Interview with the Impaler

"Dracula: Myt och verklighet" is the latest title from Swedish publisher Historiska Media. The author, Katarina Harrison Lindbergh, is married to Dick Harrison, another frequent contributor to Historiska Media's never-ending series of popularized history books.

I don't think it's a co-incidence that this title showed up in my local book store about two weeks before Halloween. Harrison Lindbergh tries to summarize the history of vampire legends and our vampire-infested pop culture in little under 160 pages. No mean feat, since the origins of Lestat, Nosferatu, Bram Stoker's Dracula and other horrific horror characters are more complex than many imagine!

Thus, it turns out that the Dracula of fiction has essentially nothing in common with the historical character known as Vlad Dracula or Vlad Tepes, except the nickname. This 15th century voivod didn't even rule Transsylvania, although admittedly he was born there. Vlad was heavily slandered by his enemies (especially after his death) but never actually accused of vampirism. My impression of the real Vlad III of Wallachia is that of a unusually competent ruler for his time and place, with long-term plans for his country. He was also brave enough to challenge the Ottoman Empire, the superpower of the time. But no, he was hardly what we would call a nice guy...

Vlad or no Vlad, like most people I do associate vampire lore with Transsylvania, or with the Balkans more generally. I was surprised to learn that the oldest known piece of vampire folklore comes from 12th century England! Other early legends are from Denmark. They do sound eerily familiar to a modern reader: a vampire is an undead human who can only be stopped by impaling and beheading the corpse (or burning it without further ado). Later sources reveal a more complex picture. Vampires, werewolves and witches were frequently conflated. It's not always clear whether the monster is physical or spiritual. There are striking similarities between some old vampire accounts and current pop culture zombie lore. The most scary vampires are known as "mylingar" in Swedish. They are the souls of small children killed by their mothers, returning to astrally breast-feed, which invariably kills the victims. (Note the similarity with the Old Hag.)

The second half of the book deals with the evolution of vampire fiction, especially during the 19th and 20th centuries. This, too, turns out to be a complicated story. Apart from Bram Stoker, the author mentions Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, and a certain Blacula (yes, that's the blaxploitation version of Dracula). Even "Sesame Street" includes a vampire character. And then there are the lesbian vampires... 

It seems the legend has evolved quite a lot since the 12th century! 

My completely unscientific prediction is that we will soon see a "climate change vampire", perhaps in the form of a little girl, but that's me... 

If Swedish is your chosen medium of communication with the still living, this book might be just what you need on a lonely Halloween evening.