Were did the idea of vampires originate?

Question

I'm thinking scotland but I'm not that sure.

Answer 1

In eastern europe romania transalvania the folk legend has been around for a very long time.Or the common folk legend has survived there the longest. People who died were staked to the earth so that they would stay there. This practice is very old and is in other ancient cultures as well. The modern idea of vampires are far differant then the original idea. Vampires were spirits of the dead or ghosts they would creap in as a mist and kill you as you slept. Garlic would ward off the evil spirits. There is a story I have heard of an outbreak of rabies in eastern europe the symptoms of rabies are alot like vampires extreme very extreme thirst blood from the mouth and foam from the mouth insanity alot like a vampire.Victims would have been thought to be possesed.
Vlad the Impaler the man the others have mentioned is a Natianal hero in Romania and is thought of there, Like our George washington. The founder of his country.It is true that if you are going back to make sure your relative is dead and to properly stake them through the heart and dig them up and if they had been buried alive by mistake. well they would be covered with blood from trying to calw there way out of the coffin. so Then you would think they must be a vampire.

Answer 2

Transylvania! No, really there have been known to be tribes or people that believed in drinking blood as part of there ritual, and people that heard about this ritual started calling them Vampires and then it was picked up on down the road that what these people Vampires did and as years went by it became a mythology about vampires, they drink blood which was true. They turn into bats, bite people and three bites on the neck you turn into a vampire, they live forever, they live in darkness, they dress weird, have fangs, the only way to kill a vampire, stake through the heart, they are sensitive to light, crosses, garlic and holy water- all a myth. It all came from a tribe of people that drank blood as a ritual and got the name vampires, then people drew up all other conclusions about what vampires are-mythology!

Answer 3

In Asia actually, History Channel had a bunch of Vampire stuff on during the pre Halloween weekend. A lot of cultures have similar creatures, and because Stoker(a Scot if i recall) set Dracula in the Balkans and used the name of a real person(Vlad Dracula) from that region it is often cited as the source, but Dracula(real or fictionalized) is far from the first record of such activity.

Some theory's I have heard is that the blood drinking is assumed because when a body decays that blood and other fluids are forced out of various orifices of the body leaving blood around the mouth. also at various stages of decomposition the body may twitch or even sit upright. if you combine those to factors you get a mobile corpse who drinks blood. and to make them immobile again the body must be staked into the coffin so it can't get out.

Answer 4

That's were the book was written.
Valid the Impaler is another source for the idea.
But it also goes back to the GARDEN of EDEN And the making of Adams Actual first mate made the same way He was from the Dust of the Earth. And He called her LILITH . But she was always questioning why she had to do things the way and time that ADAM wanted them done. Also had a few choice words to GOD about the same thing.ADAM asked GOD for a different more tractable mate . And God took LILITH out of the garden .And she meet another tribe and mated with them and her children became monsters including Vampires. And She became the Queen of them all.

Answer 5

The most popular vampire legend was from Transylvania but, I believe that it originated in Turkey when the pagans came face to face with the early Christian Church and found out bits and pieces about Christianity -- for instance that they drank Blood (the wine that was consecrated) and that they became like their master (Jesus) after they drank his blood and that then they never died. I think as the idea spread it was countered by the truth so the two ideas were merged to form the current one that told of Christianity keeping the Evil One away.

Answer 6

The Ledgen of Count Dracula,The impaler and his blood-thirsty ways of killing his Ememies.
But hemophila was the greatest reason.
Also hemophilia a bleeding disorder thats carried on the Y chomozone........and is passed from The Mother>> to the son, with the Mother not having the disorder, but the carrier.
This disorder was common amoung Royals, mostly due to the marriage arrangments, Royals married other Royals, some from another countries.......
Several males in the British/Spain Royals had the disorder.
Common people with the disorder did not have the treatments avilable to them as did the Royals, so often died in childhood.
Queen Victoria II was a carrier and past it on to her Daughter Alexandra who married Nicholas of Russia they where able to treat thier son Alexis, who lived to the age of 31.
I am sure that some types of tranfusions, or even drinking of blood was used as treatments prior to that era.
The treatment was via frequent blood-transfusions ( not a common practice) those with the disorder where usally pale, kept exclusive (so not to get injuries) sensitivity to light.
So the males who lived, mostly where the Royals,who could afford this treatment, who lived in castles, who had influence related to wars, and some angry because of thier gentic disorder,having some very cruel ways.
I am sure that it was a errie site related to the bleeding and the treatment, commons that worked in the royal house's spread the gossip.....and hence vampire stories where born.
The meaning of Vampire> A corpse that is believed to be reanimated from the grave. (the corpse like apperance of a person with hemophlia in that time) or this difinition could have come about by the ledgens?
Vampire also means>A person, such as an extortionist, who preys upon others.
This is how I think Vampirism came about. Movies and Books have just dramatized it, esp. during the era of Romanticism in the 18th century.

Answer 7

The first asnwer was given by a complete asshole, so forgive him....

Vampire legends originate from Transylvania. Dracula from Vlad the Impaler. Read "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova for a good story combined with the legends and origins of vampires. Really good book.
Hope I helped you out.

Answer 8

Every country has it's own folklore concerning vampiric creatures. Goes back as far as each individual countries history.

Answer 9

No one knows. Almost every country in the world has a vampire myth. Even the chinese.

Answer 10

with vlad teppes, a real prince in transylvania , his wife was murdered by invading turks, after that he simply put everyone he considered an enemy on stakes in the courtyard of his castle, he would sit there and eat his meals and condemn people to this fate and watch his soldiers impale them as he had dinner.