After reading this article on Reuters.com, I now know the truth behind the monster known as Dracula.
Apparently, the blood sucking lunatics made an appearance during the Black Death in the Middle Ages.
The report comes after the discovery of an "actual" vampire in a grave in Venice.
No blood for you!
Excavators unearthed the skull of a female resident of the city with a brick in her mouth believed to be a vampire. But what made a person a vampire?
Well, back in the day (1500's), plague victims, buried in massive graves, would be uninterred by grave diggers to reveal "bodies bloated by gas, with hair still growing, and blood seeping from their mouths and believe them to be still alive."
Freaked out by the sight, these grave robbers spread their stories.
GRAAAAH!
The sharp fangs of the vampire are explained by the decaying teeth of the corpse, revealed by bacteria from the mouth which eats away the death shroud used to cover the face.
In this way, the vampire obtained the name "shroud eater," and the walking undead with an urge to eat the living to remain in some sort of existence.
But, the original method to kill a vampire was not what we accept as a stake and garlic, but to shove something unedible, e.g. the brick, into the vampire's mouth.
This myth about the blood suckers seems to make vampires appear more like zombies rather than the superhero like, bat-changing, forever young, glamorized, pale skinned version we see today, ex. Twilight.
But really, those gravediggers must not have been very smart, digging up the graves of plague victims, who may still have had the disease carrying fleas on them, and to look for....???
Then, they are scared by the dead bodies. Pathetic really. Were there really rumors of people being killed by vampires going around? Because without that backup, how could the stories about such monsters spread?
Mystery solved. Have a nice day.
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Kill a vampire with a brick...not as cool as a stake through the heart, but it works.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me? A brick to the mouth is awesome. With enough force, you could do the same for zombies.
ReplyDeletePlus, in the middle ages, they didn't know what spread the disease. They probably assumed it died with the person, and who knows for how long those bodies have been lying there. Furthermore, when you dig up a dead body, you except it to be damn well dead. Not growing hair or bleeding. Bleeding doesn't happen much after death since there's no circulation. Now, how recently these bodies were interred would be the determining factor, but bleeding dead bodies aren't cool.
Great, does that mean that "Twilight" could actually be considered a legit movie now?
ReplyDelete