(10-21-2024, 10:57 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: I have a question for the Rogues during this spooky Halloween season, "Where do the classic horror story monsters like vampires, werewolves, and Frankenstein's monster, et al, come from?"Concerning vampires, I believe most modern embellishments originated with Bram Stoker, except impaling their hearts was actually a thing! "The Russians say that, when driving a stake into the body of a vampire, this must be done by one single blow, as a second blow will reanimate the corpse." If you wanted to get to the heart of the matter, it'd be best to study Slavic folklore, in which vampires merely became inanimate when exposed to sunlight and also hearing a cockerel.
What is the basis of the classic old haunted house or castle, one that is usually in ruins, that is inhabited by some old eccentric aristocrat from some European family bloodline? Or some mad scientist, that one is pretty classic. I am speaking of Gothic Horror of course, as opposed to slasher or other types of stories.
Just fishing around for opinions on this subject, one I have of my own.
Let's hear what you got Rogues, Inquiring minds want to know.
Interesting facts:
"If the horse refused to pass over any grave, even in spite of repeated blows, that grave was believed to shelter a vampire."
"Horses will also often betray great uneasiness in passing over places where a body has been buried."
"No dog or cat must be allowed to leap over the corpse or enter the room."
"In some places the jumping of a boy over the corpse is considered as fatal as that of a cat."
As a rare phenomenon, Dr. Z. J. Pierart makes a strong case for their actual existence. They were prevalent in eastern Europe, which had favorable conditions for their return from the grave, they were somehow able to roam around outside their body after dying, until their corpse was exhumed and burnt. The only reliable way to stop them from appearing is to burn the corpse.
Vampires were also related to suicide cases. "In Scotland it is still thought that the body of a suicide will not fall to dust until the time when he should have died in the order of nature." Recently, I was reading up on the sayings of the Romanov healer Philippe Nizier, he claimed, "Les suicidés souffrent le temps qu’aurait duré leur vie normale." (Suicide victims suffer for as long as their normal lives would have lasted.)