Vampire folklore

Vampire folklore comprises traditional stories about beings that consume the blood or life force of the living, often returning from the dead to harm the community.

Slavic folklore: Traditional beliefs and stories of Slavic peoples, including customs concerning the dead and supernatural beings. Many influential revenant beliefs later associated with vampires developed in Slavic-speaking regions.
Revenant: A dead person believed to return physically from the grave, often to trouble the living. The vampire is one kind of revenant, distinguished by feeding on the living.
Augustin Calmet: A French Benedictine scholar whose 1746 treatise examined reports of revenants and vampires. His compilation helped circulate vampire accounts among educated European audiences.
Dracula: The aristocratic vampire created by Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel of the same name. Dracula is a literary figure whose traits differ from many local folklore revenants.
Tuberculosis: An infectious disease caused by bacteria that most often affects the lungs. Its wasting symptoms and family spread helped inspire some historical vampire suspicions.
Upir: A name for a blood-drinking or revenant being found in early Slavic sources and later folklore. The word is an early relative of the name “vampire” and appears in Slavic traditions.
Burial customs: Ritual practices surrounding the preparation, interment, and remembrance of the dead. Fear of improper burial or disrupted rites often explains why a corpse might return.
John Polidori: An English physician and writer whose 1819 story “The Vampyre” depicted a socially powerful vampire. His aristocratic vampire departed from the peasant revenants of earlier reports.
The Vampyre: John Polidori’s 1819 short story about Lord Ruthven, an aristocratic vampire. Lord Ruthven helped turn the folkloric threat into a fashionable, calculating villain.
Epidemic: An increase in disease cases above what is normally expected in a population or area. Clusters of deaths could be interpreted as evidence that a dead person was attacking the living.

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