You need only to read the entertainment section of any paper or magazine to realize that Americans love vampires. Long before Twilight seized the imaginations of millions of young women across the world other fanged heroes had staked their claim to movie and pop-culture history. When I was in high school Bram Stoker's Dracula, made a huge movie debut under the leadership of Gary Oldman, and Keanu Reeves of all people. This retelling of Stoker's Gothic masterpiece would become a cult hit, and still holds and honored spot on my bookshelf. Soon after Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise would bring the vampires of Anne Rice's best selling series to life for a new generation to swoon and fall in love with. There can be no denying that despite the violent undertones and blood soaked stories there is something undeniably appealing and attractive about Vampires.

Vampires Throughout History

This modern fascination has its roots in ancient legends and stories. While our present day renditions may have their origins in the fables and folklore of dark age eastern Europe, stories of preternatural beings preying on humans and drinking their blood have been around since the very first civilizations. In the far east people were sacrificed to blood thirsty gods by the hundreds to placate their supernatural hunger for the life giving substance. Anne Rice even based the colorful history of her band of immortals on ancient Egyptian fables about blood drinking spirits that preyed on the living. Here she also introduced the concept of immortality into her novels. This aspect of popular vampirism would be shared by many characters found before and after her novels.

Another common thread throughout Vampire lore and literature today is the somewhat romanticized nature of their murderous deeds.The earliest vampires were vengeful spirits who delighted in tormenting the living and generally wreaked havoc, on those they left behind. There was nothing attractive about these early ghouls, being nothing more then animated corpses. Over the centuries with the spread of Christianity vampire legends would begin to evolve and change to reflect a growing sense of morality, fate, and drama. These predators would take on the image of victims plagued by some kind of disease or curse of God.They would roam time and distance in search of a love as eternal as their tortured lives. Also the association with blood drinking would come hand in hand with the spread of the Bible and most notably the book of Revelations the importance of blood and its life giving properties would take center stage in the whole Vampire myth and legend.

The Blood is the Life

Blood would be the eternal elixir of life to new Vampires instilling not only sustenance but immortality and long life. Some have theorized that this component of modern vampire lore actually had its birth in the legend and story of the Holy Grail, that contained Christ's blood. As the story goes any who drank from the sacred cup would have eternal life, as it was rumored to have caught the blood that spilled from Christ's body at the crucifixion. In his own life Christ was quoted as giving special significance to his blood and the life it would give to those who drank. later story tellers and pagan converts would put their own spin on these passages in scripture and mold them to reflect their own superstitions and traditions.

Whatever its origins, the belief that consuming and evening bathing in blood would promote long life and vitality was widespread in medieval Europe. Many notable aristocrats would even be tried for murder and executed for their heinous obsessions with blood. The common peasants would live in terror of black coaches carting away helpless townsfolk in the dark of night to never be seen again.From this atmosphere of terror and ignorance a new legend would be born from the real life deeds of a Romanian count, and Christian warrior dedicated to halting Muslim advances into the heart of Europe. Vlad Tepes would paint his name in history with the blood of his conquered foes. Bram Stoker would later use the counts family name and heraldry the Romanian word for dragon, or Dracul, to identify his villain and arch enemy, the immortal vampire Count Dracula. In real life Vlad was a Romanian hero and legend who had spared millions of Europeans from Muslim invasion, even being recognized by the pope in Rome for his heroism and gallantry.

As is so often the case though in real life there was more to the story then meets the eye. Despite his many noble deeds, Vlad was also known to be a cruel and wicked ruler.While generally kind to the commoner, he took sadistic pleasure in torturing his enemies among the noble classes and Muslim invader alike.He was rumored to consume the blood of his enemies and even after his violent death the fear and dread he instilled in life would not die. Some say he had become immortal, cursed by God for his atrocities and doomed to walk the world, undead for all time. Today Count Dracula is a by-word for vampires and evil that does not die.

Unending Life

In my quest to uncover the fascination with Vampires and their stories I have come to understand that beyond the sensual almost erotic draw of the vampires bite and bloody kiss, one thing stands above the allure of the flesh, and that is the promise of immortality. A common trait that is universal throughout human history is our fear of death. We will all one day die, some of us at the end of a long life, weakened and ravaged by age. I know many people today that fear getting old more then they do death itself. For most of our history as a species we have not lived much past our sixties. For a remarkably long stretch of time, only the wealthy and royal could expect to make it past their forties. Today though we are living into our nineties quite often and with it comes a whole host of ailments, conditions, and degenerative diseases that human beings for the most part have never been forced to cope with.

Many are a man's fantasies to remain youthful and vibrant the rest of his life. While we accept it as inevitable and even try to put a positive spin on things I doubt any man alive cherishes the idea of growing old and wasting away into a half blind, def, invalid incapable of taking care of themselves. How attractive then is the idea of being able to arrest aging and reverse death. As a young man the biggest draw for me to the vampire myths was the idea of immortality, to remain strong and never die, to live for all time and watch the world grow and change. Now though I do not think that such a thing is nearly as desirable. Don't get me wrong aging terrifies me, but the thought of watching all I love die and turn to dust over and over again is certainly not appealing in the least, but tragic and sad.

Evil is tempting and Seductive

There is something about vampires that speaks to us on a basic and primitive level. They are creatures that have overcome death and found life again. For them the grave holds no fear or promise of decay and rot. For all of the offense they cause in our noble religious minds they also echo the very tenets of our doctrine. They are dark angels set against God and against man. Through they're bite and drinking of blood we see a sexual undertone of passion and lust, mixed with violence and murder. I think in some ways they represent the evil we are all afraid exists deep within us locked away by eons of civilization and culture. That animalistic predatory instinct that kept us alive for so long, is always there lurking just beneath the surface. Maybe what we like about them so much is that they cause us to wonder what kind of creature we'd become if we ever let the animal inside us come out.