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This article deals with vampires in folklore and legends. For treatments of the vampire legend in fiction, see vampire fiction. For the real bats that subsist on blood, see vampire bat. For other uses of the term vampire, see Vampire (disambiguation).

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings that subsist on human and/or animal lifeforce. In most cases, they are reanimated corpses who feed by draining and consuming the blood of living beings. In folklore, the term usually refers to the undead blood-drinking humans of Eastern European legends, but it is often applied to similar legendary creatures from other regions and cultures. The characteristics of vampires vary widely among these different traditions. Some cultures also have stories of non-human vampires, including real animals such as bats, dogs, spiders, and mythical creatures such as the chupacabra.

Vampires are a frequent subject of fictional books and films, although fictional vampires are often attributed traits distinct from those of folkloric vampires.

Vampirism is the practice of drinking blood from a person or animal. In folklore and popular culture, the term refers to a belief that one can gain supernatural powers by drinking human blood. The historical practice of vampirism can generally be considered a more specific and less commonly occurring form of cannibalism. The consumption of another's blood (or flesh) has been used as a tactic of psychological warfare intended to terrorize the enemy, and can be used to reflect various spiritual beliefs.

In zoology and botany, the term vampirism is used in reference to leeches, mosquitos, mistletoe, vampire bats, and other organisms that subsist on the bodily fluids of others[citation needed].

Etymology

The English word 'vampire' was derived (perhaps via French vampyre) from the German Vampir, in turn thought to be derived in the early 18th century[1] from Serbian вампир/vampir,[2][3][4][5] or Hungarian vámpír.[6][7] The Serbian and Hungarian forms have parallels in virtually all Slavic languages: Bulgarian вампир (vampir), Czech and Slovak upír, Polish wąpierz and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Russian упырь (upyr'), Belarusian упыр (upyr), Ukrainian упирь (upir'), from Old Russian упирь (upir'). (Note that many of these languages have also borrowed forms such as "vampir/wampir" secondarily from the West). The etymology is uncertain.[8] Among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь.[9] The Slavic word might, like its possible cognate that means "bat" (Czech netopýr, Slovak netopier, Polish nietoperz, Russian нетопырь / netopyr' - a species of bat), contain a Proto-Indo-European root for "to fly".[9]

The first recorded use of the Old Russian form Упирь (Upir') is commonly believed to be in a document dated 6555 (1047 AD).[citation needed] It is a colophon in a manuscript of the Book of Psalms written by a priest who transcribed the book from Glagolitic into Cyrillic for the Novgorodian Prince Vladimir Yaroslavovich.[10][11]The priest writes that his name is "Upir' Likhyi " (Упирь Лихый), which would mean something like "Wicked Vampire"[12] or "Foul Vampire."[13] This apparently strange name has been cited as an example of surviving paganism and/or of the use of nicknames as personal names.[14] However, in 1982, Swedish Slavicist Anders Sjöberg suggested that "Upir' likhyi" was in fact an Old Russian transcription and/or translation of the name of Öpir Ofeigr, a well-known Swedish rune carver. Sjöberg argued that Öpir could possibly have lived in Novgorod before moving to Sweden, considering the connection between Eastern Scandinavia and Russia at the time. This theory is still controversial, although at least one Swedish historian, Henrik Janson, has expressed support for it.[13] Another early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise "Word of Saint Grigoriy," dated variously to the 11th-13th centuries, where pagan worship of upyri is reported.[15][16]

The first well-documented use of the word Vampire in the West was from Austrian-controlled Serbia in reports prepared by Austrian officials between 1725 and 1732 investigating reports of vampires arising from the dead to attack villagers (see below for more details).

Contents

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• 1 Etymology
• 2 Vampire analogies in ancient cultures
• 3 Folk beliefs in vampires
  • 3.1 Slavic vampires
    • 3.1.1 Typology
  • 3.2 Romanian vampires
  • 3.3 Roma vampire beliefs
  • 3.4 Greek vampires
  • 3.5 Some common traits of vampires in folklore
• 4 Eighteenth century vampire controversy
• 5 New England
• 6 Modern belief in vampires
• 7 Natural phenomena that propagate the belief in vampires
  • 7.1 Pathology and vampirism
  • 7.2 Finding "vampires" in graves
  • 7.3 Vampire bats
• 8 Vampires in fiction and popular culture
• 9 Notes
• 10 References
• 11 See also
  • 11.1 Related legendary creatures
  • 11.2 See also
• 12 External links