Introduction to Vampires

Keywords: vampire essay

A vampire is a mythological or folkloric creature that is famous in their blood sucking ability in order to prolong their life and their super strength. The term vampires was not popularized until 18th century in Western Europe because of superstitious beliefs and continuously popularized in our present time because of some famous movies and books that were related to vampires attracted us. We were fascinated by their special traits, habit, characteristics and ability. But those were just fictional characters and created by the artistic imagination of the authors or the movie makers about vampires. People of today, when hear the word “vampire”, the first thing they come in their mind is Edward Cullen (Twilight 2008 the vampire romance series) and any movies that has a vampire appearances or those vampires that they read in a fictional book particularly “The Twilight Saga” by Stephanie Meyer. They don’t have any ideas what is a real human vampire. But do you have any idea what are the characteristics of a real vampire? Do you want to know the common misconceptions about them? And why these misconception spread out all over the world?

History of the word vampire:

The word vampire was borrowed from the French word “vampir” in the early 18th century. But according to some sources it came from Slavic language “vampir”, Bulgarian “vapir” Croatian “upir/upirina, Czech and Slovac “upir”, Russian “upyr'”, Belarusian “upir” and Ukaranian “upir”, many of these languages have also borrowed from the word”vampir/wampir” in the western country. The word “upir” as a term of vampire, was first founded in year 1047 AD into a letter to a Novgorodian prince referring to him as “Upir Lichyj” which means the wicked vampire. The word “upir” is still a controversial based on its real meaning, in some languages upir means “to blow”. “to drink” “bat” and “to fly”. It is still hard to tell how the word vampire came from and what it is real origin, if it was discovered, invented or flourished by just a written word, the exact etymology from where the word vampire is still a mystery and unclear. (http://vampires.monstrous.com/etymology_vampire/htm)

The first vampire word appears in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1734 and it came from the old Russian word “upir”.

A brief description about vampire myths

Vampires are evil creatures with very pale skin and wear capes are believed to live for more than a hundred of years. They commonly live in coffins, but they also live in graves or any dark places and sleep upside down. They are nocturnal, meaning that they are active at night and asleep by day. Vampires are afraid of sunlight or any ultraviolet lights and cannot touch religious artifacts, they burned into ashes when they were expose to sunlight or sprinkled by holy water. Garlics, roses, rosary, silver and an aloe vera hung backwards are the famous repellent to them. They don’t have any reflection when they look in a mirror and don’t cast shadows because they were believe that they have no souls. They have super strengths and they have a special ability to transform into any kinds of animal, particularly into a bat. Most of all, they have long sharp fangs that they use to bite the neck of their victims easily and suck their blood and then the victim instantly turns into a vampire himself. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vampires)

Misconceptions about vampires

Vampires are evil and know what they are doing is an evil thing. They are seductive, physically strong, and they don’t need any jobs. They are immortal or undead and the only way to kill them are by exposing them on sunlight, hit their heart with a stake, break their neck or beheaded them, burn them with fire and more vampire-fictional killing method. (http://hubpages.com/hub/howtokillavampire/) They were repelled by roses, garlics, roses and silvers. They drink human blood to nourish them and give them strength; otherwise, if they don’t suck blood, they die. They can’t expose themselves on sunlight or any ultraviolet lights or else, they might get burned or explode violently. They live and sleep in a coffin upside down, wear black cape and have long and very sharp fangs that grows longer and longer when they smell blood, and when their victim was bitten, it instantly became vampire themselves. They had a very pale skin, and when they look in a mirror, they don’t have any reflection because it is believed that they have no souls and they don’t cast shadow either. They can’t go into church and touch religious artifacts or else they get burned. They can fly and they have an ability transform into any kinds of animals particularly into a bat. (http://vampireamongus.com/vampchars.html)

The real human vampire

Human vampires exist, but they are not like those on what we watch on TV’s or what we read on books or novels. They were called vampires because they have some characteristics like a vampire. Human vampires have strong desire on blood. The people you get close to tend become tired, weary and upset a lot when with you. They begin to find you interesting at first, but soon they began to avoid you. Even if you are with others, you feel alone. The sunlight or bright lights tend to hurt your eyes easily and you prefer to work at night because you feel more comfortable at night. You have strong interest about vampires, you seldom get sick and when you have a wound, they heal easily and swiftly. You have the ability to read the auras of the others and you seem look younger even if you are more than 20 years of age. Animals get tends to you and you have strong passion about sex. You only have one or two friends or companion who really understands you and whom you get along with. They suffer from allergies and have very sensitive senses.Most of all, they are humans with some extraordinary traits or habits.

The truth about vampires:

The statement of Lady Rose Noire(2008):

Vampires are just like everyone else, they have generally tend to have more intense and charismatic personalities. Vampires need to earn a living, which mean they need a job to buy some foods and other necessary things that we need in order to live. Vampires are physically mortal and have immortal souls. They can die from anything, bullets AIDS or even accidents, however, the sunlight can’t kill them, it is just fictional way to slay them. Roses, garlic and others repellents on vampires have no effect on them, the only way they might repelled by rose is because the thorns might prick them. They drink blood, but they have a regular diet to, and drinks water as well. Vampires can go out in sunlight and the reason they exposed much on sunlight is because their eyes might irritate them, cause headache and they take care of themselves to prevent heatstroke. They don’t ware capes at all, they wear just like the normal people, they don’t have any fangs, unless it is surgically implanted and vampire might be pale if he/she avoid sunlight if he/she is sensitive to it. (http://vampireamongus.com/vampchars.html)

Not all vampires are evil and they don’t know if there doings is an evil thing or not, “…there is no being on earth who can state with any validation what is good and what is evil. There are a great many evil humans out there too, anyway. Furthermore, not all vampires even know they are vampires…let alone contemplating whether their vampirism makes them good or bad. “(Lady Rose Noire, 2008)

The statement of Robias (2008)

Vampires are sensitive to sunlight, especially their eyes. So they were eye glasses to prevent their eyes from soaring or irritation. They get burned, but only a sun burn. Vampires aren’t afraid of garlics, and they can eat garlics. They were repelled if they were allergic to it or sometimes they can’t take too long the smell of the garlic. The only way they might repelled by roses in when the thorns prick them. Vampires can go to church, touch religious artifacts and don’t get burned when sprinkled by holy water. This myth came from religious people that believed that vampires are evil and don’t have any souls. Vampires are undead. Vampires are not dead; they are alive and have pulse. These rumours spread out because vampires in the early times are cadaver that awakens after their burial. Vampires don’t have any long sharp fangs, unless it was surgically implanted or they wear fake fangs. In early times, it is believed that their fangs grow longer and longer when they smell blood and vampires need these fangs to bite easily their victim. Vampires don’t have super strengths. Most vampires that appear in the movie, particularly Edward Cullen in the Twilight Saga has super-human strength. This isn’t true, it is a fiction. Vampires can’t transform into a bat or any kinds of animals, even human living vampires, they can’t transform into anything they want. This is another myth among vampires. Vampires don’t sleep in a coffin. They were once thought that they rise from their resting place when the sun goes down and goes back to their tomb before the sun rise, they do this to prevent light from entering their resting place. (http://www.vampireforum.net/vampire-general-discussion-vampire-chat/3329-vampire-misconceptions.html)

Why these misconception spread out?

Literatures

The poem Vampire (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, is where the first vampire appeared. The influential fictional book of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1987), the famous Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight (2005) became the most influential cause of misconceptions of vampires. These also include the first scientific novel of Richard Matheson’s 1954 “I Am Legend”. (http://www.ign.com/blogs/DarkBlood999/2010/10/14/correcting-a-misconception-the-vampire-diaries/)

Movies

Mostly, vampire movies originated from books or novels about vampires and still the misconception about vampires broadcast it in that movie. Like “I am Legend” (2007), Twilight (2008) “The Vampire Chronicles: Interview with the vampire” (1997) they added some fictional features of vampires which is totally a myth. (http://www.ign.com/blogs/DarkBlood999/2010/10/14/correcting-a-misconception-the-vampire-diaries/)

Conclusion

Vampires in our era are only based on a myth created by artistic imagination of some people. They are just like any other human beings in this world, but they have extraordinary habits like strong passion on bloods. No one can judge them if they are evil or not. “…there is no being on earth who can state with any validation what is good and what is evil…” (Lady Rose Noire, 2008). The reason why these misconception spread out is because of those movies and novels about vampires defining them as a super natural being that live for more than a hundred of years and have super extraordinary power is absolutely ridiculous. They are humans; they have mortal bodies and have immortal souls.