The Widely Differing Interpretations of Undead Bloodsucking Vampires Throughout History

Michael Sorensen of Horses explained the widely varying interpretation of vampires throughout history up to and including modern times.

Most people think of vampires as purely the domain of fiction but this isn’t exactly correct. In history and folklore vampires occupy a space that is quite similar to witches. For many centuries people did not believe in vampires, these undead creatures simply were real. They were facts of life, as real as the grass and the sky. There has been vampire frenzy vampire hunts and large-scale disasters attributed to the work of vampires 

Sorensen talks about the features that made the Slavic people and other early societies around the world believe that there were undead bloodsucking creatures, but they don’t appear as we understand them today. The overarching breakthrough came with the publication of Dracula by Bram Stoker in 1897.

The reception of Dracula upon publishing it, was a hit. Debuting just at the height of Europe’s vampire obsession and Eastern European critics heaped praise upon the novel. It immediately inspired two stage plays one of which was written by Stoker himself, but what truly catapulted Stoker’s work into the archetype for our modern vampire was the medium of film. In 1922 the German filmmaker F. W. Murnau  created “Nosferatu” a symphony of horror based on Stoker’s novel.

Essentially, the vampire has become an excellent scapegoat for all human woes.

The vampire and his abilities have come a long way from the original folklore. The vampire as a tool for the human condition has remained the same – the vampire is whatever we need it to be. ….Future vampires of which there will be many will not come bounding from the pages of Slavic folklore instead they will be projections of our needs as a people.