Credited as the first modern vampire poem, "Der Vampir" caused a scandal when it was published in 1748. This short poem by Heinrich August Ossenfelder has strong erotic overtones: a man whose love is rejected by a respectable and pious maiden threatens to pay her a nightly visit, drink her blood by giving her the seductive kiss of the vampire and thus prove her that his teaching is better than her mother's Christianity.

It was misty on a mid-summers night. Cold and damp and I was riding on my horse, it was blacker than the night sky. I passed a stranger as I rode on. He stared then followed me for hours, never taking a rest. As I rode on I cam upon another stranger standing in the bewitching mist, the stranger did yet the same as the first. Both strangers, dressed the same, in black. Now I ride with two strangers in the mist. I'm on a journey to the nearest town out of this misty fores, so big, so dark, so scary and wierd.

They were all silent for a few moments as they looked around them with natural feelings of curiosity.

I tremble with desire
From the storm and the night
Vanishing in passion's flames
At the coming of light
For the darkness conceals
The dance of the soul
Swirling and writhing
Within hunger's control

Gripped with the knowledge
That what exists for me
Can only be found
In the depths of ecstasy

Storm Spirit
March 21, 2002

The Shtriga, in Albanian folklore, was a vampiric witch that would suck the blood of infants at night while they slept, and would then turn into a flying insect (traditionally a moth, fly or bee). Only the shtriga herself could cure those she had drained (often by spitting in their mouths), and those who were not cured inevitably sickened and died.