspect that the informant has a more complex image in mind than can be inferred from the description.
58 Popov, idem. 59 Vakarelski, Pogrebalni, 165; AIF No. 217: 168, 193; AEIM 251-III. 60 AIF No. 77; AEIM No. 115-III; AEIM No. 110-III-A. In Sakar-Karmanli, the blood of
a slaughtered animal, especially a pig, becomes a vampire that inhabits the location where the animal was sacrificed: AEIM 313-III. A cat jumping over spilled blood causes the
81
called a plâtenik.61 When the vampire does look like a human,
it is thought to have no bones, and sometimes no legs or
arms. It has red eyes.62 In the form of a person, the vampire
may appear to those who knew him or her. If a man, he may
visit his widow, sometimes in a dream.63 There are many tales
of a dead suitor returning from the grave to visit his
fiancée.
Regardless of whether the external appearance of the vampire
more closely resembles a human, a monster, or a shadow, it
is endowed with human intentions. It is linked to evil, to
the Devil, and always is tied to a human death. Animals born
on taboo days may be able to detect vampires, but this extra
sense is not considered human.
Vampire Activity Patterns
In those cases where the vampire is invisible, it is known
only by its traces: voices or sounds, for example, or the
blood to become a drakus in Smoljan. AEIM No. 110-III-ii.
61 Marinov, ®iva starina, 42. “Плътеник се представа като човек, но само душата на тоя човек, която имала същия образ на човек; тоя образ (облик) можал да види само събботник или глог.”
62 Georgieva, Mitologija, 156; Popov, dissertation,40; AIF No. 284: 137; AIF No. 216: 292. The vampire also has long claws and rough, dirty flesh. He is described as extremely “ugly” [грозен], but lives in the village among people.
63 AEIM No. 116-III.
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physical evidence of its activities. Again, the list is
long: vampires, in various forms, engage in all sorts of
activities in the human world. While the details of vampiric
behavior are numerous, by theme the narratives nevertheless
tend to fall into a limited number of categories.
Blood drinking
Blood drinking is an activity that more than any other is
associated with vampires,64 whether literary or folkloric.
Blood drinking is not, however, an obligatory feature of
vampire reports. It is clear that this behavior is thought
to satisfy hunger, or to provide the animated corpse with
the “life force” necessary to exist and move about. In the
case of both the literary and folkloric vampire, blood
drinking is a form of energy drain. In the agrarian world,
livestock are more often affected by it than people are.65
This fact may be explained in terms having to do with
animals dying or becoming weak from unexplained causes
(animals not being able to complain or describe symptoms),
64 The Bulgarian word кървопиец, literally ‘blood-sucker’, means both an extortionist and
a vampire. Another word glossed as ‘blood-sucker’ is изедник, literally one who eats (everything) up, someone who is all-consuming.
65 References to blood drinking are ubiquitous. Popov, dissertation,40; Georgieva, Mitologija, 157; Marinov, ®iva starina, 38; Miceva, dissertation,119; Vakarelski, Pogrebalni, 167; Bo¾ev, “Ot Demir-Xisarsko,” 111; Mad¾ârov, “Poganoto,” 92; AIF No. 216: 206, etc.
83
but as we shall see, it is probably also linked to the
notion of animal sacrifice.
“Pressing” and strangling
Vampires attack people in a different way from animals.
While there are reports of vampires drinking human blood,66
more often they attack victims who are sleeping, by pressing
them [natiskat, pritiskane].67 This attack may be fatal, but
more often it corresponds to the feeling of having been
squeezed or pressed during sleep. The vampire, in
materialist terms, is responsible for nightmares, anxiety
attacks, and perhaps even cardiovascular events while people
sleep.68
Actually, in comparison with his Western European
counterpart, the Slavic vampire is less aggressive towards
humans. Whereas the literary vampire is in fact a
“character,” having a personality, usually complex, evil
66 Mad¾arov, “Poganoto,” 92; Der¾avin, “Bolgarskie kolonii,” SbNU XXIX (1914), 176;
AIF No. 216: 167; AIF No. 217: 168; AEIM No. 111-III. There are occasional reports that a vampire doesn’t drink blood: AIF No. 217: 97. According to Miceva’s analysis, drinking of human blood corresponds to an advanced stage of development of the vampire. (dissertation, 119).
67 Georgieva, Mitologija, 157; Marinov, ®iva starina, 42; Miceva, dissertation, 117; AIF No. 217: 117; 358; AEIM No. 115-III; AEIM 313-III; AEIM 251-III.
68 Perkowski devotes a good deal of attention to a demon known among the West Slavic Kashubs as the mora¸which attacks sleepers. Many cultures, in fact, link nocturnal episodes to demons. See The Darkling, chap. 4.
84
motives and specific features, the Bulgarian vampire’s
presence in the human world is not so definite or
immediately obvious. Consequently, attacks upon humans will
tend to take the form of less describable encounters.
Destruction of objects
In contemporary folklore, the vampire is most often held
responsible for mischief rather than crime. Vampires are
often said to “frighten people,”69 and their actions are
frequently no more serious than making noises (especially in
the roof70), knocking things off shelves,71 turning jars
upside down,72 or painting on walls. It may be that this
decrease in aggressiveness corresponds to a weakening of the
influence of vampires in general. Several informants, even
from the turn of the century, claimed that “vampires are
harmless”73 or “they don’t come around anymore.”74 Tales are
69 AEIM No. 110-III-A. 70 AIF No. 216: 68, 203, 206. The frequent references in the folklore to vampires knocking
in the attic or roof (tavan) may have ritual antecedents. Joseph Henninger points out that “Flat roofs and thresholds can also be preferred locations for sacrifice” (The Encyclopedia of Religion, q.v. “Sacrifice”), while Marcel Detienne observes that “[Dionysus] attacks the carrying structures and destroys roofs.” (Marcel Detienne, Dionysos à ciel ouvert (Paris: 1986), 81). Cited in Evgenij K. Teodorov, Drevnotrakijsko nasledstvo v bâlgarskija folklor (Sofia: Izdatelstvo nauka i izkustvo, 1972), ch. 3.
71 AIF No. 259; AIF No. 285-313; AEIM 251-III. 72 Georgieva, Mitologija, 157; AIF No. 216: 63; 67. 73 Der¾avin, “Bolgarskie kolonii,” 176. 74 The basic reason vampires have ceased to haunt Bulgarian villages, apparently, is because
85
frequently attributed to “old people,”75 as though the
younger generation could not vouch for their existence.
One variable affecting the scale of aggressiveness, then, is
the nature of the transgression that leads to vampirization:
people who were evil in life are more hostile vampires,
while people who were essentially good, but became vampires
through accidental circumstances (e.g. a cat jumping over
the corpse), tend to be less hostile towards the human
world, and are on occasion even beneficent.76 For example,
vampires can chop wood for their widows in winter, or do
other types of (male) work.77 A second parameter, however,
seems to be the decline in the significance of the vampire,
or of folkloric narrative in general, in modern life. As
fewer “eye-witnesses” can attest to real vampire events,
details about vampires tend to disappear from the
narratives, and these demons become less menacing in
general.
the availability of electric lights gives them no place to hide: AEIM No. 110-III-i;ii; A; No. 112-III.
75 AEIM No. 112-III; No. 110-III-A. 76 AIF No. 216: 67. 77 AIF No. 216: 145, 66; No. 217: 358.
86
The folkloric vampire, then, seems to have a less definite
set of attributes, or certainly a less singular purpose,
than the literary counterpart that is based upon Dracula.
His appearance and behavior are reminiscent of the human,
but the vampire is ultimately demonic, and his existence is
episodic: unlike a literary character, he has no identity
(vampires rarely have names) and only comes into brief
existence upon discovery of his actions or traces, and
either disappears or is destroyed fairly soon thereafter.
The vampire is anything but immortal: he is a flash of post-
fleshly existence, an aberration caused by some ritual
impropriety or the transgression of some taboo. He causes
mischief or brings about sickness and death, but he exists
to be eliminated, and this is easily accomplished. There do
not seem to be many stories where the first attempt to
eliminate a vampire fails.78 We shall turn now to the methods
for eliminating and avoiding vampires.
Apotropaics and Methods of Destruction
Vampires are undesirable beings, whether hostile or not,
since they represent an undesirable situation: the
78 In AEIM No. 313-III, however, the vampire is buried three times; the first two times, the
“earth rejects him.” It is not until a dog is buried in the grave first that the vampire is not
87
interruption of the natural process of death and decay.
Since vampires come into being due to some transgression,
intentional or otherwise, it is critical that precautions be
taken to block vampires from producing their effects. The
most efficient mechanism, naturally, is to prevent the cause
of vampirization in the first place. Ordinarily, this means
making sure that all ritual actions surrounding death and
burial are properly carried out. We shall discuss these
procedures in detail in the next chapter. If a vampire is
thought to exist, however, then steps must be taken to
prevent it from leaving its home (usually, the grave79), from
entering a house, or from attacking animals or humans. In
these cases, the precautions taken serve to prevent an
actual encounter with the vampire, and no further actions
are required. Unlike the literary narratives about the
vampire, in the folklore there is no dramatic tension
whereby the vampire cannot be stopped although appropriate
ritual measures are taken. Informants recall whatever
traditional techniques of blocking the vampire’s incursion
they are familiar with, and leave it at that. If the
rejected by the earth.
79 Demons related to the vampire, such as the talasâm, have different habitats, such as watermills, abandoned buildings, or in general locations that people have abandoned, if
88
prescribed actions are performed properly, they have the
intended result. Chance, will, or even supernatural power do
not contradict the ritual purpose.80 We must thus infer that
entertainment is not the primary purpose of vampire
folklore. Rather, vampire narratives encode a good deal of
traditional ritual behavior, whose connection to a belief
system in which the corresponding gestures might once have
been more easily interpreted has been lost.
Apotropaics
Apotropaics are gestures, speech acts or objects that are
used in an attempt to avoid or turn away undesirable demons
or consequences. The Greek word apotropaios is glossed in
English as “a turning away, esp. of the gods that avert
ill.”81 Thus, an apotropaic in the classical sense would be
something of an invocation, an address or offering to the
gods that help to avoid catastrophe. It is a religious act,
something like prayer, designed to appease the forces that
are capable of preventing evil.
only temporarily. The vampire proper, however, occupies a grave during the day.
80 Compare the figure of Dracula in Stoker’s novel, who is able to subvert attempts to eliminate him by mesmerization and other displays of mental craftiness. Bulgarian vampires aren’t usually so clever; in fact, an oft-cited feature is their stupidity. See chapter seven, below, fn. 180.
81 Liddell and Scott, A Lexicon (abridged), q.v. “¢potrÒpaioj”.
89
In the case of vampire lore, preventive actions are taken
that may have another divinity in mind (for example,
Christ82), but equally common are acts specifically directed
toward physically or symbolically blocking the vampire as a
creature, by setting up some sort of impassable boundary.
The actions in this second category are not always
distinguishable from methods of destroying a vampire, or at
any rate, they rely upon the same set of objects and
symbols. For example, poking the grave of a suspected
vampire with a stick or pouring hot water on it83 are two
methods of preventing the vampire’s egress from the grave,
but the intention to destroy [= kill] the buried corpse is
implicit. Pouring hot water, however, is highly reminiscent
of ancient practices of libation, and thus may constitute
more of an offering than a method of destruction.84
82 The use of holy water, crosses or icons to repel vampires is clearly an invocation of
Christ’s power. 83 E.g., AIF No. 216: 193. 84 Blood, wine, water or some mix thereof was often poured on graves in offering to the
dead. Rush, Death and Burial, 116. Vakarelski (Pogrebalni, 166) observes the practice of “scalding” the exhumed corpse with boiling water and olive oil. The presence of olive oil marks this as a libation rather than a means of inflicting injury, although the original purpose has been supplanted by a folk etiology. Popov in one place reports that if someone pours wine or olive oil on a body or a grave, the soul will take on flesh and be reincarnated. (dissertation, 38), while in another (p. 40), he claims that boiling wine or water is used to destroy a vampire, in agreement with Vakarelski.
90
Georgieva considers there to be four main measures that are
most often taken against vampires. The use of fire, garlic,
thorns, and iron85 is generally effective, although the
precise methods differ. These are used immediately, she
adds, when taboos are broken. Fire is generally applied to
the corpse, or to the grave itself, in the form of
inflammable materials.86 Thorn bushes, in fact, may be set
around the grave and then ignited.87 Garlic may be hung from
doors or other architectural appurtenances, or fashioned
into a wreath or necklace. In the case of a wreath, it may
be mixed with hawthorn.88 Hawthorn, in Bulgarian lore, is
also useful against the plague.89 Iron, finally, often takes
the form of a spike or nail,90 with which the corpse is
transfixed, or else just an object put in the coffin or
grave.91 In the Verenica valley, when a vampire was dug up,
his eyes were open and red. Iron was placed on his eye and
85 Georgieva, Mitologija, 154. 86 The Serbs burn hemp, or scatter sulfur or gunpowder near the grave. (Vakarelski,
Pogrebalni, 168.) 87 AIF No. 269. 88 AIF No. 216: 193, 316. 89 R. Popov, dissertation, 45. 90 Mad¾arov, “Poganoto,” 92. A pitchfork is sometimes specified, which is made of iron.
AIF No. 216: 358. 91 “Salting iron” (iron used for pounding salt) is thrown behind a vampire if it enters a
house (Vakarelski, Pogrebalni, 166).
91
then he was reburied.92 Iron is also the material from which
a cauldron [kazan] is made. Cauldrons are involved in
various ways with the destruction of the vampire. In the
village of Korten, for example, a vampire was boiled in a
cauldron full of sheep’s blood.93
Hawthorn [glog] is a plant used widely in European magic and
folk medicine, and against the vampire, its use is quite
old. Konstantin Ireèek writes that in the villages near
Kotel, on New Year’s eve they put thorns in the stoves so
that vampires cannot enter the houses.94 Hawthorn may also be
stuck in keyholes, and little crosses may be made of
hawthorn twigs and kept under a pillow to protect the
sleeper from vampires.95 The use of thorns may be included in
actions intended to destroy a vampire, as well. In 1872, a
vampire was dug up by a gang of masons and riddled with
bullets, after which the gang took the corpse out of the
grave and covered it with thorns.96
92 AIF No. 284: 137. 93 Ibid. 94 Ireèek, “Stari pâte¹estvija,” bk. II (1880), 117. Cited in Vakarelski, Pogrebalni¸162. 95 AEIM 251-III. 96 Vakarelsi, idem.
92
Aside from the apotropaic objects mentioned by Georgieva,
vampires, being afraid of daylight, are also afraid of sun
symbols. (It is possible that the fear of daylight
attributed to the vampire derives from the supposed aversion
to sun symbols rather than the other way around.)
Sunflowers, which grow plentifully in Bulgaria, are hung on
gates to prevent vampires from entering.97 The crucifix
itself is a solar symbol, and Popov mentions that the use of
fire and sieves [sito] is also linked to solar cult.
Vampires are in general afraid of sharp blades or pointed
objects, such as scythes and axes, as well as thorns. As we
shall discuss in chapter seven, the reasoning provided by
informants, namely that these objects can puncture or cut
the skin and allow the vampire’s blood to drain, obscures
the reason that blades are often included in coffins. More
likely, these implements functioned as ritual objects or
grave equipment at a much earlier time.
Ways to kill vampires
Occasionally, it is necessary to kill a vampire. Such an
action may involve a direct attack upon an exhumed corpse,
97 R. Popov, dissertation, 39; Vakarelski, Pogrebalni, 166.
93
or it may be more indirect, working on the vampire’s locus
operandi. The actions necessary to destroy a vampire are in
general taken by a group within the village, or by
“professionals” known as vampird¾ii. The reasons
necessitating collective, rather than individual, action
against the vampire constitute a major theme of the present
work, but we shall point out here that the vampire’s very
existence portends a threat that is greater than merely to
the individual or household. For that reason, it is in the
best interests of the group, whatever its size and
constitution, to join together to eliminate the vampire.
Professionals are called upon, in some circumstances, to
serve as intermediaries, in much the same way that priests
are called upon to intercede with the divinities, or to
perform certain rituals. They insulate the individual from
dangerous contact with supernatural forces. Their actions,
like collective action, also absolve the individual from any
sinfulness that might result from destroying a corpse, since
they validate the necessity for such aggression.
The most frequently used methods to destroy a vampire
involve incineration, transfixing the body, drowning,
94
driving (or luring) to another location, and saying the mass
over the grave (which effectively reverses the consequences
of improper burial rites).98 Severing the head is also
common.99 In Samokov, according to Georgieva, when a vampire
goes to sleep, the villagers “reverse” his head, so that the
soul (presumed to have departed) will not know how to re-
enter the body, and this kills the vampire.100 According to a
report from Smoljan, in the case of a drakus that had been
afoot for three years, the priest read the funeral mass over
the head of the suspected vampire: the villagers dug up the
entire corpse, severed the head, and brought it to the
church.101
Piercing the body with a stake of some sort is quite common,
and this technique is called upon in vampire literature as
well. One informant in the Rhodope Mountains, a certain
Tsvetana Dimitrova, at the time ninety years old, told of
the time when it was permitted to go to the graveyard to
exhume vampires. She went to the graveyard, saw a hole in a
98 Georgieva, Mitologija, 158. 99 E.g. AIF No. 233. 100 Ibid. 101 AEIM No. 110-III-ii.
95
grave (a certain sign that the body beneath is a vampire),
and dug up the corpse. The dead woman was pure red. Tsvetana
took red-hot skewers and punctured the corpse, and it
disappeared.102 In the Strandja, after discovering a vampire,
the villagers took a long iron spike [¹ila] and pierced the
grave. Eventually, they dug it up and saw that it was full
of blood (after which, naturally, the vampire caused no more
harm).103 Transfixing or piercing the body with knives,
stakes, or thorns is extremely popular,104 as is hobbling the
corpse by cutting its limbs (especially the heels).105
Taking the vampire to a point out of town, or getting it to
jump or fall into a river and drown (vampires are
notoriously afraid of water106), is accomplished by sly
means. For example, the vampire will follow into the water a
sock full of earth from his grave.107 Vampires will also
follow someone taking warm bread (i.e. something of a
102 AEIM No. 313-III. 103 Mad¾arov, “Poganoto,” 92. 104 E.g. AEIM No. 113-III. 105 AIF No. 217-II: 97; No. 216: 193, 206. 106 Vampires are so afraid of water that they can cross a river only if carried. They will
stupidly try to fetch things thrown into water, such as a fur cap or a kerchief. (Georgieva, Mitologija, 159). According to some reports, their voices can cross water, however, and do mischief. Bo¾ev, “Ot Demir-Xisarsko,” 111; AEIM No. 112-III.
107 AEIM No. 251-III.
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sacrificial offering) to a site out of town: having invited
a vampire to a wedding as a guest, the people put warm
bread108 in a red bag, which they then take to the border.
The vampire, not being very bright, chooses to stay there,
outside of town, with the bread. Sometimes the bread is
taken to the forest, with the same result. Vampires can also
be charmed by drums and organs, a technique that is used by
vampird¾ii in Bitola, Macedonia.109
Finally, as we have mentioned, the vampire is afraid of
Christian symbols and Christian rites. One curious report
concerns a vampire who appeared to his widow in a dream and
first asked her to become his wife, then begged her to say
prayers over him so that his soul could rest.110 Whereas in
vampire literature Christian religious paraphernalia seem to
be used almost as weapons, in Bulgarian folklore the idea is
much more clearly directed at resolving the vampire’s
problem, so that the body can decay and the soul can move
on.
108 Bread is also used in magical rites against the vampire: spells [bajane] accompany the
rubbing of honey and bread across the body and face of a corpse in the shape of a cross (the torso, chin, and two sides of the face) (AIF No. 216: 286).
109 Angelov, “Ot Bitolsko,” 127. 110 AEIM No. 116-III.
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Summary
Our intention in the foregoing has been to expand upon the
notions put forth in the first chapter and to provide a
significant amount of detail from the enormous corpus of
Bulgarian vampire folklore. This catalogue should give a
sense both of the variety of notions about the vampire and
of the patterns into which those conceptions tend to fall. A
complete database of the collected lore about the vampire
and other demons in the Balkans, though desirable, is not
necessary for our purpose, which is to demonstrate
conclusively that there is a ritual basis to much vampire
folklore. Some of the elements we have encountered here are
rare or regional, and we did not examine many others that
fit even less neatly into clear-cut categories. Interpreting
many of these seemingly arcane elements, even those that
occur with a high degree of frequency, is difficult in the
absence of an overarching idea of the “red thread” that runs
through them. Before looking in more detail at some related
customs, such as burial rituals, it has been necessary first
to distinguish between the often confused literary and
folkloric traditions, and second, to suggest some of the
contours of Bulgarian vampire folklore from the last
98
century. Although we shall decline at this point from
proposing a definition of the folkloric vampire (since it
should be clear that such a task is impossible without
providing numerous exceptions and qualifications), we now
have a significant context for discussing the field of
vampire lore in terms of a system that reflects a ritual
origin.
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THE VAMPIRE: GENERAL FEATURES ..............................................................51
Dracula, Orientalism and the Popular Vampire ....................................................52
The problem of defining the vampire ....................................................................59
The Bulgarian folkloric data .....................................................................................66
Etiology: How to become a vampire...................................................................................... 68
The external appearance of the vampire................................................................................ 77
Vampire Activity Patterns .......................................................................................... 81
Apotropaics and Methods of Destruction ..................................................................... 86
Apotropaics................................................................................................................... 88
Ways to kill vampires .................................................................................................. 92
Summary ......................................................................................................................97