Comparative vampire mythology

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A comparison of various popular sources for vampire lore against the myths of history. Do all vampire have fangs? Can all vampires reproduce? How do the popular vampires of the 20th century live and die and hunt and feed? S. A. Rudy takes a look at five modern vampire themes.

Comparitive Vampire Mythology This is a list I've compiled of common vampire myths and how they appear in contemporary fiction. I'm only using five vfictional universes here because any more columns would be much too wide to be readable.

If a myth appears here, it means that somewhere, in some legend, movie, piece of fiction, etc. I've seen it (no matter how obscure), even if it doesn't apply to any of my examples. A question mark (?) in place of an entry means that I don't know how or whether the myth applies. An entry with a question mark (?) next to the entry means that I gave it my best guess and an entry with an asterisk (*) indicates that the answer is too complex to put in that tiny little box and I used my best approximation. The list is grouped into subtopics, but is otherwise in no particular order. If anyone is interested in see an annotation of this list for the marked entries, let me know.

If you'd like to be helpful, please do email me with additions or corrections and I'll put them in. (Please mention vampires or myths in the subject header so I'll be sure to notice it.) I especially like to hear about myths I haven't included or answers to the question marked entries. Go ahead, argue with me, I'm nothing like infallible. If you'd like to see more, encourage me!

My examples are as follows:

WoD: The "World of Darkness" from the Storyteller(tm) line of products published by White Wolf
BtVS: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the television show
FK: Forever Knight, a syndicated television show being shown in reruns by the Sci-Fi Channel.
AB: Anita Blake, a series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton
AR: Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.

Myth	WoD	BtVS	FK	AB	AR
*General*
Vampires are inherently evil	Mostly	Yes	No	Maybe	No
Vampires are a kind of undead	Yes	Yes	Maybe	Yes	Yes
Vampires are "normal" humans, just altered	No	No	Maybe	No	No
Vampires are a different species (subspecies) than humans	Yes	Yes	Maybe	Yes	No
Vampirism can be cured	Rarely	Not Really	Rarely	No	No
*Identifying features*
Vampire skin is unnaturally pale and cold to the touch	Usually	No?	Yes	Yes	Yes
The pallor and coldness decreases after feeding	Yes	no info	no info	Yes	Yes
Vampires are hideously deformed	Some	No	No	*No	No
Vampires have long and pointed fingernails	No	No	No	No	Yes
Vampires change appearance when angered, stressed, using vampiric abilities, etc. (e.g. glowing eyes or deformed features)	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Vampires don't need to breathe	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
Vampires, in fact, don't breathe, unless they consciously intend to	Yes	Yes?	No?	some times	No
*You become a vampire by ...*
... being killed by one (with no further action necessary)	No	No	No?	No	No
... drinking (or being injected by) a vampire's blood (without dying first)	No	No	No	No	*sort of
... suffering fatal blood loss and drinking (or being injected by) a vampire's blood	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
... dying after being bitten by or drinking from a vampire	No	No	No	No	No
... dying after repeatedly being bitten by or drinking from a vampire	No	No	No	Yes	No
... participating in some sort of ritual	No	No	No	No	No
... being willing (i.e. an unwilling subject can't be brought over)	No	No	?	No	No
... committing suicide, dying unbaptized/apostate, not being buried in consecrated ground, etc	No	No	No	No	No
... being the victim of an explicit curse	No	No	No	No	No
The new vampire appears dead for some time (often 3 days) before rising	No	Yes	No?	Yes	No
A newly made vampire will wake ravenous and will tend to attack anything within range	*No	Yes?	Yes	Yes	Yes
... being born that way	No	No	No	No	No
... getting infected by some kind of "virus"	No	No	Yes	No	No
*Killing/Hurting Vampires*
A stake through the heart causes permanent death	No	Yes	*Yes	Usually	*some times
A stake through the heart causes paralysis only	Yes	No	No	No	No
Sunlight causes instant combustion and is nearly always fatal	n/a	Yes	n/a	Yes	*some times
Sunlight causes severe burns and discomfort and is fatal after extended exposure	Yes	n/a	Yes	n/a	*some times
Sunlight inflicts no or mild (sunburn) damage	n/a	n/a	n/a	Rarely	No
Sunlight must be direct to be effective	usually	Yes	Yes	Yes?	?
Any UV source (e.g. tanning lamps) will function the same as real sunlight	?	no info	Yes	No?	No
Sunblock provides some protection from sunlight	No	No	No	No	Yes
Sunblock provides total protection from sunlight	No	No	No	No	No
Vampires suffer more than usual damage from fire	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Vampires suffer more than usual damage from silver	No	No	No	Yes	No
Vampires suffer more than usual damage from wood	No	No	**Yes	No	No
Beheading causes permanent death	Yes	Yes	*Usually	Yes	Yes
It takes special effort to make a vampire stay dead (e.g. cutting off the head, sewing the mouth shut around a clove of garlic and burying the body at a crossroads)	No	No	*No	No	No
Dead vampires disperse to dust regardless of age	No	Yes	No	No	No
Dead vampires decompose/disintegrate as a function of age	Yes	n/a	n/a	Yes	No
*Animals*
Vampires can be sustained by animal blood	*Usually	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vampires can be sustained indefinitely by animal blood (without suffering deleterious side effects)	*Usually	*Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Animals can become vampires	?	?	Yes	No?	?
Vampires have control over animals	Some	Some	None	Some	Some
Vampires have control only over specific animals	n/a	n/a	n/a	Yes	?
Vampires can summon certain animals	Some	no info	None	Some	No
Animals can sense vampires and feel threatened by them	Some	no info	some times?	Yes	Yes
*When you are bitten by a vampire (and live) ...*
... they gain some power over you	No	No	?	Yes	No
... you acquire some vampiric traits	No	No	Yes	*some times	No
*When you drink from a vampire (without being dead first) ...*
... they gain some power over you	Yes	no info	?	*Yes	Yes
... you acquire some vampiric traits	Yes	no info	?	*some times	No
*Fangs*
Vampires have fangs	Some	All	All	All	All?
Fangs are retractable	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Fangs are hollow (like a snake, but for sucking, not injecting)	No	No	Yes	No	No
*Invitations*
Vampires require an invitation to enter a private dwelling	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
That invitation can be retracted	n/a	Yes	No	Yes	n/a
*Crosses ...*
... always repel vampires	No	Yes	*Usually	No	No
... require the belief of the wielder to repel vampires	*some times	No	No	No	No
... require the belief of the vampire to repel vampires	*some times	No	*Yes	No	No
... if effective, burns vampiric flesh on contact	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	n/a
... if effective, burns everything on contact	No	Yes	No	No	n/a
... may be replaced with other religious symbols according to the belief system of the wielder and/or vampire	Yes	no info	Yes	Yes	n/a
... are ineffective	No	No	No	No	Yes
*Holy Water*
... is ineffective	*Usually	No	No?	No	Yes
... if effective, burns (like acid) and can cause severe damage in quantity	Yes	Yes	Yes?	Yes	n/a
... can reverse or halt effects of vampiric attack	No	n/a	Yes	Yes	n/a
Eucharistic wafers can be substituted for/function similarly to holy water	No	no info	?	Yes	n/a
*Mirrors*
Vampires do not reflect in mirrors or water	*Rarely	*Yes	No	No	No
Vampires do not appear in photographs or on film	*Rarely	No	No	No	No
Vampires are repulsed by mirrors	No	No	No	No	No
*Daytime*
Vampires cannot function at all during the day	No	No	No	Yes	No
If awake at all, vampires are sluggish during the day	Yes	No	No	some times	No
Only the oldest/most powerful vampires can function during the day	*n/a	No	n/a	Yes	No
Vampires can function normally during the day, provided they avoid the sun	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Vampires can function normally during the day (without exception)	No	No	No	No	No
Vampires can function normally during the day, but without their vampiric abilities	No	No	No	No	No
*Supernatural Abilities*
Damage resistance, superhuman strength and fast healing	All	All	All	All	Yes
Superhuman perception (e.g. sight, hearing, mystical)	Some	no info	All?	Most	Yes
Hypnotic mind control	Some	*Some	*All	All	Some
Shapeshifting (often a wolf or bat)	Some	Not really	None	very rare	No
Superhuman speed	Some	debatable	All	Most	Yes
Flight/Levitation	Rarely	No	Yes	Some	Yes
Inhuman stealth (Sometimes to the point of invisibility)	some times	debatable	Yes?	*Yes	Yes
Control over weather	Rarely	None	None	Some	No
Mist form	Some	no info	None	Some?	No
*Miscellaneous Supernatural Restrictions*
Vampires are repelled by garlic	Rarely	*Yes	Yes	No?	No
Vampires no longer need to eat or drink regular food	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vampires can no longer eat solid food	Usually	No?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vampires can no longer eat or drink at all (other than blood)	Usually	No	*No	Yes	Yes
Vampires can eat or drink, but get nothing out of it	No	No	No	No	n/a
Vampires can become intoxicated by directly ingesting drugs or alcohol	No?	Yes	No?	No	n/a
Vampires can become intoxicated by drugs or alcohol secondhand (e.g. by drinking from an intoxicated victim)	Yes?	Yes	No?	Yes	Yes
Vampires must sleep with a sample of their home soil	Rarely	no info	No	No	No
Vampires cannot cross running water	Rarely	No	No	No	No
Vampires cannot cross a line of salt	No	No	No	No	No
Vampires are compelled to stop and count numerous objects (often grain) thrown into their path	No	No	No	No	No
*Hierarchy*
Vampires are societally compelled to obey their sire/creator	Yes	Maybe	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vampires are mystically compelled to obey their sire/creator	No	No	Maybe	Yes?	No
Beyond the "generic", Vampires tend to have the same supernatural traits/abilities as their sire/creator	Yes	no info	no info	Yes	Some
*Relationship with Other Supernaturals (especially Shapeshifters)*
Vampires and Werewolves (shapeshifters) are natural allies	No	No	n/a	sort of	n/a
Vampires and Werewolves (shapeshifters) are natural enemies	Yes	no info	n/a	No	n/a
Vampires and Werewolves (shapeshifters) could care less about each other	No	no info	n/a	No	n/a
Werewolf (shapeshifter) blood is extra yummy	some times	no info	n/a	No	n/a
Werewolf (shapeshifter) blood is indigestible	No	no info	n/a	No	n/a
Vampires can be infected with lycanthropy (become werewolves, etc.)	No	no info	n/a	No	n/a
Werewolves (shapeshifters) can become vampires	*Yes	no info	n/a	?	n/a
Werewolves (shapeshifters) can become vampires (but lose all of their were abilities)	No	no info	n/a	?	n/a
*Miscellaneous*
Vampires feed on something other than blood (life essence, emotions, etc)	No	No	No	No	No
Vampires' hearts no longer beat	Most	no info	*Yes	?	No
A vampire's heart only beats if the vampire wills it to	maybe	no info	No?	?	n/a
Vampires can bear children	No	No	No	No	No
Vampires can father children	No	No	No	No	No
A child of a vampire and a mortal results in a "Dhampir", with some vampiric abilities and fewer of the weaknesses	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Source: compiled by by S. A. Rudy

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Posted by Vladimir
Thu, 01/03/2008 - 18:41

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