Medieval 'Vampires'
BLOOD
Blood has been a symbol of life since long ago in the ancient times. If you lose too much blood you lose breath and consciousness, and eventually, you would die. If a person or a animal is dead and is cut open, blood does not flow. Only alive people/animals have blood that flows.
It seems appropriate, then, that this creature who is an antithesis of both death and life should get more strength from feeding from humans' blood.. Drinking blood is a Vampires life and the single thing that makes it identifiable all around the world, regardless of the culture in which you were raised or the language you speak.
As the nineteenth century was heading to an end and the twentieth century got closer, reason began to enter vampire literature. Scientific reasoning was applied in an attempt to justify why Vampires love to drink blood and why they need it so much. In many literary instances it was linked to anemia, and blood loss. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Van Helsing prescribed a blood transfusion for Lucy, in an attempt to divest her of the vampire blood in her body.
FANGS
All vampires need blood to survive. Fangs, it is thought in the animal kingdom, to make it easier for mammals to tear open the flesh of their prey.For Vampires, it would make feeding far easier. But not all folkloric or even fictional vampires are fanged. Historic things of vampires Hardly mention fangs, and even Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula in 1931 was done sans fang.
The movie industry was able to do more with special effects, a new vampiric ability was created. In movies today it is common to seeVampires with retractable canine fangs. This allows him/her to communicate with humans more easily; with the fangs retracted, he is more easily passed as human. In the Canadian television series Forever Knight, the main Vampire character, Nick, has fangs that only show when his dark, vampiric nature is unleashed.
FINGERNAILS
In the European and Slavic history, fingernails were thought to be one of the Vampiric signs that a corpse was a vampire. Vampires were thought to lose their old nails and grow new ones on the way to their entry to the Vampiric world. An dead body that lacked nails or had grown new ones was immediately staked, and very often burned or reburied with garlic to seal the corpse with in the ground.
In modern literature, many Vampire novels have mentioned fingernails mainly. Two of the most common of these are Dracula and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. In Dracula, Jonathan Harker notices that Dracula's "nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point." When Dracula later opened a wound on his chest for Mina to drink his blood, he used his sharp, pointed nails. In Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, Louis and Lestat both mention the glassy appearance of their fingernails, so different from humans’.
HAIR
The histories of European and Slavic Vampire hunts also show hair growth as a sign of vampirism, this was not usually noticed unless the corpse showed other vampiric signs like the fingernails, fangs. or so on. Modern movies do not spersifically mention the hair. One noticable exception is Interview With A Vampire. The Vampire child Claudia rips all her hair out when she was so angry, she found out that it grows back in seconds.
REPRODUCTION
The term ‘Dhampir’ in modern stories in particular a place refers to the offspring of a Vampire and a human mate, traditionally a male Vampire mating with a human female. This offspring was usually male. The ‘Dhampir’ was thought to have special qualities. He/she could sense where Vampires hid themselves from the world, and therefore he had the ability to be a super Vampire hunter. These qualities would be classed to his off spring and apparently was thought to have lasted a very long time.
As well, the terms incubus and succubus refer to Vampires who perform a sexual attack upon their victims, and it was likely these types of Vampires who produced offspring. However, references to exactly how this was accomplished is very little.
SENSES
In modern stories, a Vampire's sense of vision is thought to have good reflexes. This is mainly due to the fact that they are a nocturnal creature, and therefore must be able to adapt to their environment. It also explains why sunlight is ‘thought to be so painful to their eyes’. Their eyesight has often been attributed to a residue from their ability to change into bats.
Many treatments of the topic also show that hearing can be heightened in a Vampires body. This allows them to hear alive humans (mortals) from a great distance (much further than human ears could pick up) and also if another Vampire comes near. This is evident in the Canadian television program Forever Knight; Nick can hear over great distances, and this allows him to capture the criminals he chases. Their very good sense of hearing may also be attributed to their nocturnal nature; as night hunters, the ability to hunt quietly and hear well would be very useful.
SHAPE-CHANGING
Although there was a small link between shape-changing to Vampires for hundreds of years, Dracula was the true connection to it. In the novel, Stoker described Dracula as able to change into a rat, a bat, or even into mist.
Vampire bats became the most common of these shapes by far, a Vampire could command at will. This could be because Vampire bats are closely related to the Vampire itself by their nature. They are nocturnal (sleep in the day and go out at night), and feed off the blood of a wide variety of mammals and other vertebrates. They have very sharp teeth which they use to pierce the skin of the prey they choose, and then they lap up the blood as it flows out of the preys body. It has also been known as an emerging problem; it is a skillful carrier of rabies (not unlike the definition of Nosferatu, which means plague-carrier).
The ability to transform at will into mist has brought many advantages to the vampire, allowing him or her to escape vampire hunters and other dangers quickly. Mist (in some cases) has allowed the vampire to move great distances at once.
SKIN
Historically, Vampire skin was dark instead of the light skin that we see today in movies. Paul Barber, author of "Vampires, Burial and Death", thinks that this is because Vampires were actually corpses decomposing in their graves. Skin naturally turns darker and sheds off the bone while the body decomposes. In medieval times, they used to think it was Vampires “growing new skin”
Today, Vampire skin is very white and smooth. This is due to the fact that these creatures are nocturnal. Their skin therefore gets bleached over time. Also, the Vampire is an undead creature, and unless he has fed on blood soon before, there is very little colour in the Vampires skin.
In The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice describes the Vampire skin as nearly transparent when the Vampire is starved for blood. After feeding, they have a healthier, more human skin tone, but this is a temporary change (doesn’t last forever, only a short period of time). Lestat mentions on several occasions having to powder his skin to pass for a human.
STENGTH
The Vampire came by its supernatural strength through modern film and books. Vampires, historically, were not known for their great strength; they mainly attacked on "weaker" victims, such as children or the elderly. They never attacked a group of people for fear of being conquered by them. However, the modern views of vampires have allowed them a certain arrogance, knowing that no mortal could overpower them. Many of the personalities that we have come to so love in the Vampires today are a result of this arrogance, knowing that they are truly immortal but for a few weaknesses.