Rate the Quote II

pallorxmortis
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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by pallorxmortis »

10/10

(I'm actually a big fan of Dracula. Mainly because the novel is wonderful (I love how it is a collection of letters and that Dracula really does not play a big part in the story, he rules the plot from the background and commands center stage even when he is not there. But overall it is quite accurate to the legends of vampires. Vampires are terrifying and appeal to us because they are that next stage of evolution but they have held onto the animistic nature that has no morals and that is based on the need to survive.

As humans we desire that equal balance and yet vampires are the only creatures that seem to possess that so well. It's why you see them described as cats, wolves, bats, etc. Carmilla was interesting because the vampire was beautiful (it was a rare thing to see evil as beautiful because evil was supposed to be ugly) and very innocent (she was a young woman. I did like Dracula's looks though, I find that I am more impressed when a vampire is less than desirable (Dracula had hairy palms, pointy ears, etc) and they manage to woo the characters in the story. I see it as more of a challenge.

A vampire is above humans, but that does not mean they should not struggle with something. And I didn't like Nosferatu because Dracula was able to go out in the sun. But then again, Nosferatu was not 'Dracula' because the director didn't have the rights. New names, slightly different ending and he could make a movie.
Granted, he was still sued and lost. XD)

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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by blasphemous_contessa »

10/10 insightful


(I have a lecture/speech about modern pop culture vampires and the ones from the pre-18th century tales.

In Romanian mythology, strigoi (same form singular or plural) are the evil souls of the dead rising from the tombs (or living) that transform into an animal or phantomatic apparition during the night to haunt the countryside, troubling whoever it encounters. A strigoaică (singular feminine form) is a witch. Strigoi are also known as "moroi" in some parts, especially rural areas. They are close relatives of the werewolves known as "pricolici" or "vârcolaci", the latter also meaning "goblin" at times.

The vampires in Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania (now Romania) were commonly called strigoi. Strigoi were almost exclusively human spirits who had returned from the dead. Unlike the upir or vrykolakas, the strigoi would pass through different stages after rising from the grave. Initially, a strigo might be an invisible poltergeist, tormenting its living family members by moving furniture and stealing food. After some time, it would become visible, looking just as the person did in life. Again, the strigo would return to its family, stealing cattle, begging for food and bringing disease. Strigoi would feed on humans, first their family members and then anyone else they happened to come across. In some accounts, the strigoi would suck their victims' blood directly from the heart.

Initially, a strigo needed to return to the grave regularly, just like an upir. If townspeople suspected someone had become a strigo, they would exhume the body and burn it, or run spikes through it. But after seven years, if a strigo was still around, it could live wherever it pleased. It was said that strigoi would travel to distant towns to begin new lives as ordinary people, and that these secret vampires would meet with each other in weekly gatherings.

In addition to undead strigoi, referred to as strigoi mort, people also feared living vampires, or strigoi viu. Strigoi viu were cursed living people who were doomed to become strigoi mort when they died. Babies born with abnormalities, such as a tail-like protrusion or a bit of fetal membrane tissue attached to the head (called a caul), were usually considered strigoi viu. If a strigoi mort living among humans had any children, the offspring were cursed to become undead strigoi in the afterlife. When a known strigoi viu died, the family would destroy its body to ensure that it would not rise from the grave.

* In most ways, the Romanian Strigoi Morti resemble the undead vampires found in other Eastern European countries. They were frequently blamed as the cause of death in cases of epidemics.

* The Strigoi Vii join together in covens and meet with the Strigoi Morti on special Sabbath nights, such as the Eve of St. George April 22nd

The Strigoi Viu is not a blood drinker, but its powers include what could be called psychic vampirism, as it can steal the vitality of his neighbours' crops and animals to enhance its own. Also, strigoi can leave its body at night in the form of an animal or a small spark of light that can be seen flying through the air. Sometimes it was said that a Strigoi Viu took animal form by stealing the form from the animal.

* a remedy against a strigoi to leave its grave is to bury a bottle of whiskey with the corpse: the strigoi will drink it and not return home

* Strigoi may be destroyed after exhuming their dormant bodies from the grave by such typical means as impaling them with a stake or by cremating them.

* the Gypsy remedy to kill a strigoi is the following: dig up the corpse, remove its heart, cut it in two, then dig a nail in the forehead, place garlic under its tongue, smearing the body with the fat of a pig killed on St. Ignatius’ day. Then placing the corpse face-down back in the coffin.

* It was believed that if a strigo was not destroyed within seven years after burial, then on the seventh year it would no longer have to dwell in its own grave and could pass as a normal mortal human. According to one source, the strigoi also then loses his need to prey upon humans and, eventually, even animals. Like the Serbian vampire at such a stage, it would then depart to another region where it could not be recognized, marry, and have children But each week, from Friday night to Sunday morning, such a strigoi would either have to rest in a grave in a nearby cemetery or meet with the local strigoi for supernatural social activities. The children of such a vampire were all "living vampires", destined to become undead themselves.

The word ‘vampire’ comes from the Slavi wordobyri’ and ‘obiri’ which evolved into the Bulgarian word ‘vampir". It is also believed to have to be derived from the Servian word, ‘wampira’. Another name for vampires is ‘Nosferatu’, which might have originated from the Greek word ‘nosophoros’ meaning "plague-carrier", or that it evolved from the Old Slavonic word ‘nosufur-atu’. Russians, Morlacchians, inhabitants of Montenegro, Behemians, Servians, and Arnauts know the vampire as wukodalak, vurkulaka, or vrykolaka, which means ‘wolf-fairy’.

The origin in the vampire has been credited to Greek Christianity, but references of this myth can be found in earlier times, in Chaldean and Assyrian tablets. It is believed that the early vampire legends were developed to explain things that nature could not, like mysterious deaths and wasting diseases. For instance, the Greek vampire lamiani attacked babies and pregnant women so that miscarriage and still-born can be explained.

The Romans believed that the dead bodies of certain people could be raised from their graves by magic, as long as the body was not decomposed. The only way to prevent this was to cremate the remains.

From Greece and Rome, vampire lore spread throughout Austria, Hungary, Lorraine, Poland, Romania, Iceland, and the British Isles. It reached its height in the period from 1723 to 1735, when a vampire-related epidemic broke out in Hungary and Servia. The belief continued to gradually spread to the rest of the world, including the Asian countries and Africa.

In countries that believe suicide victims become vampires when they die, the myth is used to help the love ones cope with their deaths. By performing the vampire rituals to destroy the corpse through staking and cementation, for instance, it destroys the dead person’s psychological attachment to the living, allowing his family and friends to cope with their grief and move on.

government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe.

The hysteria, commonly referred to as the "18th-Century Vampire Controversy", raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them. Although many scholars reported during this period that vampires did not exist, and attributed reports to premature burial or rabies, superstitious belief increased. Dom Augustine Calmet, a well-respected French theologian and scholar, put together a comprehensive treatise in 1746, which was ambiguous concerning the existence of vampires. Calmet amassed reports of vampire incidents; numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and supportive demonologists, interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed.

The word vampire (vampir, vampyre) has hazy origins, although scholars generally agree that it can be traced to the Slavic languages, with debates continuing as to its etymological sources. The word may have come from the Lithuaniam wempti ("to drink"), or from the root pi (to "drink"), with the prefix va or av. Other suggested roots have included the Turkish uber ("witch") and the Serbo-Croatian pirati ("to blow"). Cognate forms developed, so that there can be found in Serbo-Croatian the term vampir, upyr in the Russian, upior in the Polish, and upir in the Byelorussian.

Some scholars prefer the concept that upir is older than vampir, an eastern Slavic name that spread westward into the Balkans, where it was adopted by the southern Slavs and received vigorous circulation. The word vampire (or vampye) arrived in the English language with two 1732 publications: the March translation of a report by the investigators looking into the case of Arnold Paole of Meduegna and the May release of the article "Political Vampires."

http://www.actiontattoos.com/castlevania/vampyre.html)



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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by DunnerheartsTwilight »

long...

9

i think shes having hysterics maybe you should slap her.. -alice cullen
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pallorxmortis
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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by pallorxmortis »

9/10

(HAHA! No, Sorry DunnerheartsTwilight. We were having a discussion amid the boards. XD

Also, I agree with that. Vampires got a makeover when it came to Dracula, Carmilla, The Vampyre but again, all these books were written as a competition after telling ghost stories on 'The Longest Night.' The tales of vampires that I heard as a child were far different, but yes, most supernatural tales are created to explain things that cannot be explained.

You begin to see the change in vampires around the time of Jack the Ripper -- heralded as 'the rise to the modern sexual serial killer. He was never found, which I think played in the minds of authors...that they could create this character, this 'demon' to look far more like one of us and we would never suspect it because we wanted it to be different.

The same goes for Kelpies, usually told to keep children away from water when alone it took on the form of a horse. Normally a trusting animal that would befriend people and that no one needed to fear.
But yes, Jack the Ripper played a heavy role on the vampire we know today.
A charasmatic, charming young person with the ability to kill without those knowing.

Have you heard the superstition that if you buried a person believed to be a vampire with a bag of seeds the vampire could not leave the grave until all the seeds were counted.
It was why The Count, in Seseme street was a vampire. XD )

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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by who_needs_fangs? »

9

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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by readmymind »

10 (as someone who is sarcastic all the time, I will admit, yes it is)

me: Ok, so I figured out why so many ppl hate History. All you ever hear about are wars, slavery and the Great Depression. I WANT HAPPY HISTORY! I'm going to teach a class all about the good stuff that's happened in the past.
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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by who_needs_fangs? »

7, not a great quote, but very true.

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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by readmymind »

8

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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by BellsEdwardalways »

6

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Re: Rate the Quote II

Post by Noxmas Frost »

8

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” Mark Twain
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